NO, i will never do that!

i'll do this kind of cycling:

and this kind too:

i'm not one who says the word never very often but i will say it with 100% certainty that i will NEVER, EVER do this kind:

we headed to downtown tampa on saturday night to watch some guys the j-man knows, who were racing. i must say that i have so much respect for these cyclists. i, personally, would never do this for any amount of money in the world. i will gladly stick to my triathlons and mountain biking. you can hear me in the video saying, "oh my God" and laughing nervously as they rounded some of the sharp corners with a sharp curb sticking out. it was truly breath-taking and scary to watch. it didn't help that when we first got there, as we were walking up to one of the corners, a group of riders were making a turn onto a brick street and 2 of them got tangled up and one of the guys hit the bricks face first and was knocked out. it gave me the worst chills. it kills me to see things like that. i'm the type when passing an accident scene, i can't look. i'd rather not go near it, if at all possible.

i hadn't been to downtown tampa in a long time so i brought along my camera as well and snapped a few photos along the way that i thought would be fun to share.

Picture of the historical Tampa Theatre sign. Built in 1926 as one of America's most elaborate "movie palaces", the Tampa Theatre today is a fiercely protected and generously supported landmark.

i couldn't help take a picture of the sidewalk art, a beautiful heart.

me, the j-man and our cycling buddy, Gary at the crit finishline.

these next 4 pictures are non-sports or art related. in the last 10 years, tampa has recently lost way too many police officers in the line of duty, by the hands of felons who shouldn't ever have been set free. yet, they get out of prison, arm themselves yet again and continue to commit heinous crimes.

can you see the silhouette of the police officer? a little hard to see the head b/c it blended in with the black marble in the background. also notice the blue laser beam light at the top. that was just recently added to signify the "thin blue line." the Thin Blue Line Project represents the thin line that separates the lawful from the lawless.

the thin blue line project otherwise known as the tampa police memorial. notice the police cap, holster, batton, and hand cuffs.

the names of all the TPD fallen officers.

i hope everyone is having an awesome week so far.

much love and peace out!

hater in texas

did any of you read this letter written to the editor of LAVA magazine in the april/may issue?  if not, here it is:

first of all,  this dude doesn’t even have the balls to sign his real name because he knows he’d have a target on his ass at the next race he goes to. second thing, if you read the second paragraph, he spouts off at the mouth about dangerous ideas but doesn’t give not even one example. surely, someone as educated as he is (see first paragraph), would do a better job of backing up his accusations with some valid examples. sounds to me like he’s had a little too much HATERADE in his life and the reason he isn’t on facebook or twitter is because he probably doesn’t have any friends with that cranky attitude of his.

hey anonymous, you look like you could use another!

i love my “obnoxious and disgusting” stickers!

i would love to hear what you think about this letter to the editor. is there some truth to it?

much love and peace out!

semi wordless wednesday

thanks for all the nice comments regarding the race on sunday. i had an awesome time and can't wait to race again in may.

i wanted to share something i found interesting and that is ...i was NOT at all sore from doing 70.3! however, the half marathon i did in january and the one in february rendered me useless the next few days as far as being able to run and sit comfortably. i had such deep muscle soreness by the end of race day and for the next few days, that every time i sat and got back up, you would hear an "uuuggghh." it wasn't as if i ran them THAT much faster so i think it has a lot to do with the surface the race course is on. the half mary in January had 2 bridges that you had to run over twice each, and as we know the downhills are murder on the quads and then the one in february was flat as a pancake but on the most unforgiving surface known to mankind, concrete! sunday's run route was part asphalt and part hard packed shell road. i know which one i prefer.

enough words, since after all, it is semi wordless wednesday. not sure i could ever do a wordless wednesday. here is a video that the j-man took prior to the swim start on sunday. let me give you a hint, keep an eye on the right side of the video. you will see pretty big dude pulling SOME kind of flotsam out of the water. is it a baby alligator? a dead body? a metal garbage can? watch the video to find out ...

i'm finally starting to catch up on my blog reading. i hope everyone is having a great week so far. the next blog topic is going to be a doozy ...yeah, i said doozy. much love and peace out!



gator half-iron 2011 - race report

  gator race bling

i just realized that i really dread writing up race reports because i’m not sure where to begin, so i’ll stick with my “keeping it simple” approach and start with a quick rundown of saturday and then move on to race day stuff. this was my first 70.3 race so it was all new to me so to speak.

on saturday we made the hour drive to sarasota and went straight to the running store to register. that went very smoothly and as soon as we were done with that, we headed to our hotel to check in. once we got settled in, we hit the nearest supermarket, Albertson’s (not one of my faves but it worked out fine). i think we were the youngest one’s in the entire store. we picked up a few things to eat, went back to the hotel and ate. i ate about 1/4 of the j-man’s turkey sub and then 4 small peanut butter cookies. i felt like an overstuffed shamu. once we got done feeding our faces, we headed to the race site to drop off Mandy (the badass q-roo) for her sleep over. you could rack your bike anywhere, first come, first served, which i thought was pretty cool. as always, it was tough leaving Mandy behind and after tucking her in a couple of different places, i finally found the perfect spot for her and got her all settled in for the night. we went back to the hotel for the rest of the evening/night …or so i thought.

around 8:30pm as i was gathering up stuff for the next morning, i realized that i had forgotten something very important and had a meltdown for a split second. i may or may not have forgotten my TRANSITION BAG with my wetsuit, goggles, and bike shoes!!! yeah, some pretty important things. dumbass move on my part! first thing i said, FML! second thing, we gotta go back home now. first let me say, i am married to a man who is nothing short of a saint and second, thank goodness we don’t live that far away. i know you are wondering how the hell did i forget to bring my transition bag and the only thing i can say is i thought the j-man grabbed it. it was completely my bad and all the way home that night i was so pissed off at myself but i decided that i wasn’t going to allow this to mess with my head and to just let it go, so i forgot all about it. we got home, i grabbed the bag and we headed back to our hotel. i was in bed by 10:45pm. perfect! plenty of time to sleep and sleep i did until the alarm went off at 5am.

5am race morning: my nutrition strategy was very simple. i took what i did in october at the 140.6 and divided it by 2. got that? sounds too easy, right? well it is and it worked once again to perfection. in a nutshell, for breakfast i ate fig newtons and cheddar cheese, on the bike i ate 2 and a half powerbars and 2 powergels, i also drank 2 aero-bottles of water and 1 bottle of powerade and nuun mixed. on the run, one hammer gel that i grabbed on the course and water at every water station (at each mile).  those of you who have been reading my blog since the early days and who have known me for years, know that i hate to complicate training and nutrition.  personally, for me, it just isn’t necessary and it takes the fun out of the whole experience.

the swim:  1.2 miles – 40:06 – 6/8 AG

i’m the one with my arm out of the water

it was wetsuit legal but i saw some big boys who had enough natural insulation and opted for no wetsuit. more power to them but i’m taking advantage of more buoyancy when i can.  the swim started in 2 waves. men first and then 30 seconds later, the women. it took me a good quarter mile to feel comfortable, settle down, and get my breathing right. once i did, it was like i was in the pool, except when i got kicked in the ear. other than that, the swim was good and i was 5 minutes faster than my first 1.2 mile loop at the great floridian, so i guess i’m getting a little faster.

T1: 3:03 – 5/8 AG

the bike: 56 miles – 2:48:12 – 3/8 AG

my favorite part, the biking! not much to say about the bike except that it was flat and fast. great roads with very little debris. hit some head wind early on for about the first 25 miles then got some good push coming back. chicked a lot of boys out there in the last 10 miles who passed me early on. it’s all about pace and riding smart.

T2 – not recorded in the race results.

the run: 13.1 miles – 1:40:30 – 1/8 AG

i was mentally prepared for the heat and obviously, physically prepared too. my strategy going into the run was to use each and every water station …grab 2 cups, 1 cup of water on my head and the other to drink. i was surprised that i felt as strong as i did and this was good and bad. the way i calculated my projected finishing time put me at best 5:30 and at worst 6 hours so the bad part was that the j-man was nowhere to be found at the end to video the good part which was my 5:11:50 finishing time.  i finished 2nd in my age group and i was very happy with that.

thanks for reading and i leave you with a video from the race …enjoy!

if you’d like to see the official race results, you can go HERE. 

much love and peace out!

cupcake marathon 2011 & deal of the century

 i even put my customized race number on my race belt and i may or may not have worn it when i ran at 4:30 this morning. for those not in the know, you can go HERE to see what it’s all about. very cool event and all the cool kids are doing it.

here is the proof screenshot showing my first run of 8.72 in 1:11:46. not bad for a sleep deprived, day light saving weekend. i must say that i surprised myself because normally, losing an hour of sleep screws up my whole week. i haven’t felt any ill effects yet and usually would by now. keeping fingers crossed.

now for my favorite part, show and tell. this weekend, the ironman store by my house was having a “tent” sale. i had been getting the reminder emails for the last 3-4 weeks and even penciled it in on my desktop calendar here at home. the tent sale was on saturday, so after swimming, running and biking, i headed over to see what the fuss was all about. let’s just say that i made out like a bandit and spent a whopping total of $19.17 for all of the following items:

2 pair of these Sugoi tri shorts - $5.00/each

IMFL Panama City Beach Sugoi tri jersey (front) - $5.00

IMFL Panama City Beach Sugoi tri jersey (back)

Clearwater 70.3 Worlds Sugoi tri jersey (front) - $5.00

  Clearwater 70.3 Worlds Sugoi tri jersey (back)

IMFL dri-fit t-shirt - $2.00

IMFL dri-fit t-shirt from 2008 - $2.00

it appeared to be all the IM merchandise from a lot of the races that didn’t sell during the race. i tried to find stuff that didn’t have dates on them, except for the last shirt pictured above. i had to have that one. i saw stuff from IMAZ, IMLOU, lots of IMFL stuff. almost got some IMFL arm warmers that would have matched the clearwater jersey but couldn’t find a size small. i made the J-man dig thru several bins looking for some but no such luck. this was my kind of shopping excursion. hopefully they come back next year! i won’t buy anything at the IMFL expo and wait to buy it for 95% off the sticker price. Ha!

so i have this little 70.3 race i’m doing on sunday in sarasota, florida. first tri of the year and i can’t wait. kinda bored with the half marathons and just running races. this is the only triathlon distance i have not done yet. i really wanted to do this triathlon last year but i did not feel like i was ready to tackle the swim but this year, bring it on. the weather is looking pretty good so far with a low of about 58 and a high of about 78 which will probably feel a little warm on the run but i’m not worried about that. hydrate, hydrate, hydrate, nuun, nuun, nuun!

that’s all i got for now. i hope everyone had a nice weekend and that the loss of an hour isn’t hindering you too much.

much love and peace out!

where all the magic happens ... M-tv Cribs - KC edition

maybe the title of this post needs a little explanation, especially if you aren't familiar with M-tv Cribs. MTV or CMT Cribs (the name depends on which channel it airs) is a franchise reality television program on the MTV Networks' MTV and later its CMT channel that features tours of the houses and mansions of celebrities. the first show aired September 2000. by 2005, Cribs had featured tours of the homes of over 185 celebrities, musicians, actors, and athletes over the course of 13 seasons. the show was originally narrated by Ananda Lewis, then narrated by SuChin Pak of MTV News. so my point is, that everytime the tour got to the master bedroom, the featured celebrity would say, "this is where all the magic happens."

for some strange reason, that line always stayed in my head. so, without further ado, please join me on a tour of the room in my house where a lot of the magic happens. magic meaning, hard work and sweat equity.  i can't even begin to tell you how many miles i've ridden on the trainer in this room or how many tons of weights i've lifted in there but it has been lots. my favorite time spent in there is when the j-man is riding right next to me, which is rare but every now and then we can coordinate it, usually in the winter or on rainy days.

the pain cave

oh you fancy, huh? yes, these Boston medals get a home of their very own. i bought this medal holder 3 years ago. why did it take me so long to hang? the clock hanging above that looks like a 25 pound weight has so much history. i'll save that for another day.

one of my favorite marathons was the one i ran with the j-man. actually we ran several together but this Disney one in 2002 was our first one running together, that's why we had it framed professionally. now if i could just figure out how to get him running again ...any suggestions?

this past weekend's project

i'd like to give the credit for this idea, of putting the medals on a curtain rod, to Marlene in Ontario Canada who has a really nice blog titled, Mission to a(nother) marathon. after reading her post last thursday and seeing the way she had her medals displayed, i knew i was on a mission to a(nother) weekend project, besides my usual weekend project of training, training and training.

one of my favorite posters ...Marilyn Monroe bench pressing dumbbells. one of my favorite former personal training client's gave it to me as a gift. thank you hot mama (her nickname)!

thanks for visiting my gym and next time you're in tampa, holla atcha girl and maybe i'll invite you over to workout in the room where all the magic happens.

much love and peace out!

the abc's of kc

monkey see, monkey do ...i couldn't resist this list, so i had to be a copycat and do it too.

A~Age: 40.
B~ Bed Size: king.
C~Chore you hate: all of them.
D~Dogs: none :-(
E~Essential Start your Day Item: coffee!!
F~Favorite Color: emerald green.
G~Gold or Silver: silver.
H~Height: 5-5
I~Instruments you play: human beat box.
J~Job Title: life insurance underwriter.
K~Kids: zero.
L~Live: paradise - otherwise known as Tampa.
M~Mom’s Name: Edna.
N~Nicknames: KC, K to the Cee-Oh, Shorty-K, Bionica, way too many.
O~Overnight Hospital Stays: none.
P~Pet Peeve: people who are always late or don't show up when they are supposed to.
Q~Quote from a Movie:  Get busy living or get busy dying from Shawshank Redemption.
R~Right or Left Handed: both.
S~Siblings: older bro, Frank.
T~Time you wake up: btw 3:45-4am
U~Underwear: Patagonia or Calvin Klein, no others are acceptable.
V~Vegetable you Dislike: all the starchy ones.
W~What Makes You Late: nothing. i'm always early or on time.
X-rays ~You’ve had Done: teeth, broken wrist, tailbone.
Y~Yummy Food you Make: baked rosemary chicken
Z~Zoo Animal Favorites: Lemur

have a great weekend everyone. much love and peace out!

3 posts, 3 days in a row ...miracle!

i'm doing this marathon and you should too!

go HERE to check it out and sign up.

keeping it short and sweet today.  i realized that I had forgotten to post last month’s total training numbers so here is jan and feb together. to sum up the first 2 months of the year, in three words … right on track! i’m feeling stronger and more motivated everyday, to get out and train wisely. also, keeping a close eye on eating clean 95% of the time and getting good amounts of sleep. stay thirsty train smart my friends!

January totals:

Swam 20,808 meters

Biked 658.24 miles

Ran 121.11 miles

Strength trained/core work – 9 days

February totals:

Swam 27439 meters

Biked 629.55 miles

Ran 139.80 miles

Strength trained/core work – 8 days

with that said, let’s get this new month off to a good start! lots of races coming up for many of us, so let’s keep our eyes on the prize whatever that may be for each of us.

much love and peace out!