Another week over!

Week 5 is finished! Woohoo on to week 6!  Totals for this week, drum roll please....7 hours and 15 minutes, 57 miles, 3,271 calories burned!

The thing that made me the happiest this week? I passed the halfway mark on my fundraising!!!! Yea! I've raised $2,776.00 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society! Thank you so so much to everyone that is a part of that so far. I participated in another roadblock.last Saturday, and this time I convinced Meg to come out with me. Thanks to her help we raised $359 in 3 hours! It was incredible. I think the rainbow tutu helped :)

On Your Left Cycles

 

http://onyourleftcycles.net/

This  entry is a BIG, BIG THANK YOU to On Your Left Cycles on Baxter Ave. They have decided to sponsor me for the Louisville Ironman this year!  If you haven't ever been to their shop on Baxter Ave, you should. Very, very nice guys that can help you out with any of your needs. If they don't have something you want/need in the shop that day, they can pretty much order anything. Training for an Ironman takes a lot of gear and alot of tuneups needed for my bike. Thanks to Drew and OYLC, my bike is going to get all the TLC she deserves. This made my week last week, and I'm still floating on Cloud 9. If you're local, go by their shop and say thank you by buying something fun for yourself!

Also, don't forget some upcoming fundraising events. I'm selling tickets for the Comedy Caravan on March 2nd at the Baxter Ave location. Tickets are $15. I am able to keep $7 for my fundraising efforts. Also, marh your calendars and invite all your friends for April13th from 5-8pm @ Gerstle's Bar on Frankfort Ave for a night of great music, food, fun & fundraising. Bridge 19, an awesome local band from Louisville will be playing from 6:30-8. $10 cover at the door, which also includes a free drink ticket. %10 of all food and drink sells as well as the entire door cover will go to my fundraising efforts for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Come early and come hungry! 

Check out Bridge 19 here- http://www.bridge19.com/

Don't forget to stop by my fundraising page and visit sweet Ava's blog!

http://pages.teamintraining.org/ky/louisir13/bpitcock

http://avalucille.tumblr.com/

Yay for a recovery Week!

Whew! It was a great week because it was my first recovery week! Training has been great, but it's always nice to have a little bit of rest so my body can really recover from the beating it had taken the previous 3 weeks.  I was happy, and so were my legs. :) My stats this week were: Total hours 6:20, 56.96 miles, in 9 workouts and 3,157 calories burned.  :) Now I'm ready for week 5 of training! Sunday was exactly 27 weeks until Ironman Louisville,  186 days!!

A look at fundraising.

I had a great week of training. I'm feeling healthy, and things are beginning to click, but this week I really realized how much fundraising for Team In Training means to me. After such an amazing, first fundraising event with my Superbowl party, I became even more motivated to get the dollars rolling in for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. With the help of very generous friends, I was able to raise $482 Superbowl night!! This past Saturday I participated in my first ever road block with Team In Training. If you don't know what a roadblock is, I've included some pictures form Saturday. Basically, we set up cones at the intersection of Hursbourne Parkway and Taylorsville Rd. Once the light turns red you carry your bucket down the lanes, and hope people roll down their windows and drop money into your bucket.  When I first arrived at the roadblock and received my vest, bucket and cones, I was a bit nervous. All of a sudden, the intersection appeared to be HUGE, and the cars seemed to be speeding through. Once, the light turned red, I set my cones up, and faced traffic.  I took a deep breath in and started walking down the lane. And it happened pretty quickly, a generous soul rolled down his window and flapped a dollar bill at me. I never thought someone holding a dollar bill out a window would make me that happy, but I briefly remember skipping over to him, thanking him and placing my first dollar in the bucket.  The day was a huge success. I eventually developed a plan. I didn't like getting stuck in the middle of the lane away from my cone when the light turned green, so I would walk the lanes, until the turning lane light turned green. This was my cue to turn around and head back to the cone, and usually I made it in time. Standing behind the cone with the light green, made me feel safer than when I was without it. Still, standing behind the cone and watching cars drive by you on either side, could be a bit intimidating. I have to say though, it was all worth it. I met a lady that donated, and then talked to me until the light turned green. Her husband had died form Leukemia. He didn't live long after his diagnosis. She thanked me, and drove off. I noticed my eyes get a bit watery, and I realized even more how important, not just completing the Ironman is to me, but completing ot as a part of Team In Training, knowing I'm making a difference in some small way. Three hours, 4-5 miles at least of walking up and down the road, and tired legs later, I raised $184!!!  I again have so many people to thank. I'm at $1,942 in fundraising.  I'm so close to 50% I can taste it!  I have a large fundraising event planned for April 13th at Gerstle's Bar here in Louisville from 5-8. Bridge 19, a local band has agreed to donate their time to an amazing cause. 10% of the food and drink sells will be donated to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. A $10 cover at the door which includes a free drink ticket, a silent auction, and raffle will all be taking place. Mark you calendars! I am ecstatic about this event.

As far as training goes, I had another great week. My totals were 8 hours and 9 minutes, 74 miles, in 10 workouts. Bike=59.5 miles, run=13.1 miles, Swim= 2.64 miles. 

Marathon Sharks Sat Am run at the new bridge

The group of roadblockers and our loot!

Standing in between traffic at the roadblock!

My first fundraiser!!!

 Last night was my first ever fundraising event! I had a Super Bowl fundraising party, and it was a huge success!   Thanks to my generous friends, I raised $482 to help with cancer research!! I am on cloud 9 today not only due blowing my expectations out of the water for amount raised,  but I'm feeling very loved. I am very lucky to be surrounded by such wonderful people. We gave out some fabulous prizes,  had a great silent, and we even had  a celebrity half time show of our own! :)  Thank you to everyone that has donated so far. We're doing a great job chipping away at the $4500 mark!!

Tuesday is a swimming day!

What a week! First Tornadoes, then snow & ice! I sure hope that groundhog didn't see his shadow yesterday. I need spring soon, and not 6 more weeks of cold weather! My 2nd full week of training is over! 29 left to go!  So far so good! Only 202 days until Ironman!  My week was a mix of great training days and some frustration along the way, but I'm learning from it all.

Every Tuesday and Thursday I meet my Ironman team, and  the Memphis in May tri team for swim practice. Tuesdays are strictly drill work for those of us that need our strokes to be fine tuned. I loved this picture I took. The water feels as cold as it looks, and just just like the sign says "I'm hungry." :) Tuesday's drills were great. I really feel like my stroke is coming together, Finally! Tuesday was an "aha" day for me with my stroke which is nice to have. This has been my Achilles heel for too long. Thursday I decided to do a workout Coach Dee and I discussed. My endurance is not great in the pool right now, and I need to quickly build it. So Thursday I set out to do a 5x200m set. Thus far 100m was the longest I could swim without needing a break. This was definitely going to be a test. I warmed up with 500m in drills, and set out for my 5x200 set. It was going really well. I finished the first two sets and felt really good. I was surprised. I decided to switch it up and do a pull set. Third 200 finished. Holy cow, I might be able to finish this. My 4th 200 was a struggle. I slowly started to feel myself fatigue, and I could tell the stroke was falling apart. After 150, I was toast. On my last set I decided I needed my form to stay in tact so on the fins went. (These help you swim easier. They're a great training tool to be able to build your endurance.) I pushed off the wall. 50 done. Onto the next 50. I almost had 100 under my belt, and I was feeling great. I pushed off the wall to start my 3rd lap. I finished 25;pushed off the wall. I'm almost done I thought in my head, when it happened. I felt my calf start to tense, in my head I said, "No, no come on, " but it did full on muscle spasm so bad I had to grab the lane line for fear of floating to the bottom and drowning. I couldn't straighten, my leg out, I couldn't take off my goggles. I could only squeal in pain, like a child that dropped her ice cream cone on a hot summer day.  Thankfully, one of my teammates swam over and straightened my leg out for me, and I was able to pull myself in. I had never experienced that before, but apparently it's coming when you're trying to build up your fitness. 

Wednesday morning around 3:45 AM I awoke to the sound of the tornado sirens. Meg, Tucker, Jack, and I marched our selves down to the basement and waited out the storms. I got back in bed around 5AM and decided to switch my off day to Wed this week instead of Friday.



Mother Nature is a bit confused this winter. One day it's 70 degrees and the next it's 20 degrees and snowing. Many runner's choose to run on the treadmill on days like Saturday, but I throw my Yaktrax on my running shoes and head out. Snow days are my favorite to run in. These runs become some of the most peaceful, surreal ones that i experience, and Saturday was one of these runs.  I crested the hill at Seneca golf course and had to catch my breath it was so breathtaking. Everything was covered in snow, noone was around, and it was fluttering snow. I wish I'd taken a picture, but it wouldn't have done it justice.

Sunday was my longest spin so far. A tough 1:50 minute spin. It was supposed to be 2 hours, but I had a flat tire fiasco that took a while so 1:50 it was. :)

Totals for the week are 7 hours and 40 minutes of training, 64 miles, 3,343 calories and 9 workouts!

I also wanted to include my monthly stats for January. This will be fun to look back at at the end of every month.  In January I swam 4.28 miles in 7 workouts for 4.5 hours.  I biked 92 miles in 8 workouts for a total of 5 hours and 52 minutes, and I Ran 33.8 miles in 8 workouts for a total of 5 hours and 43 minutes for an overall total 130.8 miles, 16 hours an 57 min of training!!

http://pages.teamintraining.org/ky/louisir13/bpitcock

http://avalucille.tumblr.com/