Adventures with an Average Ironmom

What’s the number one rule in injury prevention? Listen to your body. There’s a difference between being sore from an increase in exercise and feeling the onset of a potential injury. When your body is giving you red flags, you’d better listen to it, especially when increasing volume, intensity or time/distance of exercise. That’s exactly what I had this weekend. A Red flag. Tuesday, Thursday and Friday I had three solid run/walks, and was into my Run Disney Springtime Virtual Challenge Weekend. Friday night I felt a weird pain in my right foot that persisted into the morning…like the bone was out of place or something. I haven’t experienced anything like it before, and I wasn’t sure I should run on it. And while it wasn’t that bad, I could imagine that if there was something slightly wrong I could probably make it worse, and maybe make it really worse if I tried to run on it. I waited to do my 10k until later in the day Saturday, and finally made the call to wait until Sunday to con...

 The Tuesday workout plan is 10k Tempo Runs. Because I've been mostly walking, I want to gradually up my game with running to avoid injuries while having a fun system to follow to keep things fresh. So my plan for the next few weeks is to go from a one hour interval run on Tuesdays, to a sub 60 min Tempo Run by my first race day in Florida, which is 266 days away. Intervals are repeating increments of a faster and slower pace. You can make the intervals the same or varied (fartlek), and have a casual tracking system like a rate of perceived effort or use a timer for more precise tracking. This morning I used the speed bumps on my Pine Trees run. I ran to one, walked to the next for one hour. I like a place to do intervals or tempo runs that has a slight incline but that's not too hilly.  You can really use anything to run between. I might use the light posts on a road or the highway, trees on the Ane K or even painted parking stall lines at Home Depot or Costco when I need to ...

  Today feels like a great day for a new adventure. And I’d like to take you along with me on this one. It’s an adventure of truly Ironmom proportion. A fitness endeavor that will take months of preparation, facing fears and achieving lifelong dreams. In 275 days I will toe the starting line of the first race in a seven race challenge. I’m not sure I will be able to do it. But I sure am going to try. I’ve had the dream of doing a RunDisney live event since childhood. I would rip RunDisney ads out of magazines as inspiration to one day wear a costume and run through the park. Tinker Bell. Princesses. Mickey and the Gang.  For years I have participated in Run Disney Virtual races from here in Kona, not having the time or priority to check this one off my bucket list. Not to mention how hard it is to even get into these races these days. For a while, the live races were suspended during the pandemic, which is why the Virtual races became so popular. This year, both Orlando and An...

 There you go marathon training: 7 miles. The truth? I didn't feel like running at all today. But it's a really busy week and this was the only day to get in my long run. I ended up running on the Malino Mile. The .2 mile lap that is my dead-end street, with the boys playing in the driveway with the hose. I knew if I didn't get it in today, my momentum would be gone and I'd pay for it later. I would get it in this week...but by squeezing it in. Today was the day. So I found an old pair of headphones (mine were at the gym), tuned on my Mountain Climbing Music (yes, I was in THAT MUCH need of motivation) and started running. One of the earbuds didn't quite work but gave out enough static for me to keep thinking someone was trying to catch up to me. Not ideal. A few times Evan or Jason was there chasing after me to ask one of their 20 questions, so it really kept me on my toes. It wasn't pretty, fast or fun. But it's done. 7 miles in 1:29. That's a 12:29 pa...

  With races opening up again and deferral registrations being activated it's time to start training for a marathon! Honolulu Marathon has reminded me I registered in 2020. So while I didn't plan on competing this year, I cashed in my deferral chip and will be toeing the line on 12-12-21 in Honolulu! While my 10 marathons in 2020 to celebrate my first ever Portland Marathon (on 10-10-10) was a bust-boo COVID-I was still able to get a marathon accomplished on 10-10-2020 on the IM course here in Kona.  Plus, the boys and I ventured off to Portland for a fun bike ride around the city to celebrate the race this past Mother's Day. But now, it's time to get back in the saddle and lace up my tennis shoes. I've been walking for most of the year but it's time to run. My Go Big Fitness goal for 2021 was to accomplish 2021 miles walking or running. I'm adapting that goal to hit 2021 miles walking, running and riding so that I can train for a 4 hour marathon instead (wh...

It's funny how the smallest events can give huge perspective on life. Five feet. That's the height of the rock retaining wall at Anaeho'omalu Bay in Waikoloa, Hawaii that wraps around the brackish fish pond that is so yucky, nobody ever goes in it. The beach is right above it, and there is a stone's throw to the ocean if you were to stand on it. This strip of beach is the site for the finish line of Olympic Distance Lavaman Triathlon, the first triathlon I completed ever in 2008. It's also where my boys and I were setting up to film "The Sandcastle Workout", part of our Big Island Series. This group of 35 workouts for my personal training company Trunk Trainers , is one of the ways we are bringing a little sunshine into the living rooms for our online community who might not be able to go to a gym or who are stuck at home. Waikoloa is always so windy we've dubbed it Waika-blowa and this day was no exception. It was so windy, that as I was setting my ca...

Earlier this year I was cooking up an Awesome Adventure that was going to be amazing! Get ready for this...I had decided to do 10 marathons in 2020 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the first marathon of my athletic career...Portland Marathon on 10-10-10. I was 26 years old when I started Going BIG. That's right, it's been 10 years since my first Awesome Adventure and I wanted to celebrate! That's when COVID hit. Not only did all of my scheduled races get cancelled, but I had to make a quick transition from in gym personal and group trainings to a 100% online training service in a matter of days to keep my business running and survive total lockdown. My mission pivoted from maintaining my own training to helping my members and clients stay in shape during the absolute epitome of great-excuse-to-quit-a-fitness-routine: a global pandemic. I'm glad I'm an Ironmom and can make fast transitions. We successfully created a brand new branch of the Trunk Trainers Services...