Tri 2 Inspire - The Making of Bionic Bri

Over the past few weeks I have had to evaluate where I am as an athlete, my race schedule, and my goals for this year.   The catalyst for this evaluation began on February 25 th when I ran my first 8 mile run in over two years for my ½ marathon training.   The run was hard.   My body ached because it was not used to that type of mileage.   Mentally I was drained, but I forced myself to get through the run.   I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it. I did it, but boy did I pay for it the next day! Sunday morning I woke up with what I like to call “crunchy knees."   Every few steps my knees would ache, the type of ache that makes you wonder if you have just shortened your race season or not.   I decided I would take it easy for the next few days and see if that would ease my crunchy knees.   Unfortunately the crunchy knees did not go away, but lucky for me I had an appointment coming up that Monday with my first-line-of-treatment doctor...

It’s official, I am riding on the crazy train!   Ozzy Osbourne is the conductor and I am holding on for dear life to the caboose.   The Monticelloman Olympic Triathlon is a little over two months away and I am starting from SCRATCH with my swimming.   Yes, you read that correctly, I am starting from scratch.   The first time I met with my swim coach she asked me to swim down the lane.   After she saw my interpretation of swimming, she decided that I should start with the basics.   After doing a few laps of drills, I decided I needed to tell her that I had signed up for the Monticelloman Olympic.   So I took a break and told her.   She looked at me, started laughing, and said, “We have a lot of work to do.”   Surprisingly I felt relieved.   I just knew she was going to tell me I wouldn’t be able to do the race.   So here I am behind the 8 ball. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t concerned about not finishing the swim portio...

Ever since I started monitoring my weight I have had a love/hate relationship with the scale.  When she showed me a number that I wanted to see, she was my best friend.  I would be on a euphoric high for the rest of the day.  I could conquer anything because of that number on the scale.  But when she showed me a number that I didn’t like, even though it was the truth, I would curse her and threaten to throw her out with the trash.  My mood would become dark and I would feel defeated.  I would ask myself what went wrong, even though I knew the answer.  Once again my emotional eating had gotten the best of me. Emotional eating….that thing that would have me eating when I was happy, sad, bored, and indifferent.   On a bad day I could go through a box of Captain Crunch Oops All Berries or Lucky Charms in less than a day.   Even worse I would exercise like a mad person only to eat all of my hard work away.   The scale was showing me my u...

Lately there has been a lot of negative chatter in my head.   At first I really didn’t pay it any attention; I just pushed the chatter into the back of my head.   But the chatter became louder and louder and harder and harder to push back.   Then the unthinkable happened…I begin to listen to it and unfortunately I started to believe it. Throughout my life I have gone through cycles of low self-esteem.   The cycle would usually be triggered by an event such as being rejected by a boy when I was a teenager or not getting a job I applied for as an adult.   The cycle could last a couple of weeks or go on for a few months.   During these cycles I question everything from my looks, intelligence, and abilities.   And regardless if people tell me otherwise, I only see the worst in myself.   I am going through one of those cycles now. The negative chatter started when I begin my pre-season triathlon training in November.   I had taken too muc...

I am a Pisces.   I LOVE the water!   I enjoy listening to the waves crash against the surf at Virginia Beach.   Watching the James River meander through the city relaxes me.   Swimming in the water that I love so much....that’s a different story. As a kid I learned how to survival swim.   I could swim well enough to play in the pool and at Water Country USA without drowning, but that’s about it.   Survival swimming also meant I learned how to swim with my head above the water.   Survival swimming is not something you want to do during a triathlon.   It is inefficient and will cause you to tire out very quickly. Once I got it into my head that I was going to do a sprint triathlon, I knew I had to learn how to swim correctly.   I became a community member at my local YMCA and began taking swimming lessons.   Each lesson was a struggle.   I couldn’t swim 25 meters without stopping several times.   Instead of embracing the...

The most difficult aspect of training for a tri for me is time management.  It is imperative that I follow my training schedule as close as possible, but at the same time I must be flexible.  It is too easy for training to take over my life.  The first tri I did, my primary goal was to finish.  Now, I want to compete.  To compete I have to put in the time, but I have to keep things in perspective.  I am very fortunate that I have a very supportive husband who understands how important my training is to me.  He also understands "happy wife, happy life." : - )  Seriously, I really don't know how I would manage everything if my husband was not such a team player.  My only household chores are cooking  and taking the recycling and trash to the curb.  Mr. Adams takes care everything else.  Lucky me! I do the majority of my workouts at the crack of dawn.  By doing so ensur...

Welcome to my blog!  First and foremost THANK YOU for taking the time out of your busy day to read my little blog.  I hope at least one person that reads this blog will be inspired enough to try a tri or some other endurance sport.  I want everyone to experience the feeling of empowerment of completing an endurance event.  There is NOTHING like it!  This blog will primarily focus on my pursuit of completing my first 1/2 IronMan triathlon in September of 2012, but on the way I will throw in some random topics.  Such topics will include my decision to stop relaxing my hair and transitioning to natural hair, if the Dallas Cowboys are going to the playoffs, and anything else that may pop in my head.  I will end this post with my race report of my first and only tri that I posted on my Facebook page.  It was written with raw emotion, so who knows what kind of grammatical errors you may find.  Please bare in m...