freakishly strong

Getting things other than bills in the mail is one of life's greatest pleasures. Today I received a t-shirt from my good friends Dave and Digo, and it's not even my birthday or anything. How cool is that? I really love that my friends see me as strong; freakish I'm not so sure about :) They addressed the card to "Iron Trish" and said they loved my blog. It's great to hear from my readers, but you don't HAVE to send a gift. Of course you can if you want, but posting a comment and sending emails are a nice way to go as well. Making a donation (if you haven't already) would also be greatly appreciated.

Here are my stats for last week:
swim: 6800 yards
bike: 90 miles
run: 23 miles
total time: 13 hours 37 minutes

Saturday's bike ride brought us down to Orange County to train with the OC IronTEAM. It was a tough route with some serious hills. I was really impressed though with the restroom at the biker bar ... super clean and the toilets flushed automatically. It really doesn't take too much to make me happy. The beer was tempting too, but we still had a few hours to ride. Maybe next time :)

This week is a recovery week, AND I only have 2 more days of school ... spring break is around the corner!!

B.A.B.

Hey there! I just finished another big week .... and yesterday's workout was the longest one yet ... a 3.5 hour bike ride followed by a 2.5 hour run. That's what we call a big-ass brick. Normally we might run for 20 - 30 minutes after a bike ride just to get the leg muscles use to running after the bike. To make this even more challenging, we did a trail run that seemed to be mostly all up hill! And it was a warm day -- in the 80s. But I love hills and heat -- they make me stronger :) Today I swam 2000 yards. It was tough to get going this morning, but I definitely felt better after the swim and the jacuzzi!

The week of March 5th was a rest week, and it ended up be a tough one for me. As my 21 year old niece would say, I felt craptacular. With more time on my hands and not as many endorphins pumping through my body, I was sad. I had a dream about my Mom and Dad early that week. The good thing is that they are together and looking out for me. The bad thing is that they are no longer here with me on this earth. And the dream was too short; I didn't have enough time with them and I don't know when the next visit will be. I almost didn't go to the team swim workout that week, but I'm glad I did. We did a timed 2k swim, and I didn't want to be last. I swam through a few tears, but I took 3 minutes off my time and was NOT last! Yahoo!! 2 others finished behind me. I finally did a familiar route, an 11 mile hill repeat, on my new bike, and I was 7 minutes faster!!

When I am tapering for this race, somebody please remind me of how I felt during this past rest week. Tell me that it's normal to feel "craptacular" while my body recovers from all the stress, and that I'll be stonger and faster when I get to the starting line. Also, feel free to comment here. I have made it easier -- you no longer need to be a registerd Blog user. Thanks!

Thank you!!

We are officially at the halfway mark ... 16 weeks till race day ... holy crap! But I am feeling good, and I have put trust in my coach that I'll be ready. I am confidant that I will reach my fundraising goal of $10,000 too, thanks to your generous support. I was worried there for while, but I just hit the $5000 mark. Isn't that perfect timing? Not only do your dollars help fund cancer research, but they also got me out of bed for a run last Tuesday morning when it was cold and rainy. It also made me keep swimming last Thursday when we had 3000 yards on the schedule (our longest swim so far), and I was tired. But I told you we were increasing our swim yardage so I finished it ... even though I'm not sure anybody's even reading this. And I wanted to quit halfway through the bike on Saturday. The winds were so fierce. I was scared much of the time, and the first 2.5 hours felt like 6! Knowing that I couldn't let you down kept me going. So, thank you very much!!