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Showing posts from 2010

When It Happens To You

Wulp , it happened. I got hit by a car while biking. And it wasn't a tag (I've had two mirror tags :-) But this was a full blown hit from someone that was not looking and never slowed down. I feel like I should be at a Bikers Car Accident Anonymous meeting when I say it: "I got hit by a car while biking". Its not easy to say. Should I be ashamed? After all, one of the biggest pet peeves of many drivers is sharing the road with cyclists. We are rather crazy to think that the relationship of bikes and cars on the same road can be "friendly". I mean, cyclists are working to obtain the lightest and most aerodynamic of rides and motorists, especially in our area, are acquiring the fastest or biggest and baddest of rides. Even with all precautions taken should we, as cyclists, really trust the "larger" of our road-sharers to be aware, pay attention and control their thousands of pounds of forces with those that we cyclists would prefer to weigh in grams?

Ready to Jump.

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It's been an amazing summer with so many lives that have touched ours. We've definitely had our share of summertime fun. Steve and I have enjoyed many sunrise ski rides (when the fog has not interfered ;-) and when it has, we've taken to the tranquility of our stand and paddle boards and snuck shoreline through the fog and over the silent waters after dawn. The boys have taken to the lake this summer, skiing, wakeboarding, riding the wakesurf boards and learning to barefoot on the boom - it's been an almost daily occurence, teaching us, as we've spent hours and hours pulling them, that you have to be careful what you ask for ;-) Through it all we've been humbled by the lives that have intersected with ours, the stories each of those lives brings to our friendship. We spent one day on the lake serving families with challenged kids and were blessed to spend the day with a family with two autistic boys. "We've learned not to be frustrated by their autism,

Life After IM

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First, a huge shout out to all my friends, family (and new friends I've acquired through my blog ;-) for all the prayers, love, texts, messages, emails, posts, phone calls and good ju ju you sent me before, during and after IM. WOW. I've never felt so connected to such a wonderful group of people in my life. You were great therapy and made the whole IM experience so fun. THANK YOU. Now, about those "Now What?" questions. Wulp, good question. I was truly expecting about 2 weeks of being tired, burned out, overtrained, hungry and sore, simply wanting to lay on the couch and get up only when the words "momma" came a callin'. Well, I got the momma words, but none of the other stuff ever showed up...haven't been sore, I'm always hungry and most importantly, never felt burned out. I did get about 48 hours of grogginess at the end of last week, but being back home in the every day shuffle was EXHAUSTING! (ok, and I do admit, teaching class last Monday m

Once Upon a Time

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21 years ago today there was a very handsome prince who took one of the biggest steps of his life. Armed with charm and chivalry, the ultimate of patience, unmeasurable kindness and never ending bravery (all of which he needed based on the multitude of experiences from the previous six years which had gotten him to this day ;-) he chose to take the girl out of the country and begin to write the chapters of the storybook with the fairy tale ending that is not yet known. It was Saturday, May 13, hundreds of people were gathered in Austin for a whimsical weekend (ok, not really that fancy, but lots of skiing, bbq, shrimp boils, beer and hangovers ;-). As the day proceeded to the big event, the handsome prince may have had doubts as Mother Nature pitted him against one of the biggest hail storms of the decade to even get to the ceremony (actually it was Dad that was having to defy the storm by going home in the softball size hail to get his famed cowboy bow tie, thus having to cross hell a

Feeling Great!

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Jack went to Zion National Park yesterday. And he was recognized! Lots of triathletes were roaming the park and some folks remembered seeing Jack roadside in different places around St George..."IT'S JACK!" We felt like Rock Star escorts as we hiked about 10 miles throughout the park. (I even got a warm fuzzy as we were about 5 miles into a steep trail and some guy says, "Hey, you're Cindy!" Huh?? I thought I'd been mistaken for a "Most Wanted" or "Missing" poster when he said, "I'm Christian. We passed each other back on forth biking yesterday." (Our IM race numbers had our names printed below the number, so if you were one of the 1% of the athletes not totally focused on the yellow line and cones in front of you, you may have captured a person's name - and NOTE: of COURSE his name would be CHRISTIAN! Not Frank, Bob or Joe - but CHRISTIAN! The ONLY person in the IM that shouted out my name was named CHRISTIAN...Hell

"CHECK!!"

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DONE. 13 hours and 35 minutes. What a beautiful course, "fan club" and townspeople of St. George. The weather was spectacular and the race is over!! :-) CHECK!! We got up at 3:40am (although I'd been awake since 1:30 - ugh!), grabbed some quick yogurt, grapenuts and gatorade and Steve drove me to the bus and gear drop. They shuttled all athletes out to the reservoir - made it there in now time. Time to go through all the gear I'd dropped yesterday, add some food, water, pump up my tires and then a little sunrise yoga. Just beautiful! Around 6:15 I headed to the women's changing tent and got my wetsuit on. Pro's took off at 6:45 and the rest of us mortals lined up in the shoot. Who do I see first thing? THE FAN CLUB! Very fun! Adam got a car pass and they'd driven straight down to the reservoir (spectators were supposed to take buses in - it's good to have friends in 'high places' :-) I staged very far right as it was a counter clock wise course

See You at the Finish Line!

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SURPRISE!

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(Driving "down" to Sand Hollow - same road we'll bike back up tomorrow and Jack getting ready to go stage gear) Another day of Ironman bliss...get up, get 5 gear bags ready with what you THINK you will need in 24-36 hours from now. Get your gear ready for what you KNOW you'll need to get through today, bundle it all up in armfuls along with purse, lunch, bike and snacks to get 3 floors down to car. That was a workout in itself... We went to T1 to Sand Hollow Reservoir...wow! What an amazing drive - downhill. (hmm, means we're biking out of that hole which the locals call Hurricane Alley...because of the winds ;-) I rode 30 minutes, ran 15 then staged my bike and T1 bag (the bag I'll take with me to the changing tent after helpers tug my snug wetsuit off my wet body ;-) After staging gear I went for "the first plunge." Can I first tell you that I got on my knees this morning and prayed that I'd be blanketed in warmth and not feel the cold? God sho

Fully Surrendered

Timing is everything, isn't it. As a christian believer, I'm not too much about coincidence, but more God-incidence. Steve and I receive a daily e-devotional, which always seems to be "right on" with my life. This one showed up yesterday and totally calms me for tomorrow - "let go and let God work." Surrender: Let Go and Let God Work by Rick Warren Surrender yourself to the Lord, and wait patiently for him. Psalm 37:7 (GWT) Surrendering your life means: Following God's lead without knowing where he's sending you; Waiting for God's timing without knowing when it will come; Expecting a miracle without knowing how God will provide; Trusting God's purpose without understanding the circumstances. You know you're surrendered to God when you rely on God to work things out instead of trying to manipulate others, force your agenda, and control the situation. You let go and let God work. You don't have to always be in charge. Instead of trying

Where Is Jack?

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Meet Jack. Coltyn gave him to me for Christmas - because I did not have a stuffed animal to sleep with (like the 47 "babies" in his bed) and he felt badly for me. So shopping with Boo Boo (surprise, surprise) he came home with a snowman that he and Boo Boo found the day after Christmas half price sale (surprise, surprise). Well, Jack's been every where with us since his arrival on December 26. Camping, supercross races; I even woke up in the hospital in January and found him tucked under the covers with me. You can imagine the nurse's surprise when she dove under the covers in recovery to check my hysterectomy procedure and found a stuffed snowman. "Uh, this is Jack," I drooled to her. So now Jack's in Utah and will be sending shout out's to Coltyn - and YOU! This is Jack in the lava fields before getting to Snow Canyon - about 27 miles into the bike ride. Smile, Jack!

495

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(Snow Canyon - part of the DOWNHILL part of the bike loop :-) 22% of the registered athletes are women. Average age of all athletes is 37. The average athlete has trained 18-30 hours a week for 7 months in preparation. Over 700 athletes are first timers here (gooooood company ;-) And me, I'm number 495 out of 2385 registered athletes. That's the number. It's already "temporarily tatooed" with spray ink and stencils all over my body. Won't be catching any rays with these numbers on - I'd be wearing them all summer. Athlete check in took about an hour today, then another 1 1/2 hours to get body marked (that's your race number on your arms and age as of 12/31 on your left calf). Met some interesting folks - and saw lots more ;-) I got a five mile run in before we went - and truly felt the altitude difference. My heart rate averaged about 10bpm more than it normally does, which tells me output on race day will be a little slower to accommodate the higher h

Can You Say "Brrrr..."

Water at Sand Hollow Reservoir (swim location) is a balmy 58 degrees today! Yum!

Yowzeee...

...there is an altitude difference here...less air, drier climate, higher heart rate = more exertion. Woo Hoo!

Wild West Perspective

We arrived in Vegas yesterday afternoon and drove up to St George. Wow! What an amazing part of the country this is...talk about rough! I'm humbled thinking of the trailblazers in their covered wagons trying to get through here. Seriously...talk about Ironmen! Covered wagons with wooden wheels - through this land with these rocks, ravines, gorges, crevices...I cannot imagine the time, perseverance, stamina and willpower it took. Truly, it would seem that every few minutes you and your family would be unloading, lifting, prying, leveraging their wooden wheels out of a crevice, maneuvering your horses to pull with all their might, then reloading, restarting and doing it again in a matter of feet. It's miraculous anyone ever made it across this area. I'm humbled beyond words to think that Saturday I'm going to roll across these same mountains with an aerodynamic helmet, unlimited water, carbon bike, carbon wheels, tubeless tires, then engineered running shoes with high tec

Who Needs Friends, When You Have...

...a friend like this! Received this from "Nif" (spellcheck :-) this morning...not sure what to think about it. Hah! But my bags are packed (almost ;-) and the plane leaves in 4 hours...too late to back out now. See what the Fat Cyclist (yes, he exists and is none of us :-) has to say about St George. (I'm thinking that number 7 is actually the only reliable and most important piece of information ;-)

"Oh, you're home already?"

Sweet, sweet words to my ears as I got home from my "long" workout yesterday at 11 - my dear momma was watching the kids (as she has for many days of this journey - I'll roll out before dawn, Steve stays in bed, then Steve rolls out and joins me for some of the workout; mom tiptoes over, boys stay in bed - seemlessly, unaware that I've been gone for hours already :-) Yesterday was the last "semi-long" workout before UT. 3 1/2 hours vs the longest I've had which was 9. Yea God!

"Send"

It took me four days to push that button. The webpage had sat open on my desktop for four days; all the boxes were filled in, all info complete. However, by pushing "send" I knew I'd mentally and physically commit myself (and my family :-) for the next 9 months to preparing for the St. George Ironman . 2.4 mile swim; 112 mile bike; 26.2 marathon run. "How many days does that take?" someone later asked me? Lots. So why did I push "send"? Every year instead of New Year's resolutions I always have a word or phrase to focus on. For me, it's a "nutshell" of focus and simplifies what could be a tedious list of what I should and shouldn't do into one direct affirmation. This year it's "No Regrets". To live, act, say, make decisions with the end result of "no regrets" in mind. Steve and I created Bucket Lists last year. I'm sure we all have our own Bucket Lists by now. (If you don't, I encourage you to get

You Just Never Know How God Will Answer Prayers!

I LOVE this interview! Take a peak and enjoy the beauty of it. The cause is wonderful and the way God answers their prayers is off the charts unexpected! See Jodi Nelson's paddleboarding for Breast Cancer interview with Ellen - and who God sent to help gain publicity for the cause :-)