Its Football Time in the SEC!!!

Ok so this post has absolutely nothing to do with our training or a triathlon at all, it has to do with something bigger....SEC football!! Oh yeah! This weekend is the first kick off all around the south and I can hardly wait. Tonight I went to a non-SEC game, GA Tech (the tickets were free). Now, I mean no offense to those non-SEC fans but I mean really, what is going on? I experienced some crazy things tonight, below are the top 10.

10. We arrived during the 2nd quarter and there were students walking around campus...hello!! there is a football game going on.

9. The first game was on a school night...no words.

8. The student section was half full, they can't all be studying

7. I yelled during a play and no kidding the guy in front of me turned around and looked at me like I just kicked his puppy, why else do we go to these games?

6. We sat the whole time. except between quarters

5. I'm not sure non-SEC schools really understand the point of special teams, field goals are supposed to go in the air and kick-off returns are supposed to be caught

4. We weren't wearing gold and navy and no one seemed to notice

3. I didn't see one drunk fan or flask in a pocket

2. The visiting band was louder than the GT band but worst of all no one knew the words to the fight song or the cheers

1. We left at the end of the 3rd quarter, along with 2/3 of the stadium

On a positive note, GT has a great mascot but I'm pretty sure he was the only drunk fan and wasn't exactly sure what to do except put a cheerleader in a wrestling hold...strange but funny!

I say all this to say, thank you SEC fans!! Thank you for celebrating football the way it is meant to be. I can't wait until this weekend for some REAL football. Dust off your tailgaiting tent, wash out your flask, shake the first shake of your shaker (thats probably 5+ yrs. old), and get ready for some football!!!!

It's Official

So the race is 6 weeks away and it is definately getting close. We are starting to feel the progress - swimming is getting easier, bike riding feels good, and well you know how I feel about the running. But the really exciting part is that we are officially on the participant list for the race http://www.gamultisports.com/emeraldpointeparticipationlist.htm!!!

Moving forward, we will start doing bricks (two events in one workout, ex: swim then run) after this week. That should be quiet an experience given that the single workouts are kicking our butt right now.

On a seperate note, the Olympics are officially over today and it is very sad for me. They have absolutely consumed my life for the last three weeks so I'm just not sure what to watch on TV now. Thanks for all you comments and encouragement!!

biiiiiiiiiiiicycle biiiiiiiiiiiiiiicycle BIIIIIIIICYCLE (sing to the tune of Queen's song :) )

I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike!

So, this weekend I believe we are going to attempt to ride our bikes :) Although I'm a little nervous about this (I don't know if I have ever ridden on an actual road bike with the narrow road tires) I am SUPER PUMPED! I wanted to see - do any of you readers out there know of any good places for us to ride? It's a dangerous world out there, and being the beginners that we are, we don't think we're ready to brave the streets of Atlanta. I know there's the Greenway, up in the burbs, but does anyone know of a similar place in town?

Now all I need is a basket, some ribbons to put on my handle bars, and a bell, and I'll be on my way!

Run from Running!

Before I get into my hatred of running and believe me I'll get there, let me just take a minute to respond to this swim cap note. There are many benefits to a swim cap...my hair does not get caught in my goggle straps, I swim faster, and some people actually believe I know what I'm doing. I will continue to rock the swim cap but good luck getting a pic of it before the race, you may have better luck capturing Big Foot!!

Back to my original point...I HATE running!! Uh, it is terrible and by terrible I mean the worst thing ever. I thought it would be something that would get better and I would start to enjoy but not so much. If you're a runner, I don't understand...why do you torture yourself??

On Saturday I had to go running before our party and needless to say I chose the wrong path near our house and was forced to attempt running up the largest hill I have ever seen...not a good decision. Aboout half way up, I thought I was going to fall over and my throat hurt so bad from breathing/gasping for air out of my mouth. I think I might be missing something here. Either way, it was a super struggle to finish the run and I definately didn't run for the whole 20 mins. Who put this training schedule together that goes from 10 min intervals to 20 straight minutes...crazy talk! All that being said, it's still part of the race so I will continue to keep on my little schedule but it makes me feel better to let our three whole readers know that I hate it.

Hope you are all enjoying the Olympics and if you're not, you should!!

And we thought the goggles were bad!

Yesterday afternoon at our bi-weekly trip to the pool we had a new addition to the mix: the swim cap. It's a small change in wardrobe (Crystal got it as a "gift" from someone else), and though it wasn't Olympics inspired, it defintiely made her look like she was getting down to business. Now, I won't post a picture of it, but it totally deserves an honorable mention. It gave us both a good laugh when I was showing her how to put it on, and the thing snapped on my head. And then she put it on, and it snapped on hers. Good times.

On the topic of Olympic swimwear, apparently the new LZR speedo is all the rage, and in fact has spawned some real legal rage between swimsuit companies TYR and Speedo. Check it out - it's an amusing story worth the read: http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080806/SPORTS/808060399/1007/SPORTS. Perhaps I need to invest the whopping $550 for one of those bad boys, and maybe even splurge on swim cap.

We also met a friend at the pool. He's probably about our age, maybe a little older, and he's wanting to be a lifeguard. I don't think he's really swam much in his life, but I think we gave him some words of encouragement and told him about our progress. So, guy from the pool, best of luck with everything and maybe we'll see you there again!

One last thing - did everyone see the men's 4x100 freestyle relay when the U.S. men's relay team broke the world record when Lezak came through in the end to beat out the French team who was spitting some mean game in an interview beforehand?? WOW. I must say, I have always loved the olympics but I have noticed that I am into the swimming now more than ever. And just to put it into persepective, we timed ourselves yesterday and completed 200 meters (that's 8 lengths of a standard swimming pool, 4 lengths of an olympic sized pool) in about 4 minutes 15 seconds. These olympic swimmers swim the 200 meter freestyle in under 1 min 50 seconds! Looks like we have a little work to do...

Swimmers, take your mark...GO!

8 is Great!

First of all, happy Olympics Opening Ceremony Day! I'm so excited!! It struck me yesterday that there is something special about the number eight this week. Not just because today is 8.8.08 or because the Olympics officially start today but because this was a week of eights for us!

The week started off rough and needless to say I was a little bit of a Negative Nancy early on. Swimming on Sunday was terrible and I had completely regressed all my progress. I could barely do 4 lengths without choking and then Monday I skipped all together. I know, I know ...not acceptable! Then came Tuesday morning running, the worst of all! We started running and within 45 seconds my side was hurting and I had to stop for a rest but then pushed through and finished the run irritated and a little discouraged. Then....

Came Wednesday morning swimming and we were determined to make up for the rough start to the week. On our beginning laps the breathing felt good and I wasn't inhaling water anymore...I think I may have made some progress. The rest of the swim we did sets of 8 lengths, which doesn' t sound like a lot but a big accomplishment!

The other 8 came in yesterday when our running intervals jumped from 5 minutes to 8, per our plan, not randomly. I was in a Negative Nancy mode again, thinking that there is no way I'll be able to do it based on Tuesday but we did and it was a small but glorious victory. The last interval was the toughest b/c the side issue came up again but I thought to myself, " I will fall down on this treadmill and go shooting across the room like one of those YouTube videos before I stop running!!" Luckily that didn't happen and I finished. However, Saturday's run is 20 mins...cross your fingers.

Thank so much for all your support and inquiry about our training! You are keeping us accountable and giving us the strength to keeping doing it when we really just want to sit.

makin some progress

Today was a successful day in the swimming pool! It actually makes me really excited to start watching the swimming portions of the Olympics next week! We have officially set a record for the time we take to complete our laps, and did them in the fewest amount of intervals thus far. Just giving us a little pat on the back, or a high five (whichever method of props you choose to dish out) for that little accomplishment. Still having some technical difficulties with the fogging of the goggles, but overall a smashing success. Go team!