Here it is, Mother's Day, 2013. And yesterday, I celebrated the 18th birthday of my youngest son, Geoff. With him leaving home very soon, I will now become a mom of a different sort. My older boys have already left home and while their departures were hard, I still had one more son to mother on a daily basis. Soon there will be no...
Read Morehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbRn1mRGpEM I was so excited to be competing in the Ironman World Championship in 2009. However, the day did not go quite as I had envisioned. I thought for sure I would finish one way or another, but that was not to be. I was heartbroken. As time passed, I came to understand that my attempt to finish actually inspired many people. And that maybe trying and trying to finish was...
Read Morehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SS_zonQW-w Not much has changed in the 4 years since I was training for the Ironman World Championship. I still swim, run, and bike and strength training continues to be an important part of my regimen. I've now included more frequent massage, use a foam roller and incorporate more stretching. Nutrition and supplementation play a bigger role than they did back then. I better understand how important good nutrition and hydration...
Read Morehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBoRiZV1HCY I continue my journey on the way back to competing at the Ironman World Championship. As you may know, I qualified at Ironman Hawaii 70.3 in 2009 when the first Hawaii finishers in each age group got an invitation. As you may also know, this resulted in a memorable experience at the World Championship. After I qualified at Honu, I was asked by Jaime Ubongen if...
Read MoreOne of the biggest excuses people have to not exercise is that they don't have the time. And, it is certainly true that there are times in life when you really don't have the time. For me, it was when my twin boys were young. Then, I didn't have time to sleep, much less go for a run. But more typically, I could come up with good excuses for not...
Read MoreI have been a small fish in a big pond and a big fish in a small pond. Now, I am a bit of a fish out of water. Since I started working at the age of 19 as a "Girl Friday" at a copier company in Walnut Creek, California, I've had a non-stop career. My career began in the 70's when women were taught that they could have it all--a...
Read MoreI have been doing triathlons for almost 10 years now. Training and racing has helped me through some difficult times--unexpected job changes, divorce, kids going to college, moving, death of a much-loved cat, helping an ailing dad by having him live with me and parenting teenagers, just to name a few. And it's made me feel healthy, happy and energetic. I love the focus and discipline and the goal-setting and achievement...
Read MoreWhen little Isabel sang at the end of the service, that was it for me. The tears I had held at bay throughout the ceremony, even when her mom Ui and her hula halau performed a spiritually beautiful hula, couldn't be held any longer. Today, Isabel and many, many friends and family said goodbye to her loving dad, Eduardo Pires Torres de Sa. The chapel was packed and overflowing, and I...
Read MoreAt the start of every Ironman is a swim. For someone whose swim is their weakest event, it can be viewed as something to get through--to survive before the real racing begins. I have experienced six Ironman mass starts so far and each of them has come with some degree of discomfort, confusion, dismay and even panic. My worst experience was at 2011 Ironman France, in Nice on the famous...
Read MoreHere I am about 2 1/2 weeks after Ironman New Zealand (more on that later) and I don't have one of my regular weekly training plans. I find myself worrying about losing fitness before I get into formal training again very shortly. You see, I am aiming for a solid PR at Ironman Hawaii 70.3 on June 1 and I want to be in top form. My rational self (and my...
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