Stay tuned for that....

I am finally getting a few moments to myself in Peet's Coffee in Portland to sit down and catch you all up on life in Austin and all around the US. I wish I had downloaded some pictures from my camera to post here, but maybe next month as we all know I am just not consistent right now in this blogging world. I am going to be posting a job description later for a full time assistant. Basically you will follow me around and will write down my thoughts and random musings and then come back and hit the blog for me. I mean...all 6 of my followers miss me, horribly.

Here is the update on all things Wilson.

The injury. I won't lie, it's frustrating and I am listening to my Dr. I mean who invented stress fractures? How is it that this little tiny break causes such an annoyance in my foot. Plus, you know me...go big or go home right? I manage to get a stress fracture in the ONE place on the foot where there is minimal blood flow which means healing takes FOREVER. I stayed in le boot for the 5 weeks as the Dr. said, went back and he said try some small runs, no longer than 3 miles, and work in the elliptical machine. I did that. It hurts again. I am back at the Dr. next week for some more x-rays to see if this IM is even possible. I might go and swim, bike my little heart out and hop on one leg for 26.2 miles. Stay tuned for that.

Training despite the injury. I could most certainly swim 2.4 tomorrow. I could bike 112 no problem as my cycling miles are up. I have had a small lapse here in August with traveling but September will be a huge month for me as I am HOME IN AUSTIN FOR 26 CONSECUTIVE DAYS. (Sam won't know what to do) It's the run that I am scared about the most. Aqua jogging for 2 hours, 45 minutes has been the longest yet and THANK GOD for Barton Springs or I wouldn't have all those folks to people watch and soak up the senseless gossip. If I choose to race AZ, it will be an interesting day, which is sad because I want another amazing day like in Idaho, so I am not sure what to do. Stay tuned for that.

Travels I have had many. This year due to my job promotion I have gone to all 4 LIVESTRONG Challenges. It has been crazy busy and amazing. We just finished up the 3rd city in the Series, Philadephia. Before that weekend though I got to see my dear friend, Janette get married to Joe Obermueller. They were married in Gettysburg, PA and it was an amazing weekend of seeing some folks I really love from Orlando, (vernon and connie rainwater, todd and beki herrbach, john and debbie blahnik, stephen and leanna thomas....love those folks) and then catch up with some friends of Jan's in CA (shout out to my roomie, Dorothy) The wedding festivites kicked off with the J&J Big Day 5k, an unofficial/official 5k on the battlefields of Gettysburg. To date, my favorite 5k of all times. Jan's wedding was perfect and celebratory and her parents really put on a great festive party. Oh, and I realized I want a lake house. (Sam, see what you can work out) I will post pictures of that at some point. no promises. stay tuned for that.

After Gettysburg, it was FAMILY TIME!!! I headed down to Virginia and got in some snuggles with my sister's 3 kiddos. The time went by quickly, but I just love it when I get to head to VA and see them. I absolutely dig being an Aunt.

Before Philly I made a brief stop at the Satola household. This family rocks as they helped with the cost of my trip by allowing me to use an extra car they had for the week AND I crashed at their house the night before I headed to Philly for the Challenge. THANK AGAIN Satola's....you rock. Brian works for the Ulman Cancer Fund in Baltimore, MD. They are doing a Half IM next year called Half Full Tri. Stay tuned for that.

Philly Challenge was such a great weekend. 6500 participants, raising $3.4 million dollars. If you don't know Team Fatty, please go here. Getting to meet Elden Nelson, seeing him talk about the recent passing of his wife but also witnessing the way this man has engaged THOUSANDS of people with one voice and one blog is pretty darn amazing. He said it best when he spoke at our dinner on Saturday night...."do what you love and then make a difference with that." I can't wait to see him again in Austin for the Challenge as Team Fatty goes after raising $1 million dollars over 4 LIVESTRONG Challenges this year. The other plus was I got to meet Ethan Zohn of Survivor Africa (the winner of the Million in fact) as he was our Keynote Speaker at the dinner. I don't know if you know this. I love Survivor and I really liked Ethan when he was on Survivor.

Now, I am in Portland for Hood to Coast....197 miles...the mother of all relays. Don't ask me if I am running until AFTER this weekend. I am not going to answer that now...stay tuned for that. Team LIVESTRONG has 3 teams and we have raised $50k with this event. It's our second year back and we are going to ROCK THIS.

As much as I am bed sick and ready to be back in my own digs for some time....I truly cannot complain. I am living a great life. I get to go all over, meet amazing people in the fight on cancer and watch the grassroots movement of LIVESTRONG grow. In three words....my job rocks.

I am blessed and hope I don't lose sight of that when things get difficult or when it is hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I promise I will post pictures at some point in the next year.....stay tuned for that.

Philadelphia

So the last time I blogged I was in San Jose for the Challenge...now I am in Philadelphia and it is the middle of August. Where does the time go? How come I can't seem to sit down for 30 minutes every now and again to write on this thing? I have had so many good adventures since last time I wrote....I hope to update all of this in the next week...you know in between Philadelphia and Portland and....oh wait, time to go to the LIVESTRONG Village....hopefully I will be back this afternoon???

Do you know the way.....to San Jose?

Ok so in RENT it's Santa Fe....but I was in San Jose for the weekend with LIVESTRONG Challenge. It was a good time....I blogged for livestrong today. Check it out!!

LIVESTRONG BLOG

Swim, Bike & Aquajog?

Yes, that is singular shoe. I got a new boot today and it isn't a new pair of Cowboy boots....


I had been having some pain in my feet during running so I finally went and got the x-ray today. I have a small stress fracture on my left foot on the outside. One of the toughest places to get a stress fracture becaue blood circulation is low there....so I am booted up for 3 weeks which means no running or only aqua jogging.

I am not sure I will be quite this svelt in the water...and I may begin to drink heavily because of it....but I will listen because I really want to do this Ironman in November. I can swim, I can bike and I can aquajog. Stay tuned for what I believe will be some really good posts.

oh how I wish TX were a little closer....

My sister has been sending some great summer kids pictures of my niece and nephews....here are some of the latest. I don't usually post pictures up of her kids, but they are too darn cute and I needed to share. My nephew, Zeke, made the all-star team and so these are of the fun games the family got to attend. What out Major Leagues!! I am glad I will get a week with them in August, as I am the bad aunt and don't get to visit much. Enjoy!!!

Fartlek Tuesday

You know kinda like Fat Tuesday....but not really. Funny that only in Ironman training would you run a Half marathon as a training run on Saturday and be back at it by Tuesday. I recently read someone's race report from their IM and they wrote, "Over the course of the next two years, I set small goals (like running a marathon) to ensure I learned how to run long distances." Small goals like a marathon? Us IM folks are not right. I listened to folks on Saturday morning before the half marathon who had this half as their A race, and I thought...that is so cute!! (and I had a small amount of jealousy)

You might be asking..what is a Fartlek? I imagine saying something to my niece and nephew's while visiting...I am going to run some Fartlek's and they go...ewwwwwwwwww!! For those that want some learning on this fine Tuesday night, let's look at our good friend Wikipedia. Fartlek, which means "speed play" in Swedish, is a form of conditioning which puts stress mainly on the aerobic energy system due to the continuous nature of the exercise. The difference between this type of training and continuous training is that the intensity or speed of the exercise varies, meaning that aerobic and anaerobic systems can be put under stress. Most fartlek sessions last a minimum of 45 minutes and can vary from aerobic walking to anaerobic sprinting. Fartlek training is generally associated with running, but can include almost any kind of exercise.

Oh how I wish my workout was aerobic walking....

I did my 15 minute warm up, feeling a bit tight in the legs and then proceeded on to the meat of the workout:

6 min, 4 min, 2 min, 5 min, 3 min, 1 min. All of these are done full out, sprinting, trying to keep the same pace up for each one...but ALL OUT. If you left your heart and lungs at the workout, you have done it correctly. The rest was 2 minutes in between each hard set. Trust me, 2 minutes goes by rather quickly.

After that I did an easy 15 minute cool down of running and a bit of walking to bring the heart rate down.

Crazy enough, I felt good and that was even after a 3400m swim in the AM!! I kept a really consistent pace and my final 1 minute was a tad stronger and faster than the first set. Yes, it was hot outside, but I really tried to block that out.

Ironman training, month #2 is starting out pretty awesome! I am looking forward to this weekend as I have Friday off so I am going to ride for a couple of hours that day, Sam and I are going to ride on July 4th for about 5 hours and then I have a small brick to do on Sunday!! It's gonna rock...and I don't care if it's hot, this month is about the bike with the Tour de France, 442 miles at RAGBRAI and LIVESTRONG Challenge San Jose!

Racing Against Cancer

new Nike Lance commercial. it rocks.

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