Swim, bike, run and….jump!!

Although I really enjoyed my ironman Brazil experience, I could just not get motivated to keep training. I enjoyed sleeping in, drinking a glass of wine on week nights and just doing…nothing. Under the peer pressure of the team, I signed up for Augusta 70.3 but that still did not get me going.

So what is an ironwoman to do??

How about a skydive jump?

My friend and triathlete Joey Baker, who is an experienced jumper, invited me to Chester SC for my 1^st jump. Scared I would bail out, he made reservations for me and even paid the deposit. Upon arrival Saturday at 10 am, the little plane was already loading up people and before we knew it, parachutes popped up into the sky. WOW, that looks high…..

I convinced my friend VML to come with me since I figured it is always better to have a partner in crime and she is scared of heights like I am.

First we watched the introduction video, which was a lawyer talking to us and telling us that jumping is very dangerous and you can’t sue at all!! Hmmm, should we bail out? It took me over an hour to fill out the paperwork and sign all the waivers but we went ahead and signed up and paid our dues.

Then the waiting started….we were on “load 12”….they were only at load 7 at lunchtime…

Around 3pm they announced who was on “load 12”. Our names were mentioned and so we needed to go and gear up. We put on the suit, the cap, tried the goggles, then they put the whole harness on us and we were ready to go. My instructor was a guy named Joey, who I had eyeballed as we had entered that morning and I secretly was hoping he would be my guy. So I got lucky and the good looking fella with clown pants and rainbow mohawk on his helmet was my jumping buddy. I asked him some typical “airport” questions such as: Who packed your parachute? Did you leave the parachute unattended? To my surprise I got a NO and a YES but hell what was I gonna do about it?

We got into the super small plane and got to sit REALLY close together (most physical contact I had in a while so I was enjoying that! ;-) )

After a 10 minute plane ride with lots of nervous laughter the solo people pulled the plastic door open and just jumped out like they were walking through the door. I stayed calm and kept telling myself to keep my eyes open. We left last and I looked at my friend Joey who was my cameraman as I…..JUMPED! It was not scary at all. But as soon as we jumped we kinda toppled and were on our back instead of on our belly. But Joey (my jump buddy) stabilized us and we were soon on our belly, hands out and I was giving the thumbs up smiling. It was AWESOME!!!! You don’t feel you are falling at 120M/hour at all. 70 sec later, he pulled the parachute and we got yanked upright to enjoy a 4-5 minute glide before we made a perfectly smooth landing. As soon as I got to the ground I knew it, I am an ironman and I wanna train again. So this morning at 5.30 am I woke up and had my 1^st swim session in preparation to Augusta 70.3.

The jump energized and motivated me and I would recommended to everybody!!

BR aka someskydivingchick

Iron Food

Most triathletes, especially long course triathletes, are required to maintain a healthy diet in order to perform at a high level. Those of you who know me, realize that I definitely fit this mold. I am clearly the poster child for a healthy lifestyle. So, I thought it would be fun to give everyone a log of everything I ate today after a tough week of training.

Today was a bit of a recovery day, so nothing too extreme.

2 Buttermilk Ego Waffles with Maple Syrup
1 cup of Coffee
(1.5 hour tempo ride, 20 minute transition run)
1 Slim fast chocolate royale shake for a recovery drink
1 Big slice of bacon and onion frittata
1 Banana
3 cups of coffee
2 Chocolate White Chocolate Chip Chips Ahoy Cookies
1 Big bowl of Frosted Mini Wheats mixed with Frosted Flakes
1 Glass of Orange Juice
6 oz of left over Filet Mignon
2/3rds of a Family size red barron peperoni pizza
1 slice of Green Chili Corn Bread
2 Hands Full of Tortilla chips
2 Bourbon and Cokes
1 8 oz Hamburger with Bun
2 Full length Slices of Egg Plant
1 Chocolate Molten Lava Cake Engulfed in Cookies and Cream Ice Cream

I may have missed a snack or two, I'll never tell. I'll repeat this endeavor next time I am really hungry.

Jimcantswim aka jimcaneat

First Blog Post / The Rock of the Mattress

I wanted to start a blog for the best looking, not to mention fastest Tri team in Savannah. I figured this would be a fun way for us all to share stories, information, product reviews, whatever! Let me know if you want to make a post. So with that, our first post!

I think I will kick this bad boy off with a race report from Rock of the Marne from a different perspective.

For those of you who don't know, the Rock of the Marne is a sprint Triathlon in Savannah that started last fall. The 2nd edition was held on Sunday, June 21st. The event is organized and run by the illustrious Nick Baker, our very own team president. Nick became our president, when our former President Kemp Nussbaum relocated, this was a great day for the team because Kemp was nothing more than a trash talking distraction (although admittedly he was easy on the eyes)!

I was very excited about the Rock, because 2 of my friends from Atlanta were coming down to do the race. In the 1st edition of the race, one of my friends Taylor placed first in our AG and I finished 2nd. This was completely unacceptable and I was out for revenge!

I am currently training for IM Louisville, so the day before the race I had a 90 mile ride. I woke up for this ride at 3:30 in the morning because I knew my friends would want to spend the day at the beach. Being the conniving bastard that I am, I realized that I must wear out my competition, so I checked with our teams very own Dirty Hippy and told her to bring her Kite board to the beach on Saturday so I could try to wear out my buddy and even the playing field.

I got back from my ride and was showered and ready to go around 9:15. At that point in time, me and katherinecantswim started working on lunch. This was my 2nd advantage on my buddy, I was going to make a huge chicken taco and nacho lunch complete with home made margaritas, this was sure to knock his high falutin booty out. Sadly, my buddy was still asleep and I had already completed 91 miles, showered, and started working on lunch... time to hurry up on the margaritas!

After a paralyzingly large lunch, and several margaritas it was time to head to the beach for some more margaritas and some kite boarding. Sadly, Ellen forgot one part, so we had to skip the kite boarding, but there was still plenty of tequila to go around.

After the beach it was back to our place for more drinks and another plate of nachos. Once we polished off our 2nd tray of nachos for the day we decided the only logical way to top of a wonderful day like this was to head to Hucapoos. For those of you who don't know, Hucapoos is a wonderful pizza joint/bar on Tybee. I like to think of it as heaven on earth.

By this time, my long day is really starting to catch up on me and the pitchers of beer are starting to catch up on my buddy. I'm deliriously tired and my friend is deliriously tipsy. We start joking that we should go back to my place have a few more cocktails and skip the race. It started as a joke and quickly turned into a reality. I've never skipped a race and I hardly ever even skip a workout, so this was new territory for me!

Sadly, I must admit that I placed 2nd in the first annual Rock of the Mattress Triathlon, as my friend Taylor slept an amazing 3 hours longer than I did. Don't worry though, Revenge will be mine!

Somebody want to do a real race report?

Cheers

jimcantswim