Family Vacation

FAMILY VACATION TIME.

I cant wait – we are spending a week away together in Hawaii. I love all our neighbors and the kids have great friends but selfishly I am glad that they will be playing with us all week and not just their friends. Vacations Rock ! I love our home but I definitely don’t miss the phone, kids ringing the doorbell every 5 minutes or the never ending to do list. Its time for me and my family – and I love it

We are all having a blast - doing some serious water time in all the pools around where we are staying. My boys are all over the place umping from one pool to the hot tub to the water slide - they are never ending action. My Princess Jordan is a little more low key which is great because we are having some great quality time together.

In between all the family fun I am able to fit in a workout or two. Bree Wee has been showing me the lay of the land and I enjoy the opportunity to train together when we can.

Lifesport Camp - Victoria

Tuesday July 14th
Today is day two at Lifesport Camp in beautiful Victoria British Columbia. I love the opportunity to come to venues like this and train with top flight athletes. In the dog days of summer (especially long in Florida) something like this is just the ticket. Part of the days activities included a run at Thetis Lake with the group. What fun running this type of terrain, it reminded me so much of one of my favorite run spots in Wisconsin – Pike Lake.A change of scenery can really help jumpstart the body – I cant wait to experience what the week has in store for me.

Thursday July 16th
Today we had the most incredible ride. It was some big time climbing, something this Florida Girl gets none of. It becomes a real test for me but I put my head down and go !! I love the opportunity to ride like this and know that it makes me stronger. If going straight up weren’t at times bad enough it was the screaming downhills which buckled me knees. I have never been a fan of it but here in Victoria it hits an all new level. The swimming has been a blast as well - its great to not have to worry about sharks when I hit the water :)

Saturday July 18th
Today we had one of my favorite workouts to do – mile repeats !! To make it more interesting it was done with the gang around Elk Lake. Wow this was a big time hard effort, especially with a great group of athletes like this. Thanks Paul and the whole Lifesport crew !! This week has been challenging but also very rewarding. I wanted to especially thank my terrific homestay family Hillerie and John, they were absolutely fabulous – super accommodating and what great cooks. It helps that they are both athletes so they understand the intensity we are experiencing daily. John works for Lifesport so he knows better than anyone the fun we are having out there.

Part of the Lifesport Gang !

Let the real games begin !!

Here's to new friends and great food !!

COLD TUB :) So Much Fun !!

Morton Plant - Family Fun !!

Most of my Lifesport friends and Teammates are racing a
Half today in Vancouver. GO GANG GO !! I had considered
going but local Race Director Philip LaHaye - who also directs
St. Anthony's invited me and my family to race his Sprint
Event Morton Plant Mease in Clearwater Florida, which was
the same day.

He always takes great care of us and its such a nice family
weekend get away. In the end I didnt want to miss it, nor
did I want to be away from my crew for too long ! The race
was fun and the weekend was great (see the pics). I finished
3rd behind Nina Kraft of Germany and Tamara Kozulinski
of the Czech Republic.

As a Long Distance Athlete it is so different to do a Sprint Race.
I keep thinking that doing more of them would be beneficial,
as its a fun way to work the "speed" needed for these type of
races.


My neighbor Stacy competed as well. Our families
had fun swimming together and we enjoyed a great
post race brunch. Watch out - she is going to be good!!!


Fellow Lifesport athlete Stephanie and I post race


Michelle Bonfe, a client and friend of ours !!
Awesome job Michelle - keep up the great work!

Help me name this one !!

I have been loving my great new ride from QR

but havent been able to come up with a name yet.

Can you help me????

My Support Team !!

Pool time with my oldest son Josh !!

Prncess Jordan and I enjoy a dip

My youngest Zach and I enjoy the spray from

a cool waterfall :)

Lovin The Holiday - Happy 4th !!

Yes there are many reasons to love the 4th of July Holiday. The friends, the picnics, the food (it’s a Holiday so you can eat whatever you want – NO GUILT !!) the fireworks – OH so many reasons but for me there are 2 additional reasons:

1. Everyone is in a great mood!!

2. There is always LOTS of training opportunities !! I decided to do the Village Bikes Ride this morning (a great sponsor of mine).



I met my friend Tracy and we rode to the shop where we did a 50 mile nice steady ride ( well there’s always a few that try to push the pace and drop the group – today we had two like that and we just let them go). Village had bagels, coffee and the Tour de France playing after the ride – what a fun morning – THANKS VILLAGE

Then I was off to the Salmon Swim with the Sharks Swim Team. After a warmup we did 50 x 50 on 1:00 minute. Doesnt not sound that hard but you had to pull yourself out of the pool on the end after each 50. The first 30 were not bad, but from 31-50 I felt my triceps when getting out of the pool – but so much fun !! Hope you had a great 4th as well !!!

Buffalo Springs Race Report

The weather in Lubbock on race day was not what I had been expecting (upper 90s) instead it was cool, wet and windy – very windy in fact. Nonetheless I always learn a lesson from my race experiences and knew that this would be no different.

I wasn’t feeling well at 3:30am when I woke up and couldn’t eat much either. I still felt nauseated at 6:15am – the pro women went off at 6:32am. I had done a small warmup and felt very sluggish so when the gun went off I was very pleased that I had a great start getting on Jo Lawn’s feet quickly.

I pushed hard and had a good swim – the overall time wasn’t stellar but there were some super swimmers in the field and the pack I was in came out about 2:30 down and I was happy with the pack and excited about where I was at – until I got into transition and couldn’t find my right bike shoe – panic set in. Earlier I decided not to clip my shoes into the pedals as immediately after exciting transition was a huge climb and I thought my strategy would be safer. Ha – not safe after all – did someone take my shoe? Well it must have gotten kicked as I found it 3 bikes down from mine, (I have never been so happy to see my bike shoe) It was now off to the bike.
Unfortunately the women who I came out of the swim with were long gone.

I must have felt like I was riding hard but clearly was not as I still couldn’t see the women ahead and the pro’s behind were catching me (that woke me up!!). It’s nice to have others in front and back to gauge off – it keeps you honest and pushes you. From that point on my ride felt good. There were a few switch backs and I rode those slow as it was wet and there were people coming up in the other lane.

Off the bike and onto the run. It was not hot and the rain felt good but it was still a tough course with some big climbs. I passed a few women on the run but definitely learned that I need to go back to some treadmill hill training or get out to Vancouver to train with the Lifesport Team. There is no lack of hills there!! I am Thankful to all of those who helped me along the path to race day. Also to all of my sponsors: Trakkers, K-Swiss, Quintana Roo, First Endurance, Fuel Belt, Gu, Village Bikes, Zipp, Oakley, Lifesport and the Center 4Massage – you are the Best!!

Got home Monday into Tampa at 12 noon and was home by 1:30pm – I was scheduled for a massage but the kids really wanted to go see the new Transformers Movie.
“Mom we waited to see it with you”
“We knew you liked the first one”
“You said you wanted to see it with us”
“Mom…….

I was gone three days and missed those words M – O – M / so the massage will wait!!

I love this quote a friend shared with me years ago “How do kids spell L-O-V-E ? They spell it T-I-M-E”

Buffalo Springs 70.3

Today I am in Lubbock Texas here at the very beautiful Buffalo Springs Lake for a pre-race swim and jog before Sundays Ironman 70.3

I believe I am recovered from Ironman Brazil and was getting antsy to race, especially after working and doing all the commentating for our Rev3 Race in Connecticut. Man it was hard to watch all my friends and fellow competitor’s race (couldn’t wait to race again myself).

When the Race Director here at Buffalo Springs asked me to come down and race I couldn’t turn it down. I have never been to the Buffalo Springs 70.3 or even Texas for that matter and felt like this hilly, hot race would help in my preparation for the World Championships in Kona as well as helping to build my strength for overall racing.

Yes, I even had some rare time to blog as this will be a quick weekend trip for Todd and I. The summer has been great thus far; we have had some nice quality time with the kids now that they are out of school and have been busily planning our 2010 Rev3 Race Series so the quick break from a busy life has been nice. I have watched more TV in the last two days than I have in the last two months.

Team Louisville Camp

This past weekend was a quick trip to Louisville to put on an Ironman Training Camp for Team Louisville, a Team of athletes Monica Murphy and I put together that are all training for the Ironman. We send monthly workouts to all athletes and those living in the area have the advantage of Monica’s weekly workouts.

We opened the camp up to additional athletes who were training for the Event as well and we had a great total turnout. Athletes flew in from Wisconsin, Illinois and various parts of the Midwest while many hopped in their cars and drove down for the weekend.

On Friday we met at Bluegrass Bicycles located just outside the Ironman Loop. They are a Sponsor of our Team Louisville and Bob the owner was going to provide sag for us.

We did a lecture and Q & A and headed to the Ohio River for a swim talk to go over the logistics, the start and a few tips – then off we went !! Some were concerned about the river water quality. Our two lead swimmers were able to move the large tree limbs out of the way (Thanks Aaron and Brian) That was the biggest workout for them. Everyone did great! You have all been in, no worries now !!!

From the swim it was on to dinner at the Spaghetti Factory. Monica was smart to pick restaurants downtown where athletes may want to go race week. Plus, we needed to carb up for the big course ride Saturday.

Riding a course before the race is a huge mental boost and confidence builder. We headed out shortly after 7:00 am and re-grouped periodically. Many rode the full 112 miles !! For several athletes it was their longest ride followed by a transition run. Many lessons were learned about hydration and nutrition – I gave a perfect first hand example of bonking on the Transition Run !! Ha, I didn’t take any nutrition and was suffering !!

I love doing camps but was glad to head home on Sunday morning to be with my family for Father’s Day. Todd is such a great, great dad and we wanted to celebrate his day :)

Rev3 - What a Blessing !!

Our recent Rev3 Triathlon was the culmination of several months of hard work and preparation. It’s hard to believe that only nine months ago three of us were sitting in a hotel room in Boulder Colorado, I my husband Todd and Charlie Patten (more on Charlie in a minute). We were talking about our sport, how fortunate we were to be involved in something that we loved and what we might do different if we had an event of our own. We both have families and we discussed at great length how events could do a much better job integrating the family into the experience.

Triathlon can be a very selfish sport. The simple fact is that families give up a great deal so that we as athletes can pursue our passions. When it comes to race day we wanted everyone to be part of the experience which was one of the reasons we chose Quassy Amusement Park for our first Venue.

Before I go any further I want to acknowledge Charlie Patten and his wonderful family as they are the true reason for the existence of this Event !! Without Charlie and the support of his family there would be no Rev3. Together we all brought various talents to this venture but to Charlie a big thanks for making this dream a reality.

Race Day was awesome, a true blessing !! So many things that we integrated were new to our sport in many ways. Degrees of technology have been used in Triathlon but nothing on the level of Rev3. This will be something that only improves over time and lends itself to broadening “the experience” for athletes and families alike who are partaking in our events.

I had a great time doing commentary all day with Stu of “Simply Stu” and Luke Bell (after some unfortunate bike trouble knocked him out of the race). And I know that spectators had a blast following the race whether it be from the Jumbo Screen in transition or following loved ones through the use of Trakkers GPS units (an incredible new technology). If you want “true” real time updates then Trakkers is for you – just ask any family member who used it – it’s the BOMB !!!!

And for the 37,000 people who followed the event live on our website – I hope you enjoyed the show. I am happy to report that this has been the first of many future Rev3 Events. For more information and continual updates check out http://www.rev3tri.com/

Ironman Brazil

Off to Ironman Brazil but first the roller coaster of life. Our family, Todd – I and the kids had a great weekend which included a beautiful rehearsal dinner for our friends Ryan and Mary, Sammy’s Run and a wedding (see previous posts). Sunday afternoon I was supposed to leave for Brazil. Todd and the kids drove me to the Tampa Airport. I hurried in line all excited to go (my friend Morgan was going to meet me in Atlanta) and we were going to fly the rest of the way together to Brazil.

So I handed the clerk my Passport (I have been to South America 5 times previous to this trip). Just this past January I won the 70.3 in Pucon Chile – I love it there!! Well, the clerk looked at me and asked if I had a VISA. I replied, “no, just a Passport” She left, came back and told me I could not travel without a VISA. WHAT !!! Ok, I asked quickly how do I get a VISA Sunday night? The quick answer – YOU DON’T!Ok well Monday happens to be a Holiday – NO Go there either. I was told that the normal process takes 7-10 days but if I went to Miami to the Brazilian Consulate – it may be quicker. “MAY be quicker did they not realize I wanted to try to get a Kona spot and this was the race I had been training for now for MONTHS!!”

What can I say – I was in shock and at the same time mad at myself for not knowing this. How did I not know this? Why didn’t any of the race officials mention it? I was terrified that I may not get to go. I was so bummed, as I was looking so forward to this. Tears began to well in my eyes as I talked things through with the clerk about my options for the VISA. I was so stressed, stomach in knots, I just had to get there, this was the IM I had planned. Meanwhile, my sweet son Joshua over-hearing this entire exchange went to my wallet, pulled out my VISA card, tapped me on the shoulder and said “Mom, here’s your VISA” Kids can be so sweet. It made me smile and was a quick reminder as I looked into his sweet eyes of what’s important in life.
We pulled my luggage to the side, got out the laptop computer and logged on to find out quick info on the Brazilian Consulate. Apparently Brazil is the only South American Country that requires a VISA and the application process usually takes several days – UNLESS there are “special circumstances” unfortunately competing in an Ironman was not listed !!

I was so disappointed and sad but it was time to give a life lesson to my kids. We talked about how life throws you curve balls and things often times do not go as planned or how you would like them to. Life can be a series of ups and downs but it’s all about how you handle it that matters. I think the hardest part was continuing to feel that way as I was back home , kids in bed and I was staring at my luggage and packed bike box sitting in the living room in Florida when I was supposed to be in Brazil.

Well I must move on as we made plans to get me to the Miami Consulate(4 hrs away) so I could be there when the doors open to try to get a Visa quickly. Unfortunately, Monday was a holiday so I would have to wait until Tuesday, so the bags and bike box sat waiting to hear if they would get to go to Brazil or not. The nerves of not knowing if I would make it was killing me but I had my friend Eric Kahl who lived in Brazil and my brother in law Michael Egge who’s law firm works a great deal in South America on the task of getting a hold of someone and explaining the situation, in hopes of getting a visa in two days versus 4 or 10!!!

Thankfully things worked out and I eventually got to Brazil as most of you know from my results.

Latin sports and Ken Glah’s Endurance Sports Travel took care of the rest. The transfer from the airport, the hotel, they had a bike mechanic… all the little logistics making it easier to arrive much later than planned.

Well onto the race…

Race morning was dry but very windy, the water was by far the roughest I had seen in awhile. I got up at 3:45 and ate the usual breakfast I brought from the states and took an early bus over to the transition with plenty of time. It always seems that no matter how early I get to the race venue, somehow I always seem to be rushed. Is it my nerves? the Adrenaline? Or my endless port o potty stops. I saw some friends and we walked over to the start, the chatting seemed to calm my nerves. The gun went off and the swim was tough!! The waves were rough for everybody but my body did not feel great. Usually within a minute or two after the gun goes off, you get a feel for how your day may go, how the body is feeling that day and how it will let you perform. The swim is in the shape of an M and you get out and around the main buoy on shore and head back out. At this point I saw a few athletes I recognized but unfortunately ones I am usually ahead of at this point. But I forged on and back in for another part of the M shaped course. I exited the water in about 9th for the women and over 4 and half minutes back. I was happy with the time being just over 56 min for how bad I felt.

The swim was over and it was time to concentrate on the bike. My legs felt good right away, and usually within a few minutes you know how they will perform in that discipline. They were not heavy like the days prior and I was off to catch some of the women in front of me. I kept cycling hard passing one girl and then another but up ahead the race leaders Dede Greisbauer and Charolette Paul were riding very strong and putting time on me. It did rain on the bike, but it was not a really hard or cold rain. It was a fast bike course and with all the work Coach Paul from Lifesport has had me do on the bike I was pleased with my new Ironman bike split PR (5:07)

I came of the bike in fourth and was looking forward to the spectator filled run course. As I said within the first few minutes of a discipline you get an idea of how you will do based on how your body reacts right away. “oh please don’t be true!!!” I didn’t feel great but I am fortunate I can usually push through it mentally. I practice these scenarios in training, getting off the bike in fourth I knew how hard I needed to push. My goal was to be top 3 and get that coveted Hawaii Ironman slot. Once finding myself in third place I was able to relax a bit and enjoy the race. Dede won the race with a 9:10-she was so strong in all three disciplines. I was really happy for Dede. I did not know her real well before the race but as I got to know her more this week she is a extraordinary person and athlete that is humble and sweet ( and normal-she even ate chocolate with me) so I was happy for her and thrilled I got my Kona slot-I am Thankful to all of those that helped me get to Brazil or along the path to race day. Also to all of my sponsors: Trakkers, K-Swiss, Quintana Roo, First Endurance, Fuel Belt, Gu, Village Bikes, Zipp, Oakley, Lifesport and the Center 4Massage – you are the Best!!

NOW… onto the BIG RACE-the REV3 triathlon in Connecticut which my husband Todd and I are involved in. Watch for a fantastic race on many of the popular tri sites including Triathlete Magazine, Slowtwitch and of course http://www.rev3tri.com/

Wedding Bells

My friends Mary and Ryan had asked my daughter Jordan to be a flower girl in their wedding along with Melissa (a friend of mine’s) daughter Francesca, and I was honored to do a reading from the book of Ecclesiastes.

Jordan’s goal was to walk down the aisle without the canes which normally assist her in walking. She looked absolutely beautiful – my baby girl is getting SO BIG !! Wow, do I sound like my mom.. (ha ha)Anyway, she was shaking because she was so nervous to walk that far. I imagine the butterflies she was feeling was similar to that which I experience before a race. Wanting to do a great job, to win and to perform well. Jordan wanted to do well, she didn’t want to fall. We talked about how well she did at Sammy’s Run only a few hours earlier and about doing her best (great lesson for me as my nerves are ramping up as IM Brazil is in 1 week).

Well Jordan performed like a star and everything went according to plan. We had a great time at the wedding and were so happy to see so many friends and to share this very special day with Ryan and Mary. I have known Ryan for a while now, he is a terrific guy – just joining the Navy and his new wife Mary is an absolute sweetheart. I wish them both all the best !!

Anyway enjoy some photos although this represents just half the fun. Previous to today’s wedding we had a girls date with Melissa and Fran to shop for dresses, shoes and socks as well as the spa day to have the hair and eye brows done. This day has been a whirlwind, it began with family participation in Sammy’s Run, then squeezing in a quick movie …. The kids all wanted to see the new Night at the Museum, (yes LOVE Taper Time) – see my previous post on that topic