Chugging Along

It's Wednesday...wah, wah, wah, something about a hump day, blah.  I'm just here sitting in my swivel chair.  It looks so nice outside today and I'm stuck indoors.  Let's see if I can be slightly entertaining for a moment, for all of our sakes.

We were a bit busy this past weekend.  On Saturday morning we had a garage sale and it was definitely interesting.  I can say that I've probably only ever been a part of two garage sales, if that.  My memory is definitely not dependable so I can't remember them so much, but they are draining.  Between being outside in the heat and humidity for 5 hours, the mosquitos and then price haggling, it left me completely exhausted.  Obviously I had to entertain myself:

$1 shirt. Model not for sale.

Who doesn't try on some random shirt tossed in your mom's box before trying to sell it?  No?  Alrighty then, moving on.  After we collected our meager $42.00 we decided to vegetate the rest of the afternoon.  All life was sucked out of us, so we moved our bike ride to Sunday morning.  We went to sleep fairly early and woke up at 6:30 am.  I felt good and ready to go but it all changed as soon as we exited our complex.  Two minutes in and I yell to Michelle that my legs are tighter than ever and I'm exhausted.  At first I thought it was because we started on the harder part of the route, but seriously, it's not that hard.  I sucked down a GU 10 mintues into the ride and hoped that would kick in sooner than later.  We pushed through and continued to finish 10 miles in 46 minutes.  I don't know what the issue was but my feet were going numb as were some of my fingers.  It was weird.

We were so letdown by our performance that we were ready to go for a run and make up for the crappy bike ride.  However, we forgot we had a lunch to go to so we got ready and immediately felt better over some beer and flatbread pizza.  Ha!  Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose and sometimes there's beer.  A little Innis & Gunn Oak Aged beer never hurt anyone.

In the meantime, let me impress you with my photo skills and cheesy bike photo shoot:

Sunset trumps the bike.

Yes, I've turned into that person that stages her bike for a little camera action.  Who am I!?  You don't have to answer that.

Pioneer to the Fall(s)

Happy Tuesday.  Grrrr.  As the rest of the 9-to-5ers of the world, I wish the weekends were longer.  Anyway, I have a little story to tell you guys, so grab your coffee and stare blankly into your computer screens.

When we bought the bikes, as we were getting fit, our friendly LBS rep told us that we should buy clipless pedals and shoes.  We knew what he was talking about but also knew it wasn't something we wanted to purchase and use right from the get go.  We wanted to get to know our bikes, and make sure the fit was right, etc, etc.  But before I continue... Can we talk about the name of this element of cycling?  Clipless pedals seems to be quite the opposite of what it achieves, because you end up clipping to them.  As in, your feet and the pedals become one in holy matrimony.  As is the norm in current society unions, this marriage of foot clipped onto a pedal can be quite rocky.  And by rocky I mean, you will fall on your butt while your feet are stuck in these pedals.  You'll fall simply because this is abnormal.  Since we're kids, we've only ever used regular unclippable (is that a word) pedals.  Ultimately, there was a mental tug-o-war over trying to feel any sense of comfort when you first try this out on the road, secluded or not.  In our case, I thought I was more of a nervous wreck than Michelle.  Lo and behold, she was the first to fall on the street...with cars around. Dun-dun-dun.

We had bought the pedals maybe 2 months after riding the bikes and the decision was heavily persuaded because the bike store we frequent (here's my shout out to biketech.com) were having an anniversary sale.  There shoes were 50% off...hello!  Now you're talking my language.  Shoes and sale are magnets to my wallet so of course we went.  We bought our shoes:

Mine are on the left.  Hello non-sexy shoes.

And the Look Keo Classic Pedals:

You bringing me down Keo!

The shop told us to come back during the week to get on the trainer and practice the clips.  Ummm, there was no way that was going to happen.  We wanted to try it that same day, so we practiced by holding onto the counter in the kitchen.  Clip in, and clip out, and pedal backwards because we don't have a trainer.  Ta-da!  After a couple of minutes, we were ready to hit the lake path.  And by ready, I mean we have no patience.  I tried to stop and get off the bike and jammed the pedal to my calf while my leg slipped because there is no traction on these shoes.  But I was so happy I didn't fall, that I'll take a pedal to the calf any day.  The very first time we tried riding on the streets with these pedals, I literally made a u-turn because I thought I was going to die.  Literally.  There was too many cars out on the street, that I did the whole 'jam a pedal to my leg' again while trying to stop before slamming into a car.

Fast forward to last weekend.  We try our hardest to get up early, around 6:30am to hit the streets on the weekends.  They're pretty empty at that time and being the early worm has managed to help us grow some comfort with this new pedal setup.  However, my dear Michelle tipped over last weekend.  She had the dreaded fall that all the bike guys told us would happen.  We were riding down a pretty long road near tomato fields and there are a couple nooks that are dead ends.  She was behind me and screamed out to stop up ahead in the dead end to have a drink of water.  So I had to turn slighly left and straighten out to place my unclipped right foot on the right curb.  Michelle has decided she's more comfortable unclipping with her left foot, but she was already leaning into the left curve and that's when it happened.  Hello, big bruise on the buttock.  Seriously, her butt broke her fall and all she had was a little bruising on her left wrist and left ankle.  Thankfully, the tip over happened near one of these nooks.  There were cars at the stop sign that were staring a bit, but they went along their merry way.  I'm not going to embarrass her with photo evidence (which I couldn't photograph anyway because I was too busy being worried) but this is my rendition of Michelle's fall:

I've fallen and can't get up, because these damn shoes have no traction.

By the way, I'm ashamed to admit that I graduated with an art degree.  Don't judge me.  Do I have any Interpol fans in the hizzouse?  No?  Do yourselves a favor and give them a whirl because they are awesome.  Ok, buh-bye.

Shame, shame, shame

Shame on me.  I feel like I've stepped into a confessional, hidden under a veil, about to tell my deepest and darkest sins.  'Hello readers, it has been 45 days since my last post.'  Cue the catholic guilt, recite the serenity prayer and click your road bike shoes 3 times.  Are we reconciled?  I sure hope you guys forgive me because I am back and better than ever.  Well, let's just say I'm back and the jury will decide later on whether I'm better at this whole blogging biznazz.

Where do I even start...  The last time you heard from me, I was ready to go on vacation and had marked July 8th as our start date to the 12 week program.  How was vacation?  Vacation was good and restful.  We didn't work out as much as we had intended but we did try.  I got sick with allergies and a sinus cold.  I spend a good part of my days with my good buddy Neti Pot.

Exhibit A - good thing we captured this angle.

Aside from spending time in front of a sink, we also spent most of it in the pool.

Exhibit B - my sister hiding in the shadow.

All in all, we loved spending it with family and we can never get enough of our nieces.  We drove there and back and it kicked our butt.  It's a 21 hour drive one way but it was the only way we could take our dogs with us.  Thankfully we decided to come back a day earlier so we could rest one full day before we got back to the grind and start our triathlon regimen.

We just finished our 4th week of the 12 week program and its been tough.  First of all, Michelle was due to start a new job when we came back from Arkansas, and the hospital is located about 1 hour away from where we live.  We definitely didn't grasp 2 things: that she was going to be working full time now and that 2 hours out of her day were going to be spent in traffic.  This completely affected how smoothly we thought our training program was going to go.  It isn't until this 4th week that we have a good sense on how to work out on our own and together.  We are obviously undertaking this triathlon together and I was so bummed with the thought that we were going to have to train separately, but we've managed to make it work.  How so?  On the days that there are two workouts, I will do the optional workout in the morning by myself (I slither into work at 11:30ish am).  Then at 7:45 pm we can do the main workout together before dinner.  As much as I'd like her to do the optional workout before I get home, I'm trying not to put too much pressure because she has all the right to unwind after work.  When it's a one workout day, it's easy and we do it at night or we decide ahead of time that we'll do it separately.  And the weekends are the easiest in terms of time, but not so much when it comes to motivation.  LOL!

We're trying our 'best' and we know that we can definitely step it up a notch.  I'm not going to lie, I was stressed from Day 1.  I wanted to be perfect and do all the workout sessions but I found that we weren't managing our time well and it frustrated me.  We literally did this for 2 straight weeks like robots:  wake up, eat, go to work, workout, eat, bathe and sleep.  This is supposed to be fun, so I had to be open to perspective and shift my thinking.  Now that our feet are more than wet, we are having fun and have our schedules down so hopefully it's smooth sailing from here on out.

Exhibit C - having fun.

Mark your calendars people, we signed up for the first triathlon (as a relay) on September 29th.  It is the Publix Escape to Miami Triathlon and we are pumped.  Nervous but pumped.  Have a fantastic weekend and you'll hear from me next week, I promise.  Ride on!

All Hail Joe Friel

Oh ya'll didn't know I could drop rhymes that like. Sup! Ok, back to reality...  As is usual these past two weeks, I'm tardy to the party (one more rhyme for the people in the back).  But I'm here so let's get started...there's no sense in dwelling on the fact that I've yet to manage a blogging schedule.  Don't judge me.

When I decided that I wanted to do a sprint tri, I decided I'd Google 'triathlon books'.  There's only one person that I know that has competed in triathlons and she lives in Dubai so picking her brain isn't as easy as scouring the world wide web.  The first link I saw was for a book titled The Triathlete's Training Bible by Joe Friel.  So of course, when I saw the word Bible I automatically thought that this has to be the best book available for information.

It says Bible guys, c'mon!

I went to Amazon to see how much they were selling it for and immediately saw, in the section of related items, that Mr. Friel also wrote Your First Triathlon.  Now I was confused.

5 hours a week? Sign me up.

Do I go with THE BIBLE or with the book for newbies?!  Since I couldn't decide and Michelle has been on a 'use your library' phase, I asked her to see if our library had both books before buying.  And wouldn't you know, they had both.  This whole library thing is pretty awesome after all, holla!  She checked out the books and I couldn't wait to start reading.  My first instinct was to grab the huge training bible first.  I have a tendency to skim pages and head to the back of any reading material first when I start reading anything.  So in my skimming, I see these graphs in the middle of the book and it looked like straight up hieroglyphics.  I thought there's no way that this will make any sense to me, I don't even know where to begin.

I began by putting the 'training bible for triathlete geniuses who are hardcore' book down and picking up the much lighter and friendlier book, Your First Triathlon.  And again, I skimmed and went towards the back of the book and saw pictures and a clear 12 week training program.  Bingo!!  I couldn't put the book down and finished it feeling like I could definitely tackle my first triathlon.  The book is informative without going on too heavily on topics like heart rate zones and the 12 week program described is easily attainable in terms on time management.  Mr. Friel understands that some of us amateurs might not have the time available but that doesn't mean that he provides a training program that is weak.  He has 2 workouts a day on most days and varies the types of workouts (such as strength, endurance, speed, recovery). He goes into every detail, from what energy supplement you can take depending on the length of your workout to how your transition area should be set up.  I am officially a huge fan of Mr. Friel and 100% recommend his book to any straggler finding their way into this sport.  I'm such a fan, that I bought the iPad edition to have as my own.  I sort of felt like a thief because I was able to get the 12 week training program without really buying the book.  Regardless, I have the worst memory so it's in my best interest to have a copy of the book.

I've already inputted the training program in our calendar so that all 3 of us (Chels, Michelle and myself) can easily see what needs to get done.  Our official start date for the 12 week program is July 8th, which is great for Michelle and I because it lands after we get back from vacation.  We keep telling ourselves that we can't afford to overeat, over imbibe and not workout while we're visiting my sister and her family.  We've already told them that we need to keep a workout schedule while we're there (in good ol' Arkansas) so that we don't die when we get back to reality.  Currently we're working out all 3 elements (swim, bike, run) but we're taking it slow and not burning ourselves out.  This past weekend we did our longest bike ride thus far, 9 miles.  Every time we take the bikes out, we fall more in love with cycling and can't wait for the next ride.

On the road again.  Willie was talking about biking, right?

We are hooked! I'm over-saturating my mind with everything I can possibly read about anything having to do with triathlons.  I'm sure I'm going to drive everyone around me crazy.  Good thing Michelle is doing this too, because it's definitely a lot more fun sharing it with her.  Hope everyone had a good weekend! I'm out, deuce.

Hitting the Road

Well hello there.  Time for the past weekend rundown...

Michelle and I took our bikes out on the road for the very first time (as in cars, streetlights, the whole enchilada). Wooooo!  We have gone out on the bikes a handful of times now, but we rode around our lake that has a nice asphalt trail around it.  Originally I wanted to ride both Sunday and Monday, but Saturday whooped our butts.  We had no energy left for Sunday, after a 5k, a 7 hour deep sea fishing expedition, and a BBQ at Chel's house.  I must have had my eyes glazed over while trying to eat a brownie after dinner because Chel's kept saying I should go to sleep.

Here's Michelle crossing the finish line.

So Sunday was shot and we didn't do a damn thing.  It felt nice but we promised ourselves to go out on Monday morning.  We woke up at about 6:30 am and started getting ready for the road ride.  There's a hospital down the block from us and they have bike designated lanes and that's where we were planning our first ride.  We had to ride the block to the hospital on a regular car lane and that definitely freaked us out a bit.  Once we turned onto the street where we had our lane, we were 100 times more comfortable and started to find our pace.  We looped the hospital area twice and rode a little over 5 miles.  Our pace was about 12 mph and so far that's as fast as we've been able to ride.  I know that's not much distance to someone who is a seasoned rider but for our first time out on the road (again, with cars) I was very happy to tackle this one itty-bitty goal.

I've taken this week off from exercising as my hip feels aggravated again.  I'm doing some research on foam rollers and stretching to use for recovery and see if that helps me.  We'll start up again on Saturday and get a run and bike ride in this weekend.   I'll be posting again tomorrow on the triathlon training that we decided to use and when we'll be starting it.  Whoopee! Good day!

Pre-Weekend Cheat Meal

Alright guys, I'm definitely psyched to have a long weekend.  So much so, that Michelle and I started our weekend last night over pizza, wings and beer.  YIKES.  It was so good, but definitely over our calorie content for the day.  We headed over to Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza and this place never fails.  They have a saying that they cook their pizza 'well done' and it does come to your table a bit charred but I like it.  There are plenty of people who don't like it overcooked like this but I think it's delicious and doesn't take away anything from the other flavors of the pizza.  So you guys can stick to Papa John's, and leave Anthony all for me, thanks.  See all the delicious-ness below and drool...

Rosemary & Onion meet Wing, Wing meet Rosemary & Onion

"A lovely cheese pizza, just for me"

As you can see, I will spend this weekend burning off these calories.  Tomorrow morning, we have a 5k race called Tour of the Gables.  We're going to try to push ourselves real hard and hopefully take some time off our current 5k pace.  We also have a couple of swim and bike workouts scheduled for the remainder of the weekend.  This is all part of the new me, Regina Rewired.  The old me would have been preoccupied with food, drinks, outings and such.  Those are no longer my first thoughts or priorities....they're my second, gosh.  JK, sorta.  Oh I will BBQ this weekend, but we will not be gluttonous!  At least, we'll try not to be.

I've finalized my training calendar so I hope to share that with you next week (really, I just copied and pasted but my effort counts dammit).  I hope everyone has a great and safe Memorial Day weekend.  May the BBQ be with you.

First (and 2nd) Bike Ride

Hello friends (all 5 of you reading this blog....maybe).  I hope you're all having a great Wednesday and getting ready to enjoy a 3 day weekend up ahead.  Now that I've tackled my first two rides, I'm really looking forward to riding this weekend.  But let me tell you about the not so great first ride and confident building second ride.

On Cinco de Mayo, there was a triathlon on Key Biscayne and the 3 of us (Chels, Michelle and myself) woke up extremely early to see our first triathlon in action.  First of all, I know that I'm late on reporting here.  I'm still trying to get a blogging schedule and routine down...please bear with me.  Back to the triathlon...it was definitely motivational and answered a lot of questions for us.  I was particularly interested in how the transition area was set up and the manner in which the triathletes tackled T1 and T2.  

The swim portion...dun, dun, dun.

Besides being totally pumped up, I can admit that I was slightly intimidated but it was all so positive.  I'm very much a visual person so thankfully we were able to go and experience it together.  I had so much adrenaline inside but that was subsided with hunger.  I needed coffee and eggs, stat! And a margarita later. Okay maybe more than one. 

No lime mix here...we make 'em fresh.

The following weekend, Michelle and I finally went out on the bikes and I did not like it so much.  Let me just put it out there, that Michelle totally left me behind.  I was thinking that we'd take them out and get to know them slowly and feel them out a bit, but she just took off.  We decided to bike around our lake because I was too chicken to ride on the road.  I was trying to find the right way to sit because I was not comfortable at all and making sure I wasn't going to hit walkers, runners, dogs, kids, and other cyclists, while trying to keep pace with Michelle.  We finally stop at 2.5 miles and I'm explaining to her that someone has literally punched my groin area and that my saddle sucks! She asked if I was standing when we saw bumps in the pavement, but no, I was too busy being scared.  She quickly recaps the whole gear thing for me and we're off for the 2.5 mile ride back.  It was definitely better for me, but I had already done the damage.  My bum was bothered and I was leaning too far forward that my hands were carrying my weight on the handles, thus my palms were killing me as well.  I was cycling as fast as I could just so I could be done with it.  I walked the bike into the apartment and pouted, because that's my specialty. Pouting.

Second go round was this past weekend and it was soooooo much better.  On Saturday we went to Bike Tech (www.biketechmiami.com) because I had received an email that they were having a sale.  The item in mind to buy was padded shorts.  I had no idea how much they would help alleviate the saddle woes, but my tush needed any and all help.  I found Pear Izumi shorts with maximum padding that were half off.  Hello! Michelle got a pair too.  We headed home and decided to go for an afternoon ride and I did so much better.  The shorts felt ridiculous, sorta like a diaper.  During the week I had read up and saw videos on bike riding posture, so as not to repeat my mistakes from the last ride.  The shorts helped and my new info helped and I was so happy.  I kept pace and wasn't as nervous that I even finished the ride as the pace setter.  We rode approximately 6.5 miles and I topped it off with a Samuel Adams Summer Ale.  Cheers to that!

This weekend we plan on tackling the road.  In the area we live, there is an area with a bike designated lane and our favorite person (James) at Bike Tech gave us a pep talk.  He said go early (when the sun breaks) and find a comfortable pace for both of us.  So that is what we're going to do Sunday.  Ride and BBQ.  Carpe diem!

Rough Week

Hey there (Eeyore tone).  This past week was tough!  I hate that I wasn't able to post anything, not even a lame excuse as to why I wouldn't post.  It was so bad, that I only fit in one workout....ONE!  What had happened was...

First of all, my schedule has been thrown in a tizzy because the owner of our little photo shop is on vacation.  Instead of my usual swaggering check in time at 11 am, I have to battle the traffic and open at 9 am.  On Tuesday I think I ate bad yogurt because later that night I felt a huge stomach ache and so bloated.  I woke up worse on Wednesday morning but I hustled over to work and spent about half of the morning in the bathroom.  SO. MUCH. FUN.  I hate the office bathroom, so to spend any more than 5 minutes out of my day in there is torture.  On Thursday I felt so much better, so we had the grand idea of having pizza. Yummy, cheesy, gooey pizza.  Sooooo, on Friday I felt ill again, and was forced to spend some time in the office bathroom AGAIN.  At this point,  I was beyond frustrated because I didn't know what was the issue and I wasn't making time to workout.  Saturday rolls around and I ate well but then I messed it up on Sunday.  I decided to make a cake out of the Epicurious app on my iPhone.  It's so yummy and has fresh whipped cream as the frosting.

Persian Love Cake. I didn't make this name up.

In all my face stuffing glory. Why are my eyes closed?

That's me, stuffing my face with the whipped cream knowing very well that I've been yo-yoing with my stomach problems...but it gets better.  We took this cake to Michelle's mom's house but afterwards we took my mom out for a chocolate soufflé and champagne.  And I overeat.  I decide to have spinach and artichoke dip and a hummus platter and the soufflé with whipped cream and champagne.  YEAH, overeat is an understatement.  By the time we drop my mom off, I'm dying and my stomach is as hard as a rock.  Lo and behold, I think it's safe to say that I may be having some lactose intolerance thing going on.  WHICH SUCKS!  I love cheese and ice cream too much.  Why me....

So that was my week (and change).  However, I finally took out my bike and I'll save my report on that for the next post.  Let's just say I wasn't all gung-ho after the ride.  G'day!

And the Winner is...

Wait! Before I announce the member of my tri family, I want to say that I didn't have a cheat meal this weekend. Someone give me a high five! Anyone? Alright fine, onto the good stuff...

The reason I started this blog is so that I could document the journey of becoming a triathlete.  In other words, I don't have everything that I need (YET) to be considered a triathlete.  I have a training plan ready but I didn't have a bike.  That changed this past weekend, because we finally bit the bullet and plunked down the dolla dolla bills ya'll.

We were on a pretty small budget, when you think that some of these bikes are 1750.00 each.  My total budget was 1500.00 for two bikes, because I needed to get one for Michelle as well.  Needless to say that we did go over our budget slightly but not by a whole lot and we're very happy with our decision.  Before we made the final decision we researched the following bikes:

2012 Fuji Roubaix 3.0

2013 Specialized Dolce Sport

2013 Felt ZW100

Drumroll please........and the winner is the Specialized Dolce Sport.  Isn't she gorgeous?!  I think we spent about 2 months reading up on them and trying to go to different bike stores so we can get our hands on them.  We didn't actually see the 2013 model of the Felt, but the bike store did have a 2012.  Ultimately, the Felt and Fuji were a year older and Felt has the Shimano 2300 versus Sora components.  The Specialized Dolce was the first bike we tried out and fell in love with but I've come such a long way from being an impulsive shopper, and this was such a big purchase, that I really wanted to see other models from other bike companies before making a decision. 

It just so happened that we stopped by Bike Tech (on Bird Road in Miami) on Saturday, and they have a sale on their current stock to make room for the 2014 bikes.  They had the Dolce there in that awesome red and it was 20% off.  Holla.  I was so excited and said yes, as if the salesperson had proposed or something, that I had forgotten that I didn't have my wallet nor did I have a bike rack to transport this baby home.  So I deflated like a old balloon but luckily he placed it on hold for me and I picked it up on Monday night.  They helped me fit the bike, showed me how to use the gears and helped me set the bike up on the rack.  I drove like a grandma all the way home and here she is just showing off, and waiting to be taken out:

So, just like people politely wait to eat when someone hasn't received their dinner at the table but you might have....I'm waiting for Michelle to get her bike.  Because she's little (5'1), they didn't have her size stocked and the bike store has it ordered and we're due to receive it on Friday.  Anyway, I should probably also get a helmet, so I wouldn't ride anyway until I got that, because you cannot trust Miami drivers.  In the meantime, I just stare at it and drool.

I can't wait to take her out this weekend and I'll tell you guys all about it.  Stay tuned!

Cheat Meal of the Weekend

I know what you're thinking...

How can this girl be eating cheat meals when she's trying to lose weight and do a triathlon?

Ummm, I'm not sorry that I cheat.  It keeps me sane and frankly, I loooooove food.  I will scour the area, make the trek and eat whatever I've set my sights upon because I love food that much.  Now don't get me wrong people, I don't do this everyday (at least not anymore).  I know that I can't make a habit out of this but I tend to do this once during the weekend.  It has taken a lot of mental work to keep my food loving brain activity to a minimum.  I have a sister who's a chef, and another sister who bakes like nobody's business.  Essentially, they've spoiled my palate and sometimes I just want creamy polenta with a sausage ragu, instead of grilled chicken and brussels sprouts.

Without further ado, my cheat meal of this past weekend was a Nica Burger.  We went to this little spot called A&G Burger Joint and this burger was specifically why I was there.

It was awesome!!  In addition to the Angus beef patty, it had fried cheese, sweet plantains, coleslaw and jalape ño cream.  In my opinion, it could have used a bit more vinegar in the coleslaw and a bit more punch (chile) in the jalape ño cream.  I have no idea how many calories are in this monstrosity but I made sure to workout both Saturday and Sunday.  As I was walking out of the restaurant, I told the waitress I wouldn't be back because I couldn't afford the calories (LOL).  There is no way I can eat this frequently, but I was content with my cheat meal of the week.

I will soon have more info to share with you on how we're starting our training, but for now we're doing mostly running.  I need to buy a bike!!  I'll keep the posts coming...

Peace and chicken grease.

We've only just begun...

...to torture ourselves.  Seriously, three sports in one competition, back to back to back.  I'm not surprised people think this is crazy...I think it's crazy.  My days have been consumed with a lot of reading on triathlons and putting my brain in overdrive.  I'm a straight up info junkie.  People ask why I want to venture into this and it's quite simple:  I want to have a healthier lifestyle, get in shape and have fun doing it (without having to dance to Salsa or Merengue for hours...you know what I'm talking about Zumbaholics).

Here's my background...I played volleyball and basketball from middle school through high school.  Then I played two years of basketball in college but that's when everything spun out of control.  I stopped playing because I didn't love it anymore and needed to focus on my studies, but I kept eating as if I was burning tons of calories and then there was the college drinking scene.  Once I graduated, I yo-yoed for the next 10 years.  See the timeline in photos below:

So here we are.  I'm determined to get to and stay at a healthy weight and tap into that competitive spirit that's been dormant.  My partner, Michelle and my amiga, Consuelo (Chels), are going to try to tackle triathlons.  I would love to join a team or get a coach, but times are tough-ish.  We'll try to prepare ourselves mentally and physically with all the knowledge out there.  Fingers crossed we don't die, because that would be bad.  Join us on our journey!

By the way, I just started reading Joel Friel's book, Your First Triathlon.  Has anyone read this?  Have a good weekend!!

My 1st Post is for Boston

I hadn't planned to write my first post about the Boston Marathon.  The first post was supposed to be funny and show my personality and give an awesome intro into what this blog will hopefully be about.  Instead, I sit here in shock and failing to grasp the horrible outcome of today's marathon.  Today was supposed to cap off someone's achievement of 26.2 miles.  Runners or triathletes, beginners or experienced, unite for one goal on that one day.  It's unbelievable that someone would cause harm or death to innocent people.  I will never understand that, ever.  My hope is that the perished rest in peace and that the people injured find a way to heal.  My prayers and post today are dedicated to Boston.