Well, there went August...

     I have been bad about updating this blog for many reasons.  The main reason has just been pure laziness.  I know that people do not like to reveal their shortcomings but I will admit that I am lazy, a procrastinator, and perpetually late...for everything.  Even if I write down a "To do" list, program in electronic reminders in my iPhone, or set the clocks 13 minutes ahead in my house, I still end up not getting things done, I am down to the wire on getting projects finished, and I am always 5 minutes late showing up somewhere.  I hate it.  I have tried working on these faults for years and I get a few successes here and there, but then things go back to normal, and I am rushing around to get things completed, I roll up late, and something just never get done.

Oh yeah, the kid and I ran a 5K.  More lame excuses...

     So here are my lame excuses.  The last weekend of July, I was attending a TRX Suspension Training Sports Medicine certification.  From time to time I get clients who come to me after being set free from their physical therapist or doctor to resume exercising again.  Most times, these clients are weak and are still hesitant to use the previously injured joint or limb.  This training was attended mainly by chiropractic doctors, physical therapists, and some personal trainers.  I am in no way a personal training superstar but the other 20 people in that training seemed to have very limited experience working with clients and patients, and did not have very good communication skills.  I know that this is probably not true, but I guess I have high standards.  The training was at a very nice (read very exclusive and pricey) health club in town and it had a beautiful Pilates studio.  It made me wonder why I am still working at the gym where I do work.  I realized that it was my clients.  I have taken pay cuts and other lame excuses from this company and continue to work there because I really like my clients and many of them have been working with me for over five years.  Some as long as eleven years.  I would feel guilty for leaving.

CAAAAKE, YUMMY CAAAAKE...

     Ok, so immediately after that, the next week was busy with the Team in Training Kick-Off and our first TEAM training.  I am coaching 34 athletes to compete at the Memorial Hermann Ironman 70.3 in Galveston, TX on April 1st and at the St. Croix Ironman 70.3 on May 5th.  For all but two of the group, this will be their first 70.3 distance.  So my excuse for not blogging was that I was building training calendars and workouts for the first 9 weeks of training.  Lame excuse, I know.  You want an even lamer excuse?  I had to bake a birthday cake for someone.  Not just any old birthday cake.  A Red Velvet and White Vanilla checkerboard cake with white butter frosting and decorated up nicely with roses on top.  The heat made frosting the cake a B-TCH but I finally got it to set up.  Super lame.  Come on, everyone bakes cakes from scratch.  I have no excuses.

Pretty cool packets for packet pick up.

     The same weekend, I was a very proud mommy.  My kid did his first sprint triathlon!  He rode one of my bikes and I had some Team in Training gear that he could wear.  He had a dash to the finish with the boy that would take third place by one one hundredth of a second.  He was not too pleased about that.  Of course, he had a great swim and averaged over 17 mph on the bike, but the heat we have been experiencing here in Texas made him take a few walking breaks on the run and put him in that mad dash to the finish position.  I waited to see him cross the finish after I had finished and I am sure I had a stupid smile on my face.  My race was good.  I was second in my AG for the swim, 7th on the bike with a 22.3 mph average and way low on the run with a 9:04 average even though I was running the entire time and passing people.  I guess it was not as fast as I thought.  I ended up 7th overall in my AG out of 50+ women.  Meh...

How come I look short in this photo???

     During the week, we went to the local movie theater to see the live presentation of Drum Corps International's World Championships.  It was pretty awesome and we ended up seeing many of the same performances that we saw live at our school district's football stadium at the end of July.  I did not expect that I would be spending 5.5 hours in a movie theater and having to eat movie theater food.  Oh well, the kid is super motivated about playing his trumpet so I will take one for the team and eat a rubbery hot dog.

     The second weekend of August I had to go to San Antonio for another TRX Suspension Training certification.  It was a nice opportunity for me to get over to see my parents in Canyon Lake and to give the kid one last little trip before school had to start.  Since the training was not a Level 2 training like the Sports Medicine training, there were more personal trainers in attendance.  It is always fun to see big muscle dudes sweating bullets and struggling with the TRX Suspension Trainer.  I had the same instructor that I had when I took a training back in March and she knew that I had really been using the TRX Suspension Trainer both for my clients and for my own training.  She had me demonstrate some of the advanced exercises while she talked to the group.  I guess that cemented my credibility as being not just a skinny old chick.  When we were split up into groups later in the training to work on a case study, all of the male trainers in my group were stoked that I was in their group.  I guess the other chicks at the training were not so stoked about that.

     The third week of August was not so fun.  I was on my way home from a Sports Stretch session and when I was at a complete stop in traffic, I was rear ended with enough force that it sent me crashing into the car in front of me.  The worst part was that the person who hit me left the scene of the accident and off all of the other people in drive-home traffic, no one stopped to offer any information or to prevent the person from leaving the accident.  I had no witnesses.  I can only say that the car that hit me was silver and not a truck, mini van, or SUV.  That's it.  I was able to get uninsured motorist coverage and I only have to pay $250 on all repairs rather than the $1000.00 deductible.  My 8 month old car had over $6500 of damage and it is still in the body shop.  Thankfully, I have not had any neck or back pain and my Sports Chiropractor, Dr. Hassenbank, has been taking good care of me.  The first week after the crash my run workouts were not very good and they have gotten much better as he has been working out some issues.

And we drove all over town looking for this thing...

     I spent the next weekend coaching my TNT 70.3 TEAM through their first bike workout and doing Middle School check-in.  I had to do a little back-to-school shopping and that put me in a foul mood and I got flack at home for spending too much or not getting cool enough stuff.  I give up.  I'm just not cool.  Deal with it.

We both look a little hot and tired.

     School and swim team started back up on the 22nd and it has been a whirlwind of drop offs for swim practice, cross country practice, and band sectionals.  I also had to help out with our Team in Training Nations Tri Team as they hosted Dave Scott for the Clear Lake International Triathlon.  Dave Scott is our National Coach and he did the race in Team in Training gear.  Very cool!  On Sunday, we had a tri camp with Dave Scott that had about 27 participants.  We had a great venue for the camp out at the Houston Oaks Country Club.  We had a swim session in the 25 yd pool and then an open water session in the lake just a few steps away.  I was on kayak duty for that.  Dave gave some great stretch and flexibility training and then the group went out for a 15 mile ride.  While they were gone, the volunteers had to get things ready for the run training and strength training session.  We had a big open air pavilion to use for the strength training session and then run drills were done on the outfield of a baseball diamond just a short walk away.  A 2 mile run had been planned but the temps soared to 109 and we called that off.  Lunch was great and then Dave finished up with a nutrition lecture.  Everyone at the camp seemed to have a good experience.  The nice thing was that 80% of the camp attendees had no relationship with Team in Training and it was a great way to show people in the triathlon community that Team in Training does not work with only beginners.  We have Ironman finishers, Boston Marathon qualifiers, Triathlon National Championship qualifiers, and a Triathlon World Championship qualifier in our Houston TEAM.

     This last week has been all about settling into my new school year schedule.  My training is coming along well with "Weapon XL".  I am running a little faster and I have been hitting all the workouts that Coach Woofie has given me.  I still do not know which half marathon I will be running for time this fall.  I should find out in the next few weeks.  It has been lonely training on my own.  But really, who wants to run 12 miles on a treadmill?  No one.  It has just been too hot outside the past month but we have had a temperature break this past weekend and hopefully I can get back to running outside.

And we took care of this lost pup until the owners were found.  They were ecstatic to have Cinnamon back home.

     I had two interviews at personal training centers.  They are both great places but I think one of them might be a better fit since it is not too far away from where I already work and most of my clients would follow me and I would be able to do Pilates work.  I have to be patient.  Both locations would have nothing ready for me before mid-October.  

     So basically, I have had no good excuses to not update my blog.  Pure laziness.  I have been a bad influence on my kid.  I will try to do better job in September.

Later Gators,

Liz