My 2011 Goals

Here are my small goals this year:

1. Learn to change a tire.
2. Do an Olympic Distance Triathlon. Swim 1500 meter bike 30miles, run 6.2 miles
3. Read/Listen to at least 8 books this year. The book club will help.
4. Pay off car.
5. Lose 15 pounds.
6. Look good naked.
7. Written monthly budgets.
8. Mail Birthday cards to family and friends (very hard for me).
9. Get a wall calendar to remind me of birthdays.
10. Organize the garage/basement and get a shed to put the stuff that is in the garage.
11. Cook one new recipe a month, like below - a Turkey was new for me in 2010.

Earth to Kelly

I am here! Its been busy! A quick update since my last post:

1. I finished my half marathon (13.1 miles) in 2 hours 22 minutes 11 seconds!
2. Keith broke his right leg (fibula) on October 14. He had to have surgery and is still on crutches, but slowly walking with some weight on it.
3. I ran over a deer with my dodge intrepid and the insurance co. totaled the vehicle. I bought a 2008 Saturn Vue with AWD. I love it! I have had it for exactly a week!
4. We bought an XBOX 360 with Kinnect! Its so much fun!
5. My brother has moved to this neck of the woods, well Holland, so that's been fun hanging out with him more often.
6. Oh, since Keith broke his leg, we didn't travel for Thanksgiving, so I cooked a Turkey for the first time, it came out and was good!

Those are the major things, i hope to blog more, but I always say that!

Sports and Technology! My two favorites have collided with me!

Well, I guess the Nike iPod Fit has been around for a few years, but I have never had one. So I have a had some Best Buy gift cards in my wallet and decided to go and browse Best Buy. I found that the Nike iPod Fit was only $29.99. This is something I have always wanted, and always thought it was over $100. So I immediately bought this and took it home to try.



The Nike iPod Fit is a little sensor that goes in/on your shoe and syncs up with your iPod Touch or Nano. I have used it with my Touch only because, well, there is an App for that. :) The App tells me distance, current pace. I can listen to my music and then just touch a button on my iPod, and the woman will cut in while my music fades down and say in robot like voice, "Current distance, two point 1 two miles, current pace, nine forty eight, current time, twenty minutes and twenty seconds." I can also watch it on the screen as I run. I just love the fact that I can see how fast I am going, something I never know (unless on a treadmill) until my run is over with and have to calculate average pace.

The only downside was when I bought it, I forgot I didn't have Nike shoes. So I had to buy a little shoe pouch for $6 (found at Dicks) to tie on top of my shoe into the laces.

I have used it for 3 runs now and do like it alot. When I sync my iPod, it asks me if I would like to upload my runs to my Nike account, so I can track my history. Pretty cool!!!

Lilith Fair - Chicago

Some pictures of Lilith Fair - Chicago - July 17, 2010 at Tinley Park.

The lineup was:
Courtyard Hounds - (Dixie Chicks minus Natalie Maines - awesome duo!! Get their cd)
Heart - they still sound and look (from 1000 feet away) amazing
Mary J. Blige - stole the show, I am now a new fan, she can belt it out!!!
Sarah McLachlan - outstanding as always, just bummed she only sang for an hour.

My Journey to 13.1

Well, I did it. Well, not just yet, but I took the first step to run and complete a half marathon on Oct 17, 2010!!! I signed up for the Grand Rapids Half Marathon. In my head I had the idea I would "train" for this and sign up if I felt good about it. I have been sort of following a training plan by Hal Higdon...a 12 week plan to a half marathon for beginners. A Half Marathon is 13.1 miles!!! 13.1 miles!! Last week I got an email from Gazelle Sports saying if I signed up at their store I would save $10. You know me, I like to save money and also felt this was a sign, so this past Saturday I drove there and signed up! Now I am committed. To be honest, I have days where I feel great and I am committed, on other days I am like, what did my evil twin do to me? She signed me up for 13.1 miles? What the hell? Its a vicious fight in my head!

See, a couple years ago I had tried to train for this with a friend, didn't sign up thinking I might not like it. I believe I got up to mile 8 or 9, and believe me, that was quite a feat, and I think I was like, "F THIS!!! What I am doing?" Well, these past couple years have been quite different. I feel like I am mentally stronger and have more determination than ever. In the past year or so, I have completed 5 triathlons, a 10K, and countless 5ks. I feel like I am ready to conquer something bigger, and see if I can do it? Hmmm....is this my evil twin talking again?

Well, this past Sunday I had to run 5 miles for my long run, the long runs are always on the weekends, and gradually build up to 10 miles (I don't even run 13 until the marathon?? Weird.) Then during the week, I run three other shorter distance runs.

I am writing this blog for #1, keep myself motivated and to give me a track record of my journey to the 13.1. Sure I will post other things besides running, but this will help me stay motivated and give me a sense of accomplishment when I can come back here in a few weeks and say how I ran 8 miles!! Woo hoo!

Diamonds are a girls best friend.

Well, I am talking about a softball diamond for me. Although my softball season this year, I have really cut down. Remember when I was playing 4 nights a week? Well last year I cut it down to 3 nights a week, and now this year I play 2 nights a week. And its perfect. Monday is co-ed league that Keith plays on too (and beer drinking. Currently we are named 3 STRIKES YOUR OUT but we are looking fora new team name. Tuesday is my Women's league, HOT STIX. Both teams we ended up in third place. My women's team actually was in a 3 way tie for first, but then they took the games that we went head to head with and ended up working out for 3rd place. Bummer. I wanted a champion shirt!! :) Playoffs start tonight for women's league, and we are going all the way!!!! Then second session of summer starts and goes through mid September. Summer is flying!

4th of July weekend

We had a great 4th of July weekend. This year we actually didn't go anywhere, stayed i GR and it was nice. Saturday I had my second triathlon of the year at Bostwick Lake and did well. My best time overall - 1 hour 26 minutes. The event was .4 mile swim, 14 mile bike and 3 mile run.












We bought one of those above ground pools from Walmart and filled it up a couple days prior and thank god! It was a hot one, upper 80s to 93 this weekend. I don't consider this a real pool having grown up with one, but I am so glad we have it. I laid on the pool raft for about 4 hours, lol! Relaxing! Keith took me out for dinner for my birthday, we ate at Tres Lobos, a mexican restaurant down the road, then had some Maggie Moos! I crashed about 9pm thought that night since I did my tri and hadn't had a nap.












Sunday we had a small cookout, not too many people in town, but cooked out, played baggo, cards, pool volleyball....yes we found a small volleyball net for $10...cheesy, but fun! Celebrated my birthday, sported a mohawk and oh, catch phrase!!! Later that night we watched fireworks from our backyard from the neighbors who put on a good show...thank you neighbors for spending probably over $500 on illegal fireworks! Later that evening we did some shots and sang kaaroke in the basement on the big screen.












Monday we did 9 holes of golf at Indian Trails. I shot a 56, Keith shot a 57. Hole 1 killed me with an 11! And Keith lost 4 balls today. Lol! That is least favorite part of golf, finding balls!

Well, time to make some dinner, leftover ribs?

HDR Photo - Downtown Grand Rapids

I decided to take a bike ride and go downtown Grand Rapids and take some photos last night along Riverside park. I shot in raw format with Auto Bracketing with my Canon camera and used Photoshop CS 5 HDR processing. It was just before sunset around 8:45 pm last night, and after a rain, so colors are bit more vibrant after it rains. Here are pictures, you will have to click on the them as they don't look good in small format:

Thank you strange young scary gangster man!

I have an all or nothing mentality. I either workout out too much or not at all. Right now, I haven't done any endurance workout since Sunday. I have had softball on Monday and Tuesday, but that is no excuse and I don't count that as exercise. I am in the midst of re-working my workouts on paper. I am setting a 30 day challenge for myself. I am back on track tomorrow with my workouts and will log every workout on Beginner Triathlete.com. I wish I could get the RSS feed to work and then it could stream into Blogger, but something is wrong.

So tonight, I was tired after work. Feeling down about not being on track, feeling ugly, fat, blah. You know...those days. So what better...nothing in the house seemed good to eat, so went and ordered a small pizza from Hungry Howies. I picked up the pizza and these 3 guys who looked like they were in a gang were standing outside of the pizza store, like guarding it or something. They were mumbling stuff and making motions, I have no idea. Kind of scary looking. I went inside to pay for pizza, then another lady came in the door and asked for the manager because she said these guys were making rude comments. So I was like, great, they were probably mumbling rude comments to me too. Time to walk out and go to my car....one of the guys said "Your gorgeous." I was like "Thank you" and got into my vehicle. But that comment made me feel good. Thank you strange young scary gangster man who said I am gorgeous. Maybe he was being sarcastic, or whatever was on his mind, but it made me feel good. After all, was wearing gym shorts and t-shirt. Anyway, I am back on track, and gangster man helped!

Doing my workouts as planned, and logging! Day 1 starts tomorrow!

Photo Shoot at the Steelcase Duathlon

Today is a gloomy rainy day, not a good day to compete in a duathlon, ha! Today was the Steelcase Dutahlon in Grand Rapids at Steelcase headquarters between 52nd and 60th off East Paris- The event is Run 5k, Bike 30k, Run 5k. I kept this date open just in case I wanted to do this if it was nice. But did not.

Instead, thought I would park my car on the bike route and practice taking some action shots with my Canon Rebel and Sigma telephoto lens. Conditions were gloomy, light sprinkles here and there. I started shooting with iso 100 on shutter mode at about shutter speed of 120, but noticed my pictures were still dark when shooting, so went down to 60 and had a good pics in the viewfinder (or so I thought). I then changed the mode to P (program mode) and started experimenting with more speeds and f stop. I also increased my iso to 200 and think my pictures came out better being the lighting was so low outside. Well, I probably took about 300 pictures using burst mode. I also started iusing manual focus, but can't zoom out as bikers come towards me and focus at the same time, so switched to auto focus. My pictures didn't come out tack sharp, but with practice I think I will get better. I am happy with some of the pictures I got, but need a lot more shooting practice. Actually the best picture that came out is this one above, and what do you know, I think this is Dave Horne, one of our tri coaches for Team Sync, he is wearing hot pink.

Below are more pics that I was satisfied with. Eventually I would like help volunteer to take photos at race events, I think I am on to a good start.

A Cold 6.6 mile run in Bay City

This past weekend I went to visit my parents in Bay City. Sandi was having her annual garage sale and I sold a bunch of my junk and made $84. The whole sale did really well considering April 17 was a COLD day with even some snowflakes falling! I was actually sore from standing all day in the cold.

I knew I had to get a long run in, a 7 mile, the longest distance that my 10k training plan calls for. Saturday was just too cold and heard that the weather was going to be a bit warmer on Sunday, so saved the run until Sunday.

I decided to run from my parents house to Sandi's house, about 5.4 miles, but I thought I would run more once I got to her house around her neighborhood to get the 7 miles in. Well, I didn't have to do that because I got a little confused on my route, so ended up running more by the time I got to Sandi's house, all in all it was 6.6 miles, I thought I went 7, but until I mapped it out later, it was 6.6, oh well.

My route:



My time was 73 minutes, but that included stops at the Riverwalk area (map here) to take some pics from my camera phone.



I run with a race belt that includes a small pint of water, phone and iPod in the belt. Here are some pics I took of the Riverwalk area in Bay City. My camera phone sucks, (well, my camera is from the 2006, so I need an upgrade). I felt good during and after the run, I will be so excited when I don't have to wear 2 pairs or pants, 2 long sleeve shirts and a fleece, the extra clothes bogs me down and makes me feel heavy. But 60s this week, so hopefully shorts on my runs this week!

I have also inlcuded a picture of a bar, the Rathskellar, that my mom and dad first met in 1974. She was on the pole, ha, just kidding.

I joined a Triathlon Team!

Today was the first meeting of the season for me for Team Sync, a triathlon training group/team that I just joined. I am really excited to train with this great group of people. They are people of all levels, from beginner to seasoned Iron Man competitors. I still consider myself a beginner with doing my first 2 tris last year.



Today we did a swim for 20 minutes or so and then biked about 8 miles. The rest went out for a run, but since I ran 6 miles yesterday and started something crazy this week, my legs are a bit sore. The craziness that I started was Insanity workout. Yes, the DVDs are insane, and I am probably more insane for integrating these workouts into my tri training plans. Yes - I have increased my caloric intake. Anyway, more on Insanity later.

So basically our team meets every Sunday for a couple hours of training, Thursday evenings and maybe a floater (announcement on our facebook group). I have also been swimming in a Masters class twice a week in the morning. I like that its called "Masters," but Keith tells me that means old people...lol. He's probably right, I am no master at swimming.


I hope to do about 3-4 tris this year. So far my plan:

5/8 5/3 Riverbank Run 10k (Keith is running the 5k)

5/30 Seahorse Challenge - sprint tri

7/17 Tri Del Sol

8/7 Millennium Park Triathlon

9/11 Reed’s Lake Triathlon 2010

Spring is here!!

We had gorgeous weather this past weekend, Friday actually hit 80 here, with record highs! I am currently training for the Fifth Third River Bank Run 10k that takes place on May 8 here in Grand Rapids. Speaking of that, need to register soon. Keith is going the 5k. He hast lost about 23 pounds since Feb, and me, well I have just stayed the same. I have lost the same 2-5 pounds over and over again!!! Anyway, I ran about 5.5 miles yesterday around the Reeds Lake Area, my favorite place to run. Today I am going to go out for another 5 miles, not sure where yet. I am just waiting a couple hours to it reached mid 60s so I can run in shorts and a t-shirt.

I just updated my running playlist, because that keeps my running fresh and not boring, sometimes I find myself constantly pushing next on my iPod. I have over 5500 songs on my iPod, and you think I could just find 20-30 that I love to run to, its hard!!!

Some songs I chose for my April Run playlist:
Running Down a Dream - Tom Petty
Hot N Cold - Kate Perry
Empire State of Mind - Jay Z and Alicia Keys
Alive - Black Eyed Peas
Eye of the Tiger - Survivor
Two Step - Dave Matthews Band
Ray of Light - Madonna
Forever - Chris Brown
Harder to Breathe - Maroon 5
Just Dance - Lady Gaga
Better Life - Keith Urban
Happy - Natashia Bedingfield
Speed of Sound - Coldplay
Gone - Kelly Clarkson
Bad Influence - Pink
You Spin me Round - Dead or Alive
If it Makes you Happy - Sheryl Crow
Come on Eileen - Dexy's Midnight Runners

I am hoping to get on my bike this week too, pumped up the tires on both the road bike and mountain bike. I also installed my digital Trek Incite 8i computer on the bike, although its not working properly so will have to take it to the bike shop to make sure I have the wheel magnet and sensor lined up. This computer will track miles, speed, time, history etc...More on the later as I play.

Well, gonna eat something lite before the run. Oh- Happy Easter! I didn't go home for Easter because the parents had to work on Saturday and I have decided to come up in a couple weeks for a garage sale to sell my junk to strangers. Oh - and I am bummed that Michigan State lost to Butler in the Final Four game. Go Duke!

Higgins Lake Highlight video

I finally got some more time to get back to the editing of Higgins Lake vacation that we took in August 2009. Still working on more material for the vacation DVD, but here is a short montage of our week. The trip was a great time, despite me getting Swimmer's Itch. The group that went was me, Keith, Amanda, Jason, Dusten, Dana and Matt.

It's been a while

Its been awhile since my last post. So what have I been up to lately? I have been training for a 10k run for May 8th at the 5/3 River Bank Run, as well as starting to train for summer of triathlons, first one being 5/30. I bought a pool pass a couple weeks ago and been getting a swim workouts in each week for now. I am concentrating more on the run, as that is my weakest, I did however run 5.5 miles a couple Saturdays without stopping, so that was great! My treadmill actually turned itself off before I could turn it off, it hit 60:00 minutes, and it said you must COOL DOWN! I was like, ok, don't have to twist my arm, I will walk, lol.

I also just finished a Nicholas Sparks book called The Last Song. I really liked it, its also going to be a movie, opening on 3/31 so interested to see that (however, it does star Miley Cirrus, so not sure how I can take that). I am now listening to the autobiography of Andre Agassi, really good so far, did you know he has always hates tennis? He had a dad that just pushed him into the sport, taping small paddles to his hand as a baby and made him hit things!

Keith and I are on a mission to lose weight, well I am always on that mission, but he is doing so well. Why do guys lose weight so fast! He has lost 16 pounds so far. We have a goal for 3/1...will we make it? Stay tuned!

I am going down to Tennessee to visit Ryan with mom and dad in March. This will be the first time I will see his house, we're doing a long weekend, Thursday through Monday, we'll probably hit Nashville too.

Oh - I have given up for Lent - fast food (except Subway)and alcohol. I don't have either of them too often, maybe once a week, but it just screws up my whole day if I do, so we'll see.

I think that's all for now!

My new found love...the library system

So, recently I found a new love, our library system. I have used the library before, for checking out books, but now you can set up online accounts and download mp3 or wma files right from your computer and load them on to your iPod (some not iPod compatible). The Kent District Library is huge and also part of Lakeland Library Cooperative so you can place holds from your online account, request it for pickups at your favorite nearby library, they will simply email you when its ready. The number of books from libraries that I have access to is here.

So, I recently finished an audio book called The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. I really liked this book and the author narrated the audio book and had a great voice. I started looking into her more, and she wrote a memoir called Lucky. I searched to see what was available and audio book format came up. I was not able to find it on a digital download, but figured I could just load the cds and add to the iPod manually. I picked it up yesterday (took about a week because they transferred it from Clarksville library).

I was excited to get home and transfer it to my iPod, BUT, I opened the case up and for some reason I had this worry in my head that these were cassettes because the way the box was shaped, not cd like....uh oh, I opened it, and it was this little gadget where you plug headphones into. Weird? I have never seen this...and I was bummed I would not be able to load this on the my iPod, no possible way to get the content out and into my cool iPods, oh well, I now have to carry another gadget around when listening to this book. I need a belt for my gadgets!



I am ok with this for now, but will now keep an eye out if there are details on specific formats when they list "audio book." I still like reading normal books too, as some books I put on my wish list about real estate and investing. Right now my normal books I am reading are Cramer's Getting Back to Even and The Dew Breaker (borrowed from Dana). I switch depending what I am in the mood for. So that's what I am up to on the reading front...and am trying not to buy books, only library, hell, I pay for it already!

When Life Hands you Lemonade

While reading my friend Jodi's blog, she nominated my blog for this award, thank you Jodi! I enjoy reading her blog about her family, what her kids are doing and just what is making her happy or sad, its always very insightful and I hear her voice when reading her blogs..its fun! Thanks Jodi, oh here is her blog The Thorntons.

The rules for this award are simple:

1. Thank the giver of the award and link their blog.
2. List 5 things about yourself.
3. Link 5 new recipients and notify them.


So......here we go! 5 things about me........

1. I have never been kissed. Ha! Just kidding. Ummm....hmm...I played in the Big League Softball World Series when I was 16. I was a fast picther, and pitched against Canada. We ended up third in the world. Not bad. Oh, and we beat Canada.

2. I have worked in the movie business for 16 years. Sounds like I am old huh, no, I am not old!! I started working in a movie theater when I was 16, and now handle Marketing for mid-west movie theater chain. I have worked for 3 movie theater chains, 1 video store chain and 1 TV station in my "entertainment" career. Ha!

3. I am a geek. I love everything technology, iPods, photo and video editing, hacking software, graphics programs, unique computer programs that do things like test the processing speed of my computer or order my movie collection, or cataloging my backed up computer software, excel sheets, digital slr cameras, podcasts, training computer videos, video cameras, motion-stop capturing, shooting video on green screens and keying out backgrouds, audio editing, mixing sound effects, blogging....

4. I LOVE sports! I workout 6 days a week, sometimes 7 if I forget to rest. I belong to a gym. I am now a triathlete and runner. I also play softball a little too much, 3-4 times a week. Tennis league, racquetball league. I love volleyball, but haven't been on a league lately. Skiing, Basketball and kayaking are some others I like to do!


5. I never leave home without my iPods. Between Keith and I we have 4. He has 2 Nanos, a 1g and 8g. I own 2, one that is a 60g video ipod and an 8g iTouch. I think the iPod is the greatest invention of the decade. I always listen to my iPod in the car, gym, grocery store or work. I always have something to listen to other than just music. I download a lot of podcasts. I have my Touch with me for Monday conference calls at work, I love to play the dice game when there is ranting going on for 2 hours. I also play the Touch when watching TV, when the battery dies, then I grab my laptop while watching TV. I am a tech gadget addict!! Oh - also just bought a small Kodak zi8 HD video camera.

Well, enough about me. Now it's time for me to nominate some other fun blogs:

Gladd to see you
Jilek-Wolfe blog
The Twaros
Smith's Blog
Triathlon Training Blog