I get asked this question  all the time by non-triathletes….”What do you do for fun?” 

I have sometimes stopped to think about this, trying to come up with something other than swimming, biking and running that I do for fun, and nothing ever comes to my mind.  I mean, I work, maybe see a movie once a year (not including inflight movies while traveling to a race),  and go out to dinner with friends (which is usually following a training session). 

So the answer I consistently come up with is “I swim, bike and run.”   To me this IS fun!  I love swimming, biking and running.  This is also fun because  I can usually do these things with a friend or friends!  I mean, this is my fun!  This is what I love to do!

I sometimes will feel a bit unbalanced or think that I should be doing other things for fun.  The fact of the matter though, is as an Ironman triathlete….most of my free time is spent swimming, biking and running.  Fortunately, since I enjoy all three sports, I think of this as FUN.

There are other benefits to having fun with triathlon…..some of which I experienced this weekend.  I took Friday morning off  work to  get my long run in so I would have some free time over the weekend.  Read more and tell me if this doesn’t sound like fun! 

Friday night I was invited through the organization GOTRIbal  (check em out and join!) to a sit down dinner with Chrissie Wellington and 7 other GOTRIbal members!

Chrissie and GOTRIbal members

 To say the evening was amazing is an understatement. When Chrissie walked into the room, my knees got weak and I was so nervous.  Here I was in the presence of one of the most gracious and humble human beings I have ever met, and a three-time World Champion!

The evening discussion focused on empowering ourselves and other women through the sport of triathlon.  Chrissie shared with us her humble beginnings (you wouldn’t believe her experience at her first Ironman, which was Kona) and she shared her passion for serving.  There was no talk about training or nutrition strategies…it was just an evening for the girls to hang out and chat.

We all shared with Chrissie and each other, what motivates and empowers us.  Not only was meeting Chrissie an absolute blessing, but the women who attended where phenomenal.  I am so grateful I was able to meet such wonderful “age-groupers” as well.  As the evening wrapped up I found myself wishing for more time.  Three hours seemed to go by like nothing… And then we were going our separate ways.

Saturday 4:30 am came quickly (I was out way past my bedtime) and I was off to Boulder to volunteer with my TriBella mates. 

TriBella at the turn around point on the run

 We were all there ready to cheer on  the women as they came to the turn around point on the 5k run.  I must say, following the previous night, being out on that course and seeing 500 women, racing their hearts out, just made me fall in love with triathlon even more! Every woman who passed and slapped our hands as we cheered them on, has a story.  A story of the triathlon start and journey.  The energy these women had was absolutely through the roof!!!!

TriBella Cheering Section

USA Pro Cycling Challenge Start

 As the cyclist rode by the crowds roar was deafening!  I’ve never heard so many cowbells in my life.  The place was just on fire!  Seriously, everyone was so amped and excited!  The energy was amazing!

Back into Golden before climbing Lookout Mt

As the cyclist rode up Lookout Mt we headed into the park to watch the live coverage on a humongous screen.  Watching them race up the mountain and knowing exactly where they were just made me want to get up and ride!  As they crested Lookout we headed over to where they cyclist would be returning to Golden for the last time before heading to Denver. Once they rode on by, we headed back to the park for the remainder of the race. 

One last time through Golden

 This was by far one of the best weekends I’ve ever had!  I have had to pinch myself that I actually experienced such an amazing three days!  Now I know I didn’t do a ton of training (except for the 18 mile run on Friday morning)….but you get the idea.  These experiences where all possible because I do swim, bike and run.  I was able to enjoy these  because I LOVE to triathlon!  Because I do  swim, bike, and run for FUN!!!!  I get to be a part of this wonderful thing called triathlon and it gives me great joy to do so.

And…my quesiton to you is: What do you do for FUN?

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I just spent the last week hanging in Northern California.  I flew in to San Francisco after a two hour delay due to the weather in SF….well that was just the beginning of one wet…I mean wet week in California.

I spent the weekend with my Mom who came down to meet me. We did some of those touristy kinds of things. We’re both native San Franciscans and enjoyed being back in our City By the Bay.

Mom and Me at Fishermans Wharf

In between downpours we’d get out for a walk and visit as many Peets Coffees as possible (love me some of Peets too!).
I was pretty much in heaven- even kinda with all the rain.

I got to visit with friends see family.  I met with my friend Joanne who I haven’t seen since the run at Ironman Cozumel.  I met Joanne at packet pickup and then on race day we kept seeing each other on the bike and then multiple times on the run….bonded for life!!!

IMCZ Girlfriend Joanne- Haven't seen her since the run!

  Oh yeah- I also attended a two day work training. I actually enjoyed being indoors given all the rain. One thing I know for sure… Is I could never live inthe Northwest. I would not do well with day after day of rain and no sun.

You know the funny part? When I got back to Denver it was still cloudy for two more days. And even though it was still cloudy- I was glad to be back home!

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There’s something about a New Year that just breaths fresh life into things.

That’s how I’ve been feeling for awhile about 2011.  I’ve just felt like 2011 is going to be different than the past two years have been.  Like….things have changed and the challenges of the last two years are behind me.

With that thought in mind I set out to have my blog redesigned.  Kind of a symbolic shift to signify the end of a period of time in my life and the beginning of something new.

I have so many wonderful new things to share with everyone!  While my blog was being redesigned ( a BIG shout out to Chris at Envie Media ) my mind has been swimming with blog post ideas.  There is so much to share and so much I’ve learned over the past two years.

Fortunately I’m in a spot where my health is back since the Adrenal Fatigue; I’ve made it through the first year of my Dad’s passing; and many other challenging things.  I’ve not forgotten or shut the door on them…I’ve just lived with these things now and have made my peace with them.

So come back and visit often! There will be exciting  give-aways and discounts offered in the future….plus tons of fun adventures as I make my come backfor my next Ironman!  Bring on 2011 caz I’m ready!!!  

I’ve been thinking about flexibility a lot lately. Not so much the flexibility of the body, but flexibility of the mind.

The King of Flexibility

You see, a lot of things that were planned this season didn’t happen. Or maybe I should say they didn’t happen the way they were planned.

I remember when I started training two years ago, I HAD to get my workouts in EXACTLY as they were written.  I HAD to hit the right type, cadence, heart rate, speed, course, you name it.  If I didn’t do it just right, everyone heard about it and needless to say, I was NOT very flexible. 

Fastforward two years, and today I have embraced the attitude of flexiblity.  Granted, I don’t have it down pact, but I’d rather be flexible than how I was before.  I have found that I get to enjoy life more with an attitude of “oh well.  What are we going to do now? ”  This is helping me tremendously to enjoy training, life and my friends more.

Here’s an example….Saturday a stack of us met at the pond to swim a lap then head to ride City View.  We decided with the crowds riding City View and with how “friendly” the locals can be sometimes, that we would head to Cyclist Friendly Boulder!  (Boulder is the BEST place to ride and be safe!)

So that’s exactly what we did.  Swam at the Pond, drove to Boulder, cycled up there….then we had Lunch, went to Newton Running Labs and had a jolly good “Girlfriend” Day! 

Enjoying Friendship

See, two years ago, I NEVER would have done that!  I would have insisted on riding City View because that’s what my plan said.  I would have been so narrow minded that I would not have gone to Boulder.  I would have missed out on a wonderful day filled with sisterhood!  What a shame that would have been.

Flexibilitly of the mind has allowed me to enjoy my life more.  It has allowed me to be more spontaneous and to “go with the flow”.  It has allowed me to enjoy the journey of training and the moments I share with friends.  It has helped me with the bumps and cracks in the road that happen in this thing called life.  I’m not sure how I came upon this flexibility of the mind, wether it was life or training that helped me find this.  All I know, is I’m glad I have embraced it and attempt to live with flexibility as much as possible.

This past weekend we held the memorial celebration for my father.  It was the most wonderful, yet hardest day.  80+ people from around the country came to honor my father Frank.

We had a wonderful time sharing stories from a microphone about my Dad.  People talked for 4 hours.  It was amazing, and sad, and fun.

Dad's Celebration- The intermission break

The themes that seemed to be repeated by everyone were that Frank was:

-A true steward of the earth.  He spent his whole life fighting for water.  He helped found CalTrout and most recently he successfully fought Nestles’ attempt to build a water bottling plant in McCloud. It was a 5 year battle and just last September Nestles backed out.  My Dad was a environmentalist and he went Green way back in the 60′s.  We grew up recycling and littering was not tolerated!

-He was a good listener and always could give sage advise.  Many people shared about the times my Dad took someone aside and helped them through a difficult time.

-He was a hard worker and could fix ANYTHING!  I mean ANYTHING!  Everyone had a story of how my Dad had come over and helped them fix, build or replace something.  A few times a hammer to whatever wasn’t working was all it took, but usually the fixes where very involved.  My Dad loved helping people fix things!

-He had a great sense of humor.  My Dad could bust you up laughing for hours.  He could also imitate just about any noise.  And if his comedic timing didn’t get you, his SMILE did!  My Dad had the best smile I have ever seen.  The world lit up when Dad smiled.

My Dad was many things to many people…and these are just a few.  I always thought my Dad was the most amazing man I had ever known.  I felt it in my gut that this was the truth, but then at times I’d wondered if I thought that just because he was my Dad.  After this weekend, and after what  people shared, I now know for certain that my Dad was truly that GREAT of a human being. 

My Dad, Frank, was the best father, mentor, friend, human being that I could have ever been blessed with. 

May you rest with the Angles Dad.  I love you and I will see you and that big smile again.

My Dad, Frank- the greatest father a daughter could ever have!

I can’t believe it. Spring is here and so is my first race of the season!
How did this happen?  How did the race that I signed up for in winter come so quickly? It seems like just yesterday I wrote out my race schedule for the 2010 season. Back in November this seemed like a good idea! HaH!

I do have to admit that I am enjoying the taper. It ‘s kinda nice to feel like I have more energy and I’m not so tired. Plus it was nice to do only an hour and half bike ride Saturday.  Some of the perks of approaching a race.

So, I’ll see how it goes.  Sometimes my mind is in the game for this race and sometimes it’s not…..All I know is I’m ready to have some fun!

See ya next week with a race report!

This weekend was all about multi sportin.  There was some Splishin, some Splotin, and some heavy duty windy Woshin to be had. 

And speaking of WOoooSSSHHIN…how about that wind this weekend.  How many of you got caught out there on your long Saturday bike ride?  Pretty fun heh?  (ok maybe NO fun).  For all of us brave soles (or is it silly soles) who didn’t change our workouts around, for those of us who rode parallel to the road….this one’s for you!

There was a group of us brave soles who drove down to Castle Rock to ride the 62 mile E Rock  course. As we all gathered our gear and headed out on the rode the wind was just starting to blow.  The further we got out on the ride- of course- the windier it got! 

By mile 15 we decided to call it quits and head back… I have to be honest- I was kinda disappointed, if someone else had said “yes” to continuing I would have been all over it.  Luckily for me, no one was dumb enough to want to continue!  Once we turned around we quickly realized we would have 15 grueling miles into the wind.  I’m talkin full on head wind- and cross winds that left you riding parallel to the road if not splot on the road.

Delinda, Doreen, Liesl, Sharon...check out the sideways hair!

We made it back to the parking lot, after a few minor wind epics.  Next up for me was to finish off my mileage with a basement trainer ride and NCIS!  Oh yeah, followed by my second 20 minute run of the day.

Sunday was all about the run and swim.  And of course, being spring and all , here in Colorado…there had to be some wind again.  I headed up Waterton Canyon for a quick 5 and back down, meet some friends along the way…and was grateful it was’t as windy at the day before!

I finished the run off, jumped in my car, downed some Mix1 (love the Mango) and headed to the pool.  That’s were I spent the next 30 minutes Splishin.  And did it feel good!  After Saturdays windfest and Sundays run, I was ready for my favorite- swimming!

It was a perfect weekend….great friends, great workouts, and some splish, splot and wosh….who could ask for anything more…..except maybe a bit less wind next weekend