2011 Rewind

What can I possibly say about 2011?



So much awesome in one year.

January started off great and I welcomed 2011 with a run with Dawn. I remember the weather was amazing for January in Maine...

But just days after that run, I was dealing with some terrible knee pain (PFPS) and ended up in physical therapy for a couple of months. But that little set back actually turned out to be a blessing. Jared at OA fixed me right up, we made some changes to my run and I've running pain free since (knock on wood!)

In January, I introduced my readers to Tough Chik! Tough Chik would be with me during many miles of training, at every single race and even hanging out with triathlon royalty (see March).

I am so happy to see how much Tough Chik has grown in the last year and I am excited to follow the Tough Chik team through 2012!!

February brought all kinds of great news!

I decided that 2011 was the year of BELIEVE!
I welcomed Tiger to the family (thanks to my Daddy) and I made it onto the Dailymile Team.

I was over the moon! I was (and am) so honored to be a part of the Dailymile Team!!

I was profiled on Another Mother Runner

In March, Dawn and I ventured to Boston for the MultiSport World Expo where I saw Jamie but he ignored me, so I hung out with Dave Scott instead.

He shared Chrissie's training secrets with me (and a thousand others) and got me stoked for an awesome 2011 racing season.

Oh, it was there and then decided that I was going to do my first half iron distance race in 2011. My pick was Pumpkinman - but who would have guessed that a snafu later on would turn out so awesome??!!

In April, I had my first overall podium finish-3rd overall female-at the Nor'Easter Reverse Triathlon! Then I did a crazy little #bikestreak, #runstreak and #swimstreak. I had some fun giveaways working with Outside PR, Tommie Copper and I was ready to get Tiger out and on the road!! Half iron training would commence!

Road from home to NewHampshire and back to Maine

May was aMAYzing!! I had my longest bike ride with Tiger since getting her (64 miles) while participating in the club event, The Budgetman 70.3! This is also when I started training with triclub buddy, Marc. Who knew I would literally drag Marc all over the state of Maine and New Hampshire on my swim/bike/run adventures!!

May is also when I discovered the now world famous tee shirt from Triathlon Rocks "I PEE ON MY BIKE". Later this year, this tee shirt would literally open doors for me.

June brought me into heavy training volume outside, a new 5k PR at The Run for Cash, and fun times at The Pirate Triathlon!! Summer was here in Maine!

The KBTC Crew

July was a month of learning, fun and a time I will remember for a long time to come! 

I got to work at The Tri for a Cure with MANDY and talk about her IMLP awesomeness!!

But, things fell through for my planned Pumpkinman half and for about 12 seconds, I was devastated. But then, Dawn, being the calm and cerebral one of us quickly handed me her iPad, in the middle of gym shift where I swifty registered for Timberman 70.3-I was scared, I was nervous and I was excited. The Pumpkinman course is flat, Timberman is not. But who's afraid of a couple (dozen) hills??? NOT ME!! And Dawn reminded me that Chrissie (yes, Chrissie Wellington) usually did Timberman. Now it was time to really focus on training and get ready for August!! I'd be doing my first half ironman three weeks sooner than planned!!

And I got to run this little Maine 10k race called The Beach to Beacon with friends Stephanie and Dawn!
Jamie was there but he ignored me again (actually, I could not find him in the sea of 10,000 runners)

Are there really words to describe August??

I trained, I was ready and I was excited.
Oh, and I hung out with Chrissie.

My favorite tri tee shirt would get noticed by Chrissie's photographer and get me into a private event where I got to hang out with her one-on-one. She was so nice AND funny!
We talked about pee'ing on the bikes and I asked her if she gave those behind her warning before she'd go. Her answer? No, if they get sprayed then they were drafting and deserve it.
LOVE HER!!

There was a pre-race meeting and Q&A with the pro's~Chrissie, Rasmus Henning and Cait Snow.

Damn! we're a good looking pair!!

Then it was here! It was race day. It was ups and downs-literally and figuratively-but each moment was amazing, awesome and in hindsight, downright comical! I got my medal and a hug from Chrissie when I finished!!

Dream = Reality!!

Sweet September!!

I got to race with Dawn, Meg, Melissa, Allison and many friends from my local tri community! I got to meet Jason face to face finally and it was a great way to end the season. The beginning of September I was high on my Timberman awesomeness and Chrissie tweeting a pic of us and writing on my FB page. See, we are BFF's...anyway, it was time for my my favorite sprint tri, The Mainiac and I placed 2nd in my age group and finished 7th overall female. 

Then the post race letdown happened. I felt lost and a little lazy. But I started teaching group exercise classes at my Y, I was getting ready to get ready for 2012. I still had lots to do before the end of 2011~

It was time to start thinking about those REALLY BIG DREAMS that I wanted to come true.

October aka RockTober!!
brought Lola's 3rd birthday-my baby is not a baby anymore. 

I got run the Harvest Half with friends, I got to meet Porter and hang with Mandy again.

I had been thinking of getting a coach and after a couple considerations, serendipity stepped into my life once again and I was going to be coached by Sonja, an amazing woman whom I'd been stalking following for quite a while. I was so thrilled that she agreed to coach me!

Coach and the feet that brought her to a 10:08 Kona finish.



It was KONA time and I was GLUED to the computer all day!! My girl Chrissie just crushed it with an amazing win and Sonja simply rocked it.

The applications to the Rev 3 Team had gone live at the end of September and I knew I had a long couple months of waiting ahead of me. I had been following Team Trakkers/Team Rev 3 now for about two years (after following Sonja) and I knew that someday I would be on that team. I BELIEVED. It might not be this year or next but some day, I would be on that team. The only person on the face of the earth who knew my hearts desire was Dawn. We talked at length heading into 2011 that this is what I would spend the next year (or two or three or four) working towards.
Even if they only accepted me because they were sick of my application coming in year after year.

November
November made my head spin-
I was asked to be an Ambassador for FitFluential!!


I won an INSPIRATION contest on GOTRIbal!!

and got news that would change my entire year. 
I had made the Rev 3 Team.
Mere words cannot even describe the emotions I felt and still feel about this.
AMAZING.
I am so happy and honored to be a part of the Rev 3 family. And yes, they are already like family to me.

December
I started training with Sonja and had some great breakthroughs in the pool.
I logged some serious laps, some nice trainer miles and started enjoying track workouts.


I embraced HR training and enjoyed the last month of the year with a birthday celebration, an amazing Christmas and time with family.
I enjoyed this year so much.
It has been amazing. wonderful.

2011 by the numbers:

• Swimming: 71.46 miles (22 of those in December alone)
• Biking: 2,814.2 (502 in December)
• Running: 971.84

add in some miles walking, hiking and on the elliptical and per my Dailymile account, I had a pretty active year in 2011!!

TOTAL: 4,032.07

2011 was awesome and
2012 will be EPIC!!


What were some of the exciting things that happened for you in 2011??


What are your 2012 goals??

What's up?

Wow. Has it really been over a week since I did a blog post??

Life has been crazy busy around here lately and I just have not had much time on the computer.

Here's a quick summary of what's been going on-

On Thursday, I got to do something very special-Present local athletes with funds raised by the Dailymile Team so they can compete in the Special Olympics this coming weekend (full blog post about this coming). Talk about awesome!!

my buddies Les and Jeff

Jeff was psyched to get this check!

There were tornadoes that came through parts of Massachusetts last week and hubby was sent down there on emergency storm duty so it was just the girls (meaning me and Lola) for a few days. While he was away we got a new pet!!

Meet ZOOT'r.
I think Lola overheard me talking about Zoot Ultra tri shorts earlier in the day...

I am finally 99% over the pretty nasty bout of bronchitis I was fighting for a quite a while. That certainly shut me down for at least a week and put a dent into my training schedule, I am easing back into it.

I had a couple nice rides and a couple two good runs over the weekend. On Friday I got out early and logged an easy 30 miles and Saturday ran an easy 8.7 miles.

Sunday, I went on my first big group ride with the Maine Coast Cycling Club. I have been riding with a friend who has been teaching me about group etiquette and hand signals so I was not a complete newb on the ride. I went with the A- group which was a very comfortable pace (we averaged a bit over 18 for the ride, 32 miles). I really enjoyed it and will certainly ride with this group again and will bump up to the A group once I really feel comfortable with the group dynamics.

A little after the ride I hit up the Eastern Trail for a quick run. The plan was an easy 3-4 but I ended up running 6 and started to feel a bit of pain in my lower right shin, close to my ankle. This has been a minor, nagging irritation for the last couple weeks. I took a walk break, stretched a bit and finished up the run with an easy jog back to the car. That night I wore my CW-X Compression socks to bed and then wore my Tommie Copper calf sleeves yesterday morning and VOILA...discomfort is mostly gone.

After many weeks of rain, it is nice to finally have some sunshine and warmer weather! We got Lola's new pool all set up yesterday and had so much fun playing outside. This is certainly going to be a fun summer this year. Watch out beach goer's--Lola is ready for summer!!

I am hoping to get a bib to race The Pirate Tri this weekend. A friend was hoping to transfer her bib to me but that did not workout (long story) so now we are going to see if I can get one last minute from a cancellation or no show. So I really won't know until Friday or so if I'm racing...

There are only a couple days left to enter my Triathlon Rocks giveaway! I gotta say, I was thinking there would be WAY MORE entries into this awesome contest. I know there were some issues with blogger and comments so...email me if you cannot comment!!

Remember, you get to choose which tee you win so if you don't pee on your bike, it's ok.
Go enter NOW!!

Dailymile Team

Well folks, I got this in my e-mail yesterday afternoon:

Congratulations, you've been voted by the dailymile community to be a member of the 2011 dailymile team! We're so excited to welcome you, and even more excited to kick off a great year for dailymile!

I am so happy to announce that I was voted in for the 2011 Dailymile Team!

I am super psyched about this and I just cannot believe the drastic change that has taken place in my life.

Think about it...
three short years ago my idea of a triathlon was a 6-pack of beer, 6 egg rolls followed by 6 plates of chinese take-out.
I used to joke that the only way I would ever run would be if they were giving away Louis Vuitton handbags.

Now.
I am an ambassador for an entire community of athletes!
Now.
I cannot even fathom living my life without running or being active.

I cannot expess how gratefull I am to each and every single Dailymile member who voted for me.

Thank you!! Thank you!!

If you are not a Dailymile member, what are you waiting for??

Go sign up-start tracking your miles, making new friends and getting a daily dose of motivation.
Make sure you friend me up!! Jen S. 

Fight for your right to TRAIN

Last night the darling Hubby and I ended up having a heated discussion. What started out as a simple statement/question turned into something much bigger.

As most of you know by now, I am a stay at home Mommy and I work a couple nights a week at the YMCA. I usually wake up early, early (3-4 am) to fit in workouts, I go to the Y in the mornings while the kids club is open so Lola can play while I workout. I workout later in the day when hubby or my parents and/or in-laws can help out with Lola. I schedule my long workouts on the weekends so she can be with hubby.

Monday things did not workout for me to train and I get was disappointed that I did not get to fit in my trainer ride or swim. Yesterday appeared to be another day that my training plans would fall through but alas, it worked out for me to workout!

Hubby made a comment about me being in a better mood than I was the previous day and then said "you must have been able to workout this morning". True, I did. And true again, I can get grumpy if I don't get my workouts in. Then he dropped THIS little bomb on me:

"What are you gonna do when you HAVE to go back to work full time and you can't workout ALL DAY LONG".

Whoa. What? What the frankincense does THAT mean??

Workout ALL>Day>LONG??

Do you have any inkling as to what I really do all day? You think I am on some sort of self-centered vacation here? I wish I could train all day long but alas, I do not.


At first, I just kind of laughed it off and said that I know plenty of ladies who juggle full time jobs, family, and training without issue. Some are even training for marathons, Ultra's and Ironman distance events.
 
Then he says:
"So...when do YOU think you are going to be able to workout when your working?" (sarcastically!!)

I attempted to maintain my composure.
I will workout in the mornings, like I do now. I will workout at night, after work. I will fit it in on my lunch breaks. I have weekends. It will happen--because I want it to.

We went back and forth a bit about this and that, then it started to turn ugly and I will spare you the details. The conversation ended up being "put on hold" for the time being because we were getting a little too passionate about our version of how events would unfold.


Yes, we were arguing about events that will take place 2-3 years down the road when Lola goes to school.
Yes, we were debating how much "personal" time each of us was entitled to while raising a family and working full time.
Yes, we both had valid points.
No, he did not seem to think I could do it.

But you know what. I believe that if you want something bad enough, you make it happen. I have zero doubt that I will find time to train for ANY EVENT I want to complete--even working full time.
And speaking of working full time, who ever said I would return to working in medicine? I could very well be on my way to completing my PT Certification and eyeballing other training certifications down the road. SO maybe my FULL TIME JOB will be training and workout. Ha! Take that!!

I know many of you work, take care of your family and still find time to train. I would love to hear from you. Please share with me how you fit it all in!!

On another note, the voting is up on Dailymile for the 2011 Team. I even saw one of my bloggy friends there (Hello Barb!! You got one of my votes!)

I would really, really love to be a part of this and if you could please take a moment of your time to cast your vote for me :)

If you are not a Dailymile member, you would have to sign up to vote. If you are not using Dailymile now, I highly recommend it. It is user friendly, you can meet all kinds of athletes from all over the world. I love the daily dose of inspiration and motivation!!

VOTE HERE!

My video is the one with the name Jen S. under it and it is a picture of me with 3 friends the beach showing off our triathlon body markings on our arms.

Dailymile Team 2011

We interrupt your regular blog post to bring you this late breaking news.

Jen has officially applied to be considered for the Dailymile Team 2011.


While she did suffer from a mental breakdown trying to figure out something as simple as connecting her video camera to her PC, eventually she threw the damn thing in the trashcan found another way to get her message across to those on Dailymile.

It took many hours, lots of cursing and a couple temper tantrums to finally complete this masterpeice project before the deadline of Monday, February 7th at midnight.

While details on the voting have not been announced by the brass at Dailymile, Jen will be back at her reguarly scheduled time to plead beg solicit bribe you ask for your vote.