Keeping a journal, or not...

I was doing a much needed purging of the home office this week and came across no less than 7 journals.  Brand new journals.  Not one entry in any of them.  I have never actually kept a journal but clearly am obsessed with little notebooks that have fun covers.  I am forever making myself notes to buy this or remember to do that, I suppose I thought that the journals would be perfect for that purpose.  Maybe my first entry in one of the newly found journals should be to start a journal.

As I was neatly stacking my unused journals on the shelf, it occurred to me that I could use them to document my training.  ...and then I remember I had a blog.  One which I started to document my training.  Oh yeah.

Hi, its me Margaret.  I mean Karen.  I guess it has been three months.  Here is a little sampling of what I have been doing...   A little swimming, a little biking, a little running...  

Waiting for SAG with Debbie and Stephanie

Robin and I are twinsies!

Love friends who remember to take pictures!

 

Annie chillin' at a rest stop

At the state line during the Gulf Coast Relay!

Ironman Chattanooga is still top of my mind.  I think we are 17 weeks out as of now and I am knee deep in training.  Two a days, three a days.  I am a hamster on the training wheel!  Some days 17 weeks doesn't seem that far off and then others it feels like I have all the time in the world.

I rode the Chattanooga course two weeks ago.  There was a large group up there for a training weekend.  I had originally thought I would do a little train-cation and then decided just to go up there for ride.  (I tend to over schedule myself so have been trying to keep it simple and low key lately.  There is a lot of 'fear of missing out' that happens but it is just mentally better this way).  Anyhow.  Back to the ride.

I met up in the bi-lo parking lot with the group.  It was raining and the radar didn't look too good.  Lots of people decided against the ride.  Several brave souls (myself included) forged ahead thinking we came all the way here, we might as well ride.  It might rain on race day so, why not?  We ended up doing one loop of the course - it is an out and back with a double loop in the middle - and it rained the whole time.  Not torrential downpours but a steady rain.  I was questioning my sanity for riding in the weather in the beginning but in the end, I am glad I stuck it out.  The route turned out to be not as hilly as I had expected.  Obviously, depending on where you are from, hilly means different things.  In my mind, the ride had great potential to be one hill right after the other.  I had envisioned a little repeat of what I had seen for IM Louisville.  To me, this seemed much tamer than Louisville with a nice mix of some flat sections and climbing.  A really lovely ride!  I don't know how fast I will be able to do it on race day but at least I will have good scenery along the way.  :)
On the race nutrition front, I am trying out a new product this week.  I just purchased a sample from Tailwind Nutrition.  It is an 'all in one' product meaning you shouldn't have to supplement with food.  Tried it out on a run today and really like it.  It has a very light taste and mixes up easy which is a plus (no weird residue at the bottom of the bottle).  I am testing out on my first hundred miler of the year tomorrow - will let you know how that goes!

Have a good weekend, friends!

Focus on the positive!