If only...

Well, I have been raising money for As Our Own for months. I have been training all year. In two days I will be competing in my longest triathlon.

If you know me at all you know that I get very nervous before racing. It starts days before and gets progressively worse until I hear the horn blow and the race begins. This is actually a good thing, it gets me all pumped up and ready to do my best. But I still wish I had a relax button :)

Training Update

I have several events that I am training for right now. Next month I will be completing a 100 mile bike ride (my first century!), Olympic distance triathlon (raising money for As Our Own!), and running the Bix. I may be doing another triathlon in August. And I will definitely be running in the Quad City Half Marathon in September.

I have been training as hard as I can in the mornings and then occasionally getting a little extra running done in the evenings. I log my workouts using dailymile.org. They have fun ways of keeping track of your miles and calories burned.

Here are some of their stats-

Total miles in 2011-1,535

Total miles running in 2011-312.37

Total miles biking in 2011- 1138.24

Total miles swimming in 2011-80.37

Pounds burned-38

Donuts Burned- 722.20

My new favorite running song-

Evergreen Triathlon 2010 !

Elliana decorating my tri box.

Joshua's picture of Batman fighting an enemy.

Asher drew a picture of Luke fighting Darth Vader :)

The boys keeping busy while mom does the tri.

Elliana and Joshua hanging out while I am killing myself in the heat.

On the bike (27 miles)..

Running the 5K.

Holding my trophy! 4th place baby!!!

You Win Some, You Lose Some

That is the hardest thing for me to wrap my mind around. I have never allowed anyone to tell me what I can and cannot do. In fact, the quickest way to get me to try something is tell me that you don't think I can. I am not sure where I picked up this mindset but it has served me well over the years. I never give up and I give everything I do; all that I have.

In high school and college I was determined to get A's, just so I could prove to myself and everyone else that I was smart. Studying was something that I enjoyed and I liked to see the results. Making the Dean's List was something that only fueled my desire. This was something that I had control over. I knew that if I studied hard, I would do well.

I have carried this mindset into my physical aspirations. If I work hard then I will perform well. Makes sense doesn't it? In the last three years I have competed in three triathlons, at least five 5K's and two 50 mile bike rides. In each event I improved in some way on my last attempt. That is one of the reasons I love to compete. I have control over my results. Or do I...

This morning I ran a 5K in 31 minutes. That is awful! My 5K time from last weekend (which I ran after a 600m swim and a 13 mile bike ride) was 30 minutes. And my last 5K time (not in a triathlon) was 27:50. So you can see that my performance this morning was horrendous. There are many reasons for my poor performance-

-I had the flu for three days prior to the race

-Due to the above situation I did not drink any water this morning

-I was overdressed for the weather

-At mile two I began to feel faint and dizzy, precursors to my tendency to faint in the heat

-I suffer from restless legs and did not sleep much last night or the night before

-It was VERY hot and humid (making me even more dehydrated)

I could go on and on and make a long list of excuses. But that is all it would be, a list of excuses. I have got to let this race fall by the wayside and learn my lessons.

Lesson #1- I do not have control over everything. I cannot control that fact that I was sick, have restless legs, and the weather was hot and humid.

Lesson #2- Remember what I do have control over and make sure I get those things done (HYDRATION, dressing appropriately)

Lesson #3- In the grand scheme of my life how I performed in any race has little to no value in God's eyes. Sure I can have a Godly mindset with those around me. But really, am I sharing the gospel during my run? Am I pursuing the plan that God has set out before me? Am I doing all that I can to bring God glory? No, I am pursuing my goals and my ambitions.

So when I have a bad race day I will endeavor to remember those three lessons, especially #3. Racing is fun, but it is not important. I have learned in my life that the truly important things in life cannot be attained by my strength, but by God's loving hand.

Training Update

I have many activities on my schedule this summer.

June- triathlon, 5K

July-Century bike ride, triathlon, the Bix

September- 1/2 marathon, 30 mile bike ride with Aaron

I have been training pretty strictly for some time. I have been listening to my body and all the aches and pains that go along with pushing yourself. As a result I have backed off when I needed to and have been injury free!! This is my training schedule..

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Sunday- rest

Monday- 1 hour of weights

Tuesday- 16-20 mile bike ride followed by a short run

Wednesday- 1 hour of weights

Thursday- 16-20 mile bike ride followed by a short run

Friday- 1 hour swim

Saturday- 5 mile run

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In the afternoons the kids and I have been going on bike rides. I am pulling about 60-70 pounds for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Two or three evenings a week I do a quick 2 mile run after dinner.

I have been running 10 miles every couple of weeks. But I want to make sure that my knees are in good shape for my triathlons. My longest distance will be 5 miles until July. At that point I will go back to 10-13 mile long runs.

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I am definitely getting in more than enough activity:)

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Now for some cute pictures of my kids...this cat is well loved..and very patient :)

Guess I should blog...

Aaron and the boys are playing Battleship and my baby girl is napping (well almost, I can still hear her sweet voice mumbling). I am getting ready to join my little princess and enjoy an afternoon nap.

The reason for my laziness...I have yet another injury. I know I shouldn't complain. It has been months since my last set back. Aaron keeps reminding me that "athletes get injured". He is 100% correct. And I know the best I can do is minimize the amount and severity. As I attempt to be patient and wait for my knee to heal I am looking forward to my next goal.

Next September I will be running my first half-marathon. I am VERY excited to take on this next challenge.

Gotta go, my napping buddy is waiting....

Kids of Steel Triathlon

Joshua participated in a triathlon this weekend. He had a great time and is looking forward to next year. Asher is excited to take part in next years event as well. Here are some pictures of my little triathlete :)

Joshua waiting for the triathlon to begin. Can you tell he is excited?

Joshua swimming 50 meters.

On his way to the transition area to prepare for the bike portion. He is still excited!

Transition from swim to bike.

Taking off on the 2 mile bike.

Coming back in from the 1/2 mile run.

It was a great morning!

Evergreen Triathlon!

This morning I completed the Evergreen Sprint Triathlon. I placed 6th in my age group and I improved a lot from last year :) Here are my results and how they compare with past results:

Swim-11:28.7

Last year-13:05.4

T1-2:37.9

Last year-4:46.2

Bike-1:32:20.3-many hills :)

Last year-1:29:58.6- no hills

T2-1:23.8

Last year-2:14.5

Run-32:06.7

Last year-36:24.6

Overall Time-2:19:57.4

Last year-2:26:29.3

The bike route this year was completely different so I can't compare those times. I am proud of my times but I do have several areas to work on for next year. Here are some pictures Aaron took during the triathlon. I am sure I will have more race info to pass along at a later date.

Waiting for the swim :

I am swimming in that big group:
Coming out of the swim:
The bike:

The run:

They Are Always Watching

The Evergreen Triathlon is two days away. I have been training for an entire year and feel that I am physically ready for the challenge. With such a short time remaining I decided I had better practice my transition from swim to bike. Last year my T1 time was over 4 minutes!

This was what was going through my mind at that time "I did it!! I finished the swim!! WooHoo!!" I was not at all in a hurry. I sat down and put on my socks and shoes. Made sure I had everything I needed for the bike portion (did I mention I was not in a hurry) and then headed out for the 27 mile bike. This is what will be on my mind this year "Fast! Fast! Fast!". I had Joshua time my transition practice and I was at a little over one minute :) It was fun to have the kids cheering me on to go faster.

After I practiced several times we played outside. Joshua decided that he needed to practice his transition time as well :) They are always watching :)

This is Joshua's bike all set up for T1 (he even took his socks and shoes off!)

Joshua going as fast as possible..After practicing several times he decided he needed some competition. So he coaxed his younger brother into a mini "triathlon". Here they are racing during T1. Elliana is taking off with Asher's bike :)

A big old ramble :)

I LOVE SUMMER!!! It has been a great two weeks of no school and lots of sunshine. The kids start asking to go outside before 8 am everyday. We are all getting a little tan :) I love sitting in the driveway watching the kids play in our cul-de-sac. They do this for hours, no kidding, really..for hours. You would think they would get bored. We have wonderful neighbors and it has been so nice to be able to sit and chat with them.

Summer prayer meeting at church started this week and it was awesome! I just love spending time in prayer. Whenever I take time out of my schedule for a good long prayer time I always think "Why don't I do this all the time?" As a stay at home mom of three very active children I find myself praying for guidance, assistance and strength often. But taking the time to just sit, read the Word and wait on God rather than expecting Him to wait on me, is just wonderful.

In tri- land things are going great. I achieved my all time longest running distance last week. I ran 10 miles :) WOOHOO! I was pretty excited (and tired too). Swimming and biking are also going well. My activities this summer are pretty much set in place. I have a 5K in June. Aaron and I are doing a 67 mile bike ride in July. And I also have a triathlon and the Bix in July. I will end my post with a song that I love to listen to while I run (The Climb by Miley Cyrus-no I am not a Hannah Montana fan, the song is just awesome) and verse that I just love.



Psalm 17:8
Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings.

Ramble...Ramble...Ramble...

It feels like we are always doing something. We are either knee deep in school activities, off to a field trip, managing all the normal household chores, or any number of other tasks that we seem to never run out of. Don't be mistaken though, we LOVE the way our family operates.

Aaron and I are aware that the way we do things is very different from other families. We homeschool, cloth diaper, eat at home (rarely eat out), live in a small home (and LOVE it!), really we just choose to live our lives as simply as possible. We choose to have a very family centered life. Not only do we love spending time together, we also think that it is very important to the development of our children. They are with us such a short amount of time. We try to make the most of our limited time of influence.

Alright, back to the update that I had planned (the title of this post is very true, I am rambling!). As I mentioned earlier we have been very busy lately. We have five weeks of school left :) I am excited for summer but I will also miss teaching my little ones. Although I do plan on doing a little work over the summer months. The kids have been enjoying the semi-nice weather. It is so awesome to watch them playing in the back yard together.

Here are some pictures from this past week...

Elliana likes to help me vacuum. She holds the cord and follows me around the house.

The kids ready for the Easter service at church

This is Elliana pretending she is a dog. She is eating sesame sticks :)

Yesterday morning I had a wonderful little vacation. I hit the gym at 5 am and left at 8:45 am! I swam for 1 1/2 hours, ran 3.2 miles and biked 27 miles :) It was wonderful :)

Little Update..

Joshua started karate last week and he LOVES it. He is also progressing very nicely in his piano lessons. His next recital is May 23rd. He will be playing a piece from Lord of the Rings (he is VERY excited to play this piece). With all the lessons and school to accomplish we have been very busy. But we always manage to make time to goof around and have fun. Here are some photos from our latest silliness..

Elliana and Daddy hang out together

Nana and Papa came over for a visit. There was some nice quiet book reading and talking. And then of course the wrestling starts...

Little Tri-training update:

I have been training about 7 1/2 hours/week. I am focusing on my running. I am not a good runner. Which is why I am trying to improve. This past week I ran 7 miles without stopping. It was an awesome accomplishment for me :) My swim training is going great. I swim 1 1/2 hours two times/week. As soon as it warms up I will be hitting the country roads for some nice long bike rides :) Only 3 months until my next tri :)

Check me out on God Speaks Today...

"I can't"

It is so easy to say "I can't". We put up all these roadblocks in our life because we simply say "I can't". This defeatist attitude robs us of attaining our goals and showing ourselves all that we are and all that we really can accomplish. Lots of times we fear failure and so it is just easier on our egos to refuse to try.

I am not immune to this self defeating behavior. I say "I can't" to lots of things. For example, I can't be the mom I want to be. So I settle for the mom I am today. And I can't be the wife I dream of because I am just too busy. So I settle for the wife I am. You know as well as I do that "settling" does not make you feel all that great. We desire to be better than we are. We want to surpass all of our greatest expectations. We want to "wow" ourselves. We long to be the woman that God desires us to be.

It doesn't matter in the least what anyone else thinks or tells us. We can hear all day that we are great mothers, wives, friends, sisters. But we know in our hearts that we are failing. We say "I can't" to changing our behavior and our attitudes because that would be too hard. We want the easy way out. We don't want to work for anything. Just as we all know that "settling" feels bad, we also know that working hard for something feels great. The end result, whatever it may be, is awesome.

You may wonder why in the world I am rambling this morning. Today was a running day at the gym. At mile five I started to question if I should go any further. I was having a mental battle about the real purpose in attaining that mile six that I was after. I was in a lot of pain, I was feeling nauseous and I just wanted to stop. But I knew if I stopped I would be saying "I can't". Did I really feel that way? Or was I just "settling"? Was I willing to come home and tell Aaron I just couldn't do that last mile? The answer was a very determined "No". I knew in my heart that regardless of how I was feeling physically, I could attain my goal.

And so I kept running. After running for an hour and 15 minutes I was able to collapse on the gym floor knowing I had accomplished what I came to do. Sure I felt horrible. But mentally I felt wonderful. I did not settle.

Now I just need to spend some time in prayer. And then begin to work on all those other areas of my life where I am "settling" for less than what God wants me to be.

2 hours and 25 minutes later...

...and I am exhausted. Today I did a "block" (completed two portions of a triathlon consecutively). So I swam and then jumped out of the pool and headed to the bike. I was on that bike for an hour and 50 minutes! And I was going at a constant quick pace the entire time (round 100 rpm) for 28 miles :) The last 8 miles were so hard. I wanted to get off that bike so badly. But I stuck with it and finished :) I am so happy to be at home with my kids and my wonderful husband. I am done with the gym for the whole day :) Yeah!!!

The kids are so excited for Christmas. We still do the Santa thing at our house. So the boys have already decided what they are leaving out for him.

The most exciting thing going on in our lives right now is the return of two very special people. Jared and Michelle are back for Christmas! :) We loved being with them yesterday.

Try to stay warm and enjoy your weekend!

Thanksgiving...sort of....

It has been a great weekend! On Saturday we had our own Thanksgiving dinner. This is our favorite part of Thanksgiving. I cook a big turkey and all of our favorite dishes and we pig out as a family (broccoli and cheese casserole, homemade rolls, real mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing and homemade brownies!!). Joshua couldn’t wait to eat “mom’s famous turkey”. He was especially looking forward to the drumstick.
Elliana watched the Wizard of Oz for the first time this weekend. I was blessed to be able to have her sit with me for this “first”. Aaron snapped a picture of the girls.

I accomplished a “first” yesterday. I went for a run thinking I would go my normal distance of 3 or so miles. I ended up running 5 and a half miles!! That is so fun!!!

This morning our awesome weekend officially ended. Elliana started throwing up at about 4:30 am. Should be an interesting day…

WOOHOO!!! Time to PARTY!!!

I ran a 5k in June and my time was 36 minutes. This was a good time for me. Today I am jumping up and down for joy because I completed the Jingle Bell Run. It was about 35 degrees outside and as a result it was a hard run. I was so proud when I finished and I was very happy to get in my warm van and head for home. I thought I had finished in about 33 minutes. But I didn’t check my watch for the time when I started so I was not positive about my time. Well, I checked later and I did so much better than I thought I did!! I ran the entire 5 K in 29 minutes and 12 seconds!!! I was number 31 out of 82 for my age group. I beat 51 people!!! WOOOOHOOO!

little update on us

I can’t believe it has been a week since I last updated everyone. Time is going by way to fast. We are in our 9th week of school and I have found something else to occupy two or three hours of my week (which is a lot considering how busy we already are these days).

I have been struggling to get my running in every week (for my tri training). I was spending 5 hours a week at the gym (in the mornings) and I just could not see where I could fit in two or three more hours to work on my running. (For those of you freaking out over five hours in the gym, in tri- world that is NOTHING.)

Anyway, I figured out a way to get my running in during the day after school is done. So I am a very happy camper. My training hours are now 7 to 8 hours/week (WooHoo!).

If that is not enough, we are also throwing together a garage sale to get rid of all the extra “stuff” around the house. Including….gulp….the crib. Yes it is going away, never to enter this house again. One would think I would be sad about such a loss. But actually I am ecstatic!! I have been blessed with three healthy, wonderful children and I am DONE! I think my body would have a heart attack if I even thought about housing another little one in my rather stocky mid-section. I mean really, human skin can only be stretched so much before it just gives up (you all know how GIGANTIC I get).

Anyway, enough rambling, my students are waiting.

Something to remember today....

God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called.

Little Ramble...

Not much is going on in the Nelson household. The kids and I are kept very busy with school. In addition to their academic work we have piano and swimming lessons. We go to the pool on our own (not for lessons) a couple times a week. This helps them practice and move forward in their lessons. Joshua has blossomed a great deal in his swimming. He can now swim on his own, jump off the side of the pool and swim back to the side and even swim with his face in the water. Asher is very comfortable playing in the pool as well. He has also started swimming on his own a bit. Although he tells me that his legs just won't float :)

I have been making some nice progress in my triathlon training. I can now swim 1.5 km and run 4 miles. That puts my swimming right where I want it to be. I just need to add 2 more miles to my running distance and I am set for next year :)

Elliana is growing up so fast :( I am excited but also sad that it is going by so quickly. She says a bunch of words and her vocabulary seems to grow everyday. Here are some adorable pictures of my beauty. Her favorite toys are her shoes :) That's my girl :)

I just love that smile !!!