Scott and I did a lot of training together for this Ironman, ok…well…actually we swam together a lot.  Well, actually we may have run for like 5 minutes together once,  after he rode his bike about 80 miles and then ran about 10 miles….(and I had fresh legs)..ok, so maybe it was like 1.5 minutes. I’m pretty sure his wife/also my great friend, Lea has pictures to prove this somewhere.  Really though, we did a fundraiser along with our Ironman that year for the Oncology Unit at CHCC.  We spent a lot of time and energy on the fundraiser together, not to mention the IM training that year.  I will always remember one of my patients at the hospital being so excited to hear that my friend Scott,who was raising money for “him”, was bald just like he was! So cute.

Long story short, this past weekend Scott KILLED it at his third Ironman (we also did our 2nd together IMAZ ’08) Ironman Louisville in Louisville, KY. (if I could double bold KILLED I would) He raced a 9:47:53, which is a 16ish minute personal record!  (right Scott?) Amazing! He was 534th out of the water, moved into 65th place on the bike, and ran his way into 26th place OVERALL and 7th place in his AGE GROUP.  AMAZING!  His 7th place finish also qualified him for the IRONMAN WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS in KONA….in 6 weeks (ouch)!  Can you tell that I’m proud?!

Moving on to me, sorry Scott this is my blog. After watching Scott (online) I was soooooo inspired and motivated.  It really made me shift my focus from, being completely bummed about my foot and not being able to run the NIKE women’s marathon, to wanting to get strong and get healthy so I can race well at Ironman Coeur d’Alene in June.  When I can’t run (although logically I know this is dumb) I just throw my hands up in frustration and do nothing instead.

I also re-watched SPIRIT OF THE MARATHON this week, where Deena Kastor has a foot injury and she trains around the injury (not running) and goes on to WIN the 2005 Chicago Marathon!  wow!

I need to be out there, I need to be rehabbing my foot, I need to be doing what I CAN around this injury, and I need to be getting STRONG.  P90X is helping me strengthen some of those hidden muscles I haven’t used in a while, and it’s definitely working my CORE (thank you AB RIPPER X).  I’m in physical therapy, I’m icing and stretching (the picture is me every night now). I started water running, I’m cycling again, I’m going to get back in the pool and swim soon . I want to get a coach, I just have to work it into the ol’ budget, and I’m going to go to the “magic foot guy” my friends swear by.  This guy, apparently rubs your foot out so hard your plantar fasciitis just DISAPPEARS! OUCH…..but soooo worth it.

If Scott can break 10 HOURS (WOW!) I can break 12!!!!!!

I CAN BREAK 12 HOURS.

I WILL BREAK 12 HOURS.

HERE I GO!!

after P90X

i became obsessed.   i was on P90X’s website almost everyday!  i was reading reviews and getting pumped. i had to have this program. i was reading about all these people and their 6-pack abs, and all they had to do to get them was a little P90X!?  i’m looking at these people and thinking….”i could actually LOOK like an Ironman triathlete!”.  their 6-pack abs were haunting me, they were everywhere i looked.  i wanted them, so i bought it. thank you amazon.com.

i don't look half bad in the dark.

i spent about a week and a half reading, studying, and planning the best approach to make my P90X experience the BEST it could be.  i WOULD have 6-pack abs. i wanted to start on the perfect day.  so, Monday August 24th, brett and i donned our P90X gear, printed our workout sheets, watched the first video labeled “HOW TO BRING IT” (talk about pumped up! not really), took our before pictures, and started.

the first video was chest and back which actually means, an hour of  pull-ups and push-ups….then after that you do “AB RIPPER X”…which is 16 minutes of abdominal exercise-hell.  like you might have to do this in hell…i’m not kidding. i think the devil co-wrote this workout.

it was sad when my camera started working.

after the first 10 push-ups (which is all i can do), and my first 5 pull-ups (using a chair to stand on. yes, i’ve completed two ironman distances races, jerks) i’m pretty sure brett and i spent more time laying on the floor laughing at ourselves than actually exercising…..but i clearly got a good workout, as i still couldn’t get off the floor when we were done.  apparently it takes arms and abs to get one’s body off the floor. ouch.

day two of P90X was plyometrics. which was basically high school volleyball practice without any equipment, and probably wasn’t very good for my plantar fasciitis.  it did hurt so good, so maybe i can do a  low impact version next time, and maybe i’ll even bring out my volleyball, just to make it more fun.

yep, i'm really flexing and that's all there is.

day 3 of P90X was arms, back, and AB RIPPER X! they want me to use my arms and abs again?! i was just getting REALLY REALLY sore from Monday’s workout.  so because i’m tough, i did pull-ups, i did bicep curls (more than i’ve ever done before in my life), i  layed on the floor laughing at brett, and i got attacked by my puppy. you see,  she thinks we are playing without her when we do P90X, it’s pretty hilarious.  especially during AB DEVIL RIPPER X when we are laying on the floor (working really hard)  and she’s barking and jumping on, over, and around us! hilarious.

let's play!!

imagine laying there on the floor abs-a-burnin’, zona attackin’, brett-a-laughin’, tony horton a-yellin’.  it makes for an interesting and fun workout.

i may not have 6-pack abs at the end of all of this afterall.