I'M ALIIIIIIIVE!!!!!

I'd already assigned someone in my will to do a final blog post for me in the event that I died in the triathlon last Saturday! But sorry world, you aren't getting rid of me that easily...i MADE IT! :)
It was AWESOME! Hands down, one of the hardest but BEST experiences in my life! I don't claim that I rocked it...actually I think I was moving a little slow...but I felt great and finished with no problem so that's what matters to me!
I'll get to how the day of the race went, but first a little pre-race prep...
Friday afternoon we went to packet pick up, which is one of my favorite times! It's like a stocking on Christmas morning! It's filled with goodies and freebies and I just get so excited digging through it! It was at this moment though that we found out we were in different wave start times with Kelli starting before me. This was not ideal because that little fish already swims faster than me, so we'd planned for her to start later so we could end up biking and running together. Oh well, all plans out the window, gotta go with the flow on race day! We then went to Clear Lake Park to check everything out! Here's us at the transition point:

And right on the shore near where the swim would start:

We then drove the entire bike course so that we'd have an idea where we were going when we were very first leading the pack...HA HA YEAH RIGHT! It was so that when the entire race left me in their dust I'd know where the turns were! Oh and did I mention that the Kemah bridge was part of the race route and we'd never trained a hill?

Then that night before the race Kev and I went with Wes and Kelli (and a few of their clan) for a yummy CARB FILLED dinner at Freebirds (does this count as effective carbo loading?...I think it does) :)

I gave Kelli a cute charm that I had found and bought for both of us

Here's a closer look at it

My good friend Kelli learned something about Kevin that night. Poor girl brought her bike over just for him to air her tires...oh I could've warned her :) Kev got giddy like a little school boy (as he LOVES biking and everything to do with it) and here's how we found him 30 minutes later:

He took the whole stinkin bike apart, washed it, cleaned it with a citrus degreaser, eventually did put air in the tires! So we both had smelly-good, sparkling bikes...if only that would help my performance in any way!
After a delish dinner and a melatonin, I crashed at 10pm (which is nice and early for me)! I slept like a rock and when the alarm went off at 4:45am I woke up very excited!
We threw on our cute tri outfits, loaded up the bikes and were off!! We arrived a little later than we would have liked. As we walked into the transition area (after unloading, walking a mile with our bikes and bags, getting numbers drawn all over us, etc...) the announcement was made that we only had 15 minutes until the transition area would close. If you know anything about us, we DON'T LIKE TO BE RUSHED! Especially on a day like this! So we quickly set our stuff out, got our chip timers strapped on and made our way to the swim start! Of course we still found time to goof off, take some pictures, and chat with people that we knew....which by the way, I saw WAY too many people I knew while wearing barely any clothes and a swim cap...not a great look for me:




Kelli's wave started and I had to stand on the shore getting nervous for 10 more minutes! Then as if a 45 minute swim isn't hard enough, they put us in the water (where obviously we could not reach) to tread water 5 MINUTES before the gun was to fire! 5 minutes may not sound like a lot of time, but when it's treading water it's an eternity!!! Finally, the gun went off and I started "swimming"...i put that in quotes because at first it felt like just crazy flailing and thrashing!

(All those little specks and ripples in the water are swim capped people)
Once the nerves settled a little bit, I actually felt like I got into a rhythm! From the shore we could see the Hilton what seemed like 10 miles away! So our instructions were to "swim toward the Hilton". And that's the FIRST BUOY!! As long as I could keep myself going in a straight line, I was doing good! But I swim a straight line about as good as I could draw one. I'd look up once and be headed straight for the buoy, then look up again and see Nasa Rd. 1! When I got to the last straight-away toward the shore is when I started to get antsy. I NEEDED to be done! I could see the shore, but just couldn't get there! That's when the 215 lb. man in front of me decided to practice his synchronized swimming routine! He went left, he went right, he popped up, he dove down...AAAAHHHHH!! I finally, in my nicest race voice, asked him to PICK A SIDE AND GET ON IT! (*please note my "i've been in this stupid salt water too long- race voice" is NOT A NICE ONE! :)
But I finally made it to the shore, took way too long to transition, hopped on the bike and took off! I headed confidently toward the Kemah bridge and was surprised that I climbed it with no problem...granted my speed slowed to about 10 mph, but it felt like a really good workout on the leg press machine! I'd spent so much time worried about the climb that I forgot to think about the descent...HHHHHOOOOOOLLLLLLYYYYY CCCCOOOOOOWWWW!! Before I knew it I was tucked down and flying like a bullet at 33 miles per hour down that stinkin thing!! I've never gone anything about 25 mph before this, so as you can imagine, I thought since the water hadn't killed me, the asphalt surely would! But I think at one point I closed my eyes, said a quick prayer, and before I knew it I was at the bottom! Hooray!!! I was so pumped to see about a hundred people behind me! I felt on top of the world! But that quickly ended when the Sprint Triathlon turnaround came up at the next light! All of a sudden at least 3/4 of those people behind me were GONE and all of a sudden I felt like I was at the BACK! Which if you know anything about me, this is NOT OK with me! :) The rest of the bike ride in a nutshell:
1. Forced myself to eat a protein bar at mile 6
2. Rode about 3 miles (FM 1266) on a rode which I still swear was made completely out of rumble strips and I think permanently damaged important parts of my body!
3. I must have looked like I was hurting because every police officer directing traffic along the way felt like they needed to give me an update of how many miles I had left
4. All was made well again when I came up to the Webster Fire Department and, get this ladies, the guys were outside (SOME WITH SHIRTS OFF) washing the fire truck! HELLO???? All is right in the world again! Sorry, I would've taken a picture if I wasn't sure I'd fall off my bike!
When I transitioned from bike to run I MAY OR MAY NOT have yelled at my poor husband when he tried to be encouraging by saying "come on, it's almost over"! My mature response was yelling at him and throwing my water bottle at him :)
The run was FABULOUS! I felt GREAT and felt like I could run forever. My legs were SO happy to get back to what they are used to! I never thought I'd say that running is my strong point, but when compared to the other two events, it is! Besides the one nasty hairy man that I was right behind 1. BURPING, 2. WARNING ME HE BURPED BECAUSE I WAS "DOWNWIND" and 3. ASKING ME IF IT SMELLED, the run was pretty uneventful! Seriously, if my muscles were still functioning I would have punched him in the throat! How NASTY!!!
Well, I'm not sure if anyone is still reading, but there it is! BEST experience of my life! Can't wait to do it again! Upcoming: 1/2 marathon in January, Tri Girl next summer, and who knows what else in between! I'm thinking eventually the HALF IRONMAN! :)
But now that I think about it...maybe this ride is next:

Love and kisses,

This may be one of my last posts...

IF I DIE THIS SATURDAY IN THE OPEN WATER!!!!
Okay, I guess it's not really THAT bad...But, this coming from the girl that has been both skydiving and bungee jumping, I will say that this was one of the scariest things I've done. Last Friday, Kelli and I took our first shot at an Open Water Swim. I put on my cute little tri swim top, grabbed my workout bag and headed out the door to pick Kelli up..la la la la la...no worries. And then halfway down the road leading to Lake 288 (a scuba diving and sports training lake) something unexpected happened...BUTTERFLIES IN MY TUMMY!! This is VERY different than swimming 60 laps in a 25 meter pool! Will there be alligators? The big know-it-alls say "No Misty, there aren't alligators in there", but HOW DO YOU KNOW?? An alligator can go wherever it wants! At one point I will be 1/2 mile away from shore bobbing like bait...what if I get a hammy cramp? aaaaahhhhhhh!!! We talk the whole drive out and calm ourselves down. Then we arrive and see this:

Yep, it's official, I'm going to die! THIS is where I'm going to die!
The owner of the Lake took pity on us and got his swim instructor to come give us a quick little private lesson. Faking confidence (as to not look as stupid as we know we are) we began putting on our swim caps and ear plugs...only to be told WE HAVE BEEN WEARING OUR SWIM CAPS WRONG ALL ALONG! We were putting them on sideways (which looking at them and minding all of the rules of fashion is how it SHOULD go, but whatever)! How do you fake confidence in your swimming ability when you don't even know how to put on a swim cap! So this process, which has taken us an average of 10 minutes (getting our big fro's all up in a tiny cap is NOT an easy task) only takes about 10 seconds when you do it correctly!
Now that we are one week from the triathlon and just passed level ONE of putting on the cap, we were ready to do a "test" for the instructor! Simply swim out to the boat in the middle and back. Sounds easy, right? Being the show offs that we are, we put on our best swimming form and did his little test. After a couple of quick pointers (and Richard nicely lying and saying that our form actually isn't all that bad) it was time to start! If you hug the perimeter of the lake it is a square, 225 meters on each side. So twice around would be 1800 meters, 200 meters more than the race.
So off I went! No more than 100 meters away from shore, it was like I completely forgot how to swim! I floundered, gasping for air and would have drowned, I think, if I hadn't forgotten how to do that too! I had a quick Come to Jesus meeting with myself and said, "Misty, you have a long way to go...there's no turning back, and you know you'd rather die than quit! So GET IT TOGETHER!" Before I knew it, I'd passed the first buoy, then the second, then the third, and in no time at all I'd finished 900 meters, one time around the lake! And since this whole triathlon is just a big mental game with me, now knowing that all I had to do was do the same distance one more time, I was good to go! Settling into my rhythm, I finished the distance just before sunset! It was a great feeling to be done, and an even better feeling to know that I can do this again in a week and I won't die!
And it really felt good to get out of the water, talk to Kelli, and find out she had ALL OF THE SAME EXPERIENCES in the water as I did!

I was on such a high the rest of the night and began counting down the days to the race! I told everyone who would listen all about this Open Water experience but I don't think you can understand the feeling unless you try it!
A few more pictures of our recent training...

If you look closely, you can see a little dark shadow called KELLI! Yep, we are DUMMIES! We had to start EXTRA early (5:30am) one day because Kelli had to be home earlier and it was a 2 1/2 hour workout, so we meet in our usual spot forgetting that it would still be PITCH BLACK! Good thing I was wearing black shorts, grey tank, and had NOTHING reflective on me! I eventually turned on my iphone and tucked it in the back of my shorts to shine behind me, hoping the cars MAY see us and not kill us! :)

Beautiful morning for a bike ride!



T-Minus 2 days, 17 hours, and 31 minutes until start time...

Nice buns honey!

Oh.My.Goodness...I know I said I was on a quest to find HEALTHY recipes, but allow me to splurge just one more time! (Okay, nevermind, I won't make promises I can't keep) But this WILL be the last one for a while because my big bootie is feeling the effects of my cooking this weekend!
May I present to you, THE BEST CINNAMON ROLLS IN THE WORLD!

I have to admit I was pretty proud of myself to make these completely from scratch! The recipe takes a while, but oh man, well worth it!
Thank you Pioneer Woman for this fabulous recipe:
1 quart of whole milk
1 cup of vegetable oil
1 cup of sugar
2 packages Active Dry Yeast
8+1 cups of all-purpose flour
1 heaping tsp baking powder
1 "scant" tsp baking soda
1 heaping Tbsp of salt
1 1/2 to 2 cups melted butter
1 cup of sugar
generous sprinkling of cinnamon
Mix the milk, vegetable oil, and sugar in a pan. "Scald" the mixture (heat until just before the boiling point.) Turn off heat and leave to cool 45 minutes to 1 hour. When the mixture is lukewarm to warm, but not hot, sprinkle in both packages of Active Dry Yeast. Let this sit for a minute. Then add 8 cups of all purpose flour. Stir mixture together. Cover and let rise for at least an hour.

Add 1 more cup of flour, the baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir mixture together. (At this point, you could cover the dough and put it in the fridge until you need it-overnight or even a day or two, if necessary. Just keep your eye on it and if it starts to splurge out of the pan, just punch it down.)

Sprinkle surface generously with flour. Take half the dough and form a rough rectangle. Then roll the dough thin, maintaining a general rectangular shape. Drizzle melted butter over the dough. Now sprinkle sugar over the butter followed by a generous sprinkling of cinnamon.

Now, starting at the opposite end, begin rolling the dough in a neat line toward you. Keep the roll relatively tight as you go. Next, pinch the seam to the roll to seal it. Spread 1 Tbsp of melted butter in seven round, foil cake or pie pans. Then begin cutting rolls approximately 3/4 to 1 inch thick and laying them in the buttered pans. Repeat this process with the other half of the dough. Let the rolls rise for 20-30 minutes, then bake at 400 degrees until light golden brown, about 15-18 minutes.

Maple Frosting

1 bag of powdered sugar
2 tsp maple flavoring
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup brewed coffee
1/8 tsp salt

Mix together all ingredients listed and stir well until smooth. It should be thick but pourable. Taste and adjust as needed. Generously drizzle over the warm rolls. Go crazy and don't skimp on the frosting! :)
Okay, I promise, it's back to healthy...at least until I get my next crazy craving!!

On a different note, my little buddy Cooper Holloman (Kelli's youngest boy) was taken to the ER at the end of last week and his appendix ruptured! Poor baby! He's doing good and may be coming home today...fingers crossed! Kelli has been STIR CRAZY up at the hospital and has missed 4 days of training, which means MISTY has trained the last four days ALONE! YUCK-O! I didn't realize how much I needed my workout buddy until the last four days! I know you can't even talk during a 60 minute swim anyway, but just knowing she's in the lane next door somehow makes it easier! I can't wait for her to be back!!

Well, I hear kids screaming wild in the gym, so I'm off! :) I leave you with this...just a glimpse of the fun days of Summer 2010...which I'm sad to say is slowly coming to an end...

I need a weekend to recover from the weekend...

If there was a time to be a fly on the wall in my house, yesterday morning would have been it. I was home alone (Brinkley wasn’t even there) so the house was silent. Perfect opportunity for a long, hot shower to sooth my always-aching muscles (it’s getting to where I’m not sure what muscle hurts more than the other). Halfway through, the water turned scalding hot. After I screamed like a little girl and flattened myself into the far corner, I finally dove to the handle and turned it off. Apparently all of the crime scene investigative shows that I watch affect me more than I thought because my mind immediately went into freak out mode. You see, in my lovely 35 year-old house the water temp changes drastically when someone turns on another faucet or flushes a toilet in the house. So in my mind I instantly had a serial killer in the guest bathroom filling up the tub that he would drown me in. Naked ,dripping, and armed with my Glock, I proceeded to “clear” every room in the house taking corners Ninja-style only to be reminded in the last room that I cleared that I had started the washing machine before getting in the shower. I still have one leg shaved better than the other, but oh well, I was off to start my day!

This weekend has been action packed and so much fun, but exhausting! The Crossfit games in California were going on all weekend and if you ever need a picture of a healthy strong body, check out these athletes! I’ve attached a picture below that is actually my screen saver….i thought I’d share it because this picture motivates me every day and, well, so that if you don’t read this blog but just see the pics you may just assume it’s me in the picture...

Ummmm...I wish.

In honor of the games we had to do some killer crossfit this weekend! I decided this was the weekend that I would be able to do a Muscle Up. A muscle up is on the rings and is a pullup followed by a dip. First attempt...

2 questions, what’s up with my face, and where exactly is my BROTHER’S hand? I know I just looked crazy and spastic but I would not let it conquer me, which I am regretting today! I feel like I did a million and found new muscles in my body that I didn't know existed...and every single one of them hurt.

After a ridiculous amount of attempts at this stupid thing and with arms like noodles, it was time to start the actual W.O.D (workout of the day). I LOVE when people get into Crossfit and it becomes a social event!



And then with the little bit of muscle control I had left, I had to "play" a little with some gymnastics!

But here's the usual look of death when you are done with Crossfit...but it's such a rewarding moment to lay there with your heart racing and face pounding and leave that wonderful Crossfit Sweat Angel on the ground! Aaahhh no better feeling!

And don't worry, you don't have to be embarrassed for me...I'm FULLY aware of how barf I look in that picture, but don't really care! I LOVE the dying feeling after a good workout!
We also worked in plenty of fun and play time this weekend too

Anyway, I’m pretty proud because no matter how far away I was or how little sleep I got, I stuck to our Tri Training schedule! Kelli and I were discussing how when you have a race coming up everything is SO different! No excuses, No whining, just (wo)man up and do it!! Now that’s not exactly true, there is PLENTY of whining, but we do it anyway and whichever one of us is more rested or in a better mood that particular day just laughs at the other!
I got to end this hard, exhausting, but FUN weekend by FLOATING THE RIVER which is one of my most FAVORITE things to do!!

That's actually a picture from last year...I haven't gotten my water camera developed from this weekend yet! But all that to just say I LOOOOOOOVE the river! I'm trying to talk my girl Linda Lu into going with me just ONE more time before the summer is over!
Well back to working on Tumbling Stars Fall Schedule…which by the way I have HUGE commitment issues with scheduling…it’s just so permanent! I don’t know yet what I want to do tomorrow, I hate the idea of my schedule being set for months at a time ☺ Welcome to being a big girl Misty!

4am...used to just be a potty break

Ah, I remember the days when I'd wake up at 4:00am for one reason and one reason only...to pee :) I'd stumble out of bed, across a dark house, and do my business all while barely opening my eyes. Then I'd stumble back to bed (never failing to stub my toe at least once), crawl back under the covers and drift back off to sleep!
But me and 4:00am have become great friends lately! I never thought I'd say it, and I've tried to resist it, but I think I've become...wait for it...A MORNING PERSON! AAAAAHHHHH!!!
At HBU I lived in an apartment with 3 other girls. We'd wake up at the last possible minute, throw on some clothes (but REAL clothes...we were NEVER those girls who thought it was acceptable to wear funky pajama pants, a grungy t-shirt, and bad morning breath to a college classroom) and even a little bit of makeup, the first one to the kitchen would pass out some granola bars and we'd walk halfway to class ALL WITHOUT SAYING ONE WORD! We were GRUMPY! I hated mornings!!
So that's why it pains me to say that at 28 years old I have finally started to live on a big girl schedule! Don't get me wrong, if you ask me what my IDEAL schedule is, I still love the idea of GOING TO SLEEP at 2:00am and not waking up until lunch. But sadly, in Houston, noon is NOT a great time to work out outside..not unless you enjoy the effects of heat stroke! So...5:30am-6:00am workouts it is! This also means going to bed at 10:00-10:30pm, which feels like it should be against my religion!
So anyway, 4:00am has become very different in my life! 5 days a week the alarms starts going off at this time. Some mornings I jump right up and am ready to attack whatever the terrible triathlon training schedule tells me I have to do that day...other days, not so much. Cursing the morning, my workout buddy Kelli, my body for not being naturally strong and hot so I don't have to work out at all, and just cursing life in general, I peel myself out of bed.
I'm a runner at heart and think it will always be my main love! I miss the mornings of just throwing on the Mizunos and heading out the door (or even just carrying them with me and putting them on at stoplights)! This triathlon is requiring a lot more brain function way too early in the morning! First of all, just the sheer amount of JUNK I have to remember to have with me

Also, I am accustomed to running a 1/2 mile loop 10-12 times...takes very little thinking. But when the schedule says 157 minute bike ride, you have to do a little bit more planning. Mapquest saves the day :) But what happens if the route I chose is full of potholes, has construction/road closures, has no shoulder in spots, or worst case scenario, what if I can't remember where I am and get lost?

Yep, that's pretty, I know. Please excuse my morning face. But the map on the hand is sheer brilliance, you have to admit. Well, except for the fact that it took 2 days to come off, even with showers and scrubbing. Oh the sacrifices I make. My skin, hair, toe nails, heels...all of my girly nature is suffering the price paid for triathlon training, but it's all worth it! Except for the occasional charlie horses and hamstring cramps, I am loving the way I feel: strong and healthy :) I began today with a 2,050 meter swim which felt awesome followed by weight training,

but now that I am up well past my new found bedtime, I am off for the night. Tomorrow is the only rest day this week, so I will definitely return to my 4:00am potty break followed by...MORE SLEEP! :)
XOXO

BABY STEPS GET YOU BABY RESULTS!!

A few months ago, my running partner and I said, "let's try something harder, like a triathlon". I guess having done a few 1/2 marathons and endless training runs (at least 3X per week) we were in need of a change! Don't get me wrong, we are dedicated to our 6am workouts and beat ourselves up in a big way if we ever miss one (no matter how good our reasons), but it was beginning to be harder and harder to wake up, put on the Mizunos, and push through 10 laps on the same 1/2 mile track! So...a triathlon...why not?? :)
Someone with a brain would say to start easy by training for a Sprint triathlon about 10+ weeks out. Well, not us...we not only signed up for a Sprint tri which was only 3 weeks away, at the same time we paid for and committed ourselves to an Olympic triathlon in 12 weeks. The Sprint Triathlon was so much fun and we really did well considering it was our first race of this kind!


But an OLYMPIC TRIATHLON??
We are talking swimming a distance that I've never swam before...total...in an entire summer..., biking a distance that makes important parts of your body go completely numb, and being expected to run at the end using the muscles that are no longer functioning from the first two events. Being a terrible mix of stubborn, a show off, an optimist, and highly competitive, I thought "I can do this! I'm a tough chick!" But even with this confidence, there was still a small part of me laid staring at the ceiling at night thinking what in the WORLD did I get myself into?? Then all my fears were confirmed when I saw this training schedule...

This is where we started last week in order to be "ready" for August 29th..although I don't think anything will make me ready! On mornings like today when I'm feeling whiney, gripey, complainey, and just downright MAD that I even have to wake up to do this, I think maybe we should have done a later race, trained longer, thought harder about it....
BUT then I remember what my wise cousin Tommy G yelled once..."BABY STEPS GET YOU BABY RESULTS"...so here we go!!!
XOXO