November Totals

The first month of triathlon training has come to a close. I missed almost all of last week being sick, so my numbers are lower than I thought they would be. I'm having a hard time letting go of running a lot of miles. It seems weird to have a month where I've only run 30 miles. I'm hoping the running comes back! This was a big month of weight lifting. I haven't done that much since high school. It worked back then and I think it's going to work now. On to December!!

Swim = 15,500 meters (That's over 9-1/2 miles of swimming!)

Bike = 87.46 miles

Run = 33.55 miles

Other = 4.75 hours

Purchase a Piece of Meredith

It has taken me all day, but I finally got my Etsy shop, "Mostly Square Photos", up and running. Yep that's right! If you love my photography, and hopefully you do, now you have the chance to purchase a select number of my through the viewfinder prints. I don't have everything I want available for sale yet, but more prints will be added in the next couple of days. And because I am celebrating the grand opening of my shop, all purchases between now and December 11th will receive free shipping. Check out my Mostly Square Photos here. And happy shopping!

Miscellany for Saturday

A little miscellany for this Saturday:

• This has been the weirdest Thanksgiving. We had one with my family, one with Dave's family, and I'm yet to have any turkey. Not because I didn't want turkey, because there wasn't any turkey. My family's never got done and we had roast at Dave's family. Weird.
• Our puppy Sloopy is starting to come out of her shell and develop a personality for us. She's a bit feisty. We're also struggling to come up with a signal to let us know when she needs to go out. We've had a few accidents. She did really well, though at the vet. She didn't cry at all when she got her shots.
• I've been sick all week. It's starting to tick me off. I don't feel horrible, but I've got a mad case of laryngitis. At Thanksgiving I was only able to whisper. In a family of 12, whispering was worthless.
• I've had two inquiries to take some pictures for Christmas. Although I've shut the business down, officially, I'm still interested and am really excited to do these portraits.
• Good luck to my friend Niels and Miss Bree Wee racing in Ironman Cozumel tomorrow.
• Big announcement coming in the next few days!!

And because how cute is a picture of my dog, check her out blogging:

Exciting News for 2010

I got some great news last week. I found out that I got sponsored for 2010 by Trakkers. Trakkers is such a cool device. It is a GPS worn during races and workouts that allows your family and friends to track you. It uses a map interface that can be zoomed into the street level and can even allow your family and friends to tell what side of the street you're on. Although the device does not give feedback to your during your event, you can download the performance information afterward and see how good or bad you did. Although the Trakkers GPS is not currently available for the general public, it has been successfully tested in many races and should be available soon.

Not only is Trakkers a cool device, the sponsorship is a fantastic opportunity. Trakkers has paired with Rev3, a series of races that aims to offer a fun, first class racing experience. As a sponsored athlete I get the opportunity to race in a Rev3 race and be part of all the team events at the race. I'm hoping to do the olympic distance race in Knoxville and Dave is planning on doing the full iron-distance race at Cedar Point.

There are several other sponsors that I will discuss in the future. They're great companies and I'm excited to try out their products.

Thanks Trakkers for choosing me. I look forward to being part of the team in 2010.

Flying Feather 4 Miler 2009

Hey, this is my 900th post! Let's celebrate with a race report!!

I've had laryngitis since about lunch time, so I've had no speaking all afternoon and evening. If you know anything about me, this is killing me! So, it's great to type and feel like I'm communicating.

Anyway, the Flying Feather 4 Miler is my favorite race of the year. Not only is it a family tradition to run a race on Thanksgiving, but this race gives away a bottle of wine to each finisher. Score! Our blogger and now real-life friend Carrie was in town for Thanksgiving and joined us for the race. Since she has a torn labrum and a possible herniated disk in her back and because I've been sick, sick, sick this week, we decided to dog the race and spend the time jogging and compare training notes.

Pre-Race

Carrie and I ran negative splits, starting at a 9:41 and ending somewhere around 8:08. It was fun to get faster and faster and faster and pass more and more people. If we were racing we would have ran the perfect race.

Post-Race

Unfortunately, we got beat by my dad and Dave. Buggers! Either way, we win!

Celebrate!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Thursday Thoughts (on a Wednesday)

Tomorrow there will be a race report as we're all running in the annual family Thanksgiving Day race. Unfortunately I'm sicker than a dog, so there probably won't be a whole lot of racing.

So the obvious question, what are you thankful for this year?

I am thankful that I took the leap and tried out running my own business and so happy we've been as successful as we have. We started this year with two paid events and ended the year with nearly 40. For 2010 we already have 11 confirmed events on the schedule. We even got interviewed for Columbus Bride magazine. I'm excited for what's to come.

We Are Parents!

Please welcome the newest Gordon to the family. We named her Sloopy.

It Was Fate

A few weeks ago I mentioned Dave and I were thinking of getting a dog. We talked about it and decided to wait until at least the new year to make a decision. Last week my mom sent me an e-mail letting me know a friend of hers had a puppy Morkie that she had just adopted that she wasn't going to be able to keep due to allergies. She wanted the dog to go to a good home. Tomorrow Dave and I are going to meet the puppy and see if it might work out. Everything happens for a reason and we're so excited to potentially become dog parents this week.

Week's done; let's celebrate!

Another week of triathlon training has come to a close. This week was tough for me. Last week I had terrible headaches and this week I woke up with sore throats every day. At first I thought I was catching a cold, and therefore didn't do any workouts on Tuesday, but every day the sore throats would subside later in the morning. I also struggled to complete one of the weight lifting workouts as it was like 900 degrees in the gym and I was beyond hungry. I left the gym after only six exercises as I thought I was going to get sick. After dinner I felt much better.

The workouts themselves are getting easier and better. I don't dread slipping into the pool, straddling the bicycle, and because of some unseasonably warm weather I have gotten out to run without any problems. Obviously the excitement will wear off, but right now things are good.

Next week is a fall back week. There are less workouts but still complete workouts. I will be racing with Dave and my dad on Thanksgiving in the Flying Feather 4 Miler and looking forward to seeing Carrie and her husband there too.

Now, I am going to toast the week with a yummy dinner and perhaps a beverage. :)

Six Years in a Row!!!

I have lived in Columbus, Ohio my whole life. I have no idea what it is like not to live in a college town. This town in CRAZY in the fall. It's football, football, football!!! This week was no different as we clenched the Big Ten title and the Rose Bowl bid last Saturday. Then we geared up all week for the big game, Michigan. Or should I say, "the state up north." Game day in Columbus is a sea of scarlet. Everywhere you look people are wearing jerseys and sweaters and t-shirts, all Ohio State gear. If you go to the grocery store before the game, there are tons of people buying food for parties. If you go to the grocery during the game, it's a ghost town. Not a sole in sight. After the game, people high five perfect strangers. You can hear cheers of O-H...I-O across the street or any public place.

I love living in a college town. I wouldn't want it any other way.

Go Bucks!

Foto Friday

I'm kinda a camera collector. I've got my big, fancy camera, but it's too cumbersome to carry every day. I have my point and shoot which I do carry with me frequently. I love to take pictures "through the viewfinder" of my old non-working cameras. But today I'm talking pictures taken with my iPhone. There are a lot of great photo apps out there for the iPhone. My new favorite is called ShakeItPhoto, which basically takes your photos and turns them into Polaroids.

Here's a few of my favorites:

Thursday Thoughts

The time has come. Yes friends, it's "Twilight: New Moon" weekend. I must admit, I am a fan. I've read all the books and saw the first movie. I will be seeing the second movie. I got asked to go at midnight tonight, but I just cannot stay up that late. I'm not sure if I'm going to see Twilight this weekend because of how crazy it's going to be and also because I'd like to see The Blind Side and Precious which both open this weekend.

So, will you be seeing Twilight?

By the way, I'm totally Team Jacob. Have you seen that kid (and kinda gross that he's still a minor)? He's HOT!!!!

Tsk, Tsk

On the Today show today, Matt Lauer and a panel of experts discussed spanking children. Yes, I was spanked as a child. A LOT. My parents would say that's not true. They obviously are going senile in their old age. ;) Anyway, I got spanked again today. This time by Coach. I was bad.

You see, I've been attending a core class at the gym every Wednesday since I broke my finger. That's 12 weeks ago if you're keeping track. And some day it may stop hurting. Getting back on topic, I didn't think it was a big deal I was going to this class. It wasn't aerobic and only a half hour so I didn't figure it was any different than doing crunches on my own at home. But when I discussed on my Facebook page today that I enjoyed my workouts this morning and was looking forward to my swim this afternoon, Coach pulled out her paddle and gave me a public lashing. Yikes! She didn't realize I was going to core. I guess it was a bigger deal than I thought it was.

No big deal, though. I postponed the swim until tomorrow. I recorded the core workout. Hopefully we can find a way to work it out that I can keep going to core and still get in all my workouts in a week. I have to admit, when training for my marathons I would often vary the training schedule to match my mood or my daily schedule and still got in all the workouts in a week, but I'm finding the triathlon training is not that flexible. Maybe I'll have to be the flexible one.

Tomorrow will be a new day

It was inevitable. It started last week. The headaches came around 2:00 in the afternoon and would stay until I went to bed, no matter what I took. Every workout felt sluggish. I was tired all the time, took some great naps, and went to bed early. This morning I woke up with a raging headache and a sore throat. Oh crap! I thought I would make it through the whole quarter of gymnastics without getting sick. This is week 9 of 10. Almost did it.

I don't feel horrible. I feel about 85-90%. I probably could have worked out today but decided to take a nap instead. Tonight I will put some medicine in me, drink some cranberry juice, and get some great sleep. Tomorrow will be a new day.

I'm here to pump *clap* you up!

Coach has been putting weight training on the schedule. And I have been doing it as assigned. Today, though, I decided to mix it up a bit. Dave and I attended a class called "Strictly Strength." A few years ago we went diligently to the class, but dropped off as I got more and more into running and less and less into triathlon. Now the sports are reversed and I decided to give it another try.

Holy mackerel, that was a hard workout! My arms quivered, my buttocks clenched, my body said NO. Yet, I did all the sets until we got to planks. Eight years of gymnastics has hurt my wrists and shoulders too bad for planks. Tomorrow I will be very, very sore.

I'm totally going back next time it fits in the schedule. :)

Week 2 in the Books

Week 2 of triathlon training has come to a close. Eight days in a row, and I am fried! There was three bike rides, three swims, three runs, and some weight training. The goods: my lady bits are feeling much better. I could ride my bike wearing only one pair of bike shorts. The weight training didn't make me feel like I needed to crawl across the room just to move. And, I had a great quick run even though it didn't feel fast. The bads: I was extremely exhausted with the training this week. In the pool on Saturday, Dave was swimming circles around me. I went to bed Friday night at 10:00. That's early for me. The hungries have subsided but I probably should have been eating more to not feel so excited. I need to do a better job of following my calories to make sure I'm getting enough.

Next week looks very similar except with one more weight workout. Physically I can already see changes. I'm still excited about what lay ahead.

Stopping to Smell the Roses

My Buckeyes have done it again. For the FIFTH year in a row, my beloved Buckeyes has clenched the Big Ten and punched their ticket to a BCS game--probably the Rose Bowl. The last time we were at the Rose Bowl was my freshman year at OSU. A long time ago! I am so excited! I have never been to a bowl game. I'd REALLY like to go. Hey all my SoCal friends, how can I get tickets? Who's going to put us up for a few days? :)

Gosh, I love being a Buckeye. Bring on Michigan week!

Foto Friday

I mentioned yesterday that I bought myself a present. Well here it is:


It's a Polaroid PoGo photo printer. It's a little bigger than a digital camera and prints via Bluetooth from computer or cell phone. Of course, it doesn't work with my iPhone, although I have found some evidence that it does. Or, you can plug your digital camera straight into it and print. The quality is not high, but who cares? It prints 2 X 3" stickers. So much fun!


I really like it because I keep a journal about my running. triathlon, and races and it will make it so much easier to include pictures now.

Maybe I'm a teenage girl, but I just think this is the best gift (to myself) ever!

Thursday Thoughts

I did a bad thing today. I bought something for myself that should have been on my Christmas list. It's something I do every holiday season. When I find things I want, I want them NOW. This was too much fun to pass up. I'm not going to say what it is now, although if you're friends with me on Facebook you know what it is. It will debut tomorrow on the Foto Friday.

So I want to know, what are you most likely to buy yourself before the holidays?

Nodding Off

Thanks for all the suggestions about the swimsuits. As much as I like the Splish suits, even with the discount they are more expensive than the swimoutlet.com suits. I'm just going to wait as long as I can and hopefully Christmas will come before the suit falls apart.

I mentioned last week I was already getting the munchies. Thank goodness this week they've subsided. I think it was more about getting back to training than anything else. This week I'm suffering from the sleepies. Holy Toledo, I am tired! I've been comatose at night, taking LONG naps in the middle of the day, and nodding off while watching TV at night. At 8:00! Man, I hope I get used to this. I've got things to do.

Speaking of things to do..it's 10:15. Time for bed!

"Crack" Me Up

Yesterday I went swimming in my favorite suit. And it was starting to show its wear. The edges were stretched and everything was fading. Yikes! I'm the owner of ONE swimsuit that fits me and that was it. I've got swimsuits on the Christmas list, but I'm not sure this one's going to make it until the holidays. I've blown my budget already this month. Yes I know it's only 10 days into the month but I needed to pay for some race entries. Triathlons are WAY more expensive than running races.

Cross your fingers. I've got another swim tomorrow. Let's hope that swimsuit holds up.

I've Been Slimed

I have impeccable timing. As I came into the locker room after my swim today a woman dropped her expensive, glass jar or lotion on the ground. It broke and splattered lotion everywhere including my ear, face, and arm. I had been slimed!! But at least my left ear and left arm are now smooth and smell delicious. :)

Speaking of swimming, it was drill day in the pool. OMG! Drills kick my butt! I once thought that fist drills were the worst, but I've decided that head-out swimming is awful. And swimming next to Dave while watching him swim away from me, yeah LOVED that. But I know that these drills are good for me...blah, blah, blah. :)

Love you Coach!!! :)

Week One is Done

You know, I've trained for 13 marathons and they've all been hard. Throw in that mix two half Ironmans I've done. Yeah, that was hard too. But triathlon training with a coach is a whole different ball game. Today I completed week 1 and I've got to say, I'm exhausted. I've done almost as many hours this week as I've done in peak weeks of marathon training. I am so sore I feel like I've raced a half or full marathon. I'm so tired I've napped almost every day for 2 hours and then slept 8 hours at night. I've been trying to pay attention to what I eat and keeping it good food, but holy cow am I hungry All THE TIME!!

If this is week one, what the heck is yet to come?

Beat Michigan/Beat Cancer 5K

A week ago I got a text message from a girl I work with. (Side note, yes I own my own business and that's my full-time job, but I also teach gymnastics part-time.) She let me know there was a 5K that the gym was a sponsor of and we wanted to surprise our boss by signing up as many staff members as we could. Well crap! First week of triathlon training and I had to ask Coach to rearrange my workouts and promise her I wouldn't race. I'm sure reluctantly, Coach agreed.

After getting home from an event at 1:30am this morning, Dave and I got up a few hours later to meet everyone for the race. It was a brisk morning with a temperature that was on the edge of shorts or tights. I went tights. I should have gone shorts. We met at Gini's house. She was so excited to be having everyone over. She had cinnamon rolls and fruit, juices and water. She made me giggle. We went to the race early to watch Wendy's daughters participate in the 1-mile fun run. It was super-cute to watch all the little kids run around and around the track.

Then it was time for the 5K to line up. We met up for a before-picture:



The gun went off and Dave and I ran together. I let the little kiddos dash off. I held back and ran comfortably. First mile: 8:18. Hmm, a little faster than I should be going. I felt like I was keeping the same pace, but I started to notice Dave breathing a little heavy. And then he wasn't there at all. Mile 2: 7:42. I SWEAR I was not running hard! The race was a two loop course. Just after mile 2 I started to catch up with the people walking. I moved outside the cones just so I could get some running room. Then there was a bus right beside me. Yikes! That was close! I then moved back inside the cones. Finally I turned inside the track. Mile 3: 7:24. Yes it might be faster than I should be going, but I swear I was not running hard. Final time: 24:10.

Soon after Dave came in (I didn't see him) and several other girls that I work with. After everyone finished, we took another group picture:



It was a fun race. It's nice to do a race with no pressure and to be out there with great friends.

Foto Friday

I'm not used to biking more than one day a week. I've got to be honest, my bones "down there" are killing me. For yesterday's ride I had to wear two pairs of bike shorts just to get through a 45 minute ride. I'm still in the process of adjusting to the new seat and adjust the new seat so I'm hoping with giving it a little time, things will be comfortable. In the meantime check out my totally awesome cycling outfit:



I think the Uggs make the outfit. :)

Thursday Thoughts

Let me first say, it was not my intent to stir any controversy yesterday about which marathon is better than another. Personally my favorite is Boston and always will be. I'm sure NY is a fantastic marathon and maybe someday it will make my schedule.

Moving on...

A few weeks ago I put together a more complete racing schedule for 2010. I really want to race more so I chose one race a month, with most of them being extremely short sprint races. One of them is an indoor triathlon which is about 3 miles from my house at the YMCA. My sister happens to be a member of that Y. You can guess where this is going...I asked her to participate. My mom called me a few days later and said she didn't think Amy was going to do it. Really, Mom? Then why did she call me and ask me when it was? :) Today Amy called me to confirm that she and two of her friends are going to be doing the race. Nice! I've already started talking up the Tri for the Cure in the summer with her. I'm such a devious and proud older sister.

So, how do you convince your friends and family to participate with you?

Very Proud

I have to admit, I think the NYC Marathon is overrated. I had a close, personal friend run it several years ago and he said it sucked. (His words; not mine.) And although I'd love to qualify for it, I'm not sure I'd want to run it, mostly because of my fear of bridges. Lastly, it angers me that it gets so much media when there are other great marathons (Boston, Chicago) that should get the same amount of coverage.

But there was some force that drew me to tuning in this year. Sunday morning I got up and logged onto universalsports.com. The website, for us, is hit or miss if it's going to work. Luckily after a few tries, the marathon was live. Both the women and men's race were so excited that for 2+ hours I sat in front of my computer without moving. And with about two miles left in the men's race the tears started to roll down my face. An American was going to win. It was beautiful.

There was a lot of conversation about Meb in the following days. Unfortunately a lot of it was incorrect and downright hurtful. Meb not really an American? His win doesn't count because he's "naturalized"? That's just crap. And luckily those idiots have taken back their stupid words. Maybe Meb wasn't born here, but damn right he's an American. He proudly wore his USA singlet; none of the other 5 Americans who finished in the top 10 did.

As a runner I am so excited about what I saw on Sunday. It has inspired me to work harder. As an American I'm excited to see the future of our distance runners.

Thank you, Meb!

Buckeye Bike

Man that swim wiped me out today. Not only did I sleep a full 8 hours last night, but I also took a 2-1/2 hour nap this afternoon. I was beat! But, no rest for the weary. Today was a bike workout with lots of drills--one leg drills. Geesh, these are hard!!! Both Dave and I were grunting towards the end. The best part about the bike workout was the new bike seats. Check out my flashy red one. I'm now building my Buckeye Bike!



And check this out! I got asked for my thoughts on marathon recovery. Head on over to That's Fit blog and see my advice.

Day One

Let's start by saying this...it's been a long 9 weeks since I've been in the pool. By the end of the first 100 my body was already tired. And I had 2100 more to go. :) There were one arm drills, which I suck at (especially on my left side). There was a lot of pulling. Dude, seriously, my arms are weak. There was backstroking, which I am better than Dave is. It felt like a very long workout and I am very tired now. Day one is done. Ten more months to go.

By the way, swimming really hurt my finger. This has been the LONGEST recovery!

The Triple Crown

Today is the triple crown of perfect days...end of daylight savings, first of the month, and beginning of Ironman training. I love days like this. It feels like everything can be a do-over. And that's how I'm going to start the beginning of my training. It's time to take my training seriously and learn how to be the best triathlete I can be. I need to have patience and really focus on the fundamentals.

Not only am I going to track my progress in meters, miles, and countless hours, I want to track my progress physically. Let's face it, I am a scrawny runner. My arms look like they could hold up about two pounds. I'm hoping that's going to change. So, I got out my tape measure and took some stock of my stock. He he he! Every month I'll check in and see how things are changing.

Starting weight ~ 117 pounds (I'll be weighing myself at the gym tomorrow morning)
Quads - L: 19-1/2"
R: 19-1/2"
(By the way, my quads are only one inch smaller than Dave's.)
Biceps - L: 10-1/2"
R: 10-1/2"
Waist - 28"

I took some pictures but I'm not very happy with the way I look so I'm not going to post them. Hopefully as the body gets tighter I will show comparison, but for now I'll use them as fuel for success.