santa was good to me

even though i was naughty, santa really paid attention this year. he knew my favorite store and exactly what i was drooling over. so without further ado, here’s what i got:

i have to thank Chloe at Running with a bottle of wine for her post with all kinds of very cool christmas gift ideas. i had no idea this must have apparel even existed but as soon as i saw it, i knew i had to have it and how convenient that the only store that has it, The Ironman 360 Store is a hop, skip, and a jump away from my casa … lucky me!

the next item was also bought at The Ironman 360 Store.

front

back

and let’s not forget the early christmas present that i got right before thanksgiving:

not the bike, but the Spinergy PBO’s with the carbon spokes. i love them so far. i have had a few requests to write up a review of these wheels and i certainly will as soon as i have had a chance to race them at least once or twice … so around march/april be on the lookout for a review. even if they don’t make me faster, i won’t be heartbroken, or bankrupt, plus, they look more badass than the crap wheels that came on it.

thank you santa! i hope you love the stuff you got as much as i love mine.

i am so ready for this year to be over. not that it was a bad year because it was a GREAT year, maybe the best year of my life and i will review the year in tomorrow’s post, but i am so ready to get focused again and have a routine. all of this free time since the ironman distance race in october is making me CRAZY as hell. i can’t stand myself anymore … uugh!

oh yeah, i almost forgot, santa also brought me a bad cold. i woke on christmas morning with a sore throat and then the rest ran its course. still have a cough but nothing to stop me from training, no way! the worst part, between blowing my nose a thousand times (and i was using Kleenex aloe tissues too) and the wind/cold outside has left my poor face so chapped. it HURTS, so i’ve been lathering on the aquaphor. i’m so shiny!

i hope all of my blog friends had a lovely christmas too. much love and peace out!

1 year ago today...

wow! one year ago, i started this blog and what a year it has been. so happy blog-a-versary to 140.6!

to say i have been busy is an understatement but that's the nature of this time of year. i hope to be able to start catching up on my favorite blogs starting this weekend, specifically starting on saturday, christmas day. friday, christmas eve is my christmas. growing up in a hispanic family and marrying into one, we always celebrate on christmas eve, so  when christmas day rolls around, it's just another day, nothing special, therefore, i will have lots of free time to read blogs. i'd also like to start revamping mine a bit. i have a vision of what i'd like it to look like but haven't quite figured out how to format it. i'm challenged like that but come hell or high water, i WILL figure it all out.

i thought it would be fun to re-post my very first post. back when i had one follower, LOL! it is raw and unedited, copied and pasted, as is. i titled it the calm before the storm because i was enjoying the laziness of the end of the year, not much training going on but i knew that was about to come to an end, thus the storm...and what a good storm it was. enjoy!

december 23, 2009

the calm before the storm

after all these years of day dreaming about doing an ironman (or just an official ironman distance event), i've finally started to put all the pieces of the puzzle into action. i turn the big 4-0hh next year and wanted to do something special to commemorate/celebrate it since i believe in getting better with age. slowing down is not an option here. my goal is to do the great floridian race on october 23, 2010. this race is an ironman distance and in a very hilly part of florida too!

a little bit about me: i love to challenge myself and i'm my own worst critic. i expect the best out of myself. i was always very active as a child but once i got into the teen age years, it wasn't "cool" anymore, so i followed the crowd and became a couch potato. i didn't play any kind of sport in high school but was eventually talked into doing cross country my senior year so i could have something else listed in the yearbook besides just a class picture. needless to say, this couch potato could barely run 3 times around the track without gasping for air. so sad! i even remember my first c.c. meet and i think i finished 2nd to last and back then i believe that it was a 2 mile distance and if my memory serves me correctly, i finished in about 28-29 minutes. disgraceful! did i continue to run after that? hell no! back to couch potato status. eventually, i had an epiphany of sorts thanks to the most important person in my life, and decided to make some serious changes. i did not like the unhealthy road i was heading down. i joined a local fitness club on valentine's day 1989 (yes, i remember that day very well) and i have never looked back. i have worked out ever since and it has evolved widely. started out with just weight training, added a little stairmaster for cardio, bought a fully rigid mountain bike, started riding the trails at flatwoods before anyone hardly knew these trails existed, went to the university of south florida and got a degree in exercise physiology and made it my life's work. all of a sudden i found myself running a little, bought my first roadbike a steel lemond-alp'd'huez, started dabbling at north shore pool in the mid to late 90's and felt fit enough to do St. Anthony's a couple of times and a few sprint distance tri's. eventually, i lost my way to the pool (no secret that i'm not fond of swimming) and started really hammering out the marathons. to this day, i've done 4 boston mary's, 3 ultra marathons, and about 25 other marathons. but enough of the marathons already. i need more! and that leads me to now. with such a solid base of running and cycling (11,000+ miles to date for the year 2009), i am ready to add the swimming in...my weakest and most loathed activity. i sound negative about it but really, i'm looking forward to it very much and can't wait to get started. the love of my life asked me what i wanted for christmas and i asked for a year membership to the Y by our house so i can really work on the swim. i am determined now more than ever before to get it down this time around. i want to embrace swimming like i do the running and cycling. i will begin my swimming on January 4th and will be blogging about the good, the bad, and the ugly as i go along.
Much love and peace out!

merry christmas, happy holiday to all of my blog friends and stalkers!

~KC



running into the sunset

just a quickie post this evening. the picture above is me running home as fast as i could. the sun was setting quickly and i was getting cold!! i was so happy that the battery for my camera arrived yesterday so i was able to take it out on my run today without having issues with it shutting off within 3 seconds after turning it on. by the way, have any of you bought a camera battery lately? you know, the lithium ion one's? they are expensive!! but, i never, ever pay full price for anything, so to google i went and found the battery with shipping and handling included for just under 15 bucks. if you go to target, walmart, best buys, or any of those types of stores, you can find the battery for between $30-50. hells no, i'm not paying that much for a battery!! that's crazy. the company that i bought it from also ships very quickly so i was pleased. if you need a battery for your camera or any kind of special battery, go HERE.

ok, back to my run...i had a glorious 10.5 mile run this evening. it was pretty desolate out at the park today; i didn't even see one deer. however, i did this happy camper coming out of a trail as i was running by:

and i caught up with him at the water station. meet Robert who loves flatwoods park and the most beautiful surroundings in this area, just as much as i do. we got to talking and he mentioned that he canoes quite a bit in the hillsborough river which is right nearby flatwoods park. talk about a nice get-a-way from the hustle and bustle. there is something to be said about the peacefulness when you are running, mountain biking, or canoeing in this area. you often forget that just a stones throw away is a major highway system (I-75) and traffic jammed roads under going construction, with lots of pissed off people sitting in their cars.

even though my commute to work isn't all that great, having this disney land in my backyard is well worth it. i wouldn't chose to live anywhere else. plus, and this is the best part of all... it NEVER snows!! so this is year round bliss for me. amen!

christmas...kc style

Well...it was between the Charlie Brown Christmas tree...

 or this very beautifully, lit up palm tree with one Waterford ornament (not included). afterall, i'm in florida and we have palm trees, lots of em'. i couldn't be more pleased with this choice. i love it when it's all lit up at night; it makes me smile when i see it. and, it only took 5 minutes to put together!!

this weekend, although it was cold, we managed to get in some pretty good miles on the bike. yesterday we waited it out a bit and started around 10:30am, with a nice starting temp of 66 degrees. no arm warmers! in fact, i went sleeveless! we got in a solid 51 mile ride.

this morning was another story. i think we kind of experienced all 4 seasons on our ride today. actually, we ended up doing 2 rides. here's what happened. we started at 8am, a little cloudy (arm warmers on this time) and got in a very solid 65 minutes before it began to sprinkle, then rain. we waited the rain out for a few minutes and during that time, it began to get colder. we decided to head back home and get the rest in later. fast forward 2 hours later, we are off for round 2. now it is super windy and super sunny, not a cloud in the sky. overall, ended up being a great day and a total of 60 miles for the day.

i know there were lots of blog buddies running marathons or half marathons this weekend. i hope you all did well and i will be looking out for your race reports.  

much love and peace out!

my little secret

i’m running away…that’s my little secret. i’m always running away. from what? i don’t know. work? the rat race? just the everyday hustle and bustle? stupid people? unsolicited drama? silly rules? the list goes on. but, i’m also always running towards a goal, a dream, something that maybe at one time was unimaginable to me. my favorite way to “escape” if you will is to head out for a run on a trail. i have never felt more at peace than when i’m running alone, down single track or a wide open fire road. there’s just something about it that i can’t put into words so i took a few pics along the way this morning. the above pic is me “running away” towards another trail.

click on pic to make it bigger. there is a deer up ahead to the right. very cool!

2 runners and 3 dogs doing their morning run together. fun! i need a dog...one that can run fast.

ahhh, the sun! it was 36 degrees here this AM. i was happy to have the warmth of the sun just in time for my run.

dorky looking but a happy kc!! welcome to my nirvana…can’t get any better than this.

please take a moment to watch the trailer below from the documentary Bicycle Dreams. this documentary chronicles one of the most grueling endurance races in the world, the Race Across America, which by the way, i have no desire to do…yet. as you will see and hear in the trailer below, the narrator quotes a comment from Lance Armstrong, where he states,  “Endurance Athletes are running away from something inside of themselves, and that is one of the reasons they do what they do”.

is that true? i say, yes it is. what do you think my blog friends??

take a look and listen and see what you think…

so far, this friday is turning out to be a great one. no work, all play. started off with a 25 mile ride on the trainer and finished it off with a 7 mile trail run where i snapped all of the picture in this post. it was so much fun stopping to smell the roses, taking pictures, except my camera is acting all cranky lately…battery life issues. gotta figure this out. have a great weekend everyone!

much love and peace out!

last minute 2010 goals & a preview of 2011

wow! 2 back to back blog posts for me!! i’m not a slacker anymore…according to Matty O at Staying Strong and Positive. this morning i was looking at my training stats for the year on my workout log, at buckeye outdoors. are you like me? do you play a numbers game sometimes where, for example, you are on the treadmill or trainer and you keep telling yourself, ok, just one more mile and then you get to the mile and then you look at the time and you see that you are 2 minutes from making it to an hour so you tell yourself, 2 more minutes and then you get to the hour mark and the distance is an odd number that you just can’t bear to see, so you repeat this crazy process until all of your numbers are nice and even. before you know it, you’re at 90 minutes. i do that a lot, so when i jotted down my totals this year for running, biking and swimming, i had to set a few short term goals to make my numbers “even.”  here are the short term goals for the rest of 2010: i have 29 days to reach 1400 miles of running, 9700 miles of biking, and 120 miles of swimming. weather will probably try to derail my last minute efforts but i will do my best to even out my numbers cuz that’s how i roll. good thing i have the next four fridays in a row off because i’m going to need all the extra time i can get to chip away at these last minute goals.

here is a list of races that i’m planning on doing in 2011 barring any unforeseen circumstances:

• 2/27/2011 – Gasparilla half marathon in Tampa, Fl.
• 3/20/2011 - Gator half iron distance race in Sarasota, Fl.
• 5/14/2011 – Florida International Olympic distance – Siesta Key, Fl. (website hasn’t been updated yet)
• 9/??/2011 – Florida Challenge half iron distance – Clermont, Fl.
• 11/5/2011 - Ford Ironman Florida – Panama City Beach, Fl. (side note: Velma at Running with Boys left a comment on my blog post from yesterday and totally nailed my goal for this race, even though i’ve yet to mention this ultimate goal to anyone in the blog world yet. how did she know?? so YES, my goal is to qualify for Kona, period!)

i’m pretty sure there will be a few other events here and there, thrown in for fun but nothing else set in stone…YET! 

meanwhile, back to 2010. i had an awesome trail run yesterday evening as the sun was setting. it was eerily peaceful and i felt one with the universe…don’t laugh!

i’m planning on doing about the same run tonight but this time i’m taking my camera with me because the cell phone cam just doesn’t do it justice and of course, i will be posting them here for your enjoyment. oh crap! i gotta get ready for work now. work gets in the way of my blogging…how annoying!

have a great day everyone….much love and peace out!