The year in Review

2009 was quite a year indeed. I have to say I am pretty pleased that the highs certainly outweighted the lows of the year. I never thought I would feel like I was home so far away from friends and family and boston but it is starting to happen, and I am relieved of that. Most of my years have been dominated by which endurance event I chose that year. 2009 certainly was a doozy on that front! I trained longer and harder than I ever thought possible for the Vineman half iron. I now actually like to swim bike AND run. I have met some amazing people along the way and so happy to have made so many tri friends. Living in this area, you are certainly exposed to some hardcore athletic people. I became more aware of that as I was watching tv and two triathlons were recently televised on network tv and on both of those I actually knew people on those shows. I am so lucky to be exposed to all of this and to continue to be able to participate in these sports and fundraising. Perhaps the best part of all is inspiring other people to feel that they can do the same. THat is the icing on the cake that a stupid shmuck like myself can make people feel like they can do anything. I do have to say I was pretty moved while watching ironman this year and actually contemplated that for myself, but fortunately 2010 means 6 weddings which we have to travel for so training would be null, but I may add another half iroman to my list for 2010.
-I got to travel to Cabo and vegas a few times for fun and Bri and I sort of got a mini honeymoon out of that but we are going to keep making excuses to get away for a "honeymoon" since being away with 80 family members for your wedding does not equate a "honeymoon."
-raised a ton of money, got into really good shape and completed a half ironman!
-I turned 3o and had a fantastic time drinking way too much, acting really stupid and dressing like an idiot!
-I got to see the Ellen show AND will be on a wipeout episode this summer!
-We travelled home to Boston a ton which makes living so far away that much more bearable. It really isn't that far. I was able to do a few impromptu visits for fun, and a few for some not so fun stuff.
-This year I had to say goodbye to Nana who I miss every single day. I was so lucky to be so close to my grandparents, it was such a gift to be able to be a part of the good bad and the ugly times with them. Family dynamics change more and more for me but the best part nowadays is the neices and nephews and all the new little ones to focus on.
-I also had to say goodbye to a friend Connie who loved reading this blog and whom I hope I can continue to amuse. It was a gift to be able to be part of her life and that I was able to share some time with her before she passed. It has also been a gift to be able to support her daughters, and my friends through this process that is really never ending. I did not have anyone in my immediate life that had been through the loss of a parent (at the time) which is why the Team in Training means so much to me. THrough that I met Julie and Ursula andmany more who I felt instantly connected to because of this disesase.
-The highs certainly do outweigh those lows. We were able to purchase a "real bike" a harley for my dads 60th. No suprise there that he retired shortly after. I am so lucky to have had so many visits from my dad and apple this year and many friends.
-Work has been another gift and I am so lucky to be surrounded by friends every day at work. I love the kids I work with and am so inspired by their determination and spirit, even if they are beating the bag out of me, humping me, or yelling exploitives at me! Its all in good fun and I love what I do and how many people can honestly say that?
-I am so happy to have Brian join me in 2010's endurance event and so proud of his accomplishments so far (like already losing 25 pounds without even trying!!) I hope we can raise more money than last year! We will continue to be inspired by those we train for and with and are looking forward to our friend Keri to say she is cancer free in 2010. That will be a great gift!
Everyday is a gift and noone knows that like us! We look forward to all that 2010 has to bring and know that Hawaii will be on the top of that list!

Speaking of Hawaii, there is an anonmymous donor that is doubling all donations up until the 31st for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. People are so generous despite "these hard economic times."

Take advantage of that and a tax deductible donation before the years end by donating to our cause!
http://pages.teamintraining.org/sd/lavatri10/bmerrilsti

Our best to you and yours this new year! We will be celebrating once again at the Rose Bowl with our friends!!! Looking forward to all that is in store for us and for 2010's highs!!!

coast to coast

This week was quite a whirl wind per usual. Going home for the holidays feels more like being pimped out like a two dollar whore. In good travelling fashion I was sick the entire week which made travelling really fun and seriously cut into my plans. I guess you might as well be the person coughing the entire time on the plane rather than giving dirty looks to the "a-hole" who gets on a plane sick. Anyway I figured a quick recap with pictures would do more justice than my banter.

Flew in Saturday night right before Boston got about a foot of snow dumped on them. Fortunately I did not dig out our winter gear until AFTER my dad and apple shoveled.....hehe

My wonderful husband bought me two tickets to the New Kids concert and I had SO MUCH FUN! I did more damage to my throat but got nice and drunk with Kyla who hadnt seen them since she was 12. Lets just say, they still got it!

JOEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

We sucked it up during the storm and went to the gym. This was the same day that my cough emerged. Really fun to swim while not being able to breathe!!!

I had a sleepover with Elizabeth and taught her to pleaye(not sure how the hell you spell that but it is a ballet move). She was way fun and we were surrounded by cute kids all week and no we still don't want any, but thanks for asking!!! Oh and I taught elizabeth to say "I need palm trees in my life" in the hopes that mom and dad or papa will take her to visit me soon.

Went to see santa and this dude seriously had me fooled.

Went to disney on ice with papa! I think I was just as mesmerized as she was.

Flew back through LA. The only thing that I said would make having to drive to and from LA besides saving a ton of money, was if we saw a famous person. As we were waiting for our bags Bri says "don't look now" which to me meant "SOMEONE FAMOUS DONT BE OBVIOUS. OH MY GOD WHO IS IT JT? DEBBIE? BRIT BRIT?" but no.....it was Toby from the show The Office. Still a fun thing but not as exciting as the others. Of course I had to go up to him. I think it is important to go up to famous people and tell them who they are in case they forgot "hey you're toby"

That was fun.

Now I continue to hack up lungs. I think I peed myself from coughing so hard at least 10 times this week and continue to do so. I finally went to the dr and he said its likely a bad chest cold that is triggering asthma. I have not had to use an inhaler in about 10 years and I am praying it does not spark a recurrence of asthma like when I was young. I am taking hits from the inhaler and hoping it helps. If it doesn't help in a few days I think they will put me on antibiotics. I went running sand intervals with the team since I only squeaked out a swim and a bike ride at the gym this week. It was hard. Turns out its kind of important to be able to breathe in order to run. I took it easy and tried not to talk too much. Some dumbass smartalleks were teasing me by running behind me mocking me. I told them I had a taser and wasnt afraid to use it. That was fun.

Our friends are in town for the rosebowl so we are going to be touring around sd this week! Yay to visitors! Next year I think we will petition early for christmas visitors. I must say it was quite nice to come home to 70 degree weather.

Happy belated Merry Christmas to all!!

big shoes to fill

This week was long and hard but oh so worth it. Workouts whatever whatever we swam we biked we ran. School was where it was at. Thursday was our holiday show and I was the emcee for the second year running. I killed it, had the crowd laughing, crying, ok maybe not but it was super fun. I mean I got the crowd to do the wave. YOu have to be creative when you have hundreds of special needs kids (with serious behaviors might I add) all up on a stage to perform. They were so impressive and it was just so special to be a part of it and to see how happy their parents are. It is so difficult for them with kids who are "special" but during the show they are just like any other kid doing a show and they shined like the super stars that they are!

Like Thursday wasn't long enough with the show (we set the place up, decorate, move heavy things like treadmills, set up tables and chairs the list goes on) I also got a cold this week. Fun!
Today I was the school elf because the usual elf (who is short and super cute) called out sick so I was filling the elf shoes. It was soooooooo fun. Only a few kids tried to attack santa, and only one ran from him screaming. It was just hilarious to see the kids get all excited. What a fun job. After that we continued to spread the holiday cheer by putting together the food/toy drive boxes for the children at our school who really need the help. Such a special place to put all of this together and I am just lucky to be a part of it. I mean comeon, I get to dress up like a fool and pretend that I am a stand up comedian AND get paid for it! Gotta love it.

We are soooooooooo looking forward to travelling back to Boston for the Arctic Blast/BLizzard! Should make for some interesting travel stories!

roger rabbit

Last week was a bit of a wash for working out. I suffered it out on the trainer on thursday and the only good thing about waking up at 5am was knowing i had an episode of Glee to watch. Its a good thing I did a morning workout cause by each night I was totally assed out so I was in bed pretty early all week and missed a few workouts. I must have had a little bug coming on cause Friday just around time for our work luncheon I got pretty sick to my stomach. I did decide to drink some ginger based alcoholic beverages, but no such luck, I still felt like puking. I hung around long enough to dominate on the pool table but made it home early enough to practice my tire changing skills on the bike.

Saturday morning was supposed to be a tire changing clinic and Torrey Pines hill repeats. We only got around to the tire changing (took about 3 hours) in the pouring rain before our coach decided that hill repeats would not be wise in the inclement weather. THANK GOD cause I puked in my mouth all morning and felt like death warmed over. I did however learn how to change my tire. I have always known, but it usually involves alot of swearing, really dirty hands and broken nails. I am a frickin pro now!

We pretty much prepared for our team party for Sunday. I managed to get on the trainer a bit and decided to take it easy later on when some teammates met me at the house to run the lagoon. I walked it with one of my mentees and his wife and made belle come along. Needless to say we were covered in mud but had i ran I would have been suffering.

The party was a great time. Tons of food. I actually felt kind of jiggly today, thats not good. Must stop eating every sweet in front of me. I learned how to do the backwards running man (video to come), it kind of looked like a messed up roger rabbit but i was impressed with my skills, oh and got slightly buzzed which was really fun. It was a super late night for me though (10pm...ouch) so I am so very tired today.

Gotta suck it up and get into the pool tonight. No slacking this week cause next week we are home!

its what janet does

Sand intervals. Mighty interesting way to spend a blustery cold tuesday evening. We met the team at Mission Beach and warmed up a bit and ran about a mile. This interval session was "lavaman specific" because the last mile is on sand. Not sure if you have ever run in sand? but its hard, and your heart rate hits the roof, and it hurts your legs, but it was fun!

We would run on the boardwalk for recovery, but then hop onto the sand til the next opening. I will not mention what bri did when he jammed his knee in the sand, oh okay he threw his water bottle. It was fun trying to explain to our teammates that when he hurts himself it is not okay to speak to him for at least a few minutes. I now just wait til he starts talking. Stupid knees. ANyway he powered through and made it almost the whole run. We did about 5.5 miles of sprinting in the sand and recovering by jogging on the pavement.

Perhaps the highlight was running with my new tri friend M.A. He completes me and let me tell you why. HE KNOWS DEBBIE GIBSON!! I knew I liked this kid! Oh and he has met Ms Jackson a few times and just danced for her in a flash mob at the AMA's. It was meant to be people. We are hosting a team party at our house this weekend and I promised to adorn the purple suit and dance to electric youth as long as he videod and promised to send to DG. She is soooooo going to want to hang out with me. I am such a good time.

G F Y

In an effort to explain how our bikeride went on Sunday I would like to explain a little something and give some background. Okay so there is a term my old neighbors and I termed a few years back..."GFY. "This stands for "Go F*#* Yourself." This came up once when I was aggravated with my dear husband and instead of saying the whole phrase decided to give it an abbreviation.Making it less offensive and more playful but still helping me feel like I did something naughty. Lets face it, sometimes you just need to tell someone to GFY.

Saturday our team did a bunch of intervals and since we did not get much mileage in I decided to put together a ride to do around our new neighborhood. WELL lets just say I did not check out the elevation, and I did not factor in that we are at the very beginning of our training still. Anyhoo Bri did great, but at one point flew by me on a steep downhill and did not give me the bike etiquette of "ON YOUR LEFT" to let me know. Instead he scared the shit out of me and I then retorted with "thanks for the heads up!" He retorted with "I SAID IT JODES!" Well that is the hard thing about biking. You see the wind is a factor and unless you yell you can't hear shit. So don't bother talking to me on the bike cause I can't hear you. Which brings me back to the GFY.

Since I knew he would not hear me I threw out a few GFY's and maybe a "DICK" or two. Its all in good fun. I mean lets face it, we were on a 2.5 hour ride that I projected to be about an hour. I had a raging headache and not enough fluids. Oh AND I was hungry. A real recipe for disaster. I got us lost a whole bunch of times and actually had to clip out of my pedals once to walk up a hill. I have not done that since I started biking. In our defense it was at the end of our hellish ride and we still had our neighborhood of hills to get up. Needless to say we both collapsed to the floor when we got home and did not get up for a very long time despite having to pee for the previous 2.5 hours.

Oh speaking of gfy's I would also like to give major props to the behind the back flipping of the bird. I do not like conflict but sometimes I like to swear. So whats a girl to do? Flip people off behind their back. Do it with both hands at the same time and I swear it will make you feel SOOOO much better. I asked some other people how they felt about it and I think I started a new fad of the btb birds (thats behind the back).

Well we are off for sand intervals tonight. Ironic that we are doing this on the biggest loser finale night!

Today

I had a hilarious day at work in which I felt like I was at an improv session. We are being sex ed trained and while this is fantastically useful for us and our population and keeping them safe and helping them to build relationships, it ALSO brings me back to my immature days. I take the class with two of the most twisted individuals I know and we did not hold anything back today. We had to pretend that we were the possible students or "consumers" that we would run this class with. Which meant lots of swearing, talk about penis, and me betting one of the teachers 5 bucks that he would not hump someone/thing by the end of the day (we take this class with a bunch of other people as well). It was fun we'll put it that way.

During that class I realized I had dog poop all down my shirt (one of the teachers brought her dog and I had him on my lap). That was awesome. Then I had to run out of work because I thought I was late for my dentist appointment. Ran into whole foods to grab some soup so that I would not starve as it was already 2. Literally shove it down my throat in the car, spill carrot soup (yes it stains) all down my front and on car seat etc. Get into the office in which the receptionist says "you do know you're an hour early?" Yeah lady, I look all disheveled for NO REASON, I RAN HERE just so I would be an HOUR EARLY! I called myself a jackass and went back out to the car to see if there was anything else to eat and to not sit there and be judged by the receptionists. I had the car radio on so I could listen to "santa baby" for like the 10th time today when all of a sudden my car shut down. I had killed my battery. Had to go back into the office that already thinks i am an idiot and ask if they had jumpers. A wonderful young college student rose to the occasion and helped me out. I did not even know how to open the front hood of the car. Turns out VW's are a bit diff looking and I could not even find the battery. The young man came to my rescue yet again. Before I knew it the hour went by and I was in the chair getting my invisalign consult. I thought it would cost like a grand,, maybe 1500??? NOT SO MUCH!! They pretty much convince me that I need it and that it will help with the jaw pain i am having. THEN I was asked to sit in a room much like a car dealership and they told me it was 5000....dollars. I quickly retorted with "do you even know what kind of tri bike I could get for that?" and then "if we are talking cosmetics, I would MUCH rather put this towards a boob job." I did not get a laugh. I will have to think about this. If it is merely for the look I could care less, but if it can possibly help the TMJ issue I would consider it but that is ALOT of money.

On the training front we had a tempo run last night. Turns out if you are tall or have long legs your "pendulum" is longer and therefore you are slower and have a slower cadence. TOTALLY makes sense why shorter people can absolutely smoke my ass! Anyways it was quite fun because there were two other girls, AND they were younger than me, AND they are super fun that are my exact same pace. SOO we got to do our 1000 m intervals at our 10K pace minus a few together!! Apparently the coach thinks we botched our mile time trial because we should not have been talking so much. Will have to learn not to talk when we run past him. We kept being referred to as "charlie's angels" so of course I kept throwing the gun pose up and a few hair tosses. We ran at basically a 9 -930 minute mile pace. It was fun. I like tracks

Tonight we are off to the pool!