Fun Photos

Tim DeFrisco who will be our wedding photographer but also is our photographer for Native and is a good friend of ours took some really neat photos for our catalog shoot. I double dipped while creating our catalog for Native and dropped in as an athlete during our photo shoot in Seattle and figured I would share some of his work. Enjoy :)

Climbing Photo Shoot with our Photographer and Friend Kevin Davis

Kevin Davis accompanied us to our climbing gym (Movement Climbing and Fitness) on Saturday afternoon. We were all charged up with our visit prior to Village Coffee House. He just got a few new pieces of camera gear for some of his upcoming photo shoots. To see some of his work, click here. Here are some of my favorites from the batch:

NATIVE SEATTLE PROJECT

This is our highlight video from our Seattle trip that we took for work. It was an awesome adventure with some unbelievable athletes!

Jax

Slug Bug Day 2 year Anniversary!

Just like that - Slug Bug Day is upon us again!

Today marks 2 years that Kyle and I have been playing a toned down version of the game Slug Bug.

For those of you who are not familiar with this game I will summarize it. The rules are pretty simple but different people play it different ways so I will specify our differences.

When you see a VW beetle (new or old) you yell "Slug Bug and the color!!" For old ones you must yell "Old School and the color." Each time in our version, you earn a point. In the real version, you slug someone :)

If you call a slug bug in the wrong color, you lose a point. If you call a slug bug that is not a slug bug, you lose a point.

The person who gets the most points wins.

For us we have NOT kept count for 2 years but that would be pretty impressive!!! Fresh game starts each time we enter the car. Makes me wonder, if I was losing really bad, I should just do a Chinese firedrill and hop back in the car and hopefully it would start over :)

The best part is when we are not together and in other people's cars and we start calling out colors because we are so used to it and people probably think we are nuts!

Here's an interesting little aside I've heard. Some people on the east coast call this game "Punch Buggy" not Slug Bug. OUCH!

To see how this whole shin dig started, click here :)

We celebrate this because it is important at any age to have fun. We feel this keeps the kid in us alive. It is hilarious how serious the game gets sometimes and how funny it gets at other times. It also makes any drive very entertaining, especially when we have guests playing. There are some classic slug bugs out there. Some are on roof tops, there are 4 old school ones in a bunch on the way to Salida. Some are grown into the ground and there is even a Slug Bug Garden (photo below).
To celebrate we have a couple traditions: Dinner at Gordon Biersch and our little gifts to eachother. This year Kyle added on an extra tid bit and we saw The Road. We celebrated a day early due to plans we have tonight that we cant get out of.





Each year I give Kyle a gift of a fun image of old school slug bugs that in addition resemble our relationship. This year, this one reminds me of getting married which is just a few months away now. Last years reminded me of a relationship being like yin and yang.

Each year, Klye gives me a little slug bug car. This year, I got a silver new one that looks like the car I used to have. I tried to race the two in the kitchen last night and the new one won. I guess it shows that technology in cars advances to better speed :) haha
It was a fun time and this day is a day we will continue to celebrate for years to come.

And to all my friends and readers, use this as a reminder to keep the kid in you alive.

Jax

G-DOT Day!!!

So Jenni stated it so well that I am posting her post from her blog:

"The 2nd annual G Dot is on the horizon. It is a day dedicated to girls and the gym. A day spent at the gym post Christmas trying new classes and enjoying old ones. The tentative date is December 28th starting at 5.45am until 1pm with a tentative schedule that includes:

5.45am-7.00am Masters Swim

7.15-8.00am Coffee Break/Cross train

8.15am-9.15am BodyVIVE

9.15-10.15am Spin Class

10.30-11.00am Chisel

11.30am-12.00pm Tred and Shed

12.00-1.00pm Hard Core Abs and Rock Hard Bottom

1.00 LUNCH

More details to following!

Rock On

JK2

So, If you want in, contact Jenni or I :) It was a mega blast in '07 (scheduling difficulties in '08) and we are prepped and ready for '09! What could be better prepping for the new year by earning a G-DOT!

Thanksgiving weekend!

Just like that, Thanksgiving has come and gone.

5.5 days off of work flies by and within hours we are back to the grind for a few more weeks before the huge vacation!

This weekend was a fun one filled with many events and time with friends and family.

Thankfully, I had 1.5 days off to clean up our house before we had a bunch of guests over for our first Thanksgiving that we would host. Kyle and I cleaned like no other to make sure we made a good impression :)

We even finished up all of our Christmas shopping for all of our family members on both sides which was a HUGE relief. Half are even wrapped :) Unfortunately, I still hopped into some Black Friday shopping which you will see below.

Later we met up with Kyle's family for some grub and to see Blindside which was remarkable. Then, Kyle's sister and mom and I snuck into New Moon. Thankfully Nat caught me up to speed super fast so I knew what was going on. I watched the first movie yesterday so now I am all caught up to enjoy the madness for the next two that come around.

Thanksgiving began with Chris, Julie and I spinning for 1.5 hours in the Turkey Day Spin class. It seemed like forever but I had a whole roll of pez each 30 min to keep me going :)


Chris continued for another 2 hours to blast some additional calories to eat the rest of the afternoon! I thought 1.5 hours was a lot! hmmmmThen it was off to cooking for hours and setting my first Thanksgiving table in our home.
Kyle's pop cooked Fried Turkey which was AMAZING!
I cooked sweet potatoes for the first time in my life, which turned out great!! (may be a little bias here)It was a great meal with great friends and family and was truly a very Thankful experience!

Then it was off to the Broncos game with Tommy, Tom, Tim, Kevin and Kyle. It was super fun!! and we won!
After some Z's, it was off to the Black Friday Madness!! Goal was a new TV for Chris. We started at walmart (of course, after Starbucks)...It was pure craze in the electronics session. Chris made out on some good deals on DVD's and then we hit COSTCO with our coupon book. I got a deal on itunes gift cards and then the big purchase began.
New TV, Sound system and Blue ray player. Watch out Chris, we may never let you leave now. Kyle, of course, is a bit jealous that the TV in our room is only 52'' compared to the 55'' that Chris has in our living room. Of course, the TV we had in the living room has now moved to the front room to be a "gaming" TV.

Then my Mom came in town and a we had a jam packed weekend. It started with seeing Fantastic Mr. Fox which was pretty neat. We saw it at the mall which lead to the 20th annual Tree lighting and...well...Seeing Santa!! It made my Mom's day to get photos with Santa :)

Yesterday, we caught up on life a bit and then we went to show my mom my office, ate at The Corner Office and then saw Riverdance. They have 1 show left of their tour. It was amazing! We also took care of a couple more wedding tasks which felt good.

Today, I unveiled my dress for my mom (Sorry Kyle, NO PHOTOS). It was really special.

We spent some time with my Uncle and cousin and sis too which was fun.

Now it is catch up time and preparing to get back to reality and loads of work.

I hope everyone's Holiday's were wonderful and I am very Thankful for everyone in my life.

Jax

Broncos vs. Chargers

Yo

For an early x-mas present, I took one of my besties to the Chargers vs. Broncos game. Chris decided to turn it into an entire day project.

We started the adventure at Spin class where we spun along with Julie and 45 others to Christa's rockin' tunes. Small injury update: In week 3 to 4 of recovery, I am able to half a%^ spinn now and half a$^ climb which is super exciting. Last week I hit the spin studio 3 times and climbing twice. The first climbing adventure was with Pete Takeda (climbing all-star) and we gimped up the wall with my busted ankle and his busted MCL. It was a night to remember to say the least.

We grabbed a sbux which is no surprise with Julie.

Then it was time to get ready. After grabbing our color coordinated Oakelys (Sorry Native!!) we headed off to the game.

We were quite early so we took advantage of watching warm ups and making our signs. We realized what great fans we were of opposing teams as through the day Chris heard some amazing comments from broncos fans. Are people seriously that angry with life that they will take it out on a football game??
Jumpers! So cool!
Our buddy Jeff Hanson dropped over from another section to hang with us for the tail end of the game.
Q4 when all fans gave up on the horrible loss that the Donkeys were having. We just soaked it all in from our sky high seats.
Chris, gloating in his Chargers glory!
The long walk back to my office and the long wait for the train to go by.
Fun times! Looking forward to the Giants vs. Broncos on Turkey Day with future in-laws and great friends.

Cheers!

Jax

My home away from home

When I began with Native 11 months ago, Kevin and I worked in a huge empty loft space with just us two and a bunch of white walls and a few desks.

This transition has been my baby since that day and it is exciting to see how it all turned out now that it is finally complete. We tore down walls and built new ones. We opened up the space in places and then it was the fun part.

Thanks to my friends at Motive, C2 Graphics, Harry the painter, Ed Budd that helped me to accomplish such a warm and fuzzy place to work :)

Here is my tour...

The Ascent - Front room where you can take a break, visit with friends, check out our shades in the new 1st prototype fixtures, or climb :)

Behind this wall is Mike, Marc, Robert and Alicia's offices:
Our very own climbing wall where Jason set the routes...

Jason climbing :)Me climbing :)
The Hallway -has 3 offices to the left (Andrea, Mine, Kevin's), and the Kitchen and The Outpost (visitor office) to the right :)
My office -

The Kitchen Tent - This is where we grub out :)
The Bivy - This area is used to "think outside of the box" and brainstorm. Technically, it is the fun conference room :)
Basecamp - Where the big and serious meetings take place :) More new prototype fixtures in there too :)The Back Country - Where the relaxin' happens.
You can grab a soda from the cooler and eat your lunch...
Or write on the community boards, or take my "Flyin' Hawaiian" cruiser for a spin, or the visitor bike.

Or just relax in the open space :)Now for all of you that have been giving me such a hard time about work/life balance...At least now you know where I spend that work time :)

Cheers!

Jax

National Sales Meeting and 3rd Annual Trip to AZ

Hmmm, Where to even start??? I guess with the fact that the above photo is Kyle's favorite photo to date but he would like it even better if the Starbucks coffee wasn't in my hand! haha

So I fixed it...
But then Crystal Made it PERFECT for the both of us with the Gordon Biersch Brewsky addition. Great preparations on compromise for marriage! haha
Not like it is anything new, but I have been SLAMMED. Way too many hours at work, which I guess in a sense made my ankle issue a blessing because I was forced to just sit there and work.

We had our National Sales meeting last week and preparations were a zoo for it. I also rushed like crazy to get all of the last minute office design pieces complete for our kick off cocktail party at our offices. It was a rush up until hours before when the last strip of wall had new paint on it, yet it all fell into place. We had a great party and somehow my office became a little offshoot hub for the marketing crew and athletes.

So come on in and take a tour of the half you can see :)

New Name signs out front :)

Desk area :)

Taylor and I checking up on the latest issue of DPM from my loft.

My little tree had a bad day and lost all of it's leaves, yet this little shoot came out just in time for the party. There are three more starting to sprout, so hopefully it will come back to it's old self soon with tender love and care.

Jeff Lenosky, our pro bike rider took a stop by his very own image in our office. What a rad shot!

The 2 day meeting was followed by rushing off to the airport to meet up with Mario and Kyle in Phoenix for our annual trip to see Nate, Michelle, Crystal and this year my brother. It also is the weekend of the annual Irongirl 10-miler and photo scavenger hunt. Due to my ankle, I was cheer squad for Crystal as she used this race to train for her big marathon in Jan.

This trip is always a blast. Kyle, Mario and Nate catch up and also play hours of video games and I get to take a bunch of naps, and visit with everyone, and slip in coffee stops with Michelle and Crystal since they DO like Starbucks (phew).

We also had an extra special stop planned this year to visit our family friends Peter and Sharon Gold. They are so dear to us and have been like parents to all of my sisters and my brother. We took this special opportunity to ask Peter to be our officiant at our wedding. We are so honored that he accepted and cant wait to share this journey with him and Sharon through the next months to come.


One night we met with my bro Ryan and went to a delicious restaurant for dinner...



Sunday morning, we were off to the races.

Photo squad was prepped and ready to go...
The boys have a whole slew of categories to shoot to keep them entertained as the race takes place. Not sure why they need that when shouldn't an ALL WOMENS race be entertainment enough?? hmmmm...

Crystal was prepped and ready to go...

After a JAVA stop, I was prepped and ready to go into cheer mode...
Crystal was a rock star out there. Here is a shot Kyle took and you can see me in the background in my cheer spot! This was a nice difference for me and a total swap from Crystal and I last year, which was fun.
Then it was off to The Good Egg where we were delirious, exhausted and starving from our cheering and photography sessions

The judging for the photo contest began and Kyle won for the 2nd year in a row :) Maybe it was his brand new Camera I got him for an early x-mas present that did the trick (that way I can take the credit...haha).

The guys left late Sunday night after their 3RD stop to IN-N-OUT.

Cheers to great friends, great food, great events, and our great health kicks that are beginning today!

With heart,
JAX

Injured athlete thoughts and reflection

So here is what goes through my head daily for the past 8 days...

• Will I ever run again?
• This pain is unbearable and it is NOT going away
• How many more mornings will I wake up and have a total pain cave melt down first thing?
• Will I ever climb again?
• Thank god my wedding is not in two weeks because I would feel slightly out of shape and who wants to feel like that on wedding day!
• Did I mention the pain WONT stop!
• I wonder how many pain pills I will have total by the end of all of this
• Should I buy a new pair of compression socks for each day of the week or run the wash every two days?
• I am proud to be a hobble expert.
• I am dreaming of the day I can walk normal and make it down a set of stairs pain free and NOT be called gimp by my roommates.
• Day 8 is horrible in the pain cave and I was informed that I have a week or two to go.
• How hard is it going to be to get back in shape after AT LEAST 4 weeks off?
• I really miss exercising!
• We all take for granted the ability to walk, run, etc.
  

Was anyone curious if I am having a bad pain tolerance day?

Cheers to a better tomorrow.

Jax

Out of Comission

Yo!

So just like that, I am out of commission and it sucks!!! See pic above for GORY details.

When it comes to injury all of my walls of strength come tumbling down and I am a wuss.

On Monday night (10-26-09) I went to The Spot Bouldering Gym with Abbey and Pete. Now this gym looks mighty sturdy but soon to find out it is a bit injury prone with loose seams in the floor and floating crash pads.The gym is so awesome, that we all just ignore those faults in the floor and we just climb away. On this very evening, I was having the climb of my life. I was hitting problems I couldn't do before and broke through to a new level which was so exciting.

There was a problem on the side of the Boulder that is shown close up in this pic and it was on the right side and one portion ventured over to the narrow section you can see. I grabbed the hold and my body swung around and my foot fell straight on the edge of the crash pad someone had set there for a problem on that side of the Boulder.

I heard a pop and my ankle twisted and I fell over. It was gnarly and excruciating.

So the night came to an end with the best climbing I had ever accomplished and leaving in crutches.

The next day I progressed to ditching the crutches and hobbling and was able to make it to work and dinner that night and then when I got home from dinner the bruises began and it looked awful.

Snow fell like no other so I went super early yesterday and grabbed my work stuff and worked from home. Later I took my sisters advice and went to the doc. He was super concerned so I spent the next 1.5 hours getting x-rays and watching Ellen as I waited for the news.

Result: Fracture free yet up to 4 weeks to recover and bruised fibula and joint bones and a bad sprain.

Just like that, I went from being so excited about my climbing progress and fitness progress to having to wobble around and be hopefull that I can walk in comfort soon.

Thankfully I have buddies that know of acupuncture contacts (never done this before) and friends that are Physical Therapists so we will begin that process this evening.

What a project!

Well as Kynan said, gives me lots of time to plan my wedding!

I miss climbing, my workout classes I began with Jenni and my routine. I am also frustrated that there is 22 inches of snow outside and I CANT put my own boots on or maneuver and am stuck at home for the most part.

Cheers and cross your fingers for a speedy recovery.

Jax

Jenni and Jeff start a combined blog

http://teamkeil.blogspot.com/

Check it out!

So cool!

Jax

Be authentic!

Saw this video during a work meeting this week! Unreal yet so true!

Sisters weekend

This past weekend, my sister and best friend Elexis and I hit the Seattle streets for a whole slew of adventures.

It was the first time that we have gone on a girls trip and we now plan to go on a yearly basis.

Below are the highlights through pics:

We hit the town nice and early and slugged through the rain to the 1st Starbucks store in Pike's Place Market. Since we both worked for Starbucks in our college years it was an extra special experience.

Since this Starbucks only serves coffee we went around the Public Market to find a spot for a sweet breakfast. On the way we saw this amazing bouquet for only 15 dollars.

We found a spot as we splashed across the street in the rain. Lex and I were not too happy about the level of water coming down. We enjoyed a cinnamon bun and chocolate croissant. YUM! It was good fuel for the miles upon miles we would walk that day.

Lex purchased a really neat print from a pastel artist in the market. Hopefully it ships soon :)

We visited the famous spot in the fish market which is especially entertaining. This little guy somehow moves at times and scares the crowds of visitors that walk by.

The gentleman picked up a part of it for Lex to touch and even cut off a bit for her to keep as a souvenir. GROSS!

Famous pig shot

And off to the gum wall. Gross! but it is super cool!

We then visited the waterfront and on the way back went through a lower level of the Public Market. Check out how tall the world's tallest man is next to Lex who is 5'7''

We ran into a super cute candy shop and had to explore. I bought the Wizard of Oz collectors edition and we had tastes of the newest candy in the store which was Peachy Penguins. I took this gummy bear photo below for Jenni :)

Then it was a long walk to Seattle Center where our first stop was the Space Needle. Remarkable experience!

Then to the Experience Music Project and the Science Fiction Museum (that Kyle would have loved)

We even got to make our own record label. Fun!

My little yoda is on display in the SFM

Cool shot of the Space Needle

This sculpture is really neat and also made the 2010 Native catalog

I tried to measure up to Jason Kehl's skills but I should leave it to the pro!

The Pro!

Shout out to Mr. Jeff Lenosky. This guy was attempting to pull of your moves on a road bike. Needless to say, he was not a smashing hit like you!

Off to the Event with Elexis where Linhart PR and Crocs Inc. won a Clarion Award! I am one proud sister.

Guest speaker was Ann Curry. We had an amazing moment with her.

Out on the town. First stop was The Central bar where we heard this solo rocker rock out to the SAME song 3 TIMES!! Needless to say, our 1 beer was not enough to fool us so we bolted to another bar.

This bar gave us these fancy stamps, which we immediately tried to plot on facebook that we got wild and got tattoes but nobody was shocked! We had a couple beers and danced and walked all the way home. It was super fun.

Sunday first stop after sleeping in and yummy coffee was the Seattle Art Museam. Hammer man is out front. You can get an idea of how big he is by how tiny lex is compared.

This was my favorite piece. This whole piece is made of dog tags.

We ventured on to walk a mile to a restaurant called Salumi only to find it closed on the weekends. We settled for Java Planet diner and enjoying a whole slew of football fans rushing to the game. After we thought of just buying tickets and going but after seeing only single tickets in the dog pile left for 80 dollars and witnessing a fist fight of two folks trying to buy tickets from a scalper we decided against it. We chose to walk along the river back to the hotel and that lead to a stop at the aquarium. We even got to touch a star fish.

And fun photo opportunities :)

All in all our trip was amazing! We had a really fun time and plan to have an annual adventure moving forward.

I love my sis so much and it is so fun to have these great experiences together!

Cheers!

Jax

Save the date photos :) Are you sick of this topic yet? Haha

Just got word that the save the dates hit New Jersey so why not share the deets...

Here is the journey of the save the date creation...

I guess I may have double the passion for this project in a wedding since I took it on myself :) This post is probably pretty boring to most but hey at least it shows how excited I am to get these off in the mail and that we are getting married :)

First there was this vision...
Since the engagement photos were in a field of dandelions I thought it would be a nice touch. Yet through looking at stock photos and graphics, I realized it was time to transfer over to the main and only flower that will be at the wedding which is Gerber Daisey's in many colors. So the stamp on the envelope became the flower that took it's place.
Next was the actual layout in an art program and then sending it off to Chris at Rage Unlimited to create them. Thank you Chris for the gift and for the help!! You are such a special friend to us and it was so fun to share this part with you.

Next I tried to expand my artistic skills to create the card that they will go on and that is when I realized I needed to call on my great friend Julie for the professional touch since they looked AWFUL and I was picking kindergarten fonts. Julie was so sweet by saying "Friends don't let friends pick bad fonts." Haha. She of course made a card that was a home run! We also implemented the wedding colors by finding a super cute envelope online. Chris and I had a very hilarious experience at Michael's picking out white pens and stamps and ink and then we were all set to go...(note to self: don't go to Michael's after two beers...you want to buy every marker and everything makes you laugh)

After a days worth of writing addresses on envelopes Elexis, Jenni, Wendy, Taylor and I began the stamping journey on Sunday and in record time they were out the door...

This was the final look we were going for :)

Below is the creation station

And of course as I made a couple on my own for our multiple magnet folks...Snootch wanted to get in on the action...

She takes a glance back to see if Kyle is paying attention...

He isn't so she has a little fun and takes a run across :) Such a cutie and so typical for her.

The ink on the back took forever to dry so this is a mini example of a drying area

Here we are watching Father of the Bride and stamping away. Jenni's athletic skills crossed quickly over into stamping skills and she was a motor.

Here is a major drying area :)

Kyle even stepped into the girly activity for a photo opp!

And as you know from below they are off and running through the county and over the border into Canada to their destinations. It is so fun to hear when individuals get them. Especially because like any bride, you have that mini panic attack that since there are magnets that they are going to stick to the post office box and just live there instead of on that persons fridge :) Thoughts are your future so I quickly got over that thought.

It has been really fun to get deeply involved in the creative process and have fun with it all. Invitations are next which will be a big project. Thankfully Julie is already busy coming up with options and designs.

I feel honored and lucky and thankful to all of those that helped to make this card possible. It was a really fun experience. Sort of makes me see into my crafty side and want to do more. Maybe it will be a new hobby.

Cheers!

Save the Date :)

Mega thanks to Elexis, Jenni, Wendy and Taylor (fellow bridesmaids and wedding planner), the save the date cards are all set to mail on Tuesday. I will show photos of the whole stamping escapade in a couple weeks so that they are a surprise for guests. 7-17-2010 here we come!!

And they are off!!

Sped right through fall to winter!

In honor of our first snowfall :) something to make us all laugh as we are scraping our cars two days in a row already! Enjoy!

Fun filled week with 1st's, great friends and big decisions

This past week was a fun one.

With our wedding a little over 9 months out we are quickly scurrying around trying to brew up our save the date cards. Summer weddings and out of town guests leads to these little cards being sent out a little further in advance. I am proud to say that my little bit of graphic skills got me through designing the magnet, but beyond that Julie (my good friend and stellar graphic designer) has taken over! The stamping party to put them all together is next weekend. I mean what could be more fun... Chick flicks + stamping numerous cards for a Monday delivery date = a super fun time! All the boys in the house will be SO jealous of us girls! To get a sneak peak of our magnet visit our website and search away to find the photo :)

Kyle and I also had a very special dinner with Wendy on Thursday night that we will never forget :)
That was followed by my "mental health day a.k.a. show day a.k.a. I have to take a day off bc I have worked too many weekends in row day." So how did I spend it??? climbing outside for the first time with Jason and Abbey. It was so fun! A bit scary but super fun! The below pic was at Gill rock in Eldorado springs. We did a few routes on this rock plus a few on another spot down the canyon a ways. Thanks to Andrew at The Spot for my new pair of Bouldering Kicks! They rock!! Jason and Abbey now have the coolest house right outside of this canyon. Talk about a climbers dream home!
I also checked out an "Ultimate Conditioning class on Friday which was basically a STEP class." I thought it would be a bit different! It was full of all women (avg age 40's and up) and 1 guy and me. I was laughing half the class because of what we were doing but I figured I was getting a good workout because I was sweating so who really cares :) My girlfriend told me after that I should start a blog and try every class on the gym schedule and give my 2 cents on it so people have a "real" description of what they are getting themselves into. Today I went to a spin class for the 2nd time in a year which was super fun as well. This obviously leads to my big announcement...since those of you on facebook probably wonder what the "huge decision was" that I needed to make...

It is time to put this...
and this...
and this...

aside. And trade it in for the leisurely version below :)
This is the first October that I can remember that I am NOT filling out a bunch of sponsorship requests and planning a 2010 race schedule etc etc. I have been "competitive" since I was a little wee girl and it is time to swap "competitive" for "what can I do today to make me feel good" and take a load off for a while. Work is super intense right now, not to mention adding on planning a wedding, spending time with Kyle, friends, family, traveling a bunch, and on and on and on. For example, this work week will probably start @ 5 or 6am each day to accomplish a whole slew of stuff like catalog, consumer brochure, fixture program, National Sales meeting, 2010 budget, 2010 strategic planning and on and on and they are all on super strict deadlines. Sometimes I sit back and wonder how is 1 person really supposed to do all of this? But it always gets done thankfully. Thanks Starbucks!!! haha

I won't bore you with all of the details behind this decision above, Yet here goes a goal of "exercising" and just feeling good and taking the sport pressure off for a while.

With heart!

Jax

Rocky Mountain National Park Trip 2009

Hey there

So as I have stated in previous years, each year on the 3rd week in September, Kyle and I venture up to Rocky Mountain National Park to accomplish two goals. 1. Take photos of the elk and 2. to take our annual photo. This tradition started in 2007 so this was our 3rd time going up. This trip is also very meaningful to me because at this very moment below I told Wendy that Kyle was "the one" and that I hoped that we would get married someday. And here we are 9.5 months out from that very day. This photo has become my annual x-mas present to the parents as well :)

This was us in 2007 prepping for our photo. We always take it at the same area of the park.

This was us prepping for our photo in 2008.

And on to 2009...

We went solo this year so Kyle took advantage of his new tri-pod that he got a couple months ago for our photos and many more. He also got some amazing photos of the elk out there...Check out his blog to see his favorites. This one below was a sweet shot!

Here is Kyle doin' his thing...
We are definitely not the ONLY ones with this grand idea :)

Here are the "unprofessional" ones that I took with my simple point and shoot camera :)

The leaves were georgous!

Elk callin' for his ladies!

This one looked neat with the colors behind :)

And of course, the annual photo stop:



If you live in Colorado, there is probably a good 1 or 2 weeks left of the leaves at their best. Go on up and get outdoors!

Cheers!

Jax

How could I forget...

How could I forget my Favorite Books:

Curious George

Goodnight Moon

Where's Waldo

Dr. Suess

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Little Miss Sunshine

Get to know me post :)

YO!

Not much to write about. I am sure you all don't want to read a post about how I am working a TON, climbing 3-4 times a week, Running a bunch, traveling a lot for this and that and that about sums it up. I did design my save the date magnets the other day which was fun :) I can't wait to see the vision come to life. And Kyle and I had the honor of attending Kyle's grandmothers 90th Birthday which was really special.

So since there is not much to post on, here is a get to know me post...about my childhood favorites in various ways...

FAVORITE TOYS...

cabbage patch dolls
G.I. JOE
LEGO'S

FAVORITE SHOWS:

Care Bears
Smurfs
punky brewster
Rainbow Brite

FAVORITE GAME:

Kick the Can

WHAT I WANTED TO BE WHEN I GREW UP:

OLYMPIAN
DOCTOR

FAVORITE THING TO DO:

RUN....OF COURSE!

And the last one has carried through my 29 years of life and has been a great outlet and experience for me in many ways.

Cheers!

Jax

Lots to update on...

So I have been a bit mute lately....sorry!

I have been beyond busy and am not quite sure how I have pulled off the last 2.5 weeks.

Here is a run down of all of the action.

It all started with our vacation to NYC and the Hampton's. We stopped in the city first to participate in the Native sponsored Great Urban Race. I wanted to see the race from a participants point of view so Kyle took the haul with me around the city for 4.5 hours as we navigated our way through the scavenger hunt. As we are not from NYC it was a bit of a handicap for us but we still had fun. I believe we were 275th out of 321 teams!! Here are some photos of the day as well as a look at the clue sheets....

clue sheet front side

clue sheet back side

kyle prepped to go

bronze statues (had to be bare foot for photo)

proposal @ Tiffany & Co

had to jump in this photo in front of the sculpture

slide together

eat a whole can of bubble tape between us both and blow a bubble with it all

Next we were off to a well deserved meal at Houston's restaurant and then off to the Broadway musical Chicago.

I woke up the next day for my 8 mile run that went by super fast as it was the same day as the New York Half Marathon so I ran the opposite direction around central park and saw the lead men and women twice which was amazing! Paula Radcliffe is one of my all time favorites and she slaughtered the womens field.

We rushed like crazy then to pack for our trip to the Hampton's. A few hours later we were on the Jitney with 3 bikes headed to relax at the beach house. We had a great time with my family and visiting with my nephew cooper.

we rode to Main street often for breakfast and to walk aroundThis store was so cool! Check out the huge PEZ!

This was me fulfilling a huge craving for orange juice after a hard track workout.

The house from the back deck

The house from the front.

We also took advantage of this time to take some family photos. Here are a couple of my favorites...












At the tail end of the trip we took time out to fulfill Gene's wishes. His wish was that we would all come to the Hampton's with my mom and drive to Montauk and take a boat ride out to butterfish hole and spread his ashes in the sea. This was a true honor and wonderful time for us to remember Gene and have a ceremony for him with us all there. We will treasure this memory for our whole lives and we now know that Gene is safe at sea where he used to love fishing for tuna many years ago. Here are a few photos of our time at sea.







The last night of our trip we cooked up a storm and finished off the night with smores. YUM!

hhh
From the Hampton's, I left the next morning to head out to Seattle for our Native photo shoot for the 2010 catalog. Long and short of it...we had amazing talent, an amazing photo and video team and it was extremely successful. We have over 800 gig's of video and 100 gig's of photos to now pull from for many different pieces this next year. We couldn't be happier! You can take a lot bigger sneak peak of the shoot from our facebook fan page here: http://facebook.com/NativeEyewear





Straight from there, I snuck in some work with the product development team for our new 2010 products and then rushed off to Michelle's wedding events. The rehearsal, rehearsal dinner were beautiful and It was a truly amazing and beautiful wedding. I am so excited for Michelle and Don! They are a perfect fit!
After the brunch on Saturday, I rushed off to Cherry Creek North for the Skirt Chaser 5k. Native is a national sponsor so we have a booth at the event and we usually try to participate as well.
We had a great athlete turn out and even sold a bunch of glasses. Eric and Andie even won the Native Eyewear couples challenge and both won a free pair and Uli got 4th overall in an extremely competitive group!!

So today becomes the day to unravel from all of the above and gather my life back together. I have been going non stop for days and feel like I am about to fall over! Those of my friends that are reading this from facebook now know why about 5 status updates have been stating that I am exhausted!! Check out my facebook page to see all photos :)

Time to sleep and end my longest post EVER!

Jax

Rings...

My rings are complete :) Well, the designing and production piece. We decided to have the bands designed by the gentleman we bought our diamond from so that we could make them more unique than the bands the Ritani set usually comes with. This way they are identical to the band on the engagement ring. The process took about 3 months but was well worth it. One set back... My fingers are getting bigger from climbing 3x a week so we are bringing all 3 back in to re-size them. Good thing we have 11 months :) haha. Funny that a couple months ago we had the engagement ring resized down and now it is going back up. Calluses and stronger fingers are worth it when climbing is the reason why :)

BTW...Kyle has gone 4 times now and I feel like he is better than I was after 2 months. He will be passing by me in no time. It is really fun to be able to share that together.

Cheers!

Jax

p.s. we have also added a few more photos to our site under the 2009 journey album

The Date moves forward

So just like that we are actually under a year before getting married. We found the perfect reception site and turns out they were booked already on our original date and a couple weeks before as well so the new and locked in date is 7/17/2010 :) 344 days to go (note: I did not count this, our website keeps track).

What is up!?!?!

This my friends is how I feel right now...I have been working a ton, climbing a ton, running a ton and by gosh, my body caught up with me. Ever since we got back from our little race in Colorado Springs I have been achy. I feel like I aged 20 years in 1 day. I have gone to sleep with migraines and woken up with achs and pains that are so unbearable that I am struggling to get out of bed.

Sometimes, I go and go and go and have no idea how much I am doing and then it catches up with me. I, of course, still want to pretend that I am not human and get pretty hard on myself as to why I can't beat the aches and pains. I have booked a physical and a massage for next Wednesday to see if that helps and Kyle and I are counting down the days until we hit NYC and the Hamptons for a 10 day vacation which I believe we both desperately need.

We need time to relax, de-stress and just worry about what time to go to the beach :) We need to clear our minds and collect our thoughts and have free time.

I think sometimes you don't realize how stuff can add up in the stress department. For one, planning a venue to have a wedding reception for 120 people leads to pricing negotiations, changing our wedding date etc etc can be a slew of stress in it's own little bucket.

Whew...let's hope that this weekend we can get a slight recharge to make it through 5 more business days...

Here are a couple more funnies that explain how we both feel right now...

Sisterhood

Sisterhood is truly a gift. I have been lucky to have a younger sister that has been my right hand and best friend ever since she was born. We have been through it all together and have fought through this and that side by side. I am also truly honored to have her as my maid of honor in my wedding :)

Today I got up super early to get my pre race run out of the way and watch the sunrise which is my favorite thing to do on a run. I like to do my pre race runs as early as possible the day before so that I get the most amount of time possible to rest my legs and relax. Enough about that though...I had a 2.5 hour nap after and Lex picked me up at nine and we went straight to Lucille's to enjoy coffee, biscuits and bignets. Whooops carbo load! The cafe au lait is so dreamy and delish.
We were driving to run errands and the car suddenly stopped by Tea and Cakes. Hmmm...somehow next thing we knew we were in line purchasing cupcakes. Here is my 10am indulge...
Running errands and having snacks was way too fun and I can't wait to go again! I am lucky to have such a wonderful sis!

Cant wait until next time.

A fun filled weekend :)

Hey there folks,

Been a bit out of touch lately with work ramping up and up.

So here is the round up...

I was in Salt Lake City all week with work at Summer OR where we had a booth at the show, and also were involved in 4 other events which were all a great success. When the long nights were upon me, I knew that I had a fun weekend to look forward to.

I came home and scooted straight over to the movement climbing gym which just opened up in Boulder. The gym is rad. Kynan was there to help me break in the walls which was a really neat experience.

Right after, Kyle and I hopped into his truck and headed off to Salida for some time with his folks. We had a huge day planned the next day.

Woke up super early and ran a morning run which was awesome. Next up was rushing to pack the trucks and 4 wheelers. We drove up to a dirt road and hopped on the 4 wheelers to Boss Lake. It was my first time driving them and some parts were spooky. To not look like a total wuss, I hung in the back and took my sweet time. By the end of the day on the way home I was very comfortable and now I want my very own :)

Once we got to the Lake, Kyle and Tim had a fish off. We knew that Kyle would ONLY fish if there were fish to catch. Luckily he caught this super wimpy fish in his first cast and the fish off began for a free car wash. Here are some photos of the tournament that Tim obviously won. The excuses were hilarious along the way from each party as the score swapped back and forth. And of course it ended with Kyle saying that Tim gave Kyle the Bad Rod which came with the argument of Tim gave Kyle the better fly. You get the idea!

Kyle's first cast...

Me relaxing and keeping score :) I WONT be reminding Tim about this car wash since it isn't in Kyle's favor this time :)

All summer Kyle has wanted to have a cookout in the woods, We lugged up hot dogs, marshmallows, and other snacks so we could have a fire pit and a classic outdoors meal.




Next on the agenda was time for Kyle to take photos. Since his fishing experience was in his favor he didn't cop out and take photos so we had to make time for that. We drove up to a trail head and took some of a waterfall. Tim and I quickly came up with excuses to go home as Marla was at home and I was getting eaten alive by Mosquitoes. Here is the one photo I took that was neat.

We had a great dinner at home with the Salmon Tim caught in Alaska.

Next day, Kynan was super awesome and taught Kyle how to climb. Guess what !!! He likes it! We both now are members of movement and have another thing to share together.


And of course, I snuck 2 more runs in there in the POURING rain. I always have to do my traditional Salida "S Mountain run", no matter what the conditions are.

That's a wrap on my day by day. Before you know it, the summer is over, so GET OUTDOORS!

Jax

Track meet #3 - Not what I wished for but makes me stronger!

A few posts back I wrote about my running. Good or bad we should share right? If you haven't experienced a bad race, how do you know what a good race is?

Here is verbatum my race report to Coach GP.

88 deg, humidity, 27%, 8mph wind

Felt smoggy out

Warm up was ok but felt hot and uncomfortable and super nervous.

Lap 1: 1:20, spent half the lap trying to start my watch and got frustrated and gave up. Depended too much on 200 splits.
Lap 2: 1:30 (2:50). Mouth was complete cotton mouth and hard to breath. Forgot breath strip as well so this was a disadvantage as well. Was frustrated not knowing my time.
Lap 3: 1:39 (4:29). Everything above just got worse. I felt like I had NO energy and could barely keep my legs moving. My body felt weird and I felt like I couldn't breath and got frustrated and stressed when I was getting passed left and right and couldn't do anything about it.
Lap 4: 1:49 (6:18). Everything above but even worse. I was almost tearing up the last 200 and wanted to just quit. Sorry GP! Good thing is I didn't :)

At the end I just wanted to quit running and felt like I suck. Sorry but I want to be honest. I ran a 5:08 my senior year in high school and now I feel slow, and like I cant get anywhere close. I know i have to be patient and it may take a year or so to adapt but it is just frustrating and I just had one of those days. I am doing better now :)

So my point with this post is we all have bad days. We all have moments where want to just give up. Getting fast doesn't happen fast enough and falling apart in a 4 lap race is humiliating to say the least.

Those that haven't had a single bad day are few and I envy you.

Be strong, be dedicated and when you have a good day, it will be that much sweeter. Also, it is ALL about attitude out there. If you don't have the right mindset, you are out before you even here the gun go off.

Most important, Love what you do and that should be joy enough.

On a happy note...Kyle tied for 1st place with a 10.88. That is soooo fast!

Thanks to Uli and Brandon for cheering us on!

Jax :)

Our Journey

As some of you know, Kyle has been working at Flatiron Athletic Club 1 night a week for years and years. It is a fun time for him to be with his close friends and have fun at the front desk of the club. And...it allows him to get a membership for free so what could be better. Last night I took the time to rest my sore arms after climbing by looking at photos of our journey together over the past years. That lead to me waiting up for him to get home at 11:30pm and creating 3 albums on our wedding website of 2007 to today of us and all of the fun things we have done. Enjoy :)

Jax

Odds and Ends...

To keep our wedding site ongoing...we added an Odds and Ends photo album. This is a fun photo album that you can enjoy along the way that contains little snippets (and fun facts) that we are collecting or sharing over the next year for our big day. Although this cake topper may or may not even end up on a cake, we couldn't resist because if you know us this topper is perfect :) Feel free (well PLEASE) take our cake poll too that is located on our website :) We need advice!!

Enjoy...

Hiking at Lost Lake

On Sunday, we took a hike with Elexis up to Lost Lake. It was our first hike of the season and we hope to have many more. Event though the hike is 3 hours there are a lot of long breaks for our camera man. Those that have hiked with us know what I am talking about! Here are some photos below...

I somehow had to carry the monopod that is in my left hand as a walking stick. Camera mans assistant :)
Lex and I during our first long wait while Kyle captured photos of the waterfalls below.
The camera man (aka fiance)
Cool tree with pine cones :)
Our Colorado Columbine! Did you know that you could get arrested for picking one of these? So they say!!!
Our snack at the destination (Lost Lake) was indeed the last three party favor bags of personalized m&m's from our engagement party. Perfect hiking food!



And of course amazing waterfalls! I took these ones :)

Cheers to a long summer full of many more hikes with friends and my favorite camera man! There will be a few more once the camera man loads his photos up :) Until now it is only the work of the assistant :)

Jax

Superior Downhill Mile

Hey there

Saturday marked the day that Chris and I would have a big showdown with each other. In all good fun of course! In 2006 I ran the Superior downhill mile in 5:35. In 2007 Chris decided to run the event so I gave him a few tips and he was off and running and he ran a 5:29 (must have been some tailwind!!!!).

So for the next two years Chris has rubbed and rubbed into my little ego how he slaughtered me in the race and how much faster he is than me.

This year we decided to have a showdown side by side and see what happens to end it once and for all (well so I thought until the excuses rolled in the rest of the day!!). As the weeks progressed the talk became more and more and it was hilarious! Chris is like a big brother to me, and our roommate and one of our groomsmen so it was fun to laugh away about the whole thing.

Low and behold the 4th of July came. I woke up early and ran out of the house to mentally prepare ON MY OWN for the BIG race! We both met at the start and gave each other a friendly hug and took our places.

All of the sudden the gun sounds and we are off. The first quarter is seriously steep and you have to hold back because the 2nd quarter levels off and will really hit you. I kept my eye on a girl right ahead of me and then all the sudden to the left I see Chris FLY by! I thought to myself "oh my gosh can Chris really go to the pain cave for 5 1/2 minutes and pull this off?" Then I saw everyone hit the fan and slow down and I changed my thought to "Chris is going to burn out, he's going to burn out, please burn out!!!" ...


...All of the sudden I gained speed on him and went by.

Next was a young girl that I met at the starting line. For the next .5 miles we ran side by side and looks like stride for stride. There are about 7 more photos but I think you get the point in the 3 below...




The finish was in sight and I could hear the girl on my right breathing super hard and it was a matter of who could go further in the pain cave. She ended up having the upper hand, yet at that point my entire body was on fire and tingling and Chris was nowhere in sight and the clock was still around 5min so I was thrilled.

In the end my watch clicked in at 5:05.87, the race clock said 5:09 and the results say 5:11. So I guess I will average them?? How is the time that off?? Anyway all of the above times are A LOT different than 5:35 so I am thrilled.

Another good step of improvement and this photo below sums up all of my glory :) Maybe next time you should wear Native sunglasses and a running outfit!!! :)

Love ya Chris!!

Training Update :)

Hey there,

It is about time for a training update with the scoop on the past and present of my athletic training. So here you go...First off to a little celebration of the past. Two little gifts came in the mail yesterday. They were big white envelopes from USAT. I thought to myself that it didn't make sense because I did not renew my triathlon/duathlon membership this year. I almost threw them away but then decided to open them. And low and behold, out came these certificates...It truly was an honor and exciting to look back on a year that was truly a great experience that I will remember forever. If it wasn't for the many sponsors and support from family and freinds that helped me to make this happen I would never have gotten those so thank you again!

I don't want to sound like a broken record from my last athletic post, yet I will say again that the beginning of this year brought forth many obstacles and through it all it lead to me making a huge change in my direction with my athletics. With working so much more as well as life bringing forth exciting things as well as a few challenges earlier in the year it was easier to focus on one sport.

I missed the track a lot and I missed the shorter distances so I tucked away and began a journey with Coach GP to run the 800 and 1500.

I have jumped into 5k's and 10k's to build strength yet my focus is on the track. This in itself is hard because I am not training for these distances so the results are a little hard to swallow.

It is REALLY hard to start at square one again. I am running events I ran in high school yet a lot slower until my body adapts. It is hard to run and not be right in the top 5 or win and be farther back but the body needs time and it never happens as fast as you want it to. This is very hard for me.

I am used to just jumping out and being successful and now there is a lot of growing to do. I believe it makes my posts a bit more scarce about athletics because who wants to write about how they were 9th in a 5k or 14th in their age at the Bolder Boulder instead of winning a triathlon. The bar has to come down again so I can raise it up and in 2nd thought this is an ever better time to write to share the journey and allow others to see that you can navigate to something new and work to a new goal and succeed.

It will probably take a year to get to where I know what my true potential is and my body has the accurate amount of time to adapt. This seems so long yet time really does fly when you look back.

The good thing is that I am enjoying it and that each race improvements are definitely taking place which is exciting! It is a true game of patience.

I have also picked up on my climbing and kynan and I are picking up the number of days to 2 now and I am pushing the limit each time to keep raising the bar which has been amazing. Kynan is a coach you dream of having so I feel very honored to have his help. I absolutely love climbing and have enjoyed every minute of pushing myself to improve.

Kyle and I are racing in the State Games of America track meet in August. We have been preparing by going to the Potts drop in Track Meets. I am happy to say that I dropped 4 seconds in the race last night compared to two weeks ago. I have a long way to go but steady improvements are what we are looking for so I am excited what will come in one month. I think it is good to have new challenges and climbing and running track are definitely bringing that forth. Tomorrow will be my first 1 mile distance race so wish me luck. I hope I can become very good at both climbing and running, it will just take time.

Here are some photos that Kevin Davis graciously took for me at the meet...


This last photo is one I took of a child doing the 200m run. I love this photo for two reasons. 1) It reminds me of when I was a wee one and was just beginning my passion for running which is a neat experience and 2) It shows the true joy he is having which is the most important part of all. If you are not enjoying what you are doing, why even do it? This is how I feel about my own changes :)

Live life to it's fullest and love everything that you put your energy in to.

Cheers!

Jax

Engagement Party!

Seems like lately my posts have been focused on our wedding so why not let it continue…

On Sunday night, Kyle and I had the opportunity to celebrate our engagement with our close friends and family. My parents hosted a party at their home where we will be getting married next August. It was a real treat and we are so glad that we had this opportunity with so many people that are so close to us. Here are a few photos of the celebration...

Of course you can find the entire album at our website: http://www.jaxandkyle.com

Thanks to Kevin Davis (one of our groomsmen) for taking such amazing photos...

The crafty sash that I made. This wedding stuff is making me really crafty which is super fun because I love crafts and brings me back to my childhood when my sister and I made jewelry etc.

Up first is setup. Our amazing roommates and family helped us before hand to set up the snacks and decorations.

Here I am joking about Bridezillas and attempting to tell my mom how to do the ribbons around the napkins in a bridezilla manner which lead to a bunch of laughing. My best friend Crystal came from out of town to help with the festivities.

Note that Chris is resting as he prepares to grill a bunch of burgers. Not that he even knew that duty was his yet but I will give him credit :)

Kyle and I pre-party! We should have been eating right now since we were so busy entertaining and seeing all of our friends and family that we forgot to take much time.

The view of some of the tables pre-event.
Elexis and I pre-party.

Of course, Gordon Biersch was involved in our engagement party. We have had so many memories together there as well as celebrations so it seemed only right to purchase a keg full of our favorite beer for our party. They even gave it to us at half off since we are regulars :) Not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing? I say good!

One of Chi and I's favorite things to do at home in AZ was run around the swimming pool and play catch. Here we are playing at home with the view of where we are saying our vows next year in the background.

Looks like Kyle is letting Chris know how the burgers should be done!

And then leaving Chi to supervise! Or possibly Chi is just hoping a patty is going to accidentally fall to the ground...

Here is the view from the grill...

Chi relaxing and posing with his Bridal party badge on :)

And the speeches begin with Elexis who is one of my Maids of Honor.

And on to Mario who gave a very amazing toast!

And then there was me trying to get out one sentence and I got choked up...

...so my teammate and future husband took over :) What a great guy!

Thank you mom and Dad for hosting an amazing event that we will remember forever!!

Thanks as well to our roomates, friends and family that came early and hung out late to help with set up.

Thanks as well to Tim and Marla (Kyle's folks) who not only drove 3 hours to come to our party but also Marla made her famous cream cheese brownies. They are sooooo good. She also gave us the recipe a while back with some others so we can attempt to make them :)

Cheers!

Jax

Engagement Photos online

All are up on our website http://www.jaxandkyle.com in one of the color treatments. Thanks again to Tim Defrisco!! Let us know your favorite in our guest book :)

Jax Running 800m

We were really excited to have Kyle's Mom and Dad show up for the runs. These are good workout runs for us to get our wheels in motion and prepare for our race on August 2nd.

Jax

Kyle Killin the 100m dash

Nice work Kyle! 10.92

Little Teaser for our blog readers

This past weekend (my first weekend home in weeks). Kyle and I had the honor of spending time with Tim DeFrisco and his wife. We caught a small snippet of time in between storms to capture some amazing engagement photos. Here is a sneak peek at just a few of them. Tim is a remarkable photographer and this is an extremely special experience to share with him as we both are very passionate about photography ourselves. We will upload all of our favorites to our website when we are ready.




This last photo below is what I would do as a little girl. Make a wish and blow on the dandelion and hope that it comes true. Ever so often it was to find my prince. And now here I am with my prince sharing that special moment...

Be well :) Jax

Track Meet #1 for Kyle and I

Hey there folks,

Fun little Tid bit...I found out a few weeks ago that I am an All American for Triathlon and #1 and All American for Duathlon for my division. Now I can say that it was a great ride yet the journey continues in a different direction...

Tonight marks the night that I will participate in my first track meet in 11 years!! Pretty wild!! This will be the first race for my new spikes above :)

I have been putting a huge focus on my running (short distance) lately. This front end of the year presented many obstacles as you all know and a lot of hard work at Native and through it all Track and Field is where my time has been able to be spent. It is a round circle loop from where I was as a kiddo. I have been running since I was 5. My mom, Uncle, and a man named Jim Frost would train and run all of the city races together and as a team collect a lot of hardware which was so fun. In high school I was the MVP for the track team. I used to run the 400, 800, mile and finish up with the 4x400 which was my favorite event of them all. Entering college, I was burnt out and decided to check out Triathlon.

Coach GP has been working with me since Feb 9th on taking my endurance legs and turning them back into speedy legs. I took 3 months off completely this winter from exercise and it made it a true challenge to come back but it was much needed rest and worth it. I began with 2-3 mile runs 4 times a week that were at the 10 min mile range. I also used swimming as a good source of base training and cardio. It was rough, and frustrating, beginning from scratch but looking back now we have already come very far. My weeks now consist of plyometrics, weights, climbing, easy run days and then very specific quality work on the track and up hills and the times are dropping each week.

I did a time trial on Monday to see where I was at and had a minor case of the stomach flu while doing it and it went pretty well. I feel it will take a good year to gain my true speed and Track fitness back and to transform my body into a different kind of an athlete again but as GP says again and again, Patience is key. You can apply that across the board to so many things in life and is a great lesson to learn. It seems each time you think it is right it doesn't happen yet when it is truly right it all makes sense when you look back.

Here is the info for tonight. Kyle and I are using these races to prepare for our big race on August 2nd. We are hoping a special visitor comes to the track tonight so we will keep our fingers crossed...click below for race info...

Track meet information here!

With heart,
Jax

Hardest 10k of my life!!!

As I am doing my updates for my coach right now, I took these screen shots of my run on Sunday. It was something to be proud of for sure! Glad I got some hardware :)

So cool!

As I am doing my updates for my coach right now, I took this screen shot of my run on Sunday. It was something to be proud of forsure!

So cool!