The Best Laid Plans...

I took today off from training. (Yes, Thon, I am capable of having a rest day. I just don't like them.) Actually, I wanted to recuperate more from the tempo and lead into some long workouts I have scheduled for this weekend. I'm still about 15 weeks away from the Half-Ironman World Championship race, so I've got plenty of time...too much time. At this point, I'm not treating this event as an "A" race. I'll train hard and steady, but I'm not going to go all out (she says with 3 1/2 months to go). TTutri had a great statement is his blog regarding his next race. He said he wants it to be a "celebration of fitness." Amen, brother. I like that attitude and had to plagarize it.

At the same time I'm laying the schedule out for that race, I'm also beginning plans for so many other activities in my world as well. As I've mentioned before, I'm the Race Director of Austin's Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot 5 Mile Race. This is my 4th year as Director so things do seem to get easier and smoother as the years go by. My contacts are solid and my vendors know the event as well as I do. This week, I began my Turkey Trot "kickoff" in many ways. I met with the owners of Thundercloud Subs (main sponsor) and I had lunch with the Operations Manager of a Radio Group in town about possible sponsorship. I filled out and faxed over the Street Closure/Parade permits to the City of Austin. That is just the beginning of many meetings to come with the city, police, fire and barricade company. We all work in conjunction with each other to put on a successful event that attracts over 10,000 people to downtown Austin on Thanksgiving Morning. It is all-consuming. Things won't really get nutty for me until the beginning of November. Until then, it's managed chaos with meetings, emails and phone calls. A couple of weeks before the race is when the earth seems to open up and present the fires of hell. It's not that the work is difficult. There's just a lot to juggle between packet pick-up, t-shirts, stuffing race bags, on-line registration, bib number assignments, volunteer coordinating, tents, port-o-pots, collecting banners from sponsors, emails/phone calls with stupid questions about the race, etc...You get the point. I manage all of this while maintaining my full-time job at the ad agency. Thank God my agency is supportive of this "freelance" project of mine. This year will be particularly challenging as I'll be training and racing in both a Half-Ironman and the Dallas Marathon at the beginning of December. It's a good thing I won't be married yet, because I'm sure my attitude and behavior would become grounds for divorce. Luckily (insert heart bursting with gratitude), Shawn is a huge help with Turkey Trot and I now consider this our tag-team event.

I'm continuing to lay plans for the "One Ton of Fun" team that I'm coaching. It's a team of 10 people--including one local Austin celebrity-- and their goal is to lose weight and finish by walking the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving Day. As Race Director of the event, I thought it would be great to get involved from a coaching standpoint as well. Plus, I just love to watch people get excited and inspired to transform their lives. Right now I'm a little frustrated in my team as they don't seem to be motivated at all to meet and participate in any group activities. Runtex is providing free seminars on eating, cooking, exercising and shopping and no one on my team seems excited to go. We were also invited to join in a recent 5k to participate together. I heard from only one of the ten people. Needless to say, it's a little difficult to motivate people who appear to be completely apathetic. I email their workout program every week in hopes that someone is following it. Next week, I'm meeting with an Austin nutritionist and we're going to brainstorm a couple of different motivating ideas. She's the author of several books on eating right and losing weight. Selfishly, I'm excited to spend time with this woman because I am constantly trying to absorb nutrition and health information of all kinds for myself. Maybe she'll have the secret solution for that last seven pounds of belly goo that won't go away. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the red wine and gelato I had with dinner tonight!!

So that's been my week in a quick nutshell...Oh yeah, did I mention that I'm still packing and have to be out of my house by August 15th? I've created one hell of a Goodwill pile. I can't wait to drop off these old clothes, jackets, bedsheets, pillows, furniture and other items that I won't need for the new house. It's cleansing and fulfilling to know that they will go to a good home. This weekend, I hope to purge the house of many old clothes (face it Carrie--stirrup pants aren't coming back anytime soon!! ) --kidding.

Life is chaotic as all hell right now, but I'm loving every minute of it. I had lunch today with my friend who has cancer of the esophagus. He's currently doing an indefinite amount of chemo. The tumors aren't gone, but they're not growing either. He has the best attitude and exudes happiness, strength, courage, peace and positive energy. And yet, he's also realistic about his potential fate. He told me, "If I thought or dwelled upon what's going on in my life right now, I'd freak out. So, I just get up every morning and I LIVE."

Another thought I had to plagarize...