Today I:

-Forgot my jacket at home, BRRR!
-Fell on my rear end stepping outside my house at 6:30 this morning. Ice+Heels+No Jacket+6:30am: Not the best version of myself.
-Drank some fresh squeezed lemonade, which is my all-time favorite drink.
-Ran outside for 50 minutes, and thank goodness my zone 1 pace is coming down!
-Will be going to the gym to do Week 4 of Lift 2. 4 weeks to go and then my poor legs can take a breather from the weights!!
-Was thinking I need to get back in the pool
-Had a really good day at work, the kids were fun and receptive (except for the following)
-Gave my first detention at the new school. However, I didnt tell him he had the honor of being such.

This week:
3 massages to do
3 Holiday parties (Fast Splits, QT2 Coaches, cousins)
1 Dough cake party at the in-laws (ha ha in-laws)
80 progress reports to calculate and send in
4 more rides and runs and one more gym session!


Still debating dinner....not quite hungry yet. Maybe some Chobani will be involved (honey-yummm!)

wow, i need to update this bad boy, huh?

we are in the midst of a very.cold.spell. i hate (DESPISE!) running in really cold weather. not too big a fan of running at the gym either though, solution: ride the trainer. it wont help me at Hyannis, but it will help me not get fatter!!

also, working full time again is making me sleepy. the job in itself is making me happy though, i love teaching.

yesterday, i ate too much pineapple for lunch, and my stomach hurt so bad during F period i thought i was going to die, mid slope-teaching. obvioiusly, however, i didnt.

ive been toying around with posting daily food pictures. what i eat for lunch, and what i make for dinner. ill continue to inner debate this.

and lastly....the bad girls club is back on Oxygen for a new season. that (in addition to Jersey Shore on MTV) is the BEST trainer show ever! trashy and entertaining!

VOLCANOES!

So the race itself was pretty awesome. I took about 200 pictures, posted some on facebook. Chrissie Wellington and Craig Alexander won (again), PW rocked a 10:17 and the rest of the QT2ers did pretty dang well, too. It was a ridiculously hot and humid day (95 i think?). By far, the hottest since we had arrived. And of course, the two days after the race were cloudy and cool (80!!!).


Thats him at Mile 1 of the run...


We continue to hit up Lava Java every morning. Yesterday I had the Chris McDonald....Vanilla yogurt and homemade granola in half of a fresh papaya...YUM!

Exciting things happened in Hawaii yesterday.

1. We visited the most southern point in the entire united states. It took about 1.5 hours to drive to, but it was WELL worth it. It was the beautiful part of the island we have seen thus far! PW did his research and this was the one thing he wanted to see while we were here!



We stood on it (for future referencing purposes!), took a ton of pictures, and then I spelled out our initials on the lava...we may make this an annual trip!



2. I saw a VOLCANO!!!! We drove halfway around the island to see flowing lava. We saw a giant crater and some steam vents at the National Park:



And then we got to see the lava! We actually witnessed Hawaii growing inch by inch. We walked to the edge of the island and saw the lava flowing into the ocean (did you know it creates Hydrochlroric acid?!), and watched it flow down the volcano...PW made friends with the Volcano Dude and asked a bunch of questions about it. Apparently where we were standing (on old lava) was 2-3 lava feet deep, but just a little ways away was 25 feet deep! And, the parking lot there was going to be gone in about 2 weeks assuming everything kept flowing at the same speed! He left me a little concerned about a random eruption, but we leave for Oahu tomorrow so we should be okay!



We went way out in the ocean today. Well, way out for me. We swam out to experience the 6-7 foot waves at a local bunch, and it was NUTS! We got thrown one time, almost drowning (and PW lost his sunglasses, but found them a couple of waves later), but the rest of the time we just rode them and it was awesomely fun. Wish we had waves like that back home (and that the ocean was that warm!!)

We went to eat at the Kona Brewery tonight for the FOURTH time since weve been here (and we've been here for 7 days!). We love it! I love the Longboard and I love their pizza! And now that PW can eat, phew, do we eat. Tonight was garlic bread, nachos, beer, and 2 kinds of pizza!!

Tomorrow...to Oahu and Waikiki. We are going to do some historianin' (Pearl Harbor!), some snorkeling, some Pipeline watching on the North Shore, and some SURFING!! Should be awesome.

And for the last picture of the day, heres a rainbow from our balcony the last time we stayed in the House On The Hill (Monday morning.

HAWAII!!

We flew into Kona on Sunday night but I have been so busy I havent had time to update the blog and post pictures yet. In case we are not facebook friends or youre not on twitter (which, if youre not either of those....youre probably not reading my blog because you dont know me!)...PW and I eloped on Monday afternoon!!

We got the rings Friday, told our parents Saturday, flew in Sunday, got the license and then got married on Monday! It was just us on a secluded Kona beach, our photographer (Dede) and our videographer (B.Hughes) who then doubled as witnesses. Ceremony, dinner at Kona Brewery to celebrate with Brian, Pam, and the Griesbauers and now here I am, Courtney Wheeler! I have a couple of pictures to post now but many more will come after we get the pictures off the internets from Deeds. Heres my favorite so far! Its from a blackberry so, a little blurry!



This deserves an entry all to itself because, hey, we're married!! I will do another recap when we get all the pictures!

So yes, my poor husband (HA! HUSBAND!) is in overload right now. A wedding and the World Ironman Championships all in one week!! Hawaii is unbelievable. Not only is it the most beautiful place on earth, but Kona is like the triathlon who's who. I have seen everyone you could imagine in the triathlon world--from Chrissie Wellington and Macca to old school Peter Reid and Siri Lindley, to Sister Madonna Buder! Took a ton of pictures, of course. With more to come! Heres a couple of the landscape and some people you might recognize:



Vinu and me at the expo. Also, check out XTri because he posted a great picture of PW and I that he took, along with a little marriage announcement!!



at a beach downtown, Pam took this one, Im trying to look pensive! And work on my tan :) Look at the colors! The water is soooo clear and perfect, even I went in it! And Im not big on open water!




the infamous swim course, first thing Tuesday morning. If youre lucky and time it right, you can occasionally swim with a pod of dolphins!! Or even this guy:



Or these ladies, the Fuel Belt/Saucony representatives of the day!! Not to mention awesome and fast. (Dede and Karen!)






A couple of other recognizable Ironmen (woman)...(The Nun and Scott Rigsby)




The view from our house...its only 1.5miles from Ali'i Drive (and the ocean), but its at 1000ft of elevation! We are STRAIGHT uphill!



So tropical!

This week has been a blur, Ive seen so many friends, met so many new people, eaten SO MUCH!, gotten free stuff (like a free $300 Tyr speedsuit!!), went to the beach, Sherpa-ed for my QT2 peeps, overwhelming! Tomorrow is the Big Rest Day and then Saturday its GO TIME! Cant wait to see them race and go fast! Really excited to see PW race because hes worked really hard since Placid (and before...) leading up to this race. He had to go out and work out when he was too tired to see straight, eat salad when I ate pizza in front of him, skipped on wedding cake :), and gone to bed early as much as possible!!! I know hes going to rock it out on Saturday, Im excited to see it all come together!!

Will try and post more pictures tomorrow....

RAGNAR is now officially over. It was wet, fun, and painful all at the same time. We dug deep out there! I did a total of 32 miles...we had a man down and we all covered his race legs for him!! For now...I am hanging up my Brooks Adrenalines, they have 350 miles on them! Will order a new pair and then its on to training for the Hyannis Half-Marathon in February.

More details about the race to come in another entry once we get all the pictures settled and dispersed. Until then: Thanks to our sponsors:

@brooksrunning, the Twitter presence of Brooks (www.brooksrunning.com)
for giving us ALL of clothing and shoes. Having 3 complete running outfit was huge, because it was wet and rainy alll night and day!

Zensah (www.zensah.com)
for hooking us up with 2 pairs of compression calf sleeves each! This was a big component of recovery between legs...it was like running on fresh legs after wearing these!!!

sooo

this is it, race time! Justin is picking me up at 9AM tomorrow morning and then we will be ON OUR WAY! After months of talking about it, can't believe its here. Thats what everyone says though! In reality...I "tapered" this week, did my last long run on Sunday (2.5 hours split up for a total of 19miles), had a minor OHMYGOSHIMGETTINGSICK breakdown yesterday, slept pretty much all day and am now feeling brand new. And ready to go.

I am teetering on that line..you know the one. On one side is trained to the brim-ready to race and as fast as youve been...and on the other side is exhaustion and being sick. Im on the line and ready.

You can follow this shebang on twitter by searching for #BrooksRagnar...we will of course be tweeting through the entire thing. I should be running around 5pm, 2am, and 9am (ish), 27.4miles total, so keep me in your thoughts!!

Weekly Totals 8/24-8/30

Remember when I used to do weekly totals? Yeah, me too. Here is this week, because it is the highest mileage Ive done since training for Philly.

Monday: 45min (Zone1)
Tuesday: 75min (Zone1)
Wednesday: 35min (Zone Recovery)
Thursday: 90min (Zone1)
Friday: 50min (Zone 1)
Saturday: 35min (Zone Recovery)
Sunday: 2h20min (70min AM, 70min PM Zone1)

For a total of 55miles.

WAHOO! So happy to be able to throwdown some solid mileage again. I make way more improvements and can lose weight much easier when Im above 40mi/week. Actually, Im pretty sure I can ONLY lose weight at over 40mi/week!

Also, going to Stephi's on Tremont tonight with PW, B.Hughes, and Maryanne for her birthday and I am very excited about that!

My Brooks Clothing Review (Finally!!)

Brooks' Five Guys, 1 Girl, and 140 Characters

So, Ive had some time to run in my new Brooks stuff. For those of you that dont know (which means youve never read my blog before!!), my awesome RAGNAR Team is being sponsored by them for the race. I have about 140mi in my new Adrenalines (maybe more?! forgot to track!), 10 runs my Infiniti Sprinters, spent a race riding around on my bike spectating with my backpack, and a couple in my NightLife Equilibrium shirt and white running hat!!

SO! Lets start with the shoes. These glorious, glorious, non-injuring Adrenaline GTS9's (Size 7.5 for reference, in the sweet color scheme below. I thought the red looked speedier!):


Now, I have been an Asics girl for years and years. Over 10! And I have always run in their "2140" line (2130, 2120...you get the picture). They have always suited me well, never had a problem. They lasted me through marathon training and countless 5K's. That is, until the new model came out. They changed the shoe!! I despise when shoes companies do this, taking a perfectly good shoe and messing with it! They made the toe box smaller, and this had disastrous results for me. SUDDEN plantar fasciitis, which Id never had before, kept me sidelined for two weeks (TWO WEEKS!!! thats a lot of time when youre building up for ultra RAGNAR!). I was bummed, I was getting fatter, and I was at a loss as of what to do.

And then, ladies and gentlemen, it happened. My savior arrived via UPS and Penelope at Brooks Running. I put all my eggs in one basket and dove into these shoes. I went from no miles a week to 30. And then to 40. And now Im at 55 and I havent looked back. No foot problems! I am feeling fit and injury free and I owe a lot of that to these shoes!!


Next, this awesome backpack.


I recently spent Timberman70.3, spectating, with this thing glued to my back. All day, I carried around (ready for this?):
2 rainjackets (mine and PW's)
an umbrella
4 protein bars
water bottle
my camera, and its gigantic case
a race packet
2 cell phones
my bike helmet
with no issue! the size of this thing is deceiving, I could have easily fit more stuff. The real kicker is that I rode my bike around with this on my bike, with no issues, and i had an UMBRELLA sticking out of it!! Awesome.

Up next...the Infiniti Sprinter shorts. I actually got 2 Infiniti Sprinters and 1 Element Sprinter.

I like running in these spandex-y things. Leaves less chance of chub run (Girls, you know what Im talking about). However, I have THE hardest time finding ones that fit in the waist AND in the legs without either being suffocated or giving my run route a free show as the legs ride up. Unfortunately, these were no exception. I will admit, the shorts were probably too big for me. And I was really sad about how they didnt fulfill my expectations as I started out my first run with them. BUT THEN! I had an idea (this story is making a turn for the better!!) I took a couple of paper clips (the fancy ones, not the metal ones), folded over the leg, and pinned it smaller. And ladies and gentlemen, these shorts went on to ROCK MY WORLD!

Reason #1: They didnt ride up. Unlike regular run shorts, which always seem to be creeping further and further up leaving me yanking them down every 2 minutes, these stayed put. I think, given I got the right size, they would do this on their own. Without my MacGuyvering.
Reason #2: When you sweat, they DONT MOVE! They are made of magic fabric. The sweat keeps them in place on your legs, further proving their awesomeness.
Reason #3: The waist is in the right place!! They are not too low, so that youre yanking them up or trying to avoid a muffin top. And theyre not too high, giving you a reverse muffintop or having to tie them so tight you start to asphyxiate yourself.

I would definitely recommend these to all my runnerchick's out there. Double check the size though. Considering I am an XS (which, I really shouldnt be). I wish they offered an XXS or adjusted the sizes a little bit for the skinny chicks out there!

I am going to lump these two into one category: My Equilibrium Night Shirt and my Mesh Cap:


Okay, the hat. Im kind of picky about running in hats, or visors, or pretty much anything. I have a lot of hair, so it has to accomodate that. And I dont like to have to adjust it constantly because it doesnt have a fitted form in the head part, I get annoyed too easily. This hat jumped both those hurdles, and one I didnt even know I had: the brim! The brim is the length of a regular baseball cap, not those wimpy short ones you usually find on running hats.
It was fitted
I didnt have to adjust it ONCE on my head (usually I have to pull them down because they ride up!)
The brim allowed me to hide from eye contact with creeps
And, its the kind of hat you can wear day to day, not while just running

Heres the kicker though: PW is so enamoured with this hat hes already claimed it to race in at Ironman Hawaii! He is a faithful, faithful Brooks Adrenaline runner, and now he is going to rock the hat too! Hes going to look sponsored out there! He was debating hat vs. visor for the big day. Hats: too hot Visor: Cant hold a sponge under it. This hat again comes through and hits both targets (Notice a pattern?)

The NightLife shirt, I dont have a TON to say about this. It had a great fit (Hard to find), I wasnt swimming in it in the waist like I often find. It is VERY, VERY bright. I am secure in saying this will be a huge asset to have during the night running portion of RAGNAR. However, I wore it during the day, and got some funny looks. Its reminiscent of the color of Detail Cops uniforms, so maybe thats what the looks were about.

We got a bunch of other swag, but thankfully I havent had to use it yet (Long Sleeved shirt, jacket, night running hat, gloves)

I have to say, I am really happy with the products. As someone who has gone through many many running shorts and hats, its great to have found something I can stick with. They definitely gained a customer through this. Oh, and also, these are HONEST opinions. I dont need to suck up, they already sponsor us!!

got my "christmas in a box" yesterday...you know, my RAGNAR clothes from Brooks! This fact, and the sheer volume of what was included in said box, require its own entry, which will come tomorrow!!

also got my camera and i am in looooooove.



isnt it just beautiful?!

this weekend is timberman. im trying to switch around all my runs so that i am free to help out at the fast splits tent friday and saturday. this, of course, means i have to do my "long run" as well as my "longish runs" earlier in the week. in this fantastic weather! dont think i am complaining though. oh no, i love this weather. i would love it all year long, with maybe one month of winter to satisfy my hearty-soup loving self. tomorrow is a split 2 hour run and durability day, which basically means i do not sit down....all day. wake up, run, do 2 massages, stand for a while then run again. and then ANOTHER massage. and stand some more! i know, my life is non-stop excitement!

lastly, if you are reading this blog right now, COMMENT! i want to know who all these people are that i SEE are reading it without hunting you down by IP Address :) go ahead....click the button...


and lastly, because what would an entry be without it: HAWAII IN SIX WEEKS!!!!

I dont have much to post about...well, thats not true. I have 3 things, but they are short and sweet. First, the shallow:

I had three customers during my first week open for business, I consider this a victory. I had some flyers made up that promote my "introductory special" or $50 for your first massage, so hopefully that will hope things expend!

Also, some run fitness is finally coming back. I was ready to throw myself off the notrunninganymore cliff. Between 1.5 weeks TOTALLY off before LP due to plantar fasciitis and the following two weeks of 100% humidity and 70 dewpoint, my running took a huge nosedive and it was so, so, so demoralizing!! I was running 40 seconds per mile slower than before the foot problems...and that was ALL OUT! thankfully, yesterday i went out for an easy Z1 run and averaged 8:19's, with my HR TOO LOW! imagine that, too LOW! awesome. not quite where i was, but with my 43 mile week next week, im confident Ill be back there before RAGNAR.

Lastly, and what I consider the most important of this entry: I wanted to tell you all about a book I read during my week of leisure in Lake Placid, New York. I am an avid reader. Many, many books. However, most of them are fiction. I went out on a limb, intrigued by a review I read on Amazon.com, and bought "A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier". It was an unbelievable book. One that I find myself thinking of, weeks later. Its a book that, after exposing you to a part of the world, and situations youll never encounter or even be able IMAGINE, I feel like Ive met the author, and heard his experiences straight from him. I feel like I actually know Ishmael.
7 year olds wielding guns, killing to stay alive. Traumatic to read, but so much more horrible to know this is a way of life for children who never knew what it was to be a carefree child, who will be scarred for life by the memories of the atrocities they were forced to commit, for SURVIVAL.

Usually this is such a boring, self-indulgent blog, but if you take anything from this entry (or even blog): read this book!