I am just plugging along!  I am in super focused, streamlined right now.  This is such a great week with Kona being Saturday!  Not only do I have some super fit and ready athletes racing Saturday (GO GO!), I have so many friends racing I cannot wait to watch it unfold  online! The energy is so fun and if you need any inspiration – this is the week to find it in the lava fields!  GOOD LUCK to everyone racing!  I have not raced in Kona since 2006…but you never forget how hot and windy and hard that race is!

This week also marks the Chicago Marathon race – another key race for many athletes here and how ironic that this fall has been SUPER SUPER COLD and wet ….we had frost last night in Galena, IL!  But, last year for the marathon it was unseasonably hot.  I cannot get it right….this year I am riding my bike in pouring, raining piss and last year I was running in 80-90s F degrees?  I really messed up the years!  I seem to have a knack for that.

I am enjoying the Ironman training this year.  So much that I nearly beg for more every week.  I am totally plugged in and ready to rock and roll.  It is like I waited all year to have some time to fit all this training in and NOW IT IS HERE!  Work is not as intense as it was 3 weeks ago and it has allowed me some longer days on my bike, which I am really loving right now.  Jerome was in China for 2 weeks and I had to be super diligent with my training and time.   My Achilles is great!  I have been running normally for a few weeks now.  I miss my ART guy (he is in Kona!) but Nathalie (my massage gal) has been doing a great job on me!

I am just so happy I can run and run well……not super fast yet – I am only wearing a stop watch right now (I really hate Garmins on my runs) and on one of my recent runs I kept saying, “DO NOT look, Jenny, DO NOT LOOK.”  I was torturing myself on trying to figure out what pace I was running – and I am on the trails that I trained for the marathons for and I know where I need to be to run that well…and I am off a bit…So once I let myself look and I was running a 7.50 mile…Oh good god…felt a little harder than it should, but considering I was not running in early September, I will take it!  Let’s not be greedy.  The times will start to come down and the good news is that I am training for an IM, not an Oly race! J I really miss swimming more though, but don’t tell anyone.  Shhhh.

I am so excited because next week I head to Phoenix to train on the IMAZ course.  I am heading down with an athlete/friend of mine, Tracy (who works down there and we are staying at the BILTMORE…oh yes….she knows how to do this right!) and I am really looking forward to connecting with Molly and Jen Lynn down there too!  We are even doing a swim race on Saturday in the Town Tempe Lake –  I am so excited I can’t wait!!!  I have some work to do and that will be my focus for this long weekend.  It will be nice to get in the sun again too!

Other than that, not much to report.  Jerome and I snuck away for our wedding anniversary Sunday/Monday to Galena, IL. It is SO amazing there.  I do a Triathlon there every year in May and it is super hilly (for us flatlanders) and I had a left over “free weekend “ away that I won at the race, so we were able to use it this weekend.  The weather was perfect and had a great time running, hiking, shopping and eating!  We did NOT bring our bikes….we needed to spend some quality time on us – not on our bikes.  Jerome was amazing though….got off the airplane at 6:30am on Friday after being in China for 2 weeks – and got on his bike by 9am and rode 100 miles in under 5 hours and said he felt fine.  He is a machine.  Amazing – I feel awful flying 2 hours let alone 14+ hours!

I am looking forward to the big training month of October!  I am having a great time and am not having any issues training this late in the year.  I actually enjoy it – most people are playing and resting and I am doing my big weeks…I like that.  Just fingers crossed we do not get snow before IMAZ.  That is all I ask.  Otherwise, no complaining from me!

And, thanks to Andre at Kiwami for sending me this jacket —it is the best and I will be sporting it in Arizona (if it is cold enough, ha)! !!  We can only hope!