Beth and Yanti's Manatees Mentor Group--FULL! (Page 11)

Exactly!  Just remember, we find pictures very motivating .

Awww, shucks, thanks, Yanti!!  If only I could feel powerful over the illness I'd be a happy girl, but I guess that's all part of it.  On the other hand, I credit it with making me who I am today and for allowing me to know myself and who my true friends are as well as challenging me to push myself physically in things like, oh, I dunno, triathlon training .

That's a great point... I just need to let go of the concern over not being able to race and train like I would regardless.  Still, I think it's odd that this has come up all of a sudden when, in the past, I never gave it a second thought.  Oh well.

Anyone doing anything fun this weekend? 

Today is a rest day for me, yeah!!!  I think there's an happy hour this afternoon, Saturday am fishing and/or tri spectating in The Woodlands, north of Houston, perhaps our card game Saturday night, then more fishing on Sunday.  Oh and some biking and swimming thrown in along the way!!

Have a great weekend everyone!

HIGH:  Weekend, yay!  No school today, so I am dropping the kids of at my sister's (where my mom is today) and going for a long hill ride, then I am picking up the dog for his 'test weekend'.  Gonna swim and run and ride this weekend, and also have to spend some time with my mother-in-law and sister-in-law flower shopping for Mother's Day.  All in all, not a bad weekend ahead. 

LOW:  I checked out the 'official' race pix and am discouraged since I look stupid (in my opinion) and/or fat in all of them.  I know it's all my own negative self image stuff, but still it bugs me that I do that.  I went to bed and told hubby that I am not doing tris any more since it doesn't make any difference in how I look.  I know it's not true--I do look pretty good--I just don't photograph well!  I feel better upon waking this morning, but am still pissed that no matter what I do I can't seem to drop pounds any more.

So there's the high and low of the day.  Talk to y'all later, and hopefully will post a doggie pic and some other pix from my ride with Lynne last night.

Definitely not!  I'm looking forward to hearing about how it goes with the pooch. 

I know it's frustrating but you have to remember how much better you are today than you were before you started training... whether that's in terms of looking better or feeling better or just knowing that you're doing something healthy and good for your body.  I hear you on the "official" race pics.  Mine are all horrid.  I think it ought to work like my daughter's dance pics... you show up early with all of your "costumes" (tri suit, wetsuit) and you just keep posing in your various simulated race poses (with costume changes, of course) until you get one that you like.  Yeah, yeah, OK, it defeats the purpose, but I'd be OK with it! 

Today is a planned rest day for me, and I'm so thankful. I've had a crazy busy week at work, but still made sure to get in at least some training time every day. When I was on the stationary bike at the gym yesterday, I could really tell my week was catching up with me. I only went 3 miles in the amount of time I normally would cover 5. I just couldn't convince my legs to move any faster, regardless of the coaxing or promises made to them.

Hope everyone has a GREAT weekend! Is anybody racing this weekend? I don't have too much on tap other than moving some more stuff down to my spare garage. I'm working on doing some MAJOR decluttering in my main living space. My criteria has been that if I haven't touched/worn something in the last 2 months, it can be migrated to the spare garage.

YAY! Hope you have a fantastic ride and doggy works out. Oh, make sure he has stuff to chew on ... pig's ears, sterilized bones, flavored hard rubber chews, something like that. Very soothing/reassuring. 

I hear you.

The plateaus suck, but are part of the process. And sometimes--especially when your body is really getting stronger and fit, as it is with you--it's not going to let go of the weight for a while. It just won't. It is absolutely convinced it needs those resources to build at a high rate and will hang on to them, and it WILL eventually/slowly be trained into utilizing energy differently again.

You are a very striking woman--beautiful contrasting eye/hair/skin tones and an extraordinary smile. Also, most people would consider being well-endowed as having wonderful assets, and you do. Don't forget, this can make you look bigger than you are in photographs. Your body is very fit and strong--you're an excellent athlete.

I'll go ahead and post my least favorite pic from Oceanside--but I still love it, you know why? I certainly think I look terrible (hey, you CAN look like a fish and a whale at the same time!!!)--honestly, pretty much everyone does in race pics, let's face it, we don't do triathlon in order to look good WHILE DOING IT--but I love this pic anyway because it is a BODY IN MOTION accomplishing great things. There is such powerful beauty in that, beauty far beyond any supermodel frozen into a fabricated image of what we want her to be.

P.S. It also shows intelligence - IMPORTANT WETSUIT TIP HERE - in that I remembered to take my wetsuit top off before I took my cap and goggles off.

(Oceanside Fish.jpg)

I hate nearly every one of my race pics. The only one I like is the one of me finishing the race with my kids running with me. The funny thing is I usually don't like kids in the finishing shoots...but that's another story.

Here's a funny one of me from my last race:

 This was right before I booked a couple of tickets to New York and then somebody asked me why I was talking to a tree.

So I'm having a bad day and I really can't think of anything positive to say about myself. How about them apples?

Wait I know:

<----I'm a good dancer while I'm "racing"

Jeff... you so rocked the dance leg of that race.  What were they serving in those little green cups and how many did you have before talking to the tree?

x2 - I was wondering the same thing, Mila!

Hmmm...I'd forgotten about the challenge to say something good about ourselves each day. I guess for me it would be that I actually stood up for myself over an unfair situation at the office yesterday. Actually speaking up for my needs is HUGE for me!

Hi everyone!

Great pics!  Leslie, I can totally relate to your comment about race pics

Well, I made it home and believe it or not on time!

I don't know but whatever they had didn't work.

WOW, this thread came at a very good time.  As the least photogenic person I know, I hate all of my photos including my Boston pics. I wasn't going to buy any because well, gross, but then I realized people working hard sometime grimace,  have their bodies contorted in weird ways and.....you get the drift.  

This is me at the end of a very tough race praying that I actually make it in under my BQ time.....it was close.

(Boston Marathon Finish Cropped Compressed.jpg)

I have no idea what you're talking about because I think that's a GREAT race picture!!

alrighty since we're posting pics, I'll play

now here is unphotogenic for you! 

This is a pic from the finish line at the HyVee Oly last year 

Ditto ... and I don't know whether to be more impressed by the fact that it is indeed an awesome pic, or that you are just about to BQ (again, I think!)

I always kind of laugh when I look at this pic - Not at myself, but at all of the blue - it was like running in smurfville! 

As you may remember I am still a "Tri Virgin" so I don't have any race pictures...but here is one of me at my "job" as a pitching coach.

ummmm, did you forget something

OK...forget it...no pictures from me.

Hope everyone has a GREAT WEEKEND.  I love the spring (except for the pollen) and there are not many places nicer to see than Atlanta in the spring.

Thanks for sharing all the photos today!!  They are all great, in their own ways, and I know I just need to let it go and be happy that I have four working limbs and can manage to swim/bike/run no matter what I look like doing it!  I can be sexy at dinner out or something. 

Dog update:  He's so sweet! Small, about 35 pounds, and my oldest is in love with him.  He is the fastest dog I have ever seen!!  I think, if we keep him, I will be doing A LOT of running.  I will try to load some pix later or most likely Saturday.  He knows sit/down/heel and sleeps in the crate at night or when left alone.  He was awesome in the car and in the pet store, too.  We shall see....he might be trying to trick me by being so nice.  Hee.

The day flew by today.  I did a bike/run brick this morning on HUGE hills.  I made it up the killer Juanita Hill on my bike in 11 minutes, which is really good, as it's two miles without a break.  Then I ran straight downhill through the woods for about 12 minutes, and straight back up on the way home.  Talk about high HR!!!  Gorgeous day for it, and hopefully Sunday is nice again for another bike ride. 

My mom's here tonight, so time to go get sexy for dinner out!  Yay!