Just a quick update! I cannot believe how fast the past two months have gone. Fortunately, I am still feeling great! I am very grateful to be feeling so well at this point in my pregnancy. I am quickly approaching my third trimester and looking forward to it! I think the timing will be just right as the weather will be cooling off just as I reach the "bigger" part of my pregnancy. I have been pleasantly surprised with how well my body has responded to the heat this summer. However, I am not sure I would have wanted to be about to deliver right when the heat and humidity was at its worst. I have just over three more months to go and lots to do before November!

As for training, I am happy to say that I am still pretty much doing all that I mentioned in my previous post. Swimming four to fi ve days a week, short spinning on the windtrainer, and running anywhere from three to six miles about five days a week. I take it pretty easy pace wise in all three sports, so I never come close to over doing it. I am very thankful that the running is still feeling comfortable. My plan has been to take the running a week at a time as I have some friends who were able to run until the day before they delivered, but others who had to stop running very early in the pregnancy due to discomfort. It is just different for everyone. I tend to run mostly on soft surfaces (trails) and in the shade, so I think that is helping a ton. I also tend to have a running form that is lighter on my feet, so that may be helping as well. For now, I am just grateful that the running feels so good and will enjoy it while I can.

My overall energy levels have been great. Ever since I passed the twelve week mark, it seemed like my energy just continued to soar. I hear that is very common during the second semester, so again I am enjoying this while I can. I have been happy to have this extra energy because we moved to a new house in late June and I needed the energy to get a lot done. I have the best husband and parents as they took on all of the hard moving tasks (for which I am extremely grateful), but it was still nice to have the energy to get all the other moving stuff done. I can say, however, that pregnancy is a great excuse to get out of some of the not so fun moving jobs!!! :) I definitely used this excuse when I could!

We are all settled in the new house and absolutely loving it! Right now, I am really enjoying all of the Olympic coverage on tv! I am staying up way too late to watch all of the awesome swimming events, but it has been more than worth it. The Americans are doing great! I absolutely loved watching the exciting 4x100m free relay the other evening. What an amazing come from behind win!!! I am really looking forward to watching the triathlon early next week as well as some of the other sporting events throughout the rest of the games. Go USA!!!!

This weekend, I will be volunteering on the run course for a kids triathlon on Saturday and then cheering Anthony on in the Greenville Sprint Triathlon on Sunday!

I am looking forward to both! I will miss racing in the Greenville Sprint Triathlon as I had so much fun at that race the past two years. However, Anthony has been training very well and I cannot wait to support him instead! I also plan to cheer loudly for my Team Hincapie teammates!

I will update after the race!

Thats about all for now. I hope everyone is having a safe and fun summer!

Kelly

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Updated 06-13-08

Well, I started my last update by saying that I was going to make a big effort to update more frequently. I fully intended to do so, but now of course, it is already June and I am just now writing an update.

Normally, I am not in favor of making excuses, but this time I think I actually have a good one for not updating sooner!

About a week after my March update, I found out that I was pregnant! Anthony and I were thrilled! However, I found out very early and just did not feel comfortable telling people until I was further along. I was going to continue to update anyway, but each time I tried, I had a hard time pretending that everything in my life was normal. I know I was just very excited. However, I wanted to be extra careful (since it was still so early) as well.

Anyway, I am now a little over 16 weeks along and feeling great! I had some nausea from about week 7 until week 10, but I seem to be well over that now. I think I am in the good pregnancy stage that people talk about because my energy seems to be back.

My priority now is keeping myself and my baby healthy, so I cut back on training quite a bit. I have not been following any particular plan, but I have been listening very carefully to my body. A typical week for me lately has been about 3-4 swims a week. I usually swim between 2000 and 4000 yds/m depending on the day and how I am feeling. The swimming is supposed to be fine during pregnancy, but I have found that my body position in the water already feels a bit off. As for cycling, I really just stay inside on the trainer right now and spin for 30 minutes to an hour. I am too nervous to risk falling at this point.

Surprisingly, the running has felt the best up to this point. I usually run between 3 and 5 miles about 4 or 5 times a week. I know I am running pretty slow pace wise, but it still feels good, so I am not complaining. It is so nice to just keep my legs moving and enjoy the peacefulness of the trails.

I have learned a lot from recently reading some other athletes blogs and websites about training during their pregnancies. I have also enjoyed learning about how many of them came back to race so well after having children. There are so many inspirational stories out there!

Now, that my secret is out I plan to write about some of my experiences as I move forward in this pregnancy. Hopefully, some of my experiences will help another newly pregnant athlete someday. I am very grateful to the athletes I have been able to ask questions of and learn from.

On another note, Anthony and I have had a very busy spring. We took a fun skiing trip ( pre-pregnancy) to Park City, Utah back in February. Utah/Salt Lake/Park City was absolutely beautiful and we even had a chance to run on an indoor track at the Olympic Oval (where the speed skating took place in the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics). What an incredible facility!

Not that I ever envisioned myself a skier, but my second ever skiing experience definitely confirmed that I should stick to swimming, cycling and running. My lack of skiing experience combined with my dislike of very steep downhills was not a great mix. While I actually got pretty good at the bunny slope, I learned very quickly that I had not moved beyond it when Anthony convinced me to try the next slope up. I think it was still considered an easy slope, but to me it was terrifying. After standing frozen in place much of the time, I finally made it down the 2 or more mile slope an hour and a half later! Yes, an hour and a half! Four year olds were flying by me, but there was nothing I could do. After that it was back to the bunny hill where I belong!

On that trip we also had a great time visiting with Anthony's grandparents as well as his brother's wonderful family. I really enjoyed our evening with Robin and the girls!

In March, we were able to take Anthony's kids to visit my Grandmother in Ft. Lauderdale. We had a wonderful spring vacation there and hope to be able to do it again next year with the baby with us as well. The baby will be my Grandmother's second great grandchild. However, I think Anthony's grandparents already have 50 something great grandchildren. The impressive thing is that they can pretty much tell you all of their names!

We finished our spring off with a fun, but very exhausting trip to Europe to visit Anthony's sister, Lindsay. Lindsay is in the army and has been stationed in Belgium for the past three and a half years. We wanted to get over there before she returns to the States this summer. Lindsay was the perfect host and tour guide. We wanted to make the most out of our relatively short stay there. She helped us accomplish that goal. In less than six days, we visited Antwerp, Amsterdam, Brugges (Belgium), Ghent (Belgium), Dinant (Belgium), Brussels, and Paris! Our very favorite place was Brugges which is this beautiful little town in Belgium, but we also really enjoyed Amsterdam. In Amsterdam, we got to tour the Anne Frank House, the Rijksmuseum, the incredible canals and of course the Red Light District. Anthony's brother, Hans, was also with us and I really appreciated his and Lindsay's support throughout the trip. We were moving so fast and I was trying so hard to keep up. However, there were just times when I had to back off a bit to make sure I did not over do it with the pregnancy and all. We did a ton of walking and lots of stair climbing, so I definitely got in quite a bit of exercise that week!

We are back in Greenville now and will be busy moving to a new house next week! More on that later.

Anyway, I just wanted to update now that I feel comfortable sharing my exciting news! I hope everyone is having a great summer and I look forward to sharing some stories and experiences over the months to come. This is certainly different from any race I have ever done, so it will all be new and exciting to me.

All the best,
Kelly

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Updated 03-12-08

Since the end of 2007, I have not been very good about updates for the site. With so many fun and exciting things going on since my last race, I have spent very little time on the computer. However, I recently had a chance to catch up on the blogs and updates from my friends' websites. Many of them are great about updating weekly and some even update daily! They have all inspired me to try to update more. Now that I do not live in Atlanta anymore, it is a great way for me to keep up with friends and family from all over.

So here it goes...

Soon after my last race (way back in November), I took an end of the season break from training. It was so nice to have a break that was planned and not one that had to be taken due to injury or illness. Stephen Jayaraj, my running coach, did a great job planning my training this past year because I finished the season completely healthy. Other than some minor foot soreness right after my first half marathon, my body felt great! I was extremely grateful to finish a season that way!!!

The break from training came at an especially good time as Anthony and I were able to take our Honeymoon. We went on a 10 day Princess cruise to some of the South Pacific islands. I cannot say enough about how awesome this trip was. I highly recommend it. Our cruise ship left from Tahiti. We had a full day in Tahiti before leaving the port. The rest of the itinerary was as follows... Huahine, day at sea, the Cook Islands, day at sea, Raiatea, Bora Bora (for two days), Morea, and back to Tahiti.

All of the islands were absolutely beautiful! However, I think our favorites were Bora Bora and Morea. We had an extra day in Bora Bora, so we were able to cover a lot on that island. We visited a famous restaurant called Bloody Mary's and we rented a very neat go-cart type thing called a Bugster. This enabled us to ride around the entire island a couple of times. We loved it!

I think our favorite adventure on Bora Bora came during what was suppose to be a short 4 mile run one morning. Both of us really wanted to see the World War II Cannons that were left on the island. Our Grandfathers were both stationed on the Pacific front during the war, so we thought it would be a nice tribute to go see the cannons. From the maps, it seemed like it would be very easy to find them on our own, so we canceled our organized excursion and set out by ourselves. We quickly found out that our search for the cannons would not come easily. After getting lost right away, we turned to a very young non English speaking boy for help. He kindly pointed us in the right direction which was basically up the steepest jungle like hill I had ever seen. Finally, after a very challenging climb we arrived at the cannons. It was worth the struggle to get there as the view was amazing! We were able to take some pictures and see one of the bunkers as well. The organized excursion group ended up arriving in their jeeps just as we were getting ready to head back down. I think they thought we were crazy for running/hiking up there. The difficulties were not over, however, as we had another challenging trip down the mountain only to find ourselves in someone's back yard. We were chased out of there by a dog nipping at our heels... or should I say my heels. Anthony took off like a shot as soon as the dog started chasing. I guess my fight or flight system did not kick into gear as quickly because I started laughing at Anthony who was running so fast that it did not even look like his feet were touching the ground (kind of like a cartoon character). I was laughing so hard that I could not run fast at all. Anthony was out of sight as I made it out of the back yard just before the dog could take a chunk out of my ankle!

After our Bora Bora experience the rest of the trip was awesome, but uneventful (with the exception of Anthony winning the Bingo jackpot on the last day). It was the first cruise for both of us and it definitely exceeded our expectations. I do not think either of us thought of ourselves as "cruise" people. We mistakenly thought it would not be active enough for us. We were very wrong!!!

What everyone told us was true... it really can be as active as you want it to be. Anthony and I really tried to take part in all that we could. Not only did we start most days with a short run on the treadmill, but we usually had 1-2 excursions planned on each island. Since we tried to pick the more active excursions, we usually arrived back on the ship pretty exhausted. However, we did not want to miss out on the fun ship activities either so we found ourselves mustering up the energy to play bingo, Karaoke (Anthony), participate in a "men's sexy legs contest" (Anthony), and hang out with some of the nice couples we met during the trip. As much as I loved all of the island stops, I found that I also enjoyed having those two days at sea, so we could just relax by the pool and get a massage at the spa.

Overall, it was the perfect honeymoon. I became a huge fan of cruises as it enabled us to see a lot of different places without all the work. The ship did it for us... delivering us in a new beautiful spot each day. Once we boarded the ship we could just unpack and relax! I am extremely grateful that we had a chance to go on such a wonderful trip and I hope to take some more cruises in the future!

To be honest, it was a bit hard to come back to reality after being in paradise! It was especially hard because we came back to some cold weather (at least for the south). However, we quickly got back into the swing with lots of holiday activities. With so much going on, the rest of 2007 just flew by. We spent New Years' Eve with Anthony's brother, Hans, and a great friend of mine from Atlanta, Tracy. We took Tracy on a bike ride New Year's Eve morning and were fortunate enough see our famous Greenville cycling pro, George Hincapie, twice during the ride! Of course, he was flying by us each time and he had no idea who we were, but it was still fun for all of us to see him out there training. That evening I thought about how thankful I was as 2007 was a very special year for me!

As 2008 approached, I realized I had a pretty big decision to make about racing in 2008. Before things started to go so well in 2007, I did not have any long term racing plans. However, as my health continued to get better and better last year, I started racing much better. My confidence rose and I guess in the back of my mind I started to wonder if I might still be able to earn a spot in the second and third Olympic Trials races this spring and summer. Back in 2003 and 2004, I qualified with only a year of "points racing" under my belt. This time, however, I would only have six months of racing to do it and I just wasn't sure it would be enough. As I looked into the somewhat complicated points and ranking system, I realized that it would be pretty much impossible to qualify this late in the game. Even if every race between November and March went perfectly, I would still not be able to move up the rankings fast enough to make it in time.

This helped me come to my decision to focus on Anthony, his kids, family and other obligations for 2008.

After taking a close look at my athletic background (even as far back as high school and college), I realized that I do my best when I do not race hard for more than a couple of years in a row. The success I had back in 2003 and 2004 came after a year off due to an injury. During that time I did very little training and I allowed my body to get stronger and healthier. Then, 2007 went pretty well after almost a two year break. I have some other athletic examples like this as well. I admire the people who can put year after year of hard training and racing back to back. However, every time I try to do that my body is forced to stop later on. I probably should have realized this sooner, but my stubbornness and desire to race kept me from acknowledging this.

For this reason, I am looking forward to a 2008 where I train enough to stay fit, but without any race plans. I am looking at it from the standpoint that I could probably race this year and be fine. However, I would then need to rest in 2009 or 2010 and big picture wise that will start putting me in the same situation I was in this time around... too late to have any shots at competing in the Big World Cups or the Olympic Trials. I know that is still a long time away and that I could change my mind about what I want to do racing wise by that point, but with this decision I at least hope to give myself a chance to qualify next time around. As grateful as I was for the short season I had in 2007, I still found it frustrating to be feeling so good, but to be out of the hunt for the bigger races. I am hoping that my decision will help give me more opportunities and choices later on.

I still plan to keep updating as I have lots of other fun things going on right now. I am also excited to see once again where this athletic journey takes me. I would love to race really well again in triathlons of course, but I also have some running goals I would like to accomplish as well. With a new trail race series starting and all the wonderful masters opportunities out there, I am looking forward to some great racing in the future. For now, however, I am very thankful to be able to focus on the things that are the most important to me... my faith, my family, and my friends!

All the best,
Kelly

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Updated 11-06-07

I wanted to write an update on the past few weeks as I just finished my racing season over the weekend.

Two weeks ago, I competed in a couple of running road races here in Greenville. The races were part of the Spinx Run Fest which consisted of a mile track race on Friday evening, a 5k road race and a kids race on Saturday morning, and then a half and full marathon on Sunday morning.

Despite not having raced on a track in nine years, I decided to try the mile on Friday evening. I am really glad I did it as it turned out to be a lot of fun. I raced in what I thought was the only elite/open heat for women and it was the first mile race of the evening. I initially started out a bit too fast. I was trying to keep pace with the eventual winner, a very fast professional runner who now lives in Georgia. Fortunately, I realized before the end of the first lap that I did not have a chance of staying with her (she was amazing and made it look effortless) and I backed off before it was too late. I eased into a rythm. When I realized that I was comfortably in 2nd, I decided not to pick up the pace in order to sprint to the finish. While I would have loved to have seen what kind of time I could get, I wanted to make sure I saved my legs for the 5k the next morning. I think my finish time was around a 5:18.

My decision not to push the last lap was probably a mistake, as a girl who showed up too late for our heat was allowed to run in a later masters heat. Her time was a good bit faster than mine, so in the overall results I went from second to third. This was disappointing mainly because they were giving out money for the top three and I lost about a $100 when I moved from second to third in the results.

The girl who moved ahead of me is a terrific miler and more than likely would have placed second anyway. However, it would have been nice to have been able to race her head to head. It would also have been nice to have known beforehand that they might allow someone to show up late and run because I could have made a better decision about how hard to go on the last two laps. It was a bit frustrating at the time.

I was not sure how my body would respond the next day as I have not raced twice in a row since college. Being such a low mileage runner, I very rarely raced twice in a weekend during college track so this was going to be a challenging experience for me.

Once again, they were giving out money to the top three male and female racers. I knew there were going to be some very competitive girls in the race... one of whom was the winner of the mile the evening before. I had been told that she had already run in the 16's for a 5k earlier this fall! Wow!!!

My 5k started out well. While I did not go out with the two fast lead girls, I still had a pretty fast first mile. I was going back and forth with another girl and I could tell that there was a fifth girl not too far behind us. As we began the second mile I started to pull away. The only problem was that I was also starting to develop a pretty bad side stitch. I did not want to lose third place, so I kept trying to work through the cramp. Fortunately, I was able to get through it well enough to keep my position and earn third place! My time was 18:20 and while I felt like I was in shape to run in the high 17's or low 18's I was pleased with my effort on that particular course. It had a fairly long uphill finish. I was also pleased with how my body responded after racing the night before.

The nice part about the 5k Saturday morning was that Anthony and my mom raced as well. Anthony got his best time and finished third in his age group while my mom got first in her age group! My Dad and the dogs cheered us on which definitely helped contribute to our successful results.

This past Saturday I finished my season with my first half marathon ever. My running coach, Stephan Jayaraj, and I decided only a couple of weeks ago that I should try a half marathon. We did not know what to expect. I have been feeling really good running wise, but I have not had much of a chance to get in any longer runs. I just started back with longer runs at the end of September and even then I only got in two 10 mile runs and one 11 mile run before my half on Saturday. I just was not sure this would be enough for my legs to handle 13.1 miles of running on the road.

I wanted to try it anyway, so we headed to Charlotte on Friday to be ready for the early Saturday morning start. I ended up having a really good experience for my first half which made me really like the distance.

I probably should have listened to my awesome coach and started out a bit more conservatively, but I saw a girl that was running really fast and I decided to try to stay with her as long as I could. I just wanted to have a target to focus on. I was able to stay on her shoulder until the 10 mile mark. After 10 miles, she started to pull away. I wanted to go with her as I had been feeling great up until that point. However, my legs were starting to feel the lack of long runs and I just could not go with her. Unfortunately, due to the fatigue in my legs, as well as the numerous hills in the last three miles, I slowed quite a bit towards the end. I ended up as second female in a 1:24.03. I was very pleased overall. Of course, I wish I could have held on as I was on target to run a high 1:22 or a low 1:23, but I now have more incentive for my next one. I really enjoyed the race and I am looking forward to doing another one. I also feel like I learned a lot from my mistakes in this one and I cannot wait to make the changes for next time. I was a miler and half miler in high school, so I cannot believe I am actually saying that I loved the half marathon distance!!! That is a huge step for me!

I could tell that my cycling and swimming helped me aerobically during the long race as my breathing and cardiovascular system felt great. I really just lost power in my legs towards the end. I really think that was from so little mileage on my legs. I just needed a little more strength.

I am not sure how I keep finding these races that finish uphill, but this one was especially challenging as I think the last half mile, if not longer, was a gradual uphill finish. I had such a hard time trying to get to that line! Anthony, Maddie and Andy cheered me on and it helped a ton. I found out that Anthony had gotten another best time, as well as another third in his age group in the 5k. The 5k race had taken place while I was racing the half!

Overall, a very fun and successful end to the 2007 season!

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Updated 10-06-07

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