oh my where have i been??

i know i know....i am a terrrible person. i have been so blog lazy. BAD elizabeth...BAD BAD! i'm sorry to leave my trusty standby blog fans hanging from the woodwork. life has been a bit of a whirling tornado the last few weeks!! First I was traveling for work...then I got sick....like sick sick. oh man--my immune system was pissed at me. i was pretty leveled and for once in a long long time i told myself i needed to rest. and rest i did....nyquil and my bed and the story ends there. So when life throws you sickness--we as type A tri freaks immediately conclude that we have lost all fitness and that our lives are trashed. well I am here to change that school of thought. its amazing how life works. When i finally got over it--I eased back into training...2 days of relatively easy work....no pressure workouts if you will. i took it up a notch on the third day and by day 4 I felt stronger than I did before I was sick!!! ITS AMAZING how rest works. Literally i guess your body just gets sick to tell you it needs sleep and when you listen to it--its amazing what happens!! So since then--ive been back into it pretty hard. My swimming work has backed off--just because of the time off--but i will be back on it soon. I say soon--because i decided to run the Jacksonville marathon of Feb 17--so my focus over the last week has been on running and of course biking--although i have been in the water a few times-i wont lose everything i have gained there-and if i do, i am sure i can pick it right back up after the marathon. So the run--coming along!! i haven't prepared for a marathon at all--just figured my current base of fitness would take me through it. i am doing it because my friend is doing it and trying to qualify for boston...so rather than going to just watch him--i decided to go for a nice long run in the sun. i think it will be great just to be in the warm weather and run along the ocean!! plus--i am interested to see how i will do. I want to run a 330..nothing too aggressive. i ran a 345 in 2006 with very minimal prep and zero base of fitness so i think 15 minutes is pretty do-able. my goal is to run an IM marathon at 330 and since that is in 7 months--i figure if i can run it now with minimal prep then i can for sure do it in 7 months with a lot of prep. If i can do it--it will be a HUGE confidence booster. I did my first (and last haha) long run this past monday. my goal was 18 miles. the catch-i was going to run it on a treadmill. HAHAHAHAHA. yes, i was going to run 18 miles on a treadmill...2hours and 30 minutes. ez pace. and guess what...I DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! not only did i do it--but i felt so good by mile 16 i took the pace up to 7:30 pace and negative split the last 2 miles...when the tmill stopped..i told it to GO F*CK itself and ran 2 more miles at 7:00 pace to make it an even 20 miles and oddly enough i felt great!! I RAN 20 MILES ON A TREADMILL....i felt like i could friggin conquer the world. i felt like i could do anything when i was done. it was just awesome. so needless to say, i think i am ready to do the marathon and kick some tail down in Jville. So what else....The bike...oh the bike...so that is coming along pretty solid. my LT is 220 and i am ready to take it up to 240 watts. Im going to try that tomorrow. it may not sound like a lot...but the classes at Cadence arent easy and you stay at your LT often for long periods of time...so i am proud of myself. I push more watts then most of the men in the class. again, its a nice confidence booster.

so how are your lives? how is your training going? I hope you are still cranking!! we are already in FEB so the excuse of "early season" isn't really valid anymore. :) My first race is April 19--I am going to do the Half in VA. Does anyone want to do it with me? we should get a whole group together and all meet up there! HOW COOL would that be??? A whole group of strangers all meeting up in person!! that would be great. i would love to meet you all!!! we could all go for dinner the night before. For those of you who dont want to do a half--there is an olympic the following day. I think the half is sat and the olympic is sunday. the name of the race is Kinetic half and its in VA. you can google it for the website. not sure what it is off the top of my head. any takers????

So i love the recent article written in triathlete--the point/counterpoint about whether it is appropriate to be cocky or not. if you haven't read it--go do so. its the issue with the Bennett's on the cover. i agree that it is important to believe you are the best if you want to win...winners never win if they dont believe. props to Brad culp--the writer. yes, there is a fine line between being rude and being bold....but i'll frequent that line any day....and if you dont like it--thats cool. cause at the end of the race, i'll wait for you at the finish line....after i cross it first. :)

what else what else.....i leave friday for arizona for work. i'll be there till 2/14 then i'll fly straight to Jax for the marathon. ill return 2/18. im going to try to blog a bit next week but dont hate me if i am not as on point as id like. I will be sure to be back on it with some worthwhile goodness once i get back!

oh and the "dude" that im dating. Hes not going anywhere. Props to you folks that do this IM training while you are in a relationship. it isn't easy. probably why i got sick...trying to balance to many things with too little sleep. But i'll take it. I'll manage. he's a keeper and i dont think ive ever said that before. (oh...and he doesn't read my blog cause its "firewalled" on his computer... great cuz i can gossip about him behind his back!! :) wow...does Elizabeth have a sensitive side? HAHA...i'm gonna get kicked in the ass for this one. :)