Tri Beginnings

psst... I've Moved..

2010-03-11T16:23:00.001-06:00

You can find my new blog at ......

http://ucantwinifudonttri.wordpress.com

Thanks!
Leslie

God is in control...God has a plan...God's plan is really really good.

2008-12-29T11:03:00.005-06:00

I had a great plan for our trip to faithwalkers.. that was conceived just days before faithwalkers.. while I think God’s plan for our trip to faithwalkers was planned long before that.

My plan consisted of bonding 5 single women together thru talking about the word, our daily lives, and playing some fun games with our past life experiences.. while God’s plan for bonding 5 women together.. well.. that looked VERY different..

God’s plan was a 9 hour car ride, I think he must have decided 9 hours was much better for bonding than the normal 5 hours it would take.. God’s plan also was lots of prayer before hand bonding us together thru praying for our trip before it even begin for flights to arrive on time and a safe trip..

God’s plan was for a friend to fall on the ice and then to transport her 9 hours and take care of her the entire time who required a lot of care. But because she needed extra care, it bonded all of us closer together, we had to come close and support each other, we could not bicker over where to stop, or when, or anything for that fact, we instead drew closer together, supporting each other, with facts and love to support each other, with hugs and funny facts, such as at least were getting better gas mileagea since we are only going 35 instead of 70 and documentation of course J It allowed us to welcome our new roomie into our lives and extended time!

MY plan was getting the most out of every faithwalkers session while God’s plan was very different.

I missed the majority of the first two sessions as I chatted back and forth with Alicia at the hospital.. I missed the first breakout session because I was still at the hospital.. I made it to the afternoon session I felt really important and I was so grateful, I was overwhelmed with emotions and feelings and lack of sleep, I had yet to see any amount of sleep, since I had been up for 18 hours and only getting only 4 hours of sleep the night before.. but in the session it was shared from Ruth, God is in control, God has a plan, and God’s plan is always really good, and to be honest.. I needed to hear that because I was beginning to wonder. I made it to sleep at 5:00 after being up for 40+ hours.. thinking I would just sleep for an hour… and make it to the evening session.. I even set two alarms.. but as I quickly fell asleep, I slept thru two alarms, two phone calls… and miss the evening session, and yet, that was God’s plan..

I woke up this morning.. yet still tired, and now semi sick, had I not slept, I can only imagine that I would be really sick. God’s thoughts and ways are not my ways, and I am thankful for that.. At breakfast this morning I lost it emotionally thinking about how all of what has happened is my fault, and I failed so many people, wondering if I did the right things, if I did it all right.. but as I cried out to God, God answered me and said...

Isaiah 55:8-9
For my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways my ways declares the Lord.
As the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts..

I still feel bad about all that has happened,.. I am still sick, and my faithwalkers still doesn’t look anything like what I thought my faithwalkers would EVER look like.. however I know that God is good and God has a plan, and his plan is really really GOOD.

ONEderland!

2008-12-17T10:15:00.008-06:00

I have dreamed sooo long that it would once happen... I thought at one time in my journey it would never happen.. Only because in order for me to get in onederland.. one would have to loose almost 100 pounds... but women/men! it's possible! :)

Cool Stats & Fast Facts!
I've lost over a 100 pounds.. thats right!!! I've reached above and beyond my 100 pound loss mark, and it feels sooo good!!!

I've lost 117.5 inches! Forever gone.

I am six sizes smaller than where I started.

My HDL which is your good cholestral is finally up! - It's risen from 30 - to 51!!!
My Total Cholesteral has gone from 225(2006) to 192 (2007) to 178 (2008)
My Triglicerides have gone from 162 (2006) to 147 (2007) to 128 (2008)

My Body Fat has dropped considerably! I've gone from 48% (2006) to 22%!!! (2008)

My BMI has gone from 45.2 (Morbidly Obese) to 29.6.

I (yes me!!) am a cycling instructor!!

I've walked 1 5k, and Ran 4 5K's!
I've run 5 Sprint Tri's!! and 1 Olympic Tri! :) - WHO would have ever thought?!

I couldn't have done it all without support of family and friends... Sometimes I felt as thought I was wadding thru rising waters of temptation or frustration of people not understanding what I was doing.. there were always those who had my back, and who I hope will continue to have my back.. because girlfriends, this girl is not done yet! :) I will never forget the times when you came around me to support me, to cheer me on, to celebrate what I have done, it meant the world to me, and I cannot thank you enough. I will never forget the times when you asked what you could do to help, or what you could do to educate your own self so that you could walk side by side with me in this long rode.

It's been a little over three years... three years you say?! Yes, I wonder sometimes how three years have slipped by so fast, but one of my dear friends a year ago wrote one of the coolest things for me, on my weight loss anniversary just a little over a year ago, I will never forget it, I keep it next to my bed and read it often, it reminds me of the truth, it encourages me to push forward in every step I take. (thank you friend!)

I could have also never of done any of this without God. I know sounds funny huh.. you're probably thinking but you did this all on your own motivation and will power, etc.. right?! Wrong.. I cannot tell you how many times I have struggled with eating late at night, or wanting to eat out with friends, or just not going to the gym, but I can tell you how many times my God was so faithful, that he meet me right where I was. He was faithful as I called out to him in
prayer to be my self control when I had none. He was faithful even when I was not.

I cannot begin to explain how many pages in my journals were filled with prayers, frustrations and wondering if I was ever going to get it all.. if I was even understanding what God had for me thru it all.. there were so many times I wanted a simple answer, I wanted to wish it all away, and hope that it would be fixed overnight.. but there were so many times God brought me back to his truth. When I found my self in the most difficult places (eating out of control, wanting to give up, not wanting to perserve in what God had for me, or even in the task) I sought out the power of his holy spirt and in prayer, and I always felt even if I had to wait days... God always seemed to meet me and answer..

God gave me amazing verses along the way, that I want to share with all of you.

Galations 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such
things there is no law.

Galatians 5:24-25 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep
in step with the Spirit.

Matthew 7:7 Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

Psalms 16:7 I will praise the LORD, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me.

I hope no matter what you are going thru big or small... short or long, you too find it challenging and rewarding even till the end :)

It's Like Beer Googles... only not..

2008-10-01T16:34:00.009-05:00

I think beer googles might be better..

Lately I've been struggling a lot with my weight.. while I am happy with all of the progress I have made, and I feel great.. I just wish I could see it, I wish that I looked that good. I've wondered If I would ever get under that magic number I have wished upon for years..

Last night I had to take pictures for work, during a softball game. Since I really wanted to play softball as well, i ran around and took pictures while I wasn't playing and then while I played, I handed the camera off to a coworker and told her she could take pictures if she wanted.. but she really didn't need to.

But as I was downloading pictures today at work I came across two pictures.. both of which I was almost confused as to who was in the pictures.. at one point I even said.. who is that!! Both of the pictures I am talking about were of me!! It's not becasue the pictures look horrible or they are ugly or they portray me as overly heavy.. It was like looking at my self with a new pair of glasses, only they had this image that was totally differnet of how I view myself.

I don't let many people take pictures of me, because I don't like how I think I look. And I normally end up deleting most pics.. but for some reason I never saw these..

I kind of feel like I've been walking around with beer googles on or something.. convincing my self of all these lies.. and non truths, while in the mean time, looking at these pictures.. I look GOOD! But I still don't really see it when I look at myself in the mirror. I wonder how you convince yourself to look at you and see someone who you havent' seen for a really long time..

I wonder how we can look at ourselves with just a clear vision, of truth, how we really look, and not how we think we look..

Being True To Yourself

2008-08-27T09:31:00.002-05:00

I was recently reading an article that was passed on to me from a coworker about being true to yourself. I think it had some great points, and I wanted to share them all of you.

In the story of Noah's ark, Noah was already almost 500 years old when he heard the voice of God commanding him to building a giant four hundred foot ark. Noah had never seen a boat this size in his lifetime and certainly did not posses the knowledge of how to build such a thing, but as he was guided by God's instruction which came thru him. Everyone around Noah laughed and still Noah keep going he trusted God and kept working. Through it took 120 years, and Noah completed the ark, he and his family, and all the animals were then saved from the floods that rushed the earth. Had not noah stayed true to himself, ignoring those voices of the people around him, the world as we know it would be totally different? maybe even extinct? I don't know if God would have let this happen, but Noah definitly had to stay believe in what God was telling him, and staying true to what was being instructed, not easily influenced by those around him.

Being true to yourself means looking within to discover what you know in your heart to be right and then acting on it. It does not mean following every last whim or urge that you might have; that is just selfishness in disguise. It means being true to your values and morals. It meals being honest in all things; knowing the truth, walking by that truth, and living by that truth. And being true to yourself, might be different to you, than someone else being true to them.. It is not always easy to go against the grain... and no one can do this for you, but you..

Have you been true to yourself today?

I have to say..

2008-08-21T14:32:00.004-05:00

I have to say that I am udderly and totally confused as of late!

I have to say that I am trying to eat healthier but I am soo confused as to what I should eat and what I shoudln't eat.. I am finding my self either.. not eating, because I am afraid it might have some bad affect on my body or I am overeating because I am soo confused (not to mention haven't had much to eat the days before!) and get to frustrated with the research that I just say forget it, and I eat what I want..

I have to say that all of the sudden for some reason people in my group of friends have decided that HFCS is really bad for you.... but I don't know if I really believe that, I want like hard evidence, good solid research and I have yet to see it..

I have to say that the research out there on HFCS is very limited, and for the most part from all that I have read is HFCS is just another sugar, there has not been one study that I have found to proven it to actually link it to obesity, or have really harmful effects to your body. Also the prevalence of obesity is increasing around the world, however HFCS outside the United States is very limited or non exisistent.. this dones't make sense to me..

I have to say that with all the research out there, and yet there is no research to tell us that it is a direct link to obesity, or damaging our body's, why is everyone getting so concerned about getting rid of it in their diet? Is this just another trend in society? Are people becoming more aware of something that I am totally missing?

Further more.. I have to say, that anyone who totally alleminates HFCS from their diet will be mostly eating whole foods (vegetables, fruits, and proteins, maybe whole grains) things that are unprocessed? right? so if you were eating that kind of stuff, wouldn't that in and of it's self lead you down a path of loosing weight? Unless maybe if you ate to much of it, but still... couldn't a person still eat a small of HFCS in some processed food, and be living a healthy lifestyle? a good diet? and good exercise?

I have to say that I am totally and uderly confused, and frustrated, but maybe that's just me :)!

It's Official!!!! :)

2008-07-10T16:38:00.002-05:00

I am going to be a SPIN instructor!!! For the rec services depart of the University I work for!!!

I am way excited. I taught my first ever class the past wednesday as an audition and it went really well, I even had a girl come up to me after class ask me if I was going to be teaching every wednesday night at that time.. She said she really enjoyed my class.. that was a really cool compliment!! The instructor who was evaluating me had nothing but positives to say to me so that was really great!! She said the only thing I did wrong was I forgot to introduce my self, how crazy.

The class was really fun but tough, about 45 minutes into it, I thought for a short time I might vomit, so I know if I push that hard I can't imagine what others might have been feeling, I can sometimes be tough, but I love to push!! :) This really is a great stepping stone for me, and I am really excited to teach!

As it stands right now... there will be two free classes you all can come to if you want!!!! :) The first is July 21st at 12:15, the second is July 28th at 12:15... don't worry it's only 45 minutes! :) And I promise it will be fun!!!

It also makes me really realize that no matter what, as long as I don't give up on a dream, anything is possible, even if there might be a roadblock one year or another :)

Six and counting..

2008-06-05T11:28:00.002-05:00

6 Miles... is farther than i thought..

Last night I ran my first ever 6 miler! It was fun, and I ran it a lot faster than I ever thought I would but it also definitly had it's challenges. As I am preping for the Hy-vee Tri which is just over 2 weeks, I am getting more and more nervous and more and more excited. I am trying to work out my refueling strategies for the run, as well as my strategies for the run in general since I can't have my trusty Ipod with me..

It's so much easier when you have music, it keeps you moving, it keeps you on pace, it motivates you. But Since I can't have it at the tri's I needed to start training with out music, oh brother! My strategy for the run last night was to run 11 minutes, and then grab a drink of water and some gel or beans, and keep going, because this is what is going to have to happen at the tri...in order to keep me cool enough and not overheat as well as keeping me hydrated enough..

I was suprised however that last night I would run until it said 1 mile... and most times it was before the 11 minute marker... my thoughts though thru those 9 - 10 minutes were ohh will I ever make it there.. maybe I should just make this a short run, maybe today isn't the day for 6 miles.. but I did make it!! Each mile I took in water and gel which slowed me down a little at the mile, but it actually made my run times faster :)

According to my Nike+ my mile times were this.. Mile 1 was in 10:49, Mile 2 was in 11:08, Mile 3 was in 9:56, Mile 4 was 10:28 (I didn't take in any gel between mile 4 and mile 5) and Mile 5 was 11:25, and Mile 6 was 9:00! Which all together put me just over an hour.. it was good! I'll take it!

It's official that in just over 2 weeks I'll be runnin in the Hy-Vee Triathlon (my first ever olympic distance tri) - Hopefully it will all be good! :) I am getting excited!

Good Thoughts...

2008-06-02T15:31:00.001-05:00

I was cleaning up a work file at work.. and I ran across this file, I remember the day I stared this in 2006, when I was preparing for my first 5K and I needed some motivation to get me started and to that finish line.... I should add to it more often! But they all still ring true to me.. may they all ring true to you too.

I tell our runners to divide the race into thirds. Run the first part with your head, the middle part with your personality and the last part with your heart. – Mike Fanelli

The world is full of discourages. We have a duty to encourage one another. Many a time a word of praise or thanks of appreciation or cheer has kept a person on his feet. - William Barclay

Have faith in people. Believe in them, trust in them, and you will draw out the best in them. They will rise to your expectations. – Unknown

Running is the greatest metaphor for life, because you get out of it what you put into it. – Oprah Winfrey

Keep away from people who try to be little your ambitions. Small people do that – but the really great ones make you feel that you too are great! – Mark Twain
I really like this one, because I to often be little my own ambittions and its soo hard when others do it to me... so I love it when others can make me feel that I too can one day be great, and that all my ambitions are worth it, in my own little world :)

It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop – Confucius

Believe in yourself, know yourself, deny yourself, and be humble. – John Treacy

2 Peter 1:5-7 (New International Version)
5For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.

I could tell you why I like them all.. but maybe you can just draw your own conclusions :) and find your own mantras to live by :) - leslie

You haven't by chance seen a black bear have you?

2008-05-30T09:28:00.002-05:00

I was biking home from working out at CORE the other night, CORE is about 4 miles from our house, so I've grown accustom to biking there, doing some kind of workout, and then biking home :) On this particiular night, I biked to meet some freinds to help weight train, and do some more cardio, and then would bike back home on the bike trail.

As I was leaving core it was around 8:50 almost dark, but since it only takes me 10 minutes to get home from there I figured I would be okay, i was biking along, enjoying my ride, a little darker than I would have liked, but all was well.. and then I came to a part of the trail that is kind of a blind corner going into it, I usually slow down before it because it is usually particuallarly muddy around that area and sometimes water can be on that trail, but this night I slowed down because there were lights on the trail, like headlights, I wondered who they were..

As I came around the coner it was a police car sitting with his headlights on and his spotlight on, looking deep into the woods, I wondered what in the world is he looking for, and then I thought he was going to issue me a ticket for not having a headlight on my bike.. but I slow down, he pulls over a little off the trail I slowly approach his vehichle, and he then asks.. "You Haven't by chance seen a black bear have you?" I looked at him quite odd I am sure, and said umm.. nope.. sorry and continued my ride.. I thought.. what in the world, the entire rest of the ride home I was trying to figure out what he really asked, because he coudln't have possibly asked me If I saw a bear?!? I live in Iowa!

but then Yesterday.. people are telling me there might be a bear in north liberty.. i smiled and said.. ohhh right... and I guess there are articles on it, oh the crazy things you find out while exercising :)

http://www.press-citizen.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080529/NEWS01/80529012/1079

5 Miles!

2008-05-28T14:07:00.004-05:00

Last night I ran my first 5 miles ever!!!!!!! - I have to say that it was waaaaaay easier than I ever thought 5 miles would be :) (Did I just say that?)

I never really thought that I would ever be able to run much past 3 miles, infact when I picked out my training plan for my 10K run, I picked a training plan, that would take a long time to get up to 3 miles, that would have plenty of time to get me ready for a 10K, I thought it was the perfect plan!

The one day as I approached the weeks where you hit 3 miles, I realized that shortly after you hit 3 miles, the runs just get longer and longer, and not by like .25 but by like a mile! Mentally I just don't think I was ready to run 4 miles, and so I would so ohh I can't do that week yet, and I would repeat a shorter distance week, and then the 4 mile week would come back.. but then...

I started to run out of time, my tri, as long as all goes well with registration and such, is only like 3 1/2 weeks away???!!!?!? I need to get up to 6 miles before then.. and be able to do it after swimming a mile and biking 25!!

And so last week.. I accomplished 4 miles, it felt pretty amazing, but then 2 days after the 4 miles I had to run 3.. and the 3 was Horrid ( I got overheated waaaaaaaay over heated to quickly) and most of the last part of the run I was thinking.. am I insane! Am I really going to try and run 6 miles after I bike 25??!? my legs will be like Jello, and why am I doing this again and I have a lot of work ahead of me, and not to mention.. I am doing this willingly :) Have I gone insane?

But then... last night I ran 5 miles!! the big 5!! at times it was hard, sure, I am still nursing a knee that is hurting, but it felt pretty good other than that, at times it felt like I was running on air, it felt like if my knee didn't ache I could go for another mile, it even crossed my mind.. but I did it... I did 5!!! It feels soo good, and most of all I felt as though I was perservering, and it remindinded me of somethign I heard earlier in the day from James 1:2-4 - Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

May all your trials of all kinds develop your perserverance!

Ronald McDonald 5K Race Report

2008-05-06T10:47:00.002-05:00

The Ronald McDonald is a special 5K for me, 4 years ago, it was the first 5K I ever walked, which I didn't train for, but never thought I would complete it, I was way overweight, and out of shape, but I did it with coworkers and friends, and it was okay, it wasn't that bad. Three years ago was the first time I ran the race, I again did it with friends, it was good, and I enjoyed it. It was the first time I ever ran a 5K and it set me on fire for racing, and a new passion!

However this year was definitly different, this year, I too ran it with friends, but I ran it with people who I helped train to run it and for some of them, it too was their first ever 5K. For some it would be completeing a task they too never thought they could complete.

All of the days leading up to race day this year were different, but good. Instead of focusing on all the things I was normally worrying about, weather or not I was trained enough, weather or not I was going to make it all thru, I was more worried about getting the info I needed to give to my people I was helping training, etc. It was definitly a learning experience for me, and I truely enjoyed it.

Even racing was different. I encouraged all of my people to have a mantra, my mantra for the day was I am not going to give up, I am doing great, I can do this, I can do all things thru Christ who gives me Strength. All of which played over my head at times, but most of the race, I was thinking about my people, watching them, wondering how they were doing.

For the entire race except about 1 minute at the beggining of the race I could see Dana she was about a 2 tenths of a mile ahead of me, I watched her, It made me smile, she was running strong, she had good form, I would think, she looks strong, I wish I could yell GO DANA right now but I don't think she could hear me.. if only I could get a little closer, and then I would run harder, but then as I got closer she would run faster :)

I was soo encouraged by how strong she looked running thru the course, how she would make it all the way to the finish line, it gave me great joy. I wondered at times where the others were but I too felt, and had confidence they were doing great, when I crossed the finish line, there they were, and shortly after me (less than 30 seconds), came in the last one! Everyone did great, it felt sooo great to see all of these amazing people running and pushing past things they never thought they could accomplish. I finshed in 33:44 cutting just under 7 minutes off last years time!!! :)

It's the first race of the season, and everyone did great!! I am excited to see what else is in store, and whats next! I have a lot of races planned on my calendar this year, so that is exciting but kind of scary all at the same timg, but I know it will be fun, especially with friends along the way!

CongratS! EVERYONE!!!

P.S. - I thought this would be fun, its amazing how many changes you can make in such a short time :)

The 21st Time

2008-02-25T11:44:00.002-06:00

I don't know if any of you have heard this song or not, but I was really struck by it as I was driving the other day, listening to it, I found how much I was doing the same things as this person as who wrote this song, how often I walk by people who I could help, or even say a prayer for, I walk right by and place judgement on them, or feel nothing, but put blinders on, especially by all that we have been challenged by lately, I pray that we would really be challenged by this as well.

I am posting this video, it's the song and some graphics, hopefully you will enjoy it as much as I did..

Fear - What am I so afraid of..

2008-01-31T13:18:00.001-06:00

In my head I ama constantly thinking about what people think of me, it has especially hit me lately since I started taking my personal trianing class and I have to really evaluate my current body situation and how future clients might see me, I constantly am thinking are they thinking I am fat, I am worried about if I am dressed right, if I am wearing the right color socks, if I am doing the right things, am I am saying what they will want to hear, even though I know it is the truth. and the true theme of it all.. what will people think of me, and will those people think I am wrong, will they like me?

Someone shared proverbs 29:25 recently with me, and it says, - "fear of man will prove to be a snare." In my head in these lies, in the darkness I think its easy to think eh, its not the fear of man, I am not really hiding what I believe, but in my head i am choosing now to do something for fear of what others are thinking, and isn't that fear of others? of course!!! I have done some things in my life becuase I am afraid but done it anyway, I never thought I could do a triathlon becuase I thought no one would see me as capable, but I did it to prove people wrong, and loved doing it. I hated going to the gym when i wehged 80 pounds more than what I do now becuase I was afraid of what people would say, and what they would think, I let the fear of man rule my life. And I still do at times.. I let my fears of the future rule and control my thoughts and life.

The full verse - "fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the lord is kept safe" When ISreal was afraid of their enemies- they lost, but whenever they trusted in the Lord - they were safe. In Joshua 1:9 he says "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go." Am i strong and courageous or am I terrified and controlled by fear of man, fear of things I can not even control, I can't control what they think, I can't control what they feel, I have no control of that! Why am I letting it be a snare to me.

I love what God says in Isaiah 40:31 - "but those who hope in the Lord, will renew their strength, they will soar on wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint" am I truely trusting in the lord, am I putting my hope in the Lord so that he is my strength.. are you putting your hope in the lord.

thoughts

2007-12-09T22:55:00.000-06:00

I want to sing of your praise
but as I open my mouth
the words fail to come out
as the tears stream down my face
I simply cannot express
the feeling of my heart
my soul and spirit yerns,
how my heart aches to hear
to touch and feel of your great love

Everything Glorious? Even Me?

2007-11-12T14:08:00.000-06:00

A few weeks ago I went to an amazing David Crowder Concert, thanks to my amazing friends!! (I really can't say thank you enough! Thanks for being so supportive of me and my life!)

But anyway they played a new song entitled Everything Glorious from their new CD, Remendy, and it's one of my favorite songs!

I posted the lyrics below, if you havent' heard it yet, you should most definitly check it out, but the thing I love most about this song is, It talks about God making Everything Glorious, and God made you and me, so what does that make us? Glorious!! How cool is that?! It also helps me remind me that I belong to someone bigger and better than myself! That I am HIS!!! How cool is that?!

Everything Glorious
Artist(Band):David Crowder Band

The day is brighter here with You
The night is lighter than its hue
Would lead me to believe
Which leads me to believe

(chorus)
You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
And I am Yours
What does that make me?

My eyes are small but they have seen
the beauty of enormous things
Which leads me to believe
there's light enough to see that

(chorus)
You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
And I am Yours

From glory to glory
You are glorious You are glorious
From glory to glory
You are glorious. You are glorious
Which leads me to believe
why I can believe that

You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
And I am Yours
You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
And I am Yours

From glory to glory From glory to glory
You are glorious. You are glorious.
You are glorious. You are glorious.

Twin Lakes, Half Olympic Tri

2007-08-15T08:59:00.000-05:00

This past weekend I ran the Twin Lakes, Half Olympic Tri, and conquered a lot of fears :) I had quite a few worries/fears going into this race. The race was limited to just 60 people, which is extremely small, I've never done a tri smaller than thousands of people, and this was my first ever Male/Female race. I was kind of worried, would I be intimidated by the men, would they be agressive or would it all be okay. And probably one of my biggest fears was that I would finish last, which I would be okay with if it happened, but I didn't really want to be last.

To make matters worse, going into the race, all week I was extremly sick, instead of resting up and downing liquids and getting all pysched up for the race, I was sick sick sick, and begging at some points to even wonder if I was even going to be able to race.

The race location had a very special meaning to me, the race was at the Twin Lakes, in NW Iowa, and it's kind of where my mom grew up, but the cool thing was my grandma who meant a lot to me, always took us there to go swimming, down the slide, all in good fun! I wanted to do something in a good memory of her :) The race also supported the Christian Camp that was there, where my mom even went to camp as a kid.

Because of it's size all of the race packet pickup, and race was on Saturday, which made me a little nervous, not getting our info until Saturday morning but it seemed to work out okay. I stayed at my parents house on Friday night which was about an hour and a half away and then got up early like a normal tri and headed to the site. We were the first to arrive around 5:55. I checked out the very small transition site, It was seriously home town tri, the transition site was wrapped off in caution tape :) classic! After that we waited for the packet pick up to start around 6 and I got my number and my t-shirt and some goodies, they had pretty sweet goodies for a small town tri, but then I set up my bike, and my gear in the transition zone, which was on grass, in a location that I thought would be pretty good spot. I had a great spot right out of the bike and I didn't even walk the transition zone to know where my bike was, it was simply to small.

Becuase it was their first tri, they were very adimit about checking all the small details, it was the first time I've ever had someone inspect my helmet for a rating that is required to have to race, and the first time i've ever had anyone inspect my bike end caps. but thankfully all of my stuff was okay.

After setting up we then had to drive over to the Christian Camp, where the race began and ended. I had scoped this out earlier when I drove home, and was wondering how in the world are we getting in the water. Normally you enter on a beach, but this was different, there was no beach connected directly to the water. I chit chatted with a few girls for a while before the race directors and referee gave their little speach.

It was kind of neat, This tri will always hold a special place in my heart, the referee gave his speach, and then one of the guys who was part of the christian camp lead us in a prayer to just bless our day, and ask to keep us all safe, etc. I felt so blessed, that it was on their hearts to share their faith with all who were there even if they were just there to run a tri, but also I just felt blessed to have God at the forefront of my race. And then I guess the girl who was supposed to sing the national athem didnt' show up, so the race director ended up singing it, and he was fairly good. And then... off to the races, the guys started first in the first wave with a 3 minute head start. and then the women followed. They even had a TRUE old fashioned Shot Gun Start! LOL

The swim went fairly well, but I didn't feel the greatest, so I did a lot of breast stroke, and back stroke, but my swim time according to the my watch was around 18 minutes, which definitly isn't my best swim time, but it was a longer swim, and the waves were increadibly choppy and we were swimming against them the entire time, so I was okay with it. Also I think they could have used a few more bouys, it was hard to sight off of the bouys in the water since there were only two, the first one was fine, but the second wasn't nearly until the finish and until then you only had boats on both sides, so I think i did a lot of back and forth swimming which added to my distance. When I got out of the water, I heard my mom yelling, what a amazing sound :) I LOVE my parents, and they are of course my biggest fans!! My dad told me that I was number 7 of the women out of the water, out of 24 women! I'll take that!

I didn't think that I would see my parents until sometime on the bike, becuase of the set up, but because it was such a small town tri, and the course was an open course, they were there chearing for me and and, get this... taking pictures!!!! of me getting out of the water!! I told them they had to get decent pictures because there was no professional photographer, and they surpassed my expectations! Instead of giving them my digital camera I gave them each a disposal camera, but my dad didn't evne use that, he used his digital camera and my mom used her disposable camera that I got her, I haven't seen the pictures from there yet, so we'll see.

The run from the beach to the bike transition area was quite a wase, but not horrible, not as bad as the subaru tri. I quickly got into transition put on my stuff, looked around, hey, there are still MEN in here, so I knew that I wasn't to far behind or at least not in the very back yet! I had some troubles getting my bike out! oh my, the bar it was on sank as people put their bikes on it, so it was a little complicated and probably slowed down my transition a ltitle but it was okay, I got out, and off on the bike I went.

Once I got out to the bike course, it was HORRIBLY windy!! I mean absoultly absurd windy wise. It was even worse than the danskin and every way you turned you had a head wind, yuck! I didn't feel very good on the bike either, I felt like vomiting, I was hot, overheated, and I think just not still feeling that great from the week, I took the first lap slower than I would have liked to try and adjust myself, but only 1 girl passed me and I ended up passing two others. This tri was harder because there wasn't 100 people around you and you couldn't challenge yourself off them, you had to challenge yourself against you, there were times when you wouldn't see ANYONE for minutes, at times I would wonder if I was on the right path. Although they had LOOOOTS of fans and volunteers.

There was even a set of girls and a Mom as a volunteer, and as I went past them they yelled GIRL POWER!! I gave them a big thumbs up and continued, they kept me going, and other fans along the way, people I had no idea who they were were chearing me on, so it kept ya going, it was just a really fun place to race, and great memories. IT was a two lap course so on the second lap I felt a little better and went a little faster, I passed a few more people, but also one or two more people caught up to me, which made me challenge my self even more. On lap two there was an older volunteer who was standing at a coner telling us to turn, and she yelled, take your time, you're doing great, keep it up, she sounded just like my grandma! it made me smile. According to my bike timer I did the bike in about 43 minutes, which isn't bad, it's even faster bike than my Danskin, so I was happy with it. My Average speed was around 17.8 MPH :) not to bad for my 5 dollar garage sale find :)

Then.. on to the run.. YUCK!! I was really hopping that since it was a small town tri they would let me use my music for the run.. nope, nada, bummer!!! I trained from the danskin to this race, pretty much just running, hopping to improve my run time. It's the one thing that I struggle the most on. I also always get way to hot on the run, and it just ends up being bad, so this time I thought I would try taking a water bottle wtih ice water in it.

the run was on a trail that had some minor hills, which wasn't horrible, but it seemed really really long.. Several people passed me, but I was okay with that, and in facat, i saw at least 6 men pass me!!! MEN!?!? they started 3 minutes ahead of me, so I didn't feel so bad, just means, running is my weak one, but I am working on it. And of course, it felt good when people were running adn even though they were passing me, they said keep going, good job, you can do it! i love tri's cause everyone is sooo supportive and encouraging! I was towards the middle and I saw my parents driving on the road next to the trail yelling GO LESLIE and taking pictures, it even made me laugh, they were great, they even stopped up later on the trail before a water break to take more pictures, ohh I am soo glad they were there.

Towards the end of the run, a Lady who was 35 was running next to me, and I stopped to walk, I do a 10 minute run followed by a 4 minute walk a lot of times, and she was like, oh I'll walk with you, and we talked, she was great! It was her first tri, and she has 3 kids under the age of 10 (hey dana, maybe you should do one, seee you could do it!! :)) and was talking about the tri, while we walked at a fast pace, then we ran together, encouraging one another, and then walked a little, then ran, etc.. it was great!! She was great! We finished just seconds apart, and she gave me a huge hug afterwards and said keep it up, I was so proud of her! My run time was just under 44 minutes or so, not horrible, for me, adn improved from the danskin, but it still needs work.

When I crossed the finish line tons of chearing and loud noises, it was true excitment :) and then I fell to the ground pouring water over and over my head, hey I even got a finishers medal, how cool!! then minutes later, there was chearing again, what? I wasn't the last one? They annouced here comes our final finisher!!! NO WAY?! I looked to my mom and exclaimed, I WASN"T THE LAST ONE!! and she smiled, and then the final guy crossed, yup thats right, I finished in total time 8 minutes ahead of the final finsher!! yay!!!!

We finished watching everyone finish and then we got to each breakfast!! mmmm pancakes :) in the line a guy said great job out there to me, I was like.. huh, thanks, he was like, thats amazing, and he said he had passed me on the run etc.. i was like yeah.. and it was just neat to hear someone compliment me on my tri, even though I know I didn't feel that great. but it was cool, and the other newat thing was there was a lady who said I had awesome biking form! I passed her, she was telling my dad how I zoomed by, LOL. I guess its good to hear these things soemtimmes :) I had so much fun, even though I didn't feel the greatest. I even got a certificate and a polo shirt for finishing, tehy went out of their way to do amazing things for us.

And I even posted one of my best times yet! 1:51:46. how? I dunno only by God's strength. There are a few things however that I needed to jot down :)

Reminders! - WEAR SOCKS ON THE RUN! - Don't try out new things, like a new watch, get used to it first :)

The woman who starts the race is not the same woman who finishes the race.

2007-07-18T08:50:00.000-05:00

This is Danskin's motto so to speak, at least for their tri's :) The woman who starts the race is not the same woman who finishes the race, and it has been true for me every Danskin race and every triathlon that I have raced for that factor I have found something new inside of me, realized something new, figured something new out, realized how amazing God is while running or realized how lucky I am to be able to run.

But this post is not about me, one of my friends, if you have been reading my blog, was diagnoised with Cancer, a while ago, and Amber and I both did our Danskin race in honor of her, because she couldn't be there, even though I know she would have loved to be, she wasn't able to.

However, today is her last day of Chemo before she takes a trip to Mayo to get some test results and Amber and I were trying to think of ways to encourage her, and support her in her journey, and Amber came up with the most amazing idea ever!!!

A - Do you think Danskin would send us a finishers medal for Brittney?
L - I dunno but it couldn't hurt to ask, what's the worst thing they could say, no?
A - Yeah, I should send an email, but it would have to get here by Wednesday (it was already Sunday night)
L - Yeah but try it!

So we looked up two addresses on Danskin's website, and we sent it to both, a PR address and a Triathlon website, and on Monday, Amber got a response back! WHAT???

Danskin - we would lOVE to send you a finishers medal and shirt!! - we will fedex it!

WHAT?!?!??! unbelivable!! Not only were they sending us a medal but also a shirt, how sweet, and then we got the package, and we not only got a shirt, and a medal, but they also sent a swim cap!! and a 2007 Danskin Program!! and a In honor of Bib Number thingy!!! HOW AMAZING!!! again I cannot express in words how Danskin rocks my socks off!!!

Although Brittney has not raced a Danskin Triathlon she has raced her own race against cancer, and no matter what, she too is not the same women who started the race! Brittney's charachter and love and patience and determination with everything that she has gone thru has been an amazing thing to watch. Her passion to continue to reach out even if she doesn't feel well still amazes me, and she is an amazing child of God who shows her love to numerous people around her, It is totally my honor and Amber's honor and I am sure Danskin's to give her a Finisher's medal, even though she might not of been able to be there to race with us, she was most defintily there with us in heart! and I am proud to race for her.

Danskin Pics!!!

2007-07-18T08:36:00.000-05:00

I actually like most of my Danskin pics! :) well except for my swim, I like the pic.. except for the fact that my arm is in front of my face :)

Pics for you to enjoy...

Danskin Cont...

2007-07-11T13:54:00.000-05:00

Okay :) So on Sunday Morning I got up around 4:00 AM, changed into my tri outfit for the day, and tried not to wake the others up around me in the room, I like to have a a little me time before the big day! I am such a person who needs their own time by themselves to be sane.

So then around 4:20 or so Amber got up and started getting ready, and then after I packed all my stuff, and started making oatmeal I woke my mom up around 4:40 I wanted to let my parents sleep in as late as possible. As I sat and ate my oatmeal I thought of all my I am statements and visulized the rest of the day, I wasn't to nervous just excited to get started!

We were all packed up and ready to go around 5:00 as we headed to the tri site, traffic was slow but most of the roads for the triathlon had already been closed. My dad thankfully dropped us off as close as possible, which was a great location! Thanks Dad! We walked in to the transition area with our gear in preperation for setting up our stuff and getting ready for teh race..

The transition area was a DISASTER!!! Okay. so in a transition area, you have racks and on every rack there is a two posts or rather legs every so often, you are only supposed to put 7-8 bikes per rack. But on our racks, because we got some premo bike parking earlier on Saturday everyone else tried to do so as well, my rack had 13 bikes or more!! Craziness! becuase in order to run a tri you need to set your gear down, and what you do is you lay down a small towel, like a hand towel and set all your gear on it, so that means there should be that much space in between each bike.. HAH!! Not even close, I was wondering how any bikes were even going to get out of the transition area let alone set up gear, there were bikes hitting chains, handle bars running into spokes.. oooh it looked YUCKY!!

But on the plus side, since we got there early.. no one was tehre form our waves yet, so we set up our gear, and found out a girl who had parked her bike on the wrong rack moved it, so Amber took her spot and moved her bike to a much much better location, at least she would be able to get out!

We set up gear, and then took turns taking our bikes out for a spin to make sure everything was working right, everything looked good, everything was functioning including ourselves :) and all was a go! We came back and chilled in the transition area for some time, thinking thru our game plans and getting ready :) Some people came and had the same view of the transition area as I did.. YUCK! some people moved their bikes, some people set up transition on the grass.. it was crazzzy! but I was happy because i knew that we had good transition areas set up, and were set :)

One of the things that I really wanted to do for this tri was to honor a friend who I asked earlier in the year to do a triathlon, and she really wanted to and it turned out stuff came up and she couldn't train for it. So as we were sitting in transition several people were marking their bodys up with in honor of or in memory of, I wanted to do this to honor her as well, so I asked Amber if she would be in, we borrowed a marker, and Wrote, on our shoulder for all to see, IN Honor of Britt! I wanted to do this not just for me, but for someone who coudln't but i know she would be here if she could. Even if she couldn't run it for her self, she would be with us throught the race :) which I thought was soo cool!

At 6:50 or so they kicked us out of transition area and started to close it down and we made our way to the swim area. Which was about a 1/2 mile away. There were thousand of women and some fans walking the path to the beach. we watched the first waves go off and found a great spot under a shaded tree.. it was HOT HOT HOT...

When we stepped out of the car at 5:15 or so, it was already 79 degrees.. yuck!!! It was only getting hotter. I was alittel worried about the heat but was trying not to think about it. Our waves were scheduled to start around 8:30 or so, so we hung around and talked, and chatted with a few other triathletes, some veterans, some first timers.

Around 8:00 or so I got into the water... OOOOOOH it was cooooold... but it felt goood to be out of the heat, I took a short swim, still a ltitel worried about my breathing, I still have this cough, and it doesn't work so well with breathing under water with my normal breathing, it was probably going to be an issue, but i still felt i would be okay just taking more breathing breaks.

Shortly after that we lined up! oooh now this is when I start to get a ltitle nervous! Amber was a wave behind me, but we chatted for a bit before we got seperated, and off to the water I went! oooh it still felt good since it was HOT out, I was ready, they were giving final instructions, encouragement, and the all important word for the day!! Our word for the day was SIZZZLING!!! I had to laugh, becuase I would definitly be sizzling by the end of the day, what a great word for a hot day.

Shortly after the prep, they sent us on our way, okay I waited a few seconds, letting a few go, and then I went, I don't like to get kicked, even though I am a strong swimmer, it's just kind of nicer to let a few get out of your way before you go. I remember the girl who i lined up with mentioning she was a strong swimmer so all was well :) As we began swimming, I tried to stay with my normal 5 - 6 strokes, but breathing was not the best, so I had to go down to 3-4, and some times 2, which I am sure added to my time, but it's okay I knew that it was going to be an issue. I kept swimming, all was well I was swimming just slightly to the left of the right bouy, which was perfect, and it meant I wasn't swimming more than the distance I needed to swim.

At some point I came close to a dock and there were lifegards flailing fun noodles, like their octopus wings or something :) They were hadning them out over half way thru the swim to anyone who wanted them and of course they were also cheering us on. I continuted to swim, checking my watch occasionally to see the time, I was doing okay. and soon enough I came to the person who I started the race with, I was like sweet! I was passing other color caps which is always good, as long as your not getting passed by other color caps. I could see the shore in my sights, it was not far off.

My arms sort of started to hurt a ltitle bit, but i kept thinking I don't need them for any other part of the triathlon they will be fine, keep going!!! I finally made it to the sand and ran up it to transition :) - Once again, do not count my parents for pictures :)

Then in transition I quickly washed off my feet from the sand, thru on my shoes, and off I went, transition time one was pretty fast all was well, and then.... the heat oooh it started to hit me, I was drying off to quickly, I was getting hot hot hot, but I was still biking. I made it up the first small hill down the next turned the coner off I went, the goal to stay above 15 at all times, which didn't seem to be to big of a problem, except on hills, most of the time I was cruising around 26 or so... it was great, a few pwople were passing me but I was passing more, on Mile 2 they had a mile marker, and it said mile 2, For those who can't, the only other mile marker I remember reading was mile 10 and it said Mile 2, bye bye monkeys.

I was just oging by the others to fast to read them, or rmemeber them I guess, I was passing people all was well. Until... I hit mile 6 or 7.. and the WIND!! The wind was around 16 -20 mph that day and now we were facing a dead on head wind.. and going up a hill EEEEK!!! thankfully I was able to keep my speed above 10 and most of the tmie above 12 but the wind defintily slowed me down. Around mile 8 there was a cop speed thingy, you know one of those things that shows you your speed they still had it up, and at that time I happened to be going 15 MPH according to that sign :) quite accurate with my cyclometer :)

I don't remember much of the other miles except pouring lots and lots of water over my head and it was water that wasn't even that cold, I froze it the night before but it had unthaughed and heated up since I got to the race, it was sometimes cold sometimes warm, but kept me cooler, i had to get cooled down.. I don't do good in heat. i think it's in my genes, my mom never did very well with heat, nor did my grandma.

When we hit the entry way to the park I had less than a mile left, but was cruzing good, smiled at the crowed, enjoyed my race, listened for my mom to yell GO LeSLIE! :) as she always does :) when i stopped my bike, and started walking I almost fell my legs wern't working quite right but I knew I would get them back soon! :)

I went into transition and changed shoes, put on socks, grabbed my visor, and off I went.. Last year there was a water station before you hit mile 1, I was expecting it, I thought I could run until then, I started running, and I was soo hot, I wanted to vomit! But I kept going, running and then some walking, passing a few, while being passed by a lot but kept going. When we got to where I thought there would be water.. there was no watter :(!!!! WHERE IS THE WATER?!?!?

Then a volunteer came by and said the water is just up ahead, oh brother! Off to running and walking again I went, mostly walking by this time, I was just to hot, and I wanted to finish, When we hit the water... ooooh heaven!!! the firefighters had sprung to open the fire hydrants and sprayed ice cold water on us, hte jelly belly people handed out sport beans, and the spraying continuted!!! oooh thank you!!

I ran pretty much the entire rest of the way, I was cooled off enough now that my body was like okay.. cool you can run now, no problem! and off I went. It was great, and now I only had a mile left. As I came up to the finish line there were so many people who gave me high fives and said you go girl.

As I crossed the finish line I had a huge smile and a sense of accomplishment, I even heard them announce my name and then awarded my medal, and then... I kind of felt like I was going to pass out, so I got kind of dizzy so the firefighters had me sit down in their little medical tent, and take my pulse, as they slapped a cold towel on my back, ohhhh it felt so great! I slowly regained my mental status, of ohh yeah.. I was just way to overheated, and probably pushed alittle more the last mile than I should have, but I wanted to finish in a certain time and new it was coming close.

My mom came in to check on me but soon enough I was good to go, and I waited for Amber to cross. The day was a success.. my swim time was 15:24 with a ranking of 674 out of 3939 which is awesome, I am totally okay with that! :) the swim was also really wavy because of the wind, so I'll take it!

My bike time was 45:10 with a bike rank of 1144 and i'll take that too! :) I was cruising on my bike, I really like biking, and I am offically started a new bike fund, yes my 5 dollar garage sale bike has done me well, but to get much faster, I am gonna have to get a newer bike and I am oaky with that, but I'll be saving for a while :)

My run time was 46:50 with a ranking of 3361 yuck! Ehh okay so it could have been better, but I guess considering my health, and that I don't do well in heat, and I am very lucky that I can run at all.. I'll take that :) I am happy to finish, but I also know that running is something that I will be working on a LOOOOOT! in the next months to come, maybe I will come to like it more, currently, I am not such a fan, but I know that I used to really like it :) I think that was before i hurt my knee, so we'll see what happens.

so overall I finished 2060/3939 I am totally cool with that!!! :) I finished in 1:53:20 I am okay wtih that too!! :) I had a lot of fun, and can't wait to do another, I only wished that I had more planned, but I am pretty sure I am looking for one to do in late august or september, so we'll see where that goes. :)

Danskin Triathlon!

2007-07-10T10:06:00.001-05:00

Oh how I love thee! the Danskin was this past weekend and the Danskin triathlon rocks my socks off! :) This is where I fell in love with triathlon's this is what got my heart into it, this is what made me want to do more, to accomplish more, and this weekend it once again touched my heart and made me want to come back and achieve more than I ever have.

The Danskin is an all women's event and the proceeds of this event go to support Breast Cancer. The Danskin is the greatest and far best begginers triathlon for any female! It's SOOOO worth the drive and it's such an amazing event.

This year I got to take my friend Amber with me to do her first triathlon, and I was excited to introduce another friend to the sport :)

I am going to break these posts up into a few different ones because there is just sooo much to tell ya! :)

We left on Friday afternoon, we meet my parents in Waterloo, THANK YOU AGAIN AND AGAIN mom and dad for coming with! you are the greatest!! and I was very thankful my mom got to come as well. We spent most of Friday making our way up to Kenosha WI, definitly taking the senic route, but enjoying the day, having a fun time as we drove. We stopped in Galena IL on our way up to do some sight seeing and walk around the town, my mom really wanted to enjoy some history, and it was a fun stop :) Amber enjoyed guessing what each building was before we walked into it, we found a couple shops, one old theather that had been turned into a craft store, and then another old bank that had been turned into a quilting store, the old bank even had the vault still in it, it was kind of fun to see :)

We also stopped at a couple other places along the way, including a few farmers markets for fresh fruits and veggies, and amazing dried beef, and mmm delicious pickles! I basically slepped the entire trip in the back seat and awoke only when we stopped, otherwise I get kind of car sick, but I was okay.

By 9:00 we made it to Kenosha!! :) yay!! We pulled up to the hotel that I had made soem reservations at and then cancelled some becuause I had made them way back in January and thought that there might be a few more people coming with us, but when we got inside, the hotel didn't cancel them, I had to laugh, they weren't having a very good night at the hotel, and so they fixed our room and sent us on our way, but then when we got to our room we discovered it was the wrong room! So back to the front desk we went, and had to get it straigthend out but eventually we did so, and all was well :) I guess it was a good thing they forgot to cancel my second room otherwise we would have the wrong room anyway :) After supper we went out to eat at Cracker Barrel which wasn't to far from our hotel, it was pretty good.

We came back to the hotel and everyone crashed except me, I went to the hot tub for a while to relax and vizulize my tri goals for the week. One of my books that I read said it was a really good thing to do, and that even if you don't belive it, it's still a good thing to do, as saying I am statements, makes you believe it or something I dunno, So I try to come up with an I am statement for each part of the triathlon. It worked great for the subaru, so why not give it another tri!

Then I headed up and back to bed! On saturday we didn't even have to get up to early, how wonderful! We got up around 9 went down and had breakfast, and then headed off to rack our bikes and pick up our registration materials :)

We arrived at the Expo around 10:00 Perfect timing! We quickly got into lines to get our bikes checked out by the bike experts, they are great!! Another reason why Danskin rocks my socks off! they have free bike experts that make sure everything is working right, and all your stuff looks good and such, I had a break that wasn't working quite right, and the guy fixed it perfectly, it looks sooo nice now!! THANKS REI!!! :) I think Amber had a back wheel that needed a new bearing so that it would roll straight and she got that fixed too.. :) REI is amazing once again :)

Then we went in and I picked up my registration packet :) I was in wave number 24 and I had a red swim cap! Amber was in wave number 25 and had a pick swim cap. However, that also meant that we would not be hitting the water till 8:28 and 8:32 and that was if everything was on time! EEK!

After we got our packets we sat down and listened to the course talk, which talked about the course, the guy prepared us telling us that it was supposed to be the hottest day of the year, with high winds! OOOH JOY! They were really worried about people getting heat exhaustion and heat stroke, adn I even started to worry, as I knew that I didn't do good in the heat... yuck! and the winds worried me on the bike as well. They also informed us that there was no shade on the run or the bike course! YUCK! but it was good to be informed.

After the course talk, Sally Edwards, who has won several iron mans and is the Danskin official spokesperson got up and gave us the first timers talk! :) I heard it last year, but I wanted Amber tohear it this year, it's a great talk, and I think this is another great thing about Danskin, this is one thing they really do to prepare you, get you pumped up and get ready to go, they prepare you to succeed!

Sally Edwards, started by having us all stand up :) And gave us the speach :) "Since this is an all women's triathlon we and we are WOMEN! we do things DIFFERENTLY!! we will build each other up! and have fun, and because we do things differently, we have a cheer, I want you to turn to each other and give a double high five and say YOU GO GIRLFRIEND!!" and then everyone does it, it still makes me smile, seeing hundreds of women united encouraging one another. :) Then, she says "and tommrow you will have a special word, (she turns to this other girl and says what is there speacial word and she comes back with FENOMINAL) okay.. The head angel says your word is FENOMINAL! So let's practice you put your arms up liek your swimming and say I AM A FENOMINAL SWIMMER!! then I AM A FENOMINAL BIKER!! then I AM A FENOMINAL RUNNER!! then I AM A FENOMINAL TRIATHLETE!!" then we all sit down :) every wave gets there own little word but ti reminds me of my vizulization techinicque :) I am..

Then she goes on to talk about what to expect, they talk about the swim angels, they talk about the bike, they talk about transition, she talks about things that can save you time, things that every beginner needs to know, and she talks about the most important thing... "Are you worried about being last?" You can't be!! Sally is last!! that's right, So they practice Sally going out and getting the final finisher :) and then they send us on our way :)

Amber and I then went and picked up our goodie bags :) Lots of good stuff of course, our free t-shirts and all sorts of other goodies from their sponsors. After all of that, we then had rack our bikes, which the bike racks were VERY crowded but we found some okay spots, by the bike out which was a good spot to be in, and it was easy to find, right behind the port o pottys! :) and then we got body marked as well.

After we racked our bikes we drove the bike course so we could see the hills and know where we were turning and such, even though they have plenty of volunteers on the course, it's really nice to know when your going to have to climb a hill and such. On the way back to the end of the bike was the Jelly Belly Factory, and we made a pitt stop, we ended up going in for a tour :) we even got free Jelly Belly's mmmm

My dad however suggested that we NOT make the pittstop during the race :) It was fairly close to the end of the route. I guess it would be one way to remember you were almost there :)

Then we went to supper and then to the grocery store for some breakfast items. My dad however pushed a cart into a cart bin, and a gentleman at the store, seemed to be very upset by this, he came running at our car, and then started SCREAMING at my dad who just rolled up his window and as we went to drive off, the guy stood infront of our car, so we couldn't get past him, It was kind of weird, but also scary! so then we started backing up, and then cars were coming into the parking lot so we couldn't back up and as we backed up the guy backed up with us.. freeky! Then we finally backed up just enough to make a sharp turn, ny dad pulls a quick U and jets out, whew! the guy was seriously angered by the cart! And then mom says, can't your dad do anything without getting into trouble, and I just had to laugh.

We went back to the hotel around 6, and Amber and I went to the pool for a little bit, so I could teach her how to put on a swim cap :) And then I think I went to bed around 7 or so, after all I had to get up at 4! :) My mom joined me by going to bed around the same time, both her and I could almost sleep anytime any where! :)

Subaru Triathalon Pics!

2007-07-10T09:46:00.001-05:00

As promised :) some pics from the Subaru triathlon :)

Still reflecting back, especially after runing the danskin this weekend, the Subaru tempature was perfect! I thought it was hot, but no it was perfect, cloudy sky's, mid 70's BEAUTIFUL and slightly windy. :)

Subaru Women's Triathlon!

2007-06-27T12:03:00.000-05:00

Last weekend I competed in the Subaru Women's Triathalon Series, held in Naperville IL. It was a BLAST as ususal :) some greats and some downs but overall way fun!!

My parents who are my biggest fans and always loyal supporters journeyed accross the state to just to help me get to my tri and watch me run my second tri! Thanks Mom and Dad!!

On Friday night we all meet out at Heather's for supper and chillin with my nephew for a while before we decided to try and load up my stuff and head out. If you don't remember Friday night it stormed ALLL night and we ended up loading my bike on the back of my parents van in pouring down rain, but my dad was in great spirits and didn't even complain to much. He just said "couldn't you have picked better weather kid?" but he was a good spirit to have around.

After loading up various gear in the pouring down rain we headed towards Davenport and Naperville IL. However with the rain it made driving conditions not so great, slower than normal travel, and a car ride that seemed to go on for forever!!! My mom had decided to take this weird route to Naperville which included taking us thru a senic route down hwy 92 thru moline while we were looking for a hotel, which again seemed to never happen.

We eventually made it to Geneseo, IL. As were pulling into town my dad goes "So help me if there is a God there will be a Super 8 in this town" I laughed, but the whole time we were in the car I was praying for a hotel, some place safe and just perfect for us, and sure enough we turned the coner and there it stood, a super 8 the light in the distance, by this time, it was almost midnight, as we didn't even leave Iowa City until close till 10 because of rain and such, as we pulled up into the drive way it looked awfully full, I was still praying there would be a room. and sure enough, God provided for us, the perfect spot! There was only one room left in the entire hotel, and we just got it!! Thanks God!! It was perfect, one king sized bed and a pull out couch, ohh how great it was to be out of the rain in a room to sleep.

We left early saturday morning around 8ish, and headed off to Naperville, it was STILL RAINING!! I kept thinking are you kidding me? It's still raining, oh brother! We eventually made it to Naperville and found the triathlon Multi Sport Expo event with out to much trouble, but again, the expo was OUTSIDE and it was STILL raining!!

But none the less, I got out, and picked up my packet, and then went on to pick up my goodie bag and my tank top. I also experienced my favorite part of the triathlon experience, the EXPO, where you get all sorts of good free goodies!! We got all sorts of freebies at this expo, including luna bars, waterbottles, race belts, magnets, chip clips, lip balm, all sorts of good stuff!

On Sunday the morning started off early getting up at 4 AM, to make it down to the transition area before it closed at 6:45. I got to the transition area around 5:30 after slurping down some oatmeal in the hotel room that I didnt' have a spoon for, and laoding up all my gear and other stuff into the van. At the transition site, I wasn't to nervous, At this triatlon you had to rack your bike according to wave number, thankfully for getting up early I found a SWEET spot to rack my bike on the end of a rack right next to the run out, unfornitually it was a jog to the bike start, and yes you have to walk your bike to the bike start, but it was also next to the place where we ran in from the swim, so all and all, it was a pretty good location to be in!

I was reviewing my goals for this triathlon in my head setting up my gear, I mainly had three goals, to beat my previous time, to have better transitions times than the last tri I did, and to have fun! After setting up and walking to where we come in for the swim, I wasn't so sure that the transition time was going to be beat, I was going to have to be pretty fast transitioning on the first transition to beat it becuase it was a good .1 to .2 mile jog from the swim to the transition area.. way farther than the last triathlon I did.

Anyway, so I set up my gear, laid everything out perfectly, had a game plan in my head, was ready to go.. I meet some girls in the transition that were next to me in my wave, that set their bikes up next to mine, we chatted about various things for quite sometime before we had to head off to the swim area and the transition area was closed. Before the transtion area closed, we all laughed as we lubed up with body glide, man that stuff is amazzzzing!! It keeps you from chaffing or having your suit rub the wrong way, etc, especially since it's what you will be wearing the rest of the day.

At 7:00AM we were sitting on the beach talking, I was talking to a girl from Chicago who is currently getting her PhD, it was pretty cool, it was her first triathlon, all was going well, we were both in wave number 25 so our race wouldnt' start until 8:36! I took a quick warm up swim before things got underway, which lead my watch to dieing!! Oh NO!! Thankfully I had another one in the car if I could only find my parents. Shortly after I found my dad, who ran back to the car for me and got my other watch, thanks again dad! Whew okay back to chilling, so we finally get called to line up, I am towards the front of the line which is good since i am a fairly strong swimmer.

The horn goes off and we are offically off!! The swim, was offically a mess!! You had to swim a W pattern, which lead to being 6 lengths of this pool, however at the shallow end of the pool you almost couldn't swim and had to run around the buoys just to get around them, therefore never getting a great swim in before you had to switch directions or get up and run.. The other bad part of this swim, was the lanes weren't wide enough, I felt like i kept hitting people ahead of me that were to slow, but were staying close to the lane line to be able to hold on to it when needed or running into other waves ahead of me that were just slower and it was pretty frustrating swim, but I made it thru, I looked at my watch halfway thru it said 6 minutes, I thought, ahh I got plenty of time, I kept swimming, but my watch stayed at 6 minutes, it died too!! I got out of the swim, not sure how my swim time was but went on jogging up the small hill and down the long run to the transition area.

I got out of transition to be what I thought was a fairly decent speed, and off on to the bike, my motto during hte bike was start strong, finish strong, and my goal was to keep my MPH above 15. I needed to be 15 or more to beat my previous bike time. The bike was a two lap course, it wasn't to bad on the first lap but by the time I got out to the second loop the wind had picked up, and my second lap time surely had to been a little slower, but I was still passing people. On the first lap I passed the girl who i had been sitting with on the beach who I knew was a strong swimmer, but it felt good to pass someone who I knew I started with. As I passed, I cheered others on, saying good job, keep it up, not that much farther, and remembered to thank all those volunteers who got up super early on a weekend so that I could have a race.

I saw my mom on the first and the second lap.. My parents who most definitly are my biggest fans are definitly NOT good photographers! I saw my dad on the second lap coming in.. I kept yelling dad dad dad to get his attention, he missed the photo on the bike as I zoomed by him, I had to laugh, I saw my mom sitting on the coner where I turned and as I was having fun, I said hey mom :) Pulling into transtion, I had no idea how my times were, but was determined to get out there and finish it up.

I had driven the run course and I didn't think it looked to hilly but it had some slow inclines that I wasn't quite ready for. But I pushed thru, deteremed to run when I could and walk when I couldn't, I walked thru all the water breaks pouring water down my back to cool me off, and they had volunteers on the race course yelling out your name and Go! you can do it! I heard several people yell keep it up Leslie (we had our names on our numbers, pretty cool), it made me want to keep going. They were great!

By the time I hit mile two the same girl I sat with on the beach and passed on the bike, came back to run with me for a while on the run, she actually came along side and said want to run together for a while, I said sure, running with her for a while, which was cool, till she got a little faster and took off :) but all was well. I was deteremened to run the last mile of the race, where all the fans where, and I accomplished that! I saw my dad, who totally again missed the photo, but I laughed as I talked to them running by them, then my mom tried to get another photo as we ran thru the park, and I just had to laugh, as I came up, I said.. hey mom the camera is still off! the volunteer next to her laughed as well and I continued on.

The finish line was approaching and all these people were going your almost there, way to go Leslie, yay Leslie, it was such a cool experience, as I crossed the finish line I heard the event speaker say and here is Leslie Stodden from North Liberty Iowa. how cool is that!! They handed up a towel that had been drenched in ice water, thank you!! and then we got a medal! yay!! I had finished, no idea on my time, but thought i did an okay day. I then went to the medical tent and asked for some ice, my knee was on fire!!

The last mile was run on brick and it's kind of uneven, it made my knee burn! but after a little icing it was all good. I came out of the event with ice wrapped on me, my mom was like.. oh my are you okay? I was like yeah I am good! We finihsed the day with some relax at the post party! and some free stretching provided by a physical therapy place, they were heaven sent!

Before we left town I went on to check my times, I was plesently surprised, I beat my previous tri time by more than 16 minutes!! and this was a LONGER course!!

My swim time wasn't horrible, 14:02, my transition 1 time was faster than my previous one!! :) 4:39, my bike was 48:38 my second transition was faster too!! 2:30 and my run time, the most impressive improvement, i cut off almost 7 minutes!! it was 43:12 Which means I completed this tri in 1 hour 52 minutes and 59 seconds! :)

So I cut off a
1:40 on the swim
:32 on the first transition
4:10 on the bike
2:28 on the second transition
7:22 on the run!!

Which means it was a great race day, all my goals accomplished!!! I can't wait for race day next weekend, here we go Danskin!!

p.s. I'll post some more pictures when the actual race photos get on the web! :)

ITU World Cup!!

2007-06-22T10:04:00.000-05:00

Amber and I went to the ITU world cup last weekend.. Oh me oh my... what a great race!

If you weren't there you missed one of the most historic events ever to happen in the History in Triathalons, and you also missed the LARGEST every prize purse given out in triathlon history.. and you missed an amazing kick arse race!!

Amber and I went to Des Moines on Saturday, we got there in time to see the Junior Elite Championship.. WOW, kids under the ages of 15 doing an amazing triathalon! It was a great race to watch, and fun, we also got to spend some time going to the expo that was put on next to the finish line, I think expos are one of my favorite things to go to at a triathalon becuase you get lots of free goodies! We got free tea, deoderant, sport beans and more!! :)

On Sunday in the morning they had the Amuteur race that was sanciontined by USAT. It was a good race to watch as well. I was like in bike heaven as I saw bikes that cost up into the thousands roll out onto the race course! WHEW!! Those were some sweeeeet bikes!! I also got to see short time transitions some as short as 30 seconds.. that is some fast transition! USAT and ITU are two different monsters, USAT is what governs all usa triathlons and you usually hae to be a member or buy a membership one day pass to do a race, they have different rules than ITU. In USAT you can't draft in the Bike, you can get up to a 2 minute penalty per occurance for it, but in ITU drafting is encouraged. ITU also is the govering body for the triathlon for the olympics.

Anyway, back to Sunday, the ITU womens race began at 1:30 by then it was HOT, 94degrees!!! and 54% humidity, 42 women would start the race, but not all would finish. it was a sweet race to watch start, in ITU's they dive from a dock, the swim is increadbly fast, they have to swim just under a mile, but they do it in two laps, and most of these women swim the mile in under 20 minutes. Then it's on to the bike. Which lead them downtown to the old capital they then have to do 6 laps on the bike, it was pretty sweet to watch, never in history had so many american's been in the front of the pack, I believe at this time there was about 5 in the front 10, again SWEET!! The American's Bennet, & Zieger were right at the top as well as Sarah Haskins, Sara Mclarty, and Julie Swail.

Bennet took the lead on the run and into the first lap there was a pack of three leading in the run, Bennet was in there, along with Luxford, from Aus, and Sweetland. They stayed all in the pack of three until the last lap, coming up the hill.. there was just one!! Who would it be.. but LAURA BENNET!! Sweetland had totally dropped out of hte race from exhaustion along with 16 other women from the day, Luxford came shorty after bennet with only a 14 second difference, but the most amazing one was the third place, Ohata, from Brazil, who had worked her way from FAR back in the bike to THIRD in the run, an amazing runner!! Ohata had the fastest run split of any of them by almost 2 minutes!!

Sara Haskins from the USA came in 4th.. sweetness!!! and Swail came in with a 14th place finish :) Zieger who was at the lead and strong on the bike never made it thru the finish line.. The heat was HOT!! the course hard!! and some amazing women out there, it was a great day to be watching a triathalon and USA Take the WORLD CUP in the US!!! it was a sweet victory.

Laura Bennet swam just under a mile in 19 minutes and then biked 25 miles in just over an hour and then ran a 10K in 38 minutes to become to next WORLD CUP CHAMPION! pretty impressive in my book. That day definitly made me want to get out there and run a triathalon asap!

Birthday Extravaganza!

2007-06-22T09:15:00.001-05:00

I know this is kind of late, but I just have to post about it! :)

Once again I was reminded this year, how important my family really is to me, and how amazing my life group peeps are to me! :) This year I decided to head home for some time away and to spend some quality time with my family on my birthday and it happened to work great!

I haven't been home for a year and was excited to see the progress my parents were making on their new addition to their house, It was pretty cool to see, however I had to point out that the green color my mom had picked out for one of the rooms just HAD TO GO!! So because I said it had to go, I spent my birthday morning painting :) Which was fine by me, I really enjoyed being at home, surrounded by peice and quiet and remembering home just how I left it. I was happy to be able to serve my mom as she has served me so many times.

On Tuesday my mom took me to Sanborn Iowa inwhich we got to pick FRESH strawberries!!! Oh my they were amazing! As you pick you can eat as much as you want.. mmm yummy! We took away 6 flats of strawberries to bring back to family and friends! All part of my birthday present from my mom and it was a great one!! I loved every minute of picking hte strawberries and having fun in the sun.

While we were finishing eating breakfast we got an intresting call, it was from a flowershop in Marcus, saying they had a delivery for me.. Because of where we were and I was heading back to Iowa city that day, We decided to drive over and pick them up, however on the way over, my mom and I were both puzzled as to who sent me flowers.. and why Marcus? Don't people know that I live in Cherokee, It was a very puzzling but fun ride to Marcus. When I got the flowers, they were BEAUTIFUL!!! They were from my life group (THANKS GIRLS!!!)

After we got home, I packed up and headed home, on Wednesday night the girls suprised me with another b-day surprise at Life group, Which was again, beyond amazing and awesome!! I can't tell you how much these girls mean to me, or how much they showed their love and caring hearts!! THANK YOU!!!

We meet up at subway and ate there, (thanks for the healthy choice) and then we went and played Frisbee Golf!! One of my favs!! (Thanks again for throwing some activity in, I loved every minute!!!!) It was fun watching everyone play and some of our frisbee's going into the woods, but a great time.

Then we headed back to town to get our cars, I thought all our fun was over and Amber Tianna and I were chilling in her car on the way to get her gas.. Our night was just begining.. Tianna just got a new used car for her that just had gotten a repair on her fuel tank or such. So as were sitting at caseys's she is filling up and I swear it sounds like gas is POURING out onto the ground, but she is sitting talking in the car with us.. and a few seconds later i hear.. WHAT?!?! As i open my door and take a step out, Gas, everywhere!!! 5 gallons of gas spilled all over casey's cement... rut roh!

We move the car and she goes in to tell the gas attendend.. she is taking a littel longer than we thought she should so we go in to check it out, I guess they have to call the Fire Department.. so soon enough were standing outside and we hear the fire truck sirens, lights, you name it! In the mean time I am thinking I should text dana and tell her what is happening. So I eventually get to my phone and send her a text message... our converstaion goes something like this..

Me: Hey Guess what is happening?
Dana: what?
Me: Were at Casey's with the fire trucks, gas all over the ground
Dana: Oh NO!! are you okay?

So a pause, I am thinking.. sure, but in the background Amber says say NO say NO!! and I am like.. hhmmm so then I type no, then she says say we got gas all over our legs and they had to spray us off! and Tianna in the background is saying, no no, say No, we got gass all over us, and they made us strip and hose us off, and then just send JK.

By this time I am laughing so hard i am like.. guys I dunnoo..but pushed by peer pressure I cave! :)

Me: No! We got gas all ove us and they had to spray us off!!
Me: JK
Dana: That joke was great!
Me: They made me do it!
Dana: I keep picturing you 3 with your skivies on and them spraying you off and you all giggling.

oh Priceless!! Definitly a B-day to remember, thanks again girls!!!

Day 4 - Yes it's really FRIDAY!!!

2007-06-08T23:49:00.000-05:00

YYEEEEAAHHH!!!!

It really is friday, and thank goodness!! Last night workout was just as hard as the rest, but it was worth it.. My back, shoulder hurts today, I think a rib might be out of alightment but other than that I feel pretty good.. My calves are finally starting to stop hurting :) And my overall body just slightly aches.. not to bad, especially after lifting weights for 2 hours last night :)

Last inght was the final night of class.. out of 25 that started the class only 11 finished!! WOW.. who knew when we started the class that less than half would finish the class, I thought it was kind of crazy but I am very happy and proud to have made a goal and completed it, even if I would never teach a class, I learned so much in just 4 days.. and I learend that I can push my self to places I thought I would never go.

I don't know however if I could survive another week.. maybe mentally :) becuase I refuse to say I can't.. but I dunno it was getting down there, there were times last night when I seriously wanted to cry, but refused to give up. I was thankful that both instructors were there and one was always helping us get a break!!! Thank you thank you!!

I am also thankful for the opportunity to meet knew people and figure out new ways to push past my comfort zone, to take a step out there, to say hello, to ask what their name is, to say my name is, to ask their intrest, and find out a little baout a person, I am excited to see where God is going to lead me in this. Who knows? :)

I am also thankful for all the friends who brought me this far! Who have always encouraged me, kept me going and supported me along the way, I don't think I coul dhave done it wihtout you!

So even with a migraine for two days I still made it thru 4 days of class.. I figure if I can make it thru a 2 hour intense class not feeling so great, I can also at least make it to the gym and try the workout before I say.. eh I don't feel like it today.. If i only worked out on the days i felt like working out, I think I would only work out 10% of the time.. but I do have to admit.. I still love working out.. But I love also being pushed during a workout, passed where I ever thought I could go physically so I have to use my mental and spiritual self, so maybe I'll have to find another thing to push me to a nother limit exercise wise! WOOOT!!

Day #3

2007-06-07T12:11:00.000-05:00

Is it friday yet??? Okay seriously??

Last night, I thought I might die during class, whew what a workout. I have never seen so many people red faced, sweating non stop, wanting to stop, and even the thoughts of vomiting crossing their minds.. yup it even crossed mine! We even had a few people WALK OUT OF CLASS!!

Last night we learned all about kick boxing, our instructor told us at the begining of the class, that the exercise portion of the class would be short and sweet, meaning about an hour and 15 minutes or so.. which I was way excited about, my calves still hurt from the night before.

We learned about the technique of kickboxing, how to properly stand, guard up, kick, throw punches, etc.. which was fun, but man it takes a lot of ab and core work to hold ya there and yes you can get a great workout from it. The kickboxing that was supposed to last 30 minutes quickly turned into about an hour and 10 minutes.. bummer man.. but, it was all good. By the end of the workout, I was ready for a change.

We moved onto bootcamp! WHEW! who knew it could be such a workout! I mean I knew it would be intense, but wow what a whole new level. We lined up the stairs from front of the room to the back, starting with a 3 minute jog all was good, i was like okay.. then we moved onto doing up and downs on the steps.. wowzers, and then lunges on the steps, jumps on the steps, all sorts of crazy things on the steps.. and then.. we did LUNGES down and back in the room.. ooh feel the burn! Then I am thinking okay.. I am still here just make it thru leslie you can do it.. we move on.. and she says okay.. lets do some sprints.. holy tolido.. lets push my self a little more.. were now doing sprints up and down the room.. I really now think I am going to vomit, we then move to suicides.. oh my! Is this pain ever going to end?? We then lined up on the steps again to do pushups, tricep dips, mountain climbers.. someone please end this!!! Then we stand up and she begins to explain what else you cna do.. such as indian runs, and somone says I don't knwo what that is.. EVERYONE in the class JUMPS to explain what it is.. we really don't want to go do it.. but NOPE..

off to the track it is.. to complete the indian run!! Oh my.. An indian run is everyone is jogging in a straight line and then the back person sprints to the front and then the next person in the back sprints to the front.. etc.. We went around the track serveral times before we headed back to the room, for more mountain climbers and jumping jacks, and yes a true bootcamp! Whew!

What a night, I was glad to be walking to my car, talking to a fellow class mate on the way down.. still thinking i might not make it to my car.. but talking about an intense workout! holy tolido!!! I tink I could definitly TEACH bootcamp but I think i might make it a little easier :) I am still way excited about the possiblitly. I think the more I think about it, I like step but I don't know if I really want to teach it.. I don't know if it's really me.. we'll see.. I really would love to teach bootcamp and spinning so we'll see :)

Tonight is the last night and we are learning weights! Hope there is not to much overload! :) And please if your praying continue to pray for lasting relationships from this.

Thanks!!

Class #2

2007-06-06T08:14:00.000-05:00

It's only Wednesday?!?! I am thinking it should be Friday! This week seems to be flying by but it's really not.. or maybe I just really want the weekend to get here as well.

Last night we had class #2. Who knew you could spend the entire two hours of class doing step aerobics! whew! What a workout! I am very thankful for the shape that I am currently in. Had it been a year ago, or two years ago, I think I would have died 30 minutes into step aerobics, but nope, I made it all 2 hours, and at the end, I didn't even think it was that bad, thinking I could have gone more, not to shabby! :)

I am still finding out that cueing is extremely hard but instructors make it look extremly easy! but thankfully I can take all the time I need to learn, Yes after the class I could technically teach, but they suggest we take our time learning lots and then when we are ready to teach to let them know, I am waaaay excited by that factor!

I am meeting lots of students in our class, and getting in fun converstaions that I am praying will hopefully go beyond this class!! yay! Thanks GOD! I meet a girl last night that is currently studying for ACE (which is how you get your personal training certificate) I got to ask her all sorts of questions about it, which got me excited, and she was happy to share.

I also know that I am not great at following up with people or making friends.. I am really bad at this.. but I am really hoping and praying that God will show me how to make it all work and grow me slowly :) I am so thankful that the people in this class are open, fun and funky!!

the best line from last night was "not all of you need to start your class with "ehhh" it's all good it's all good" or funk music :)

Tonight we are learning BOOTCAMP!!! YES!!! I am sooo psyched by this factor, I don't think or know that I could do bootcamp for two hours, but I am way excited to learn bootcamp because it's what I would really like to teach! So hears hoping and praying to another great night at class! :)

Back to school...or working on making my dream become reality

2007-06-05T15:26:00.000-05:00

Maybe it's just that I am getting older and not so much wiser, but this week I decided would be a good week to become wiser or at least get educated in a few things.

Last night was my first night of my Group Fitness Instructor Course. I was a little nervous going into, not quite sure what to expect, not quite sure if we were going to have to workout, or what we were exactly going to do, but it ended up being a fun two hours.

The first hour we ended up sitting around talking, introducing ourselves, and telling everyone why you came why you wanted to be a fitness instructor, which was a fun time, It was a pretty cool enviroment, mostly college students and a few older people such as my self.

The second hour we spent jumping into learning Hi-Lo Aerobics which is basically a mixture of High and Lo intensity aerobics. What basically happened was the instructor would do a step for 8 counts on the beat, then would yell out someones name and say okay how do I switch it up, how Do i add more intensity to this, and they would yell out a new step. This was quite fun, but I did learn that I am going to have to learn to figure out the down beat on music!

So we were getting towards the end and then we split up into two groups and our two groups reminded me of like stepping off almost one group would do one thing and then the other would do somethign else, like oh no, check us out, we can do it! It was pretty fun..

Things that I have to pick up or get the hang of
1) Talking while working out! - Whew, okay so you not only have to be in great shape, you have to be able to continue talking the entire time while you workout and give cues to tell them where your going, like say your going right, then you have to tell them to go left :) or they might just keep going right :)

2) Catching the Downbeat.. or just finding the beat all together, if anyone has good hints of getting the beat of music let me know I think I am going to need help here!

3) Counting in 8's anyone? or 32? I guess that's just how you do it? you count in a set of 32 or 4 sets of 8 and you never let someone do something more than a set of 16.. whew who kenw this was so complicated?

Class number 2 is tonight! :) I am hoping we are going to learn some weight lifting tongiht, I think i could do a little better, I think we are also going to do some step tonight.. that aughta be intresting :)

2 down... 10 to go! :)

2007-06-04T10:06:00.001-05:00

I am once again switching up my diet and exercise for a little bit, to throw my body for a loop :) I am going thru the Body For Life (BFL) program which consists of eating 6 small healthy well balanced meals a day and working out fairly intensly for 6 days of the week. However on day 7 you get to throw out your eating style and your workout and party it up! :)

I am currenlty on week three and it's working!! :) While I was successful to loose weight before BFL I had hit a platue and my body was saying ohh please stop, and I was quite where I was ready to be at, So I was ready to try something new.

I am really enjoying the new workouts, that consist of lifting weights three times a week and a high intensity cardio workout that leaves your heart pounding and you catching your breath for the next few minutes after your workout is done, but it's a great time.

And I have to say that I haven't missed a workout yet! which is the best part, well maybe not the best part, I think the best part, is the scale is moving!!! :)

While it has not all be ups! there have been there moments of ugh's and telling friends and family no thank you many times, and passing up favorites during the week and challenging during BBQ's and meals out and passing up on goodies at work, I've made the commitment and pushed thru. It's so much easier It's only so many days till FREE DAY!! :) I think the next biggest challenge will be this upcoming weekend as I travel.. it should be an intresteing venture! :)

Loser Buys Lunch? :)

2007-05-09T11:26:00.000-05:00

As most of you know by now my Roomate and I are running a Triathalon in only 62 days?!!? Crazziness!! However I am way excited.. Our have you tri'd today program is truely motivating each of us to push further and found each of us doing sit ups and throw downs last night on the lawn after a bike ride, laughing so hard at times we couldn't complete them, but all in great fun. We've pushed each other to new limits in the past 8 days and found working out on a regular basis more successful.

My roomate recently got a nike plus ipod, i've mentioned them before.. this gadget totally rocks my world! and we've used this to increase our running, we currently are running our loser buys lunch challenge consquetvely with our have you tri'd today challenge. However Loser buy's lunch challenge ends today!!! It's a semi close race, and the loser also gets to pick the next challenge which could be many things, so it will be intresting to see what the next weeks challenge will be, I am soo glad there is another person out there I know that has a nike+ It's so much more fun to challenge someone you know!!

Who's it gonna be? :) I am getting nervous!

An Inner Battle and a Conquered Course!

2007-05-06T21:48:00.000-05:00

Today I ran the Ronald McDonald 5K Course, it was an awsome and amazing run and I can't thank God enough for all the things that he gave me today.

I was debating about running today, I hadn't signed up, becuase I wasn't sure if I had trained enough, but on Friday I got to thinking about running, I soo wanted to conquer this course, I wanted to be able to run it all and say that I accomplished it! I wanted to be able to say that I completed my goal, well today I did it! :)

When I got up this morning the weather was perfect! the temp was amazing, not to hot which is what I was worried about, and so I decided that if after church this morning if it was still perfect I would go sign up. I went to sign up at 12:20 or so, and as I am walking to sign up I hear thunder, I am thinking oh boy do I really want to pay to run in a race to run a course that I am not sure I can finish in the rain? I stopped for a few minutes, thinking thru my head, nowing that I had this huge inner battle from last year, and said yup. As I signed up I was excited!!

Soon enough it started to sprinkle, so they decided to start the race a little early, the crowd was pretty small, but I started in the back. As the race started I tuned into my ipod, with nikeplus and all and took off :) I was passing a few people, but the BEST part was no one was passing me, cuase iw as in the back.. which made my mental status think I was doing great.. and for me I was.

The course is fairly hilly, the first is a downhill, My goal was to pace my self, and my moto was to run my race, the first downhill I tried to lengthen my stride out a little to get a little more out of it, but then the downhill quickly turns into a uphill, and then a flat, all before hitting mile 1.

At mile 1 my pace was 11:12, I was doing great for me! :) yay!!! At mile 1, the course goes on an uphill again, by this time, it was raining, but not like downpouring, I could hear God's thundering in the background but thankfully no lightening, and the rain was just gentle enough to run through and feel wet but not drenched. But before we even got to mile 1, we had people turning back, cutting thru the course, there are several spots on this course where i suppose you could cheat on mileage.. and there were people doing so. I was smiling on the inside and hte outside, because I was still runing, I was thinking mentally wow I am not giving up, I am not giving up on me, It's a mental game now, and I can do this!

In mile 1, there was a nice lady standing outside her house with an unbrella handing out garbage sacks to people, I didn't take one but what a thoughtful idea. During mile 1 there is a long uphill, followed by a short flat, and then a short downhill before you reach the half way point! I was soo smilling, at this point, I was jamming to my music, feeling great running and thinking I may just conquer this course! I saw a few more people walk off the course, which encouraged me even more to keep on running, I would pass a few people and my goal became to not let them pass me back.. I accomplished all of that! :)

At the halfway point there is a lonnnng uphill, My music is jamming and I am listening to I run for Life by Melissa Etheridge, I love this song, it's one of my favorite songs lately, its a song about her running for life, about how she is past her brest cancer and now she runs for her self, friends and family, for life.. I think of it so much with my friends, I like to think I run for people who can't, I think of one of my friends going thru cancer right now and how maybe she can't physically run right now, but I can for her, and it motivates me to run harder.

I get to mile 2, it's all good! It's a flat run for a while, I'm tired, but I am smiling, I am hot and thinking I wish it would rain a little more as it's let up a little bit, and within seconds it starts to rain again, Thanks God! I get to the hospital and I am almost there, It's a short downhill followed by a long uphill, but I can do it! I feel like I can run for hours right now, Mentally I am strong, I feel like everything is going right everything is postivie, everything is way better than i could ever have imagined. As I reach the Ronald McDonald House, you couldn't wipe the smile off my face! I am almost there, this course is almost conquered! I finish tear off my number chat with the people infront of me, I am just super psyched I did it!

I did it, with more self esteem than I have ever had in my life, I put my inner battle I had with this course on the line and conquered it!, Instead of tearing my self down because someone passed me I challneged my self and encouraged myhself when I saw I could pass someone or keept going. Instead of saying I wasn't good enough or I wasn't going to make it, I was thinking this course is conquered, and I am God's child, and he's provided an awsome body for me to run with..

I can't thank God enough for today, for all that he has shown me over the past year, all that he has changed in me, physically, mentally and spirtually, its soo cool to see me grow in a year :) I thank God for holding out his powerful rain, lightening and thunder till just after I got done running :) The race was wonderful, for the first 5K of the season, I'll take it!

Have you Tri'd Today?

2007-05-03T11:46:00.000-05:00

We have a new slogan in our household, Have You Tri'd Today?

It's currenlty 68 days including today to the Danskin Triathalon in July. Since both Amber and I are doing the triathalon in 68 days I've implemented the Have You Tri'd Today Program! :) I am excited about it, and so far its working.

Here is what one of the pages looks like, its a little blooklet of sorts, right now we have it sitting on our counter, but I hope to move it to our fridge soon.

Each day there is a section to write our workouts after you've completed it, and to post a challenge to each other, as well as support each other by posting comments such as way to go, an encouraging verse, whatever is on your heart! I am way excited about it.

Since we are both ultra competive people it works well! we simply can't turn challenges down, and if you challenge one person to something, the goal is you should also do the challenge as well!

It has been encouraging to see the excitment that Amber and I have had over it, talking at night, did you see the challenge for tommrow or no excuses for missing workouts, or realizing its only how many days?? and needless to say we haven't missed workouts and we haven't missed challenges!

I am excited to see the growth, I am also excited to see it applied to other areas of my life, have I tri'd today in my walk with God, Have I tri'd today in my relationships, Have I tri'd today in various things, it's good to see it on paper! I am sooo very excited for our triathalon but it is coming soon!! SO have you TRI'D Today?

Big Big Bargins.. The Dave Ramsey Way!

2007-04-27T10:00:00.000-05:00

Okay.. so I have been dying to write this post for a long time, but I wanted to make sure I had enough evidence, experience, and documentation to explain :)

So I am currently take Finacial Peace University that is taught by Dave Ramsey, thru video. One session in March, was on how to get a Big Big Bargins, Dave's way of course is bargining, finding that big deal, waiting, having patience, and a lot of other stuff.. I knew after listening to the video that I am non confrontional and I don't think that I could walk into Best Buy, and ask for a deal..

In light of this, I got the grand idea, from some internet research to try out Couponing! I always thought coupons were such a waste, I didn't think anyone could possible SAVE that much money, after all the coupons are only worth.. 25 cents to a dollar or more, how is it possible to save hundreds of dollars on your grocery bill and health items if your only saving a dollar at a time..

Well Amber and I started couponing in the begining of March. We bought the Sunday Paper to get coupons and then got smarter as time went on and switched to buying the Press Citizen on Saturdays, its Cheaper, and it has the coupons in it! We also searched out our little elves for helpers, my mom graciously pitched in, she buys two sunday papers, but doesn't use her coupons, and Amber's mom also graciously pitched in! We are off to a great start!

Our first couponing adventure was a Super Target! We went in to get a GREAT deal on Chicken, 1.99 for 2.5 lbs, how could you go wrong? We even called in a few friends and asked if they wanted cheap Chicken, Bannans - .39Cents for two pounds, Potatoes - .75 cents a bag, and of course a few people took us up on our offer :)

I remmeber walking out of that store, soooo EXCITED! I saved money, I wasn't all down becuase I had to fork over lots of cash for good chicken.. we ended up walking out of there with 11 bags of chicken for around 22 dollars, and if we paid full price it would have costed us around 87.89, we ended up saving around 66 dollars! HOLY TOLIDEO!!! who would have thunk it.

Since then I've gotten better and I learned the value of CVS :) and I learned that I didn't have to shop at Aldis' to save money, and I could still buy name brand delicious stuff, our cubards have never been fuller, and we have never saved so much money on grocerys :)

So you are probably asking, how much have you saved, In the month of March, we saved $312.22, we actually bought 458.02 dollars worth of stuff for 145.80, that my friends is a savings of 68%, not to bad for the first month.

So you ask what have you bought?, what have we got a deal on!
Steamfresh Veggies! - .28 at HyVee
Quaker Oats Granola Bites - .00 at Target - AMAZING Deal!
Granola Bars - .00 at Target - Another Amazing Deal!
Chex Mix - .09 at Target
Steaks and Pot Roast - 1-2 dollars at Super Target
Chicken - 2.00 at Target
Soda - .00 at CVS :)
Poptarts - .50 at Target
Gum - .00 at CVS and Target
Cereal - .19 @ HyVeee
Cereal Brand Name - 1.00 @ Kmart and 1.00 @ Hyvee
Hamburger Helper - .00 @ Walmart .25 At HyEe
Betty Crocker Potatos - .35 @ HyVee
GoTarts - .75 at Target
Grape Nuts Granola Bars - .70 @ HyVee
Milk - .45 @ Walmart, .33 @ Hyvee
Eggs - .50 @ Target, .00 @ Target

Toothpaste, Toothbruses - .00 at CVS
Softsoap, Lever 2000, Irish Spring - .00 at CVS
Aleve, Tyenol, Alavert - .00 at CVS
Tampons, Pads - .00 at CVS
Nail Files, Clippers - .00 at CVS
Shampoo and Conditioner - .00 @ Walmart, Target, CVS
Venus Razors - .67 @ Walmart

Lysol Wipes - 1.00 @ Walgreens
Pledge Dustors - .87 @ Target, .00 @ CVS
Swiffer Carper Flick - .00 @ CVS
Dishwasher Tabs - .00 @ Target, Walmart
Charmin Toilet Paper - .00 @ CVS
Bounty Paper Towels - .00 @ CVS

We have got some AMAZING deals! I find it hard any more to spend more than a dollar on a lot of items any more.. Things that I used to buy for 4.00 or more I now find my self getting free and stocking up!

The say that deals run in 12 week cycles, so if you buy enough for 12 weeks, then the next time the deal comes around, you'll be ready to get it cheap once again... and so we have done this, but the best part is we now have extra snacks and such that we can give stuff away and not feel guilty, it's actually so rewarding!! We've given away toothbrushes, toothpaste, body wash, snacks! They also say that a person can be stock piled in 6-8 weeks.. were venturing on this avenue, I am finding myself spending less time because we don't need much any more.. I am sure that as it goes, we will also spend even less as we get more things for cheap :)

Sure we had to spend around 15 dollars at CVS to get started but ever since then.. we spend less than a dollar, usually under a nickel :) Sure it's taken time to get organized with coupons and time to find the deals but I enjoy it! and it's soooo worth it! We still spend some money buying need items, fruit, bread, and items we would enjoy.

I've enjoyed the journey, and couponing is DEFINITLY something I will continue to do.. The real way you save money with coupons is you wait, you wait patiently for a deal to come along :), like for instance Hamburger Helper is on sale this week at HyVee 10 for 10. I have coupons for a dollar off, making it free! we'll stock up with the number of coupons we have, but had I not waited, I could have paid .68 cents a box.. maybe still a good deal, but Free is waaay better! :0 I love getting free stuff! It's such a great way to stretch your dollar farther!

Pampered Ladies Night! :)

2007-02-16T10:17:00.000-06:00

Do I truely look like I am 8 or 9 years younger than I really am? Last night My sister and I went to a Pampered Ladies Night, which we both had a great time!

I happen to won the two tickets off the Radio, which was a total God thing! :) I was at work, and I often listen to three different things, either KZIA, KNWS, or my ITUNES music.. That day I happen to be listening to KZIA and it was around 4:30 and I was thinking about leaving early.. after all it was friday, but then I felt a need to stay.. I dunno just to stay? I felt something telling me I should stay, so I stayed, then came on KZIA call in number 9 to win a ladies pamper night.. it was right around 4:55 and I was like.. huh, why not.. so I called.. and to my surprise! I WON!! I was so psyched! :)

I got the tickets in the mail, each cost 30 dollars if you actually bought them, so I was pretty pysched, next was, who to take with.. I wanted to use it for a good cuase, I thought about a lot of people that I could ask.. but then God totally lead me to ask my sister! yay!! Ever since Liam has been born, we haven't gotten to spend a lot of time together, so itw as the PERFECT excuse, and there can't be much better than to get pampered as a mom.. so I called her up, and she said.. sure.. Really, she said SURE? ;) I was psyched!

Valentines Day came and went.. it didn't even really phase me becuase for the first time in a long time, I dunoo I didn't even really think about it, Sure I got some valentines at work from other coworkers as well but I just felt I was totally OKay being SINGLE!! :) after all I already have one of the most amazing husbands, Jesus!! :) And.. my Vday present, was my ladies night pampering!! which I was looking way forward to!

Soo.. Heather and I went.. and we both had a really great time! It also was a great time for me and her to just talk about our lives.. which was perfect! Thanks God!!! We got to try some amazing food, from BBQ This, and Raspberry Fondue from HyVee Cooking Club (Who Knew they had a cooking club?) and other amazing treats along the way..

We also both got Chair Massages!! ooh how wonderful!, we both got Manciures, provided by capri College, we both got Facials, ohhh how amazing!! did they feel, and hte mostiurizer!! I felt like a queen, We got whittening strips for our teeth, parafin dips for our hands! (provided by St, Lukes Women Health, which made them ooh so soft and made them feel oooh so good) We got to try out wine from Shueyville Winnery, Homemade Fudge from a personal shopper, got make up done with Bare Essesntials makeup.. We Got a 50 Dollar Gift Card From A Salon, and Heather and I both plan on getting a Massage, for 10 bucks!! :)

Whew!! We got some major pampering, but we had so much fun together! But I frequently got asked.. So are you in highschool, I had to laugh, but by the third time the person asked me it..

It was a girl at Prudential Fiancial, who had free cake, I was like.. what? She said..

her - so what are you.. like in highschool..

me - I laughed.. umm no, I have a real job..

It was so funny at the time becuase I was thinking man.. a month or two ago, I would just have never talked to this girl.. I would have walked away, and thought oh well... but God has really been teaching me to step out of my comfort zone and talk to people, to actually have a converstaion, instead of being shy.. like I have been in the past when I don't know anyone.. We probably had a 10 minute converstaion and I found out that her friend sitting next to her is good friends with a big shot in the "pharmacy" world, so that was pretty cool. It was neat to see that I didn't have to feel like I was being fake, or umcomfortable, or distant, but I could be me..I could be confident in me, and not have to think twice about it.. But.. I am still curious as to why everyone thinks I am in highschool? Do I really look 8 years younger than I am? Not that I really want to go back 8 years.. but just curious, I guess its a good thing in some aspects, its just weird! :)

3 Cuties! = Fun Fun Fun!

2007-02-13T09:40:00.000-06:00

This past weekend I got the priveldge of babysitting the Cramer Cuties Miriam, Max, and Zeke, while Dana and Josh were at the Couples Conference, I had soo much fun!!

I was a little nervous going into the weekend as it would be an overnight and I would have three kids for a day and a half, and wasn't quite sure all the mischeif that they could cause, and Dana had sent me a long email with instructions, with their crazy quirks, things they like, or don't like, etc..

On Saturday morning, we watched cartoons together, and Miriam and I put togher some puzzles, and then we were trying to decide if we wanted to go to Harry the Dog thing at the Library or the Children's Museum.. we decided to go to the Children's Museum, on the way their, I got all sorts of questions.. such as.

"Are you sure you know how to drive?"
"Are you sure you know where it is?"

And of course as were going there "Are you sure were going the right way?" Zeke was quite confident that I knew were I was going, but Max was not quite sure, he just wasn't quite convinced until we actually saw the mall that I knew where I was going.. And then there was Miriam, who was amazingly quite, she said absolutly nothing, until.. we pulled up and she saw the children's museum, and then she all the sudden was soo excited! it was great.

We had a great time at the museum,(except for the 30 seconds, that felt like a lifetime, when miriam disappeared!) the boys and miriam all played really well together, I was so amazed by the children's museum I had never been there, it is soo neat! I will definitly have to take my nephew there when he gets a little bigger.

After the children's museum we went home, and I made lunch.. which was Mac and Cheese, who knew, I could make Mac and Cheese, wrong.. or at least Not the way that their Mom made it! I was like.. huh.. Max was like.. Can i have some yellow cheese from the packet and I was like.. umm its all in the bowl.. I was really confused, but then zeke was like.. its okay we'll use the white cheese so that satisified them.. these boys really realy love their cheese!

Then we went downstairs and played with some cars and brooke came over! Thanks Brooke!! It was nice to have a break for a short time.. They take a lot of energy.. Later that night we made Dinosours!! Zeke was soo in love with his dinosours.. it was great, i found this site on the web where you can print them out and have the kids color and cut and take or fold.. it was pretty cool, Max didn't seem as impressed, but was okay with just coloring on the paper, which was okay with me, and soon enough it was tiem for bed!

Whew! one day down.. one day to go.. and after they went to bed.. which seemed so flawlessly.. I mean.. it was just so great! These boys were so great!! They didn't argue about bed time or anything.. such a blessing!

Miriam stayed up wiht brooke and I as we picked up a littel and played with her until it was her bed time, she was great too! She helped us pick up the books in the living room and we read some book snad put some puzzles away... such a helper!

Brooke stayed afterwards and we talked for an hour or so.. it was so great! Such a great way to end a great day! I hadn't really got a chance to talk to Brooke one on one before, but it was great to get to know her more..

Then, day two!
I was still laying in bed, when the boys came in.. Good MORNING!!! as they jumped up and down.. I was awake but I thought.. wow how could they have so much energy.. they are morning boys!! I am not a morning person, but I smiled, as they told me their stories of how sometimes they wake up and be really quite not to wake their parents, they were so cute! Then we went out and all they could talk about was more dinosours.. I was like.. you still have that in your head.. wow! So we made a few more before I told the boys we this would be the last one before we would have to eat breakfast.. then we had breakfast.. Cereal of course, but the boys.. eat theirs without milk, I almost poured milk on it but max kindly let me know that they didn't eat it with milk.

Then we all got ready for church, and made it on time and early! the boys and miriam all great at getting ready.. and then after church we had lunch and by that time it was time for their parents to come home.. it went by soo fast, but I had sooo much fun and I would do it again in a heartbeat!! I love those kids! Zeke remidns me so much of a kid I had when I worked at a day care and ever day when I came to work he would be comeing down from his nap and he would shout.. LESLIE!! and then find me and want to do something with me.. he always made me feel special.

Max and Miriam are also favoriteS! They play together so cute, Max always wants to show her sister something new, or where to go, which is pretty cute!

I had so much fun to have the priveledge of baby sitting them, but it most defintily is a full time job!

Who would of thunk it!

2007-02-01T16:12:00.000-06:00

This past monday I celebrated a huge victory for me! :) I reached my 75 pound mark on my weight loss journey.. who would have ever thought that I would have ever made it this far.. .WOW!!

I am offically at the lowest weight I have ever been since my freshman year of college.. and that was 6 years ago! I am amazed time and time again how blessed I have been on my journey by amazing friends who have stood by, and by the amazing journey it has been..

I also like to reevaluate at moments like these.. and so I would also like to say that I have also lost 91.25 inches.. HOLY TOLEDO.. I am just blown away by both of these numbers. I also am over 60% of the way to where I want to be.. which means I only have 40% more to go!! :) YAY!

But I feel oh so blessed.. I feel healthy, emotionally, physically, spirtually.

I have a picture for the first time in my life, where I think I can remmeber that I can actually see that I have a collar bone.. :) oh I am so thankful!

I also bought my first pair in a long long time, since highschool, a pair of jeans from a normal non plus size section of a store, maurices! :) I felt like a million dollars! God has blessed me so much even in this new part of the year. It has even been more of a blessing since realizing his beauty and seeing how he sees me, its pretty amazing and I cannot stop saying it!

Psalm 139:14

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

ABC's and 123's..

2007-01-25T15:41:00.000-06:00

On another discussion board that I belong to some girls were discussing how they easily lost track of all their laps they were swimming because its hard to remember the number you are on when your swimming, you loose track easily especially in long distances, its hard to count 26 laps or even 32 laps for that fact, (which is approximently one mile)! so one person mention that they took the alphabet and started counting laps by it, only for each lap they used an animal for each letter, and thought of that while going, which kept their mind busy while swimming which sometimes can be a task, its amazing what you think of while swimming, like how many times can i count to 4 or 6 or 3 becuase that is the number of strokes I normally take before I take a breath.. however I decided this was a good idea, but I didn't want to do animals.. so I have been working for quite sometime on the charactheristics of God so I did that.. WOW it was refreshing!!

Here's what it pretty much sounded like!
- A - Amazing, God is Amazing! He has made me into an amazing person, I can do some amazing things but only through God. hmm I wonder what B will be ohh flip turn..

B - Beautiful, God is Beautiful! God made me beautiful, he sees all his children as beautiful and lovely in his sight. I wonder how many people actually think they are beautiful.. ooh flip turn

C - Child! - I am God's Child and he LOVES me for just that, he is my father, my dad, my saving grace, he is the one I can run to when I need help, or when I just need an ear to talk to..

D - DAD! - God is my dad! He loves me right where I am, he loves me for just who I am, he cares about everything I do, even just swimming, he loves to watch over me.

E - Everywhere, God is everywhere! God is present in all his power everwhere and all the time (PS 139:7-12) He is the God of all the earth!

F - FAITHFUL, GOD is faithful! He is faithful with everything, he follows thru on all his promises, I can trust in his goodness, and his grace and his mercy, and his love, ooh I got a good G

G - GOOD, God is GOOD! He is good in all he does, he loves and cares for all of us, and he is GRACIOUS! and full of GRACE! hmm I h..

H - HOLY, God is HOLY! He is perfect in all he does, and he is pure! (Habakkuk 1:13) hmm a b c d e f g h ohh yes I

I - IRREPLACEABLE, GOD is IRREPLACEABLE! There is nothing on this earth that could replace him, there is nothing that can fill my life with such great things as him, there is nothing as good or as great as him he is irreplaceable.

J - JESUS - God sent us JESUS!! God sent us JESUS to save us all, becuase he loved us so much! and wanted to see us again! He sent new hope and love into this world his only son, JESUS!

K - KING, God is KING, God is king of my heart! He is the king of all kings! He set me free from this world, from the sin that I live in..

L - LOVE - God is LOVE!! HE loves me.. yes me.. (1 John 4:8) He really is LOVE!! GOD LOVES ME SOOO MUCH! HE is faithful in his covenant and his is faithful in his love that rains down on me!

M - MERCIFUL - God is MERCIFUL, (Psalm 57:1) I can take refuge in his mercy!! he is rich in his mercy and his provisions, in all he does!

I went thru the whole alphabet, I think the only letters I couldn't come up with something were for was Z. It felt so rerfreshing to remind my self of all the amazing charactherstics of God and it help me keep track of my laps, and keep my mind on all good things! I had a great swim, which means, *drum roll* I got approved to go back to swimming!!! like real swimming! PRAISE GOD!!

Anyway.. so if there is any task that you do that you have to do over and over again maybe you could try it, since then I've also done how God sees me, and all that Jesus has done for me! It reminds me while swimming why I am here, and how amazing God is and that I am a child of his, and it is truely an honor! My identity in Christ is amazing and if you are a child of God, so is yours, even if you just haven't seen it that way yet!!

Wanna Workout! :)

2007-01-23T13:25:00.000-06:00

I have a new passion, okay. so maybe not quite so new.. but its still newer.. I love love love to workout with people and I love to train them!

I love to push people to their limits and then just take them a little farther than where they think they could have gone, I love to push them just slighty past their mental limits in efforts to gain a healthier perspective of workout, feeling amazing, loosing weight, etc etc..

You say this may sound so cruel.. nonsense.. how do you get anywhere physically in life or with your health if you are not just slighty pushed past your comfort zone? :) oooh I know I would have never gotten where I was if someone would have never pushed me out of my comfort zone! so I am very eagerly and thankful to pay it forward!

Last night I got to train 3 people all at once whew! what a workout for me in and of its self and a challenge, but I sooo loved it, We did circuits, I had one or two people on the treadmill and one person with me on a machine doing either triceps, or biceps and then we would switch out, the people on the tredmill were at a comfortball walking pace, however at an incline of 3.0 and when I had a second I would run over and up the incline.. ooh so much fun.. then we would rotate!! I loved every minute of it! We also did skull crushers I think they were everyones favorites!! I love them, they work your triceps so well and you can do them at home! The picture on the right is similar just do them on the floor with whatever you have.. 5 pounds is usually enough for people to feel it and dumbbells work great! keep your elbows in to your body! and when you get tired.. try pulsing instead of going up and down at a certain spot for 30 seconds.. you should feel it in your triceps!

Then.. we got to work our abs! We did some normal ab work and did some throw downs..

While lying down grab your partner's legs as he stands with his feet on both sides of your head. While keeping your legs straight or slightly bent (but locked into place) bring your feet to your partner's chest as fast as you can. Remember to use your abs as much as you can and don't let your hip flexors and legs do the work. Your partner should then throw your legs down fairly hard. Your partner can also throw every other one to the sides after you get the hang of it. Your feet should NEVER touch the ground before your bring them up for the next rep and always bring them back up as fast as you can, try doing it for a certain time instead of so many.

The best part of the night was when one person said congratulations you just survived your first Leslie workout, it made me smile, I apprecaite them so much for letting them allow me to help them! I only hope they don't hate me to much afterwards, in the gym, I mean business!... most of the time :)

wanna workout? :)

North Liberty Biggest Loser

2007-01-23T13:02:00.000-06:00

Last night we had our second weigh in for a competition that my roomate and I are doing with the North Liberty Rec Center. The competition is called Biggest Loser North Liberty, and has provided new opportunities new excitment, new motivation! The whole deal is there were 16 women to start with and we split into two teams.. however.. my roomate and I are on seperate teams.. I am on the Blue team ( GO BLUE!! ) and my roomate is on the Red team. The teams each consist of 8 women which I am totally praying that somehow God will use both my roomate and I throughout this time through March to be lights there and just maybe open new doors to relationships, I am encouraged!

We weigh in every Monday night, I being an ultra competive person that I am, and knowing that my roomate was on the other team, worked SUPER hard this past week full out knowing that it would be and will be harder for me to loose more weight since I am getting down there and I've been doing it for quite some time... I watched what I ate, but ate healthy and never eer cut my self short of my days "points" (I am using weight watchers for my eating) and I worked out like a mad women! Okay.. so I can't run.. which would be the easist way to loose weight, so instead, I went to the gym every day... 4 days I lifted weights upper body, I can't do lower body just yet and also did abs.. I also swam and aqua jogged 5 or 6 days.. All was good, I felt good about the week, and was nervous getting through the weekend, but made it through..

The weighin! - I ended up loosing 7 pounds!!! infact I was so excited I threw my hands up on the scale as she was weighing me, and she was like.. ooh hold on a sec, I am like.. oops.. sorry.. It was just soo exciting!! My work had paid off, and the even better part was that everyone and I mean everyone in our Group was supportive!! we all clapped and cheered as numbers were said, it felt sooo good! Everyone in our group that should up to weighin lost weight! how awsome is that!!! I am so encouraged, and motivated! - My roomate did amazing as well too.. I am so proud of her!!! It was her first week that I really didn't help her as much and she went to it!

Losing weight is hard work! and there is no easy short cut to it, but I was so encouraged after we just weighed in together, it made me want it even more, and it makes you really accountable, after all if your not there next Monday, thats just as bad. I know that each choice I make throught the week will affect the scale next Monday.. and even though I am competivite,.. I can't wait to see everyone in the group succeed!! :) - yay!!! And I am just now 2 pounds away from hitting my 75 pound mark! soo I am pretty sure that I'll hit it next week.. WOWZERS!! I can't even imagine.. I am trying to think how much that really is.. but I am pretty encouraged by just that thought.. its amazing to see how far you come when you look back :)

Beauty the Eye of the Beholder!

2007-01-10T16:20:00.000-06:00

Beauty is definitly in the eye of the beholder!

While I was at faithwalkers, I had a revolutionary thing happen! God showed me how beautiful I truely am! WOW!!! So over the past year I have been working out, trying to loose weight, trying so hard to simply make my self "prettier" but also healtier and all at the same time in the back of my head thinking.. I am fat, I am ugly.. am I ever going to get anywere with this struggle?

I've struggled wtih it for years... and I've worked my buns off litterly this past year to do somethign about it, and while I have lost over 60 pounds.. my view of myself had never changed, I still saw me as I think some of this world may see me.. I still saw myself as 60 lbs heavier with a long way to go... I saw myself as someone ugly, not worthy of anything or anyone.. but it all changed on December 30th 2006!

We were playing the family game with some friends from Colorado on the last night at Faithwalkers and having a great time! (I miss them already) Anyway.. were in a room with a large mirror, we had just got done playing and I got a ball thrown at me from a friend because I won the game, I beat him, and he was doing it out of a joke I am sure, anyway.. so I went to go throw the ball back and saw my self in the mirror, normally I would immediatly think.. wow that shirt is no good, or wow your hair, or wow look at that impeffection.. but it was different.. I ignored it, running back and throwing the ball back at him, we left the room to talk.. i dunno.. its kind of fuzzy.. but then I came back to pick up my stuff..

I picked up my stuff.. stood up and looked up at the mirror and thought.. WOW i am really beautiful, why have I never ever believed what God has been telling me is so true the past year, that I am beautiful in his sight, that he created me and can make nothing wrong, that I am his child and he LOVES me.. yes ME!!

Wow, i felt a huge sense of emoition just wash over me.. it was like I was standing in the rain and God was pouring down his LOVE and feelings for me!! yes ME!!! I felt as though I might just be his favorite! :) WOW..IT was revolutionary.. I felt so loved... and even though my friends.. who are amazing have been telling me for the past year and a half that they love me. that I am beautiful that I am amazing.. I could never see it.. because I did not believe it for myself.. I knew in my head that God thought I was beautiful but i never let it into my heart.. I had built so many walls and told my self so many lies.. that I was simply not beautiful.. I was believing what this world was telling me!

I haven't been able to run for a long time now.. and it will be a while before I can run again.. but I know that God has a plan.. and I know that not running right now is his plan.. I don't think I would have seen this beauty if I was running, running from past hurts, emotions, all the things that I could run so easily from, but I also know that he knows my heart.. I still want to run again someday! soon I hope.. but I also know now that God loves me right where I am.. I know that God thinks I am beautfiul, for years I have longed for that outside acceptance, that my emotions relyed on what other people thought, or how they treated me or what they said.. Like while I was loosing weight, my head would say.. I wonder if anyone will notice today.. will they say something, will they tell me I look good... I longed for someone anyone to accept me.. but now..

I have God's acceptance.. and I can see it.. He loves me.. yes ME>. and he loves you too.. yes YOU!!! He sees you as beautiful!!! YES YOU!!! WOMAN! I want to scream this from the mountain tops.. I want every woman who struggles with being accepted and felling not beautiful enough, or fat, or ugly, or torn up by this world to understand that God sees you as BEAUTIFUL!!! more beautiful than anything!! He created you.. he loves you!! and all at the same time.. i know how many times i could tell you this and you might say yes.. i know but i know that your heart might not accept it..

Verses come to mind as I see how amazing I am in Gods eyes..

I am God's child - John 1:12
Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—

I can't be seperated from the love of God - Romans 8:35-39
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (ESV)

God views me as beautiful! - Song of Soloman 4:7
All beautiful you are, my darling; there is no flaw in you.

Psalm 139:13-16
13For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. 14I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. 15My frame was not hidden from you,when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. 16Your eyes saw my unformed substance;in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them.

So yes!!! God thinks your beautiful, he thinks your amazing, he loves you!!! I hope one day you will feel this rain down on you as I have.. for it is amzing!! it sure is a lot harder to have a negative thought about my beauty, or body in my head now.. I haven't had one since I think..but I am sure I might.. but I also know that God Loves me and he thinks I am amazing!!! yes me!! little old me! I see my self as a new person, I was looking in hte mirror the other day and thought.. wow I have come so far.. and last night.. wow I am beautiful and cute.. and funny.. and oh its so much more fun to think pleasant loveing thoughts, than negative lies.. God is so good... he is so loving, he is so rich, he is so giving, I only hope that others can some day see this too.. I love standing in the rain of God's love! I don't think there could be anything better!

Small nudges.. big steps

2007-01-03T16:38:00.000-06:00

I was over at the Hospital this morning waiting in a sea of people to get an x-ray taken for my foot, as X-ray was way behind, and it turns out, that I didn't just sprain my ankle a week adn a half ago, I also sprained my actual foot.. who knew you could actually sprain your foot.. anyway.. they wanted to make sure that it wasn't broken.. so I was waiting..

A nurse whelled in this patient, an ederly woman on a gurnee, she was alert, lying there, and all alone, I felt God nudging me to talk to her, but instead I sat, silent, and smilied, she smiled back, I felt God nudge again, I am thinking.. okay.. so maybe I should talk to her, but what in the world do I say.. I have no idea how to even start a conversation with her.. how is it possible.. so I ignored it.. I got into some other coversations around me, and then.. she spoke.. I stood up, taking a step closer to her, and asked what did you say.. she said she felt like she was in the way of it all.. .. I smiled and laughed and said nah.. I felt such a blessing over come me as I took a step of faith and wonder if there was any way that God would be blessed by the conversation I was entering into.. could I use this for his glory, did he have a plan for all of this..

We began to chat about the holidays you could see her smile over her relief as she shared her story of troubles yet you could still see that she felt okay, comfortaed, I felt like I was God's hands working, We talked for probably 10 minutes or so before her name was called it was such a blessing to me, it reminded me of my mom, and my grandma, and wonderful people I know. I felt like God's hands working. As her name was called I said Good luck and God bless, she smiled brightly, and said you too, thank you.

I've never been so open to say God Bless, or talk to someone like that, but I truely felt blessed by God, and I truely felt God blessed me by her. I was so thankful that I might have been able to be his hands and his feet by obeying his little nudges. She also helped me feel more at ease taking my mind off of the other things that were going on.. I also realied that maybe its really not so hard to start relationships or converstaions or to show Gods love for people.

If I was able to reach out here and show love and compassion to a complete stranger, to someone that I knew nothing about, how much easier can it be to reach out and show love to those that I already love around me.. I felt so blessed to show love to someone that I did not know. I felt as though God had truely blessed me with all the right words and I could not thank him enough, I felt empowered by him..

Catching a Break or Learning To Be Humble

2006-12-22T10:11:00.000-06:00

On Monday.. I was doing well... things were going smoothly, I've learned to do things quite quickly with my immbolizer, I've could do just about everything on my own, move about, be normal, walk normal, just have some kids in the stores look at me weird and say.. whats wrong wtih her leg mom.. etc etc.. things were going well.. I was in good spirits, that it would be okay if I had to wear this thing to faithwalkers.. I guess it wouldn't be that bad.. could it?

Yesterday... Things.. took a turn for the worse.. it has been raining here for while, its kind of slippery outside when your not aware of it.. and I was heading down the stairs outside of my work for lunch when i slipped and my right ankle twisted I heard a large pop, I was in so much shock it hurt soo much.. I stood up so quickly because I didn't want anyone to see me, a person who already has a huge greenish thing on her left leg lying helpless on the stairs.. I went to take a step.. and oh my... WOW it hurts really really really bad..

I am crying, I am thinking wow I can't walk... how am I going to make it to my car, which was only a few feet away.. people are walking by.. probably thinking, how freakish I am... I manage to make it to my car.. i start it.. Streams of tears are running down my face, I am thinking its not that bad.. it can't be that bad.. could it? I try to take my shoe off to look at it, I can't it hurts to much just to turn my foot... oh my what have I gotten my self into.. I try to calm my self down.. I bring my self to barely not crying and call my roomate at work.. thinking maybe she could give me some ice..

She answers.. whew.. shse says sure.. I head over there thinking its just a sprain no biggy, if i walk a little it will be shaken off.. boy oh boy am I wrong.. I sit on the couch in capanna, tears rolling down my face, unable to hold back, I am sooo angry at my self, how stupid I felt for falling, how dumb i feel, let alone, now I not only have one bad leg, I have two... but keep thinking maybe some ice will fix it.. my roomate asks if I am gonna go to the doctor.. I keep saying no.. but thinking I should.. and all at the same time, thinking there is no way I am going to Faith Walkers.. I look like a freak!

I leave her work after about 45 minutes of icing.. its not any better.. and only getting worse.. I head back to work.. close up my office, and head off to the doctor, Good news... its not broken.. yay! Bad news.. its a really bad strain, and I've torn some liagements.. I am thinking you have got to be kidding me! and how in the world am I going to walk. They tell me to stay off of it.. hah!! they are funny!

I am so angry at my self, now i have to use crutches, i've left my self helpless, i can hardly do anythign on my own.. I can carry nothing but in a back pack... I attend lynns party.. wow what a challenge.. Its so hard for me to ask for help.. why is it so hard for me to ask for help I like to do things on my own... which is like impossible now.. I have two bad legs.. LOL... I feel like I am a burden to people when I ask can you get me a drink.. could you get me a slice of pizza.. ugh..I am hating it.. I know that I am only being molded but man.. its a hard one.

I am still not so sure about faithwalkers.. i don't know if i can be this humble infront of all my friends from others states. and when they ask what happened.. i am sure they will be thinking.. wow what an idiot.. how in the world.. its so hard.. but my doc did say i might get my knee brace off early next week.. so if that happens... i'll be there.. just maybe on crutches.. oh the joys.. I just keep thinking that involves asking someone to help me with my tray at lunch.. and everything.. what a challenge..

Can't I just catch a break or something without breaking or tearing something?

Love Heals Your Heart

2006-12-20T10:55:00.000-06:00

I really like this new song!!

Love Heals Your Heart by Third Day

"Love Heals Your Heart"
Did you think you were immune to this
Did you think you could escape without infection
You do all you’re able to resist
Just to avoid the danger of rejection

Memory warns you of the past
When it all went wrong

When you think your life is shattered
And there’s no way to be fixed again
Love heals your heart
At a time you least expected
You’re alive like you have never been
Love heals your heart

Everybody has a wall to climb
That was built to guard the pain that holds them captive
Every smile that they would hide behind
Will try to mask the hurt beneath the surface

Sometimes it’s hard to understand
How we’re trapped inside

The lyrics ring so true! How often do I think that I can just escape or be immune to something that is trapping me from my past..when my past haunts me and traps me, and I think I free, and then I am not, but someone comes along side of me, and helps me along the way.

The smile that I hide behind when things aren't neccessarly going just the right way, and I think no one will or would ever understand what I am going through, past or present, a loving friend comes my way, points me in the right direction, helps me see the light again. I am so thankful I have loving friends!

Chondromalacia patellae

2006-12-18T12:54:00.000-06:00

Some new vocab for you all!

Chondromalacia patellae is the softening and degeneration of the cartilage underneath the kneecap.. What does this mean?

Last night I opened a letter from my doctor which also included all my doctor notes... more bad news.. how in the world is that possible? I thought man it can't get any worse! I would love to run, I would love to dance, I would love to jump, I would love to bike, I would love to be normal... Instead.. I now also have been diagnoised with a condition called Chondromalacia Patella...

The Bad News.. Chrondromalacia is ususally a permant problem althougth some times non surgical treatmeans can relieve the knee pain in months.. however it is extremly hard to treat.. The reason why Chrondromalacia is usuaally a permant problem is because it affects articular cartilage which heals poorly.

The Treatment - Avoiding high-impact exercises, Using knee tape, a brace or a special patellar-tracking sleeve to keep your kneecap aligned properly, if nonsurgical treatmeans fail to alliveate the pain in 6 months, surgical treatment can be considered.. :(

The Good News --- I have amazing friends who continue to support me, even when I am frustrated.. I never in my dreams thought it would be this challenging to be in an immobalizer, or deal with a condition that may never go away, or may end my triathalons, I can't even hardly imagine thinking of that.. I am continuing relying and knowing that God has my back, he has a plan, he loves me! and he knows my heart and desires.

2006-12-18T12:45:00.000-06:00

I've been really challenged the past 8 days, I would love to go outside and run, and with all the nice weather we have been having, I have been wishing even more that I could run or bike, everytime I see a runner or a biker, I wish I could be them.. but it may not be happening for a long time..

Two weeks ago, I had a MRI done on my left knee, I was very nervous going in, sitting in the waiting room was torture, I just wanted it done, and out of there! Everyone around me had someone sitting next to them, I was begining to think I should have taken up my friends offer to come with me, but I was being to prideful, thinking they would not want to wait 30 minutes for me in the waiting room while I was having the procedure done.. I think thats me a lot, I tend to try to do it on my own, really wanting someone there, but either to prideful or to ashamed to ask..

Anyway, so I went into the MRI room, thankfully, I got to do it a the Hospital, this was blessing 1 from God! The rooms are much nicer there, the ceilings are sky blue titles with beautiful trees branching into the sky, it reminded me so much of God's beauty. No expense was spared for these rooms, which I was so thankful for. Secondly, I got some really nice techs, they made me feel comfortable, when my heart was racing. Thirdly, I got to listen to music, and as they put the music on, it made me feel, as though God was right there, protecting me, calming my heart, my favorite song, was playing, it made me really think again that God cares about every littel dettail of our lives, he knows us so intametly, he knows what we need, and when we need it, and he wants to be your protector and careing father when you let him!

Immboalizer! the patience builder

2006-12-12T14:56:00.000-06:00

It's been a while since my last blog post... and you might wonder why...

It's not that I haven't had some cool things happen to me in the past weeks.. or month.. or that I have been so ubberly busy.. well I have been busy.. but not overly ubberly busy.. its mostly because I was waiting to hear about my knee..

I injured my knee about 8 weeks ago.. yes its really been that long! :( My knee had been bugging me when i ran for a while, but not overly bad just kind of like a dull ache, and then painful durning the rest of the day and it kept getting worse... I ignored it for a while.. I thought it had to get better.. I thought maybe it was just runners knee.. to much running.. I thought it would get better with a little rest, so I rested it for 3 weeks.. no running.. WOW! what a challenge.. I continued to swim.. which was good, but not as good as running.. and then I had to face realitly..

I made an appointment in Sports Med.. I think they know me by name when they see me now.. but anyway.. they are pretty nice. and I couldn't get in for another 3 weeks.. 3 MORE weeks.. are you kidding me!! What a feat, waiting.. and waiting some more just to see what was wrong.. and hoping that it was something that was easily fixeable..

They first thought it was a Meniscus tear.. which would mean I would have to have surgery.. but they did a MRI to check it out.. to my luck.. it was not a Meniscus tear.. but A partially torn MCL which I guess has similar symptoms.. but not as bad.. cuase it doesnt' need surgery!! yay!

The downfall... I have to wear a Styling! tealish greenish cast like thing on my leg for the next 2 - 3 weeks.. to reduce inflamation, and allow it to heal.. Which also means that I can't do anything, no swimming, running, weights... its all out! I thought.. it wouldn't be that bad. but this thing is not fun.. by any means! and its only day 2!

Its hard to go up and down stairs.. I never realized how much you bent your knee in a day.. its even worse to sit at a desk all day.. so i've rigged up an amazing contracption at work, a chair on one side to put my leg up on.. and my keyboard all shifted, as well as my monitor..

Its hard to use the bathroom! Its hard to do little things.. and you can't just do things fast any more.. I've been reflecting on this a lot.. A year ago, I was at Faithwalkers, and one of the things I asked God to grow me in this year was Patience... I thought I had grown quite a bit, I was no longer extremly annoyed when someone didn't play a card at a moments notice, or they weren't fast enough... but I am learning quickly, that I have yet to learn the hard lesson of patience with my self.

Its been so hard not to run the past 8 weeks.. I have to learn patience, to let my body heal.. all while at the same time I am learning that when I go back to running that I will have to have the patience to build up slowly.. as running too fast is what got me here.. I have to learn that things will not change overnight with my body and having the patience to pursavere through all that will get me a lot farther. I forget so easily that endurance and patience,... come together..

Colossians 1:10-12
10And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully 12giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you[a] to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.

I've also realized that you don't really miss things until they are gone.. When i missed a workout when I coudl workout.. i didn't really mind.. I waslike.. oooh its okay, i'll make it up.. or there were days that i was like.. i do NOT want to workout today.. and skipped.. but now that I can't.. i crave to do so.. I can't wait until i can go back to some kind of workout.. I am still hoping to do an olympic distance triathalon this summer.. but it might not be till July now.. but I am okay with that..

Good Genes

2006-10-20T08:53:00.000-05:00

My mom called last night to inform me that my counsin, who I don't know very well, or at all, but I kind of recongize the name WON the Des Moines marathon (Check out the full story here)

Anyway, my mom went on to tell me that I must have good running genes and I just had to laugh! I have never been a runner, I mean... don't get me wrong, I did track in Junior High, and the only event that I did was 200M hurdles (which I am sure my mom would tell you, she had to close her eyes every time I went over a hurdle, I wasn't a graceful hurdler) and maybe the occassional 400M Relay, and then of course I did shot put but I didn't really love track practice, but it was the "sport" of the season so I did it.

I didn't participate in Track when I got to HS, to much running I said. And I never really ran in College, I tried to pick it up a couple times, but it was to painful, I couldn't breath, How was anyone supposed to run and breath at the same time and not have their side ache with pain! I gave up quickly.

I never picked up running again until our coach in Waterpolo made us run and once again I thought I was going to die.. you can see my previous post..

But now.. I live to run! I LOVE running! I beg my roomate at 9:00 at night to just let me go run just one mile, 12 minutes and i'll be back I promise. (Thanks A) Yes, its still tough, yes its definitly a challenge, yes sometimes it hurts, but its amazing!!

I just recently bought my second pair of running shoes, that means I have ran a little over 400 miles! WOW!! How in the world did I run 400 miles! at my slow pace of 14-15 minutes a mile which was last year that would be 100 hours of running! Thankfully because I have been running more I have gotten faster! Yay!! I am now down to 11 minutes a mile! WHEW!

Anyway, someday I hope to complete a marathon, like my counsin, but definitly won't be that fast, she finished in 2:42:19! Thats like.. 6:19 a mile! thats smoking fast in my opionion and for 26.2 miles, wowa. She also gets to compete at the Olympic trials in Boston how sweet is that.

I have major goals ahead of me.. I've now completed 3 5K's all with improving times(SUCCESS) and I've done a Sprint Triathalon(SUCCESS). But I have some other goals on the list, next summer I plan on racing in at least one Olympic Distance Triathalon (1.5Km swim, 25 mile bike, 10K run), I also plan on doing at least one Sprint Triathalon, I am so excited yet nervous at the same time, I hoping those good genes will help me with my running training to get me to the 10K run and i'll be set... who knows in a couple years, I may be tri'ing a Ironman.. who would have ever thought, and nope.. I haven't gone crazy.. yet! :)

219 out of 891 - I'll take it!!

2006-10-16T16:38:00.000-05:00

This past weekend I completed the 5K Run for the Schools and I am pretty happy with my results! :) - Pics Here

I placed 219 out of 891 who ran/walked the 5K - I'll take it!!
I placed 12 out of 23 finishers among Women 20 - 24 - I'll take it!!!

That means.. I am in the top 1/4 of the 5Kers!! I am pretty psyched about this! This run was my fastest time so far in any 5K that I have ran, and I wasn't even close to being last... oooh it makes me feel good.

Saturday I got a call from a friend who I was supposed to race with, saying she couldn't race because she was sick, I felt so bad.. I felt bad because we trained together, I was pumped up to run with her, and it would have been her first 5K. I felt so bad.. I was totally disapointed but it wasn't her fault, it happens.. but I decided that even if others cannot come to watch, or to run, I can still run and who am I doing this for? me or someone else.. it would have been really nice to have a running partner.. but its okay, I had the best running partner there ever could be, GOD!!

I made it to mile 1 in 11:14 which I was fairly happy with, thats the fastest mile I have ever ran. The second mile was a little more of a struggle but I made it in a little over 12 or 13 minutes, however by the last mile, I felt so wonderful, I was estatic! I am sure the photographer dude got a cheesy grin on my face around 2.6 miles or so.. we'll see when they come out. I couldn't wait to see the finish line, and I had settled into a good pace. The last 1/4 of a mile is all down hill I can't think of a better way to end a race! I finished the race it was great!

However, the after the race effect did not go so well. Shortly after finishing I was coughing up a storm, I felt like I coudln't breath, I sounded like when I had brochitus, and my lungs were all rattly, I thought maybe it was from not wearing enough to protect my lungs from the cold air, but after doing some research I am finding that Exercise Induced Ashma, which I have, tends to flair up in colder air, It took all day and eventually me just sleeping to feel like I could breath again, I am hoping it will get better, as I would love to continue running outside this winter.

I am just amazed time and time again how amazing God was when he designed this body of his, all the wonderful things it can do with some training and trusting in him, he definitly deserves all the glory for my victory! He was an amazing running partner, with all his encouraging vereses and wisdom, how could you go wrong, how could you not be at your top game, for if God is for you, who possibly can be against you!

A Healthier Me?... Or The Lies We Listen To..

2006-10-13T15:57:00.000-05:00

Last year..
Blood Pressure - 145/95 (On a Good Day)
Resting Heart Rate - 85
Cholesteral - 225
Triglicerides - 162

This Week
Blood Pressure - 120/75
Resting Heart Rate - 58
Cholesteral - 192
Triglicerides - 147
Inches Lost -62

I visted the gym today which I haven't been to for quite some time, not because i haven't been working out, but because I have been running outside and it's suddenly getting colder which I am also not a fan of!

When I originally started running outside, I hated it! Every ounce of my body hated it, it was much harder to run outside than to run on a treadmil, but now, I like running outside, its enjoyable, I get to see things, people, the weather, beautiful things God has created, it's amazing!! I thought that I may have to resort to running inside for the winter, but now I am rethinking this plan.

SO I go to the gym, I think I hate the gym, I forgot when I was running outside that the gym has a mirror on every wall, showing you every fault you have in your body, and not to mention showing you how silly you look when you run. The first 5 minutes of my run I think I spent analizing if I had made any progress on my body, my self anything the past year, because it sure didn't look like it! WOW the lies we let our mind wander with when it has any chance!

I kept thinking about how much I needed to workon, which maybe gave me some new motivation that I had been lacking, but I am thinking I am not really to anxious to go back to the treadmill anytime soon, I prefer running outside with no mirrors, running in God's glorious land he has created enjoying all the things he provided. What's your prefernce? Are you an indoor runner, or an outdoor? Do you LOVE the mirrors at the gym or do you have a love hate relationship with them :)

Note to Self

2006-10-10T11:27:00.000-05:00

Note To Self - When planning to go for a practice 5K Run, do not take two goldon retrivers with you!

Oh my, I am having a last minute nerves.. I have a 5K on Sunday, the Run for the Schools, which of course I am super excited for, however, I am also nervous. I am also dog sitting this week and thought.. ooh the dogs would like to go for a run, lets go for a run together, two things done at once... bad bad bad idea!

We geared up, using my new nike + ipod which i LOVE!! I will have to do another blog on that at another time, but we started off walking to the end of the street and jumped on the trail, down the hill and before we got .5 kilometers, I felt like I was dragging the dogs! They wanted to stop at everything, and it became so frustrating, I ended up having to walk at times to pull them along. As you can see the dips are where we were walking! but hey, we made some decent time, some part of it!

Not to mention holding the leash and pulling on it at times, made my shoulders cramp up, and hurt! Oh my! What I thought was going to be a fun 5K practice run became a stressful run.. as we were finishing the 3K we had made it back to their street they knew it too, they quickly veared off the path, heading fro the street, and I had to be like.. no no, come over here! whew! what a challenge.

But the last 2K they were peaceful, they were less distracted, I made it successfully through my 5K, I didn't give up when I could have.. all and all it was successful run! I mean... if it was the past me I would have turned around in the first 1K but I made it. However, I am going for run number 2 of 5K tonight and hoping than I can rest until sunday :)

Danskin 2006 - My First Tri!

2006-09-12T14:07:00.001-05:00

Tri Tri and Tri again!

I told a friend I would post my triathalon pictures up on this website so that also got me thinking that I maybe should blog about my race as well. I've been debating it. I have many great memories of that day, but it will be very long.. So until I have time to write it..

Enjoy the pics!

Brotherly and Sisterly Love

2006-09-08T00:42:00.000-05:00

1 Corithians 10
I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.

I keep thinking, man if it was all that easy, how fun that would be, what a perfect fun filled world we would live in, no arguments at 12:00 at night, no late night runs to get your frustration out and cry out in prayer to God, but then I also think how cool it is that God gives us this great challenge.

God puts various shapes, sizes, varying emotional states, different thinking minds on this earth, and we are commanded by God to get along, or so I am thinking this passage says. Anyway.. think of all the lessons God is teaching us through all the perservering we have when we take a step of faith and tell a person that something is not right in there relationship wtih you, or think of how rewarding it is all in the end, even if it takes days, or at least I think it will be, when you come to a conclusion to bring each other to the truth the right minds and how awsome it is when you reach a conclusion that God has lead you to through prayer and perserverance, and not to forget all the little lessions he has tought you along the way, such as don't over think the situation, don't think what tehy aren't saying, they really are saying what they mean.

Total Failure?

2006-09-06T22:57:00.000-05:00

Failure -–noun
an act or instance of failing or proving unsuccessful; lack of success: to fall short of success or achievement in something expected, attempted, desired, or approved

Ever wonder if you are a total failure? Ever have someone tell you in some way or another that you are a total failure? Ever have someone say something that made you feel like you are a total failure?

So I've spent the last hour crying out to God because I feel like a major Failure in life.. not becuase of me.. well maybe because of me but because of how someone said something or another... Looking back, aren't we all failures? Don't we fall short of God, of course, but that doesn't mean we are failures at everything in life does it?

I dunno? I don't have all the answers I am still pondering in my head. Maybe Failure is to hard of word, isn't God's grace large enough to cover my failures in life, isn't God's grace large enough to cover my screw ups and my emotional wreck.... I think it is... I just think its hard.. when someone tells you or considers you a failure for not living up to their standard, for not growing enough for them to see, but doesn't God grace cover this as well, Doesn't God jump up adn down for joy at every small thing we learn and doesn't God love us no matter who we are, no matter where we are?

120!

2006-08-22T14:48:00.000-05:00

How cool is it, that right now on the pentacrest there are at least two people praying for this campus, and how cool is it, that in an hour there will also be at least two people, and how cool is it that in 3 hours from now, all the way until Friday at 12:00 there will be numerous amounts of people every hour praying for this city, and this campus... how cool!!!

I was really challenged by Jeff's talk on Sunday morning when he talked about being luke warm Christians, which I have to admit I have been quite as of lately, I have skipped going to things, cuase I haven't just felt it, or I have not gone to serve other things becasue I have forgot, or simply been to lazy.. what in the WORLD has been going on!!

Anyway... Pat said if you can find time to eat, you can find an hour a day to pray.. he is so right, I've been praying at 1:00 everyday and I have to say that I have been so blessed by it! I thought praying for an hour would be really hard, but once your past the first 15 minutes its pretty easy, and even though its a workout, and its challengeing, its the best time in the world, you get to spend it with God. What could be better!!

Even though we are praying for the campus, I find I am learning so much through it all, My heart aches for this city, and I can not wait to see waht God is going to do here. However I have to constantly remind myself of truth as yesterday I was attacked by a gentleman saying something totally innopropriate that really made me feel like crap and it was right after praying, but thankfully God has reminded me, that now is the time when I am closest to God, the Devil will tempt me, I will be tempted, I will fail at times, but I will press on, I will grow closer to God, and I can not wait to see waht he is doing here in this city, I am so excited I can not simply express it in words!

It's been a year..

2006-08-17T21:52:00.000-05:00

I just got back from a short run... 15 minutes not to bad! I am okay with it!

Anyway... So I am getting really nervous for next week as Waterpolo is starting up again, and we have to go through 2 dry land workouts before we can touch the water. It was about a year ago when I decided that enough was enough and I simply needed to loose weight.. something had to change!!

We were at practice and the coach had us run from the field house down to riverside across the ped bridge by the law building, then down to the place by riverside where its just grass and then straight down to dairy queen, all in all, I think it is probably way under a mile, its semi hilly, one uphil one downhill, and the rest is pretty flat, but not stable ground most of the way and located by a highway.

Anyway, this particular night he had us run to this huge hill, Problem #1 - I couldn't make it to the place where ever was running to, and in my opionion running quite fast without stopping mutlipe times, I wanted to cry, I wanted to give up.... But my attitude of most things is to not give up.. so I didnt' give up, but I probably did cry.. So anyway.. I finally make it to this place where there is a huge hill, the hill on riverside for any Iowa City folks..

Problem #2 - Because I was so slow getting there, everyone had time to rest, but as soon as I got there, he started in on drill number two, which was suicides up and down this hill, I thought he was CRAZYYY!!! - CRAZZzzzYY!! Anyway... Needless to say I could not complete most if not all of them..

Problem #3 - He said, run to the top of the hill and jog back to the feild house.. I am thinking.. hahaha your really funny.. but he was soo dead serious.. by the time I had gotten up to the top of the hill everyone had already gone in the distance, and I was sooo wiped, I was walking it.. but here I saw someone coming back in the distance.. i was like.. uhhh I better start jogging or something..

Problem #4 - My Coach had come back to make sure I was okay, or make sure I wasn't dead, and motivate me I suppose, he ran with me for a while, pushing me which I really enjoyed, I love being pushed, he pushed me to a point where I had to stop, I thoguth i was going to pass out, I coudln't breath, it was not good, he said keep walking.. I'll be back..

Anyway so why did I tell you all this? - Well thats what I guess i am expecting to happen come next tuesday night... and i am super scared!! Well not as scared as I thought I would be but scared.. I am planning on running that route tommrow, or on Saturday, and see how it goes.. I'll let you all know.. not that anyone is reading this.. LOL

but anyway.. its been a bout a year since all of this.. that night, that it happened, i Decided I NEEDED to loose weight, it wasnt' a matter of i wanted to, or i wanted to look good, but i just wasn't even healthy any more... I've also decided I need to celebrate my victory of one year.. so my friends are planning something, but I am also going to try and do something just with me and God or maybe just me I dunno.. any thoughts?

Now.. I am sitting here and 60 some odd pounds lost later wondering why I just didn't do it sooner... Wondering if I can loose all the rest of the weight I want to loose, wondering if I will be healthy enough to make it though this years workouts, wondering how I Will do it, So many wonders and so many questions and no answers..

Bike Tips 101!

2006-08-10T21:13:00.000-05:00

I attended a bike clinic tonight put on by our local bike shop, World of Bikes

It was great to have two friendly local bikers give their professional opinion on important things such as what to take with on a ride to maintains on your bike on a day to day basis.

Tips!
1. When your adding grease to your chain always wait a little bit, 5 - 10 minutes and then WIPE OFF THE EXCESS GREASE, never leave excess grease on your chain... WOW, I've been missing out here, I am sure all that grime has formed all over my chain by now.. Oh well off to degreasing it tomorrow..

2. Always, Always, Always wear a helmet, this should literally be a no brainier!

3. You can adjust the derailer on your bike by simply adjusting the little nobby things on the cable (on a road bike) located by your handle bars, also known as the adjusting barrel, go to the left to make it looser and the right to make it tighter..

4. You should always carry a couple things with you on a ride... a extra tube, a bike pump of some sort, a patch kit, some money, and an id. I would also include a cell phone just incase your in desperate need of a ride home.

I also went to a picnic tonight, it was great!! It was great to see so many people there, it was a fantastic tournout!! I played some volleyball in which of course I got a little to competitive but it was all in all a fun time, but I was drenched in sweat, which was good as well.

July 30th - RAGBRAI!!!

2006-08-07T16:52:00.000-05:00

So I participated in a day of RAGBRAI. Looking back I keep thinking that it was such a huge accomplishment for me. I can't believe all the things that my body has done lately and I wanted to make sure I finally wrote some of them down.

RAGBRAI has its own characteristics, unique charm, essentially a party on wheels. It even comes with it's own language.

I biked with two other friends, Sarah and Jonathan, we started our day in Marengo Iowa. I awoke at 5:20 to make it there on time. I was so tired, lack of sleep and as I stepped outside my sisters house I thought it was already way to hot outside. It was already probably in the 70's and the sun had just come up.

My sister dropped me off in Marengo, a short drive from Amana, and I meet up with my friends. Soon after my sister dropped me off I was sitting in the AC again talking over breakfast as my friends were still getting ready to go. Soon enough Jonathan and Sarah were ready.

Jonathan who was biking on a mountain bike made a comment, "I think we can make it in 3 hours", I laughed. I was like with your nobby times, I don't think so, I was just trying to be realistic, I thought we could make it in 4, but had no idea how hilly the course was. The course was 48 miles and I knew if it was flat it would be realistic but was still optimistic and unsure of the roads that lay ahead.

So we started out and 2 minutes 45 seconds into the ride, problem 1. Sarah has a problem with her bike tire, she didn't seem to be biking as fast as normal, and the bike tire is not turning properly, the brake is rubbing weird, and so we turn around. Thankfully we were only .66 miles out and still close to home.

We got bak to where we started and Jonathan got out the tools and starts adjusting the time, by this time I was already sweating, thinking to my self it was way to hot to do this and wondering if I should simply stay home or go home. But soon enough the tire was fixed, but then Jonathan realized that Sarah had packed everything possible in her back pack and so he began going thro it, removing most of the unnecessary items.

Okay.. So we are back on the road, I look down I'm cruising around 14 mph, not to shabby, anyway we get to the main road where thousands of bikers were going by, I kept thinking how in the world do we get on, and how are we going to stay together, as that was our plan. We finally get on, were biking in a large pack several teams pass us.

On RAGBRAI you can be on a team. I have yet to figure out what the exact purpose of having a team but I guess there are a few benefits.
1. You get to where cool, funky hot costumes, or a cool riding shirt will have the same effect.
2. You always have people to bike with as long as you can keep up with at least 1 member.
3. You always have people to party with in your campsite but you'll most likely have to camp and sleep outside if you have a big team.
4. You have someone to pick you up early on the course when your too hot and think your going to die
5. You may have a cool bus to ride in.

Anyway, so several teams passed us, it felt so weird to be going so slow, we were maybe biking at 6-8 mph. We were caught on the right which I guess as the day went on it was the last place I wanted to be. So were on the road, less than a mile on we get to a very large hill, I was like ohh.... great. I hate hills, I am horrible at hills, I was hoping that this is just the start and then it's flat. Nope.. WRONG!! We go down and then up a decent size hill, I'm cruising down at 25 and cruising ( or rather not so cruising) up at 6-8 mph, which for me is totally painful. So hill after hill after hill I think it will never end.

By this time I keep loosing Sarah and Jonathan, I go a little faster o the downhill and way slower on the uphill, (I think Sarah could kick my butt on any up hill almost any day of the week!) I'm trying to slow down to find them on the minimum flats but there are hardly any. As the day went on, I would go bike and then go slow and find Sarah and yell out a name letting them know I was there.

I saw several teams drafting, another advantage of teams. So we get about 6 miles in, I ask Sarah to pull over, we are at the top of a hill, right before we go down it, and i simply need a break, my mind is racing thinking we are only 6 miles in and already stopping, and thinking it is going to be a LOONG day, not to mention, are we even going to make it??

We continue to biking, and find out that it just works better for me, who hates biking slow, its just harder for me to do, to slow my natural rhythm down, so I bike ahead, listen to some jams of others bikers who have radios on their bikes and talk to a few bikers who bike next to me a so they go by. We make 1 more stop before getting to Williamsburg which was 15.8 miles. We took a couple quick pictures and a water break and then continued, from here on out I biked pretty much alone, which I was totally okay with, I finally figured out the hills, or at least most of them, I would go down around 25 and go up around 19, I was cruising and it was Great!!

The best part of my picking up speed was I was then able to take longer pit stops which I always went for the shade and then waited for Sarah and Jonathan which was truly a life saver for me. Sarah and Jonathan would get to me grab a drink of water and say okay ready, and I am thinking holy cow!! I'm wiped, and I've been resting for a good 8 minutes. So I'm so thankful I was just able to bike a little faster and take a little longer breaks.

As I mentioned earlier RAGBRAI has it's own language, it really surprised me when we first started, it reminds me of like computer feeks have their own language and these bikers had come up with a language to fit their needs perfectly!

Car Up - Was an echo of people yelling it down the line to let you know, somewhere, usually fairly soon a car was coming towards you on the left, most drivers were very cautious and slow& I was very thankful for that but I saw two cars that were zooming by at least 45 mph.. craziness!!

Car Back - Means a car is on the right side of the road (The side everyone is biking on) which is a disaster especially on hills, the cars would have bikers passing them and I am sure they were often frustrated, At one point I was behind a Semi, which was very scary, I thought if he or I made one wrong move I was toast!

Biker On & Biker Off - Self Explanitory - but used when getting off or back on the road, usually followed by a right or left.

Rumbles - when there are those rumble bars before stop signs there was an echo of rumble on the right, so you could hopefully safely avoid the very annoying rumbles. The first time I heard this, I was like.. what in the world are rumbles..

Then of course there was slowing or stopping when it simply hit massive crowds and you had to walk your bike. So the day was going fairly well, other than I was so hot, there were several times I thought I could pass out and others I was almost crying thinking I couldn't simply go any farther. We decided to take a 1/2 hour break when we reached Windham, thank goodness!!

I don't know if I could have gone much farther, we found some food and some shade and I tried taking a short nap but instead didn't get much in but thankful for the short rest.

We started back on our journey at 12:15 or so, on the road again, we get going again and thankfully we are now only about 12 - 15 miles from Coralville,. We turned the corner to go to Cosgrove and there were all these signs, saying you can do the hill, you can make it, Cosgrove just on top of the hills, Man they were insane!!

We went up the steepest hill in Iowa in the shortest idstance or so they say... Whew, I've never seen so many people jump off their bikes in the middle of a hill, including my self, I was walking it! Everyone kept saying if you had a granny gear you were okay, but I definitely did not have a granny gear. Later on in the day Sarah told me a story of a dad going up the hill hauling his daughter in a pull along up this hill and it went something like this.

Daughter - Dad, were going really slow..
Dad - Huffing and Puffing, well because your really heavy, this thing is really heavy.
Daughter - How much does this thing weigh
Dad - totally out of breath, Ohh I dunno maybe 15 pounds or so..
Daughter - Wow and I weigh like 30 or so thats like 40 pounds Dad
Dad - Huffing and Puffing - yeah..

When Sarah was explaining this story I couldn't help but think how cool it was of that dad to work so hard and let his daughter enough a ride out of Love, and how much God is like my father as well, how hard he works for me, even when I don't deserve it, how much he gives me just out of his pure love! Its amazing!

After several hills and me wanting to throw up and pass out we made it to Cosgrove, I just had to stop, I stood infront of a sprinkler for a while before collapsing under a shaded tree, thinking I was going to die from the heat. Someone happened to mention how much further it was to Iowa city, and said 10 miles, I had only traveled 2 miles!!! CRAZINESS!!

I saw several buses picking up team members, just saying it was to hot, This is where I sooo wished I had a team with a bus something, just let me ride!! Anyway about after a 15 minute rest we got up and took off a gain. I went ahead and could barely stay ahead of Jonathan and Sarah or barely catch up at times!! Jonathan because very fast, or maybe I slowed down, but man that boy was like full of energy, he was hyped! It was amazing! I only wished I had the energy to challegne him but I was toast!

We made 1 or 2 stops before we made it to Iowa city, I have never been so happy to see Iowa City before!.