What a Great Day Looks Like

Last week, while feeling particularly gross during a certain time of the month, I broke out my clean eating book.  If you don't know who Tosca Reno is, I highly suggest you check out this book on Amazon:

The truth is, I know without a shadow of a doubt that when I eat clean, I feel amazing!  What gets in my way sometimes is my own laziness.  To be successful, you really do have to be on top of planning and prepping, and honestly?  Sometimes I just feel like being lazy.  This past weekend, however, I decided to plan out a clean eating week for Monday-Friday.  I will give myself some wiggle room on the weekends, but there is no reason why I can't eat clean while at home.  I work from home, so I rarely go out for lunch or breakfast, so that part is easy.  My husband will eat pretty much whatever is in front of him, so that's not a problem either.  

Here's a look at what today looked like:

Breakfast
7 AM
Biggest Loser Oatmeal Protein Pancakes (2)
No sugar applesauce, 1/2 C.
Brummel and Brown Yogurt Butter (1 tbsp)
Coffee with Skim Milk
3 slices turkey bacon
*Note: I put a smear of the butter on each pancake and then I dip it in the applesauce, then eat what's left of the applesauce with a spoon the normal way.

Snack
10 AM
Fuji apple
Smuckers natural chunky peanut butter (2 tbsp)
Water

 Lunch
1 PM
Tuna avocado salad on whole wheat wrap, with spinach and tomato
Tangerine
Water
Note:  Just mash up an avocado and then mix in a can of tuna.  Season to taste.  I just used ground black pepper and a small squeeze of wasabi sauce.  I think I might skip the wasabi sauce and add just a pinch of salt tomorrow.

Snack
3:30 PM
Chocolate brownie Quest bar
Coffee with skim milk

Dinner
8 PM
Stir fry:
Sesame oil
Trader Joe's Seafood Blend (shrimp, scallops, calamari)
Broccoli slaw (just the veggies, no other ingredients)
Mushrooms
Onion
Brown basmati rice

Snack
10 PM
Plain Greek yogurt
Raw organic honey (1 tbsp)
Nature's Path organic ancient grains granola with almonds (1/4 C)

This is more food than I EVER eat when I'm not eating clean, and the calorie count is not bad at all.  This ended up being 1845 calories according to My Fitness Pal.  My goal is 1400 per day with more whenever I exercise.

Speaking of exercise- I had an incredible day at the gym today.  I'm having to take some PTO before the end of the year, so I've been leaving every day at 3.  It's awesome.  I spend a little time straightening the house and then I do whatever I want until my husband gets home.  I knew I was going to go to kickboxing at 6:30 tonight, but I figured I'd go get in some extra weights and whatever else I could squeeze in before the class.  I ended up with 30 minutes of weights, 15 minutes of the elliptical on level 15 to really burn out my legs, an hour kickboxing class, and then met up with my husband on the treadmills and did a 15 minute interval session of 1 minute run/1 minute walk. Talk about tired legs!  Now realistically, I can't spend 2+ hours in the gym every single day, but it was nice to choose this today over sitting at home on the couch for three hours being unproductive.

I hope I can keep up the good work with the clean eating this week to break me out of my upswing in pounds that happened around my birthday weekend, which was almost a month ago, so I have to get a move on.  I was down a smidge this past Saturday, but I had my period, and I still need about 4.8 pounds to get back to where I was, and then obviously I'd really like to keep moving down.  I start Galloway training for the half marathon in a few short weeks.  If I could lose 5-10 pounds before then, it would really help.  The lighter I am when I run, the less it hurts, obviously!

Why Birthday Month Sucks

I love October, I really do.  The skies are bright blue, the weather is mild, and that month contains a lot of important dates.  My birthday, my husband's birthday, and our wedding anniversary, all within six days of each other.  Whew!  And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you gain five pounds in two weeks.  Crap.

It all started out well enough.  I was exercising, I was eating well, although not really doing my best a tracking, I was just kind of enjoying the ride.  My birthday arrived and I was really great during the day because I had requested Cheesecake Factory for dinner.  We had company coming in that night as a surprise for my husband's birthday, so I knew the huge menu would please everyone.  Plus, who am I kidding?  I wanted cheesecake for my birthday.  I splurged on dinner, having the Bang-Bang Chicken and Shrimp, but I chose brown rice.  I chose the Skinny Mojito, but I had two.  I chose pumpkin cheesecake instead of snickers or s'mores, like my husband and his friend did. See, I tried!  Ugh....

It all just kind of spiraled out of control after that night.  There was spinach dip.  There was cheese.  There was loads more alcohol than I normally drink.  There was a brewery tour with bar food, paired with bowling alley food.  There was hangover food consumed the next day.  And more bar food during football game watching. Then Italian splurge for our anniversary, paired with LOADS upon loads of Halloween candy.  To the point of feeling sick. I do not like waking up and feeling disgusted with myself for days on end.  I have never craved vegetables more in my life.

So am I shocked that the scale was up a whopping FIVE pounds today?  No.  Not at all.  Am I pissed?  Sure, but I can't take it back.  All I can do is make a plan of action.  Triathlon season is over, so I don't have those built-in workouts to rely upon anymore.  I had to develop a plan to conquer the damage I did these last couple weeks.  I need it to kind of roll into the holidays so that I don't keep spiraling.  I needed a reward system too- something to work for.

NOVEMBER FITNESS CHALLENGE

• Complete 25 days of working out within the month of November.  This is a BIG goal.  It basically only gives me one day off per week, when I've been more used to three days off per week.  I know I need to step up my game, so this is how I'm going to get through November without continuing to pack on pounds throughout the holiday season.
• Complete the November Abs and Thighs Challenge from well-girl.com.  These are simple exercises (like 2 a day) that target thighs and abs.  I always look at these challenge thingies I see online and want to do them and then immediately suck at them.  I'm tired of sucking.
• Reward:  A "fancy" new workout outfit.  Here's the thing about me.  My workout clothes are ALL bargain bin items.  They have pretty much all been purchased at TJ Maxx, Marshall's or Old Navy.  I often long for the cute outfits I see in places like the Nike Store, or Dick's Sporting Goods, but hold back because of the price.  Also, a little part of me feels like I don't deserve nice workout clothes until I hit my goal weight.  That's stupid thinking.  I deserve nice things no matter what I weigh.  But I want to feel as if I have earned it.

Another reason I want go get so heavily back in the groove of working out is that starting December 7th, I am going to start training for the Rock-N-Roll Raleigh Half Marathon!

I am training with the Galloway program, where if you are a certain pace (read: slow, like me), you train by doing intervals.  I will be most likely doing a 2 minute run/1 minute walk at about 12 minutes/mile.  Maybe I will get into the 11 minute/mile zone by the end of it, but I don't really care.  I picked Raleigh for my first half marathon because that is where I went to college.  Off an on, I lived there a total of about 10 years, and I have a lot of great memories there.  The route goes through downtown, the back side of the NC State University campus, and back through a neighborhood that I used to live in.  A hilly neighborhood, but a beautiful one, with lots of old houses.  I know it will be a HUGE trip down memory lane, and that will make it special, and probably a little emotional.  I will probably cry- so maybe I need to buy some fancy new sunglasses to cover that up.  I'm not sweating the fact that Raleigh is pretty hilly, because so is Charlotte, and that is where I'll be doing my training.  Many of my former triathlon training buddies will be joining me in half marathon training.  I am looking forward to solely focusing on training for just ONE sport instead of three.  I also want to add weight training into the mix on my off days from running.  I AM SO EXCITED!

Weekend Whirlwind

This weekend was a total bust in terms of exercise.  I had a meeting all day on Saturday for triathlon stuff, but no actual exercise was involved.  If I had been smart, I would have packed workout clothes for after the meeting, as it was held in a YMCA, but I am stupid.  Sunday did consist of a little cleaning and a little romping in the back yard with the dogs, but nothing I'd count as exercise.

Last week was more or less awful in terms of my eating, and the scale was up a whopping THREE pounds on Saturday.  I will probably jump on the scale mid-weeks to see if some of this was just bloating, as I felt really off on Saturday with an upset stomach, lots of heartburn and oh, my boobs have been sore and I've felt lightheaded off and on over the last few days, so uh, um, gee, I hope I'm not pregnant.  Not that it would be a catastrophe, but since I've made it this far in life without getting pregnant, I'd like to do it the fun way and have it happen on purpose if we ever decide to go down that road.  We are still very undecided, in case you are wondering.  I've often said an accident might be the only way for us to pull the trigger.  We both love our lives kind of the way they are right now.  Also, I'm greedy and the thought of my shoe fund turning into daycare money is kind of a turn-off.  But alas, I am turning 34 this month, so we don't have tons of years left to think about it.  Anyway, I don't mean for this post to talk about the pros and cons of me having a baby. 

My lunch was not healthy today, but it is logged in My Fitness Pal, and dinner should be reasonable so that I can still get a calorie deficit if I hit the gym hard.  Tonight is kickboxing and if it mirrors last Thursday's class in terms of choreography, it was one of the hardest ones I've done in a while.  I was sore in lots of odd places on Saturday morning when I woke up.  I am working 7:30-3:30 all this week, and so I'm looking forward of maybe hitting the gym right after work for at least 2-3 of those days to get my workout in before the after work crowd gets there.  I'm hoping this will work out that way tomorrow, as I want to run on the treadmill and do some strength training.  I downloaded a free strength training app for my iPhone by GAIN called Cross Trainer.  It seems like it's going to be really handy, as it builds a plan for you based on your goals and what days you want to work out, and even has little videos to show you how to complete the exercises.  If you need to strength train at home or on the go, you can tell the app and it will amend your workout to suit the environment.  That's all I know so far, as it's been on my phone for 2 weeks and I have yet to use it.

I have a ton of errands to do this week, so hopefully some early gym times will happen, as well as some extra time to plan and prepare with working fewer hours.

There's Still Something About Planning (to succeed)

What a glorious Sunday afternoon!  I grabbed lunch, went to get groceries, and wondered around Lowe's looking at plants and trying to conjure up ideas for landscaping our sad little new construction lot.  I still have no idea what to plant, or even what will work/where.  I'm just anxious to do something, since our neighbors just had like a whole forest hauled in on Friday and planted, and it looks soooo good.  Not to mention a house in our neighborhood that I looked up on Trulia because I couldn't figure out why the listing price was so high, only to find they had a lush oasis in their back yard, complete with outdoor kitchen and a pool with stone surround and waterfalls.  Then I gaze out the back porch of our house, staring at flip-flops and dog toys on the back porch, the grill just off the covered back porch, and at the back our our neighbor's house.  I wish I had about $10,000 to landscape a more private oasis, but it's not in the cards at this moment.  I don't even mind doing most of it myself, aside from planting huge trees- but I don't even know where to start.

I love our house, and our neighborhood has a demographic that is closest in age to us compared to all the different places we've lived, and, well, that's a lot of places considering my husband and I have moved a combined number of about 25 times in the last decade.  We have the living room and kitchen looking pretty good.  It's been painted, and we have probably the most furniture in those rooms.  We need a new couch, and a few more pictures on the walls, but overall it's getting there. The dining room is another story.  It's empty aside from a spare rug that our dog has taken to rolling on, and four chairs leftover from my apartment-sized kitchen table, which is now in my office.  And the foyer is pretty big here and there is NOTHING in it.  I spent a lot of time yesterday looking for a console table and a rug for the foyer and nothing ended up being what I have pictured in my head.  I keep searching Craigslist hoping I can sore a nice dining room set, but everything is dated and ugly, or just completely not our style.  Putting this house together is taking a lot longer than I'd hoped.

I suppose a little planning on both the landscape and the home decor fronts would probably help me be a little more efficient and focused, so maybe I'll start to keep a log of things I want/need to be on the lookout for.  One kind of planning that I always love to do is planning my meals and exercise for the week.

I started doing this back in my Weight Watchers days and I used to be kind of crazy about it.  I would plan everything down to the wire (or points) and get  really mad at myself if I strayed from what I'd planned out.  Eventually over time, I realized it was okay if I didn't follow my plan to the letter.  Sometimes life happens, you forget to defrost the chicken, or something comes up and things have to change.  I quit planning completely and found myself going through a time of eating a lot of really unhealthy convenience foods, which left me feeling gross and bloated and not motivated to get to the gym.

Now I do what I refer to as "loose planning".  I decide between one or two breakfast items for the week, and one or two things for lunches and snacks and then just kind of jump back and forth between them.  Dinners are a little more concrete for the most part, as I usually have to work them around after work workouts and such.  Also, I've tried to be mindful of the prep time and elaborateness of weeknight meals, knowing that if I go to the gym after work, I'm likely to be too hungry to want to spend and hour prepping and another hour baking something.  I want quick and simple.  Stuff on the grill, stirfry and variations of pasta are good weeknight staples for me.  I love to make fancy stuff too, but right now I'm just too busy to stress over it.

I also try to plan out my workouts for the week.  I stick to the plan about 50% of the time with that, but at least I write down what I intend to do- what classes at the gym I want to attend, or what days I want to do weights.  I do frequently change my mind and do other things (or nothing, some days), but at least it's a loose plan, and it does feel really good when I stick to most of it.  Somewhere I've got to fit swimming into this equation if I want to get better, but those  master's swim classes are at 7:30pm , and about 30 minutes away, meaning I get home/eat dinner/prep for next day at 9pm.  Ugh.

It's so pretty today, and I didn't do much yesterday, so I think I'll take the dogs for a walk.

Triathlon Season Ends with an Anti-Bang

I bailed on my triathlon this past Sunday.  For one, I didn't go to bed until nearly 1am, having set my alarm for 5am.  I stayed up to watch the UFC fights.  Jon Jones is really the only fighter I would stay up that late for when I had something else going on the next day.  He is from my husband's hometown, and he's just a nice guy.  I was happy to see him win in what was probably the most brutal fight I've ever seen.  Both fighters beat the shit out of one another, he just did slightly more I guess, because the judges ruled in Jones' favor.  I was glad I watched it, as it was easily the best UFC fight of the year.  My husband has totally gotten me hooked on UFC after watching a couple seasons of The Ultimate Fighter with him.

Anyway, so I never really "slept"- like the good, hard kind of sleep you need before a triathlon.  I think I didn't sleep well because my throat was hurting, so I subsequently stressed all night about that.  I woke up hot as hell, throat throbbing, head pounding, and just feeling generally awful.  So, I decided not to go.  Call it nerves.  Call it lack of sleep.  Call it being unprepared and irresponsible.  Maybe mixed in there a little bit was a set of nerves.  The final deciding factor was that I didn't actually pay for this race entry.  I earned it by volunteering at packet pickup for the last race.  So, since I wasn't out $75, I just decided to stay home and sleep in.

Of course I instantly regretted it.  It felt like that guilty feeling you have when you skip school that almost makes it not even worth it.  In hindsight, I could have done it.  I should have done it.  And then practically everyone I trained with had a PR, so I may have had one too.  Crap.

Oh well, time to move on.  I worked out hard on Monday, which was may day off.  Probably a little of it was punishment for skipping the triathlon.  I did an intense bout of weights/strength training from which I am REALLY sore from here two days out, plus 45 minutes of running on the treadmill, from which my hip flexor is still mad at me for.  A little side note:  why the EFF is my gym so freaking crowded at 10am on a Monday morning?!?  Does no one work?  The last time I went on a Monday morning, it was Labor Day, and I just thought everyone else had the same idea as me.  This past Monday, I felt like I was in a sea of stay at home moms who have the luxury of going to a class, loitering in the weights area, then dining al fresco with a little Smoothie King action on the outdoor patio.  Seriously, who are these people?  I saw like 15 women in little cliques in the parking lot just talking, talking, talking, with seemingly nowhere to go and nothing to do.  Must.  Be. Nice. 

I am incredibly lucky to have the work schedule that I have.  I work four days a week from 7-5, from home, and then I get one day off.  The day is usually a Friday or a Monday, and when I'm lucky, they are back-to-back for a nice 4-day weekend, but either way, it's really freaking nice.  I started this schedule maybe a year ago, and I have been pretty awful about spending my entire day off shopping and wasting lots of cash.  Especially if my day off is on a Friday.  Anyway, in recent weeks I've been more focused on spending lots of time in the gym instead, and it makes me feel a lot better.  Plus, my wallet loves me more.  It's nice to be one of "those" women, even if it is just for one day a week.

In scale-related news, I was down two pounds this past weekend, which means I'm now 7 pounds away from my wedding day weight.  That will be a good feeling when I get there.  

Feeling Gross

I've been in a very blah mood over the last couple days.  Aunt Flow is in town and I had leftover Chinese for breakfast this morning, if that is any indication of how things are going.  We decided upon ordering Chinese last night after the realization that neither myself or my husband have really had any for over a year.  We've had Chinese-ish food, like Pei Wei, but not your standard, in the Chinese takeout box kind.  So we did that last night and um, yeah.  I feel like the Pillsbury dough boy today and am I drinking any water to flush it out?  Psssssh!  Nah, I'm having some ice cream. 

The difference between the me today who stands before you openly admitting that I had Chinese for breakfast and ice cream for lunch and the me for, well, pretty much my whole life is that I'm totally open and paying attention to just how gross eating like this makes me feel.  I don't want any more Chinese or ice cream.  For a long time.  This is quite different from my previous behavior.  In the past I would tell myself, "Screw it, you've already messed up, so you might as well have a burger and fries tonight for dinner, followed by candy, and then all the other 'naughty' things on the list of forbidden foods."  I'm really trying to live a life where nothing is off limits, but everything I put into my body is somehow noted.  It's amazing how much junk I've eliminated just by slowing down, paying attention and deciding, "Oh, this is kind of gross." 

I've been using the MyFitnessPal app to track calorie intake and I'd say I'm about 80% compliant with that, and that is a good pace for me.  Anything else feels too diet-like and restrictive, and then the guilt sets in.  I've still encountered a few times where I knew I was going to be over in calories for the day so I've opted not to finish filling in my food diary for that day, or "forgetting" to write down some things.  That would be the old me rearing it's ugly head.  I really just want to use MyFitnessPal to make sure I'm getting enough (not usually ever a problem) when training, and to make sure there aren't like 20 days out of the month that I've eaten 4000 calories.  Otherwise, I really try not to obsess over it too much, and on days when it feels like a burden, I don't do it. 

My eating habits have evolved over the last year or so in that I RARELY snack after dinner, which used to be a huge area that needed work, so, I'm proud of that.  I guess my problem now probably lies in the fact that sometimes I do eat out of boredome or dissatisfaction from whatever lackluster thing I've cooked up at home, since I work from home- I never eat out for breakfast and rarely run out at lunch time for food, so I just get bored.  If my lunch sucks, I find myself grazing a lot throughout the day.  I still don't think my snacking habits are as bad as they used to be when I snacked mid-morning, mid-afternoon and at night.  Now it's usually the occasional snack in the morning and just a pre-gym snack in the afternoon.  Not too shabby, I'd just like to get a little more creative so what goes into my body at home is not only healthy, but interesting and satisfying.  Oooh, I should make a big batch of pumpkin pancakes and freeze them for breakfasts! 

Lunch is seriously what I struggle with the most.  I have a total love/hate with deli meats.  Either I'm all about them, or I'm really grossed out by them, so sandwiches just fall into the "ugh" category most of the time.  I don't really do frozen meals anymore save for the occasional Amy's meal, since they don't have preservatives.  In colder months, I do a lot of soups, but that gets kind of old.  Basically I don't want to put very much effort in to lunches, but I want them to be awesome.  Who out there makes awesome, easy lunches?  Save me!

Workouts this week have been on the lighter side. I did do a 45 minute slow run with minimal walking on Wednesday and my hip flexor was absolutely screaming yesterday. Today it's just barely tender, but I hope Sunday's triathlon doesn't make it flare up again.  I think I might have over-foam-rolled it.  I did a new technique, and I think it irritated it.  Anyway, I am probably going to swim after work since D is working on the north side of town and will likely be stuck in traffic for a bit this evening.  I love the pool on Friday evenings.  It's usually not crowded, which means I can get a lane to myself, which is the only way I swim on my back, since I am such a horrible weaver.  Cannot swim in a straight line on my back to save my life!  I don't think I'll do my normal 1500 meters, or if I do it will be slower.  I just want to get in and do something light so I can say I worked out.  Maybe all the water I'm retaining will be removed when I go sit in the steam room afterwards.

Maybe I'm not the best at blogging about triathlons

I just realized I never recapped my last triathlon, which I PR'ed compared to last year.  Oh, and I've done two long bike rides that I could have blogged about, and I didn't take a single picture.  I guess I can do the Reader's Digest version of those things, and then just move on to greener pastures.  I still want to blog, but as triathlon season comes to an end, and my focus shifts, I'd like to make this blog more of a daily diary style blog.  I know some people aren't into that, and that's okay.  I also want to start working on a blog that is more of a lifestyle blog, which I'm currently brainstorming on.  So, let's review some highlights of this season.

Ramblin' Rose Rock Hill Sprint Triathlon
This was the scene of my very first triathlon, so in a way it feels like "home".  I've done that bike route and run probably 10-15 times, and I like the pool at the aquatics center.  The day started out great.  I was well-prepared, and I had what might be my new pre-race breakfast, consisting of a Sugar Free Monster Energy Drink, and a boiled egg on a bagel thin or sandwich thin with a 2% cheese slice and a smear of light olive oil mayo.  A lot of things mess with my stomach.  I can't do coffee on race days because (TMI warning), it makes me poop.  I usually have a pre-race nervous poop, but I don't like to add things to the mix that make more poop happen.  Enough on poop.  I can't do fruits or other very acidic things because I get heartburn/reflux.  Learned this the hard way after burping banana for my very first 5K.  I like the protein/carb ratio of the egg on bread with cheese, and none of that combo seems to "hang around" to irritate me while racing.  The Monster drink was just kind of an experiment.  I need caffeine every morning- EVERY MORNING, race day included.  But since coffee is out, that doesn't leave a lot of open doors.  I've tried Diet Mountain Dew, but something about it REALLY makes me have to pee.  At least Monster has some vitamin element to it, even though I *fully* realize it's not that awesome for you.  But I PR'ed after my Monster experiment, so it's my new favorite thing. 

On race day, I got there in plenty of time.  So much so, that I was able to travel around the transition area and help some of the new athletes from Tri It For Life get set up and get their jitters out. That might have been the most rewarding thing I did all season. When the race started, my friend Clare and I decided to move up into the next fastest swim group and hang to the back, and I actually passed someone.  I didn't do any of the weird hyperventilating I tend to do in swim practices (for some reason I don't do this much in races, although it almost always happens when I train).   My swim time for the 250 meter swim was 6:15, which was better than last year's 6:49.  I was happy with this time and want to work to get under 6 minutes.  I didn't feel as dizzy/disoriented at the end of the swim either.

The bike course was pretty good for me, with my time being 33:58, compared to last year on my mom's hybrid when my time was 33:25.  Not sure what slowed me down, as I felt like I nailed the hills and went pretty fast.  The only thing that I can think is that it was raining, and that probably slowed me down a bit out of caution.  Those raindrops HURT, too.  I couldn't wear my sunglasses due to the obvious rain, and I felt like I had my eyes closed for parts because the rain hitting my face stung so bad.  Either way, the bike ride was more enjoyable this year on my road bike and with my clip-in pedals.  I guess I'm pretty proud that I know I can lug a 50 pound hybrid just as fast as might light road bike, although I'd love to see myself get quicker since I love biking so much.

The run course is a flat out-and-back route, and it's kind of boring.  It's on sidewalk for most of it, and then part of like a greenway system.  I really talked myself up for the run portion and tried not to walk too terribly much or for too long.  I didn't burn my legs up too much this time around on the bike, which helped my run since my legs didn't feel like they were wading through quicksand and made of jello.  I did the run in 25:42.  Since my normal "on a day I'm not swimming and biking" run pace is about a 12 minute mile, this time was great for me.  Last year, it took me 28:47.

My transition times continue to be longer than I want them to be and that unfortunately affects my overall time.  I find myself talking to my husband while I'm changing shoes, or fumbling around, or in the case of this race, taking all my shit out of plastic bags due to the rain.  I really want to speed these up, because taking one minute to change shoes/clothes versus taking three minutes can shave two minutes off my total time.  Duh- seems obvious here that I would try to rush through the transitions, but I also like to make sure I'm comfortable, because who wants to run uncomfortable?  Not me.  Anyway, hopefully I can make some progress in this arena during this weekend's race.  Eyes on the prize.  Anway, my total race time for this year was 1:12:06, and was 1:14:00 last year.  See, if I had cut down my transitions this year, I might have gotten to 1:10:00.  Grrrrrrrr!

Tour de Turns 25 Mile Bike Ride
This was my first "long" bike ride.  As much as I LOVE riding my bike, I think the most I'd ridden at once prior to this day was 15 miles or so.  I decided to do this ride at the last minute and MAN, was it tough!  It's called Tour de Turns because it winds through several neighborhoods making mostly right turns.  Good for safety and low traffic, bad for building up speed.  Oh, and it was HILLY.  The race page said it had "17 challenging hills", but I"m pretty sure I did 17 hills in the first five miles, and then there were plenty more.  I had a hard time differentiating which ones were "challenging" and which ones weren't.  I started the ride with a few triathlon friends, but due to several reasons, we got split up and well, I think I did about 20 miles kind of more or less by myself.  And probably 10 of those miles were like for real out in the world riding by myself, wondering if I was the last person on the road (for the record, I wasn't).  That made the ride kind of boring for me, and at no point was I really pushing myself because I wasn't trying to keep up with anyone.  The upside was that the course went through some pretty great Charlotte neighborhoods, and it was fun to admire all the beautiful houses.  The neighborhoods did a pretty good job participating in cheering us on too. The highlight was giving a little girl a high five as I rode by her on my bike and hearing her squeal with glee.  There was also a gaggle of very young, elementary school age cheerleaders screaming, "GO BIKERS GO!  GO BIKERS GO! GO BIKERS GO!"  It was maybe the cutest thing ever.  I felt really accomplished when I finished that 25 miles.  This would be the last ride on my factory seat for my bike, as my crotch took about a week to recover.  I was very tired that day and my legs were crazy sore.  I also got a slight headache which was I suspect from dehydration. Total time was about 2 hours and 20 minutes for 25 miles.  Average speed was 10.3 MPH, which is SLOW for me.  It was definitely a "tour" instead of a "race".


Pedal For Pediatric Cancer 30 Mile Bike Ride
Now this was a bike ride!  It was my first in Waxhaw, NC, which is a suburb of Charlotte, but is very country.  But fancy country.   Think giant houses on acres and acres of lands with horse pastures as front yards.  Absolutely beautiful scenery.  A few challenging hills and a lot of rolling hills, plus some pretty great flats to ramp up the speed.  I stuck with a group of 3 other friends, which made for a spectacular ride.  It went much faster and was a lot more enjoyable.  The support stops were great.  There were children who are cancer survivors handing out waters and snacks and they could not have been more excited to help us.  It was so adorable.  The weather was great minus a little bit of headwind that made for some harder riding, but the sun was shining and it was a crisp fall morning.  There were loose dogs (friendly, thankfully), very little traffic, sharing of part of the course with a triathlon, and lots of animals to look at including cows, horses, sheep, goats, swans, geese, and a dead bunny.  Poor bunny.  My favorite was passing the pasture where a fat old yellow lab was just chillin', laying about five feet away from a goat.  I think I want to move to Waxhaw and get some animals!  I got a nice farmer's tan, and the only iffy part of the ride was the last mile or so when we were getting back into "town" and there was traffic from the triathlon people leaving and there were some impatient people passing us unsafely in their cars.  Assholes.  Fortunately, that was near the very end and it was honestly one of those moments where I looked up and said, "we're back???"  Total time was 2:16:06 with an average speed of 13.1 MPH (I forgot to pause my GPS for one 5 minute or so stop).  Oh, and my new bike seat is totally crotch-approved!  I was barely sore at all after this ride, and my legs felt pretty good too.

Upcoming
This Sunday will be my last triathlon of the season in Huntersville, NC.  Sadly, the Chapel Hill triathlon sold out of regular spots before I registered with my friend who was supposed to do it with me, and the charity slots are $150!  That's just too much considering we'd also have to pay for gas, food and hotel.  No thanks.  Anyway, I feel like my swim time will be about the same, assuming good conditions.  With my new bike seat and two big rides under my belt recently, I think I'll be more than ready to tackle the bike ride.  It's a mile longer than the last course, but I hear it's very scenic and pretty.  The run is just mostly getting my mind past how bad my legs feel.  I read a tip that said to stand on your bike for the last little bit to start getting your legs adjusted, so, if I can remember to do it, I am going to see how that works for me.  I don't stand up a lot on my bike while clipped in, so hopefully I don't fall off my bike.  I hear there is at least one hill on the run and maybe I'll have to walk that, we'll see.  Either way, this is the first race I will be doing where I haven't done any of the course prior to the race, so it will be an experience.  I just hope it doesn't throw me off my game.

I'd really wanted to go for all six Ramblin' Rose triathlons this year, but it just didn't work out that way, and honestly, I'm kind of glad.  Turns out, I still get bored with only swim/bike/run all season.  I know that's a lot of variety, but sometimes you just want to do something else, you know?  And I did that this past couple months and I don't feel like going to kickboxing class, spin class, weight lifting and going to Quick Fit (like bootcamp) hindered my progress at all, and gave me back my sanity.  I will be earning a cool Brooks running jacket as a reward for completing three Ramblin' Rose Triathlons, so that's pretty awesome.  Next up, I'm considering getting a trainer for a while.  The lady who teaches my favorite kickboxing classes is also a personal trainer at the YMCA that I go to, and she is so fit.  I think my next goal is to focus more on sculpting some muscles along with continuing to work on my running.  I haven't fully committed to it, but I'm pretty sure I'm signing up for the Winter Galloway run training group to train for a half marathon.  The half marathon that I want to do as my first is pretty challenging in terms of hillyness, but fortunately running all over Charlotte should help with hills.  I want to do the inaugural Rock-n-Roll Raleigh half marathon next April.  Raleigh was where I went to college, and my first love as a city away from home.  I lived there for a combined total of about ten years, and I still love it so much.  I can't think of a better city for my first half, so now I just have to wrap my mind around it....

Now that I've done a huge recap, stay tuned for more.  I want to take this blog to a more daily recap of my progress style blog, which I know might be boring for some, but I will still try to highlight it with other fun stuff, but I think for the accountability aspect, this is the way to get the most benefit.  I'm loosely tracking my nutrition using MyFitnessPal, and happy to say that I'm the least stressed/pressured about weight loss that I have ever been in my life.  Actually WANTING to eat healthy and in smaller volumes feels natural and normal for me at this stage in the game, and I'm not obsessing over how fast or slow I'm losing weight.  For the record, it's going slow, but it's going down.  Since training for my first triathlon, I am a solid 15 pounds lighter, and there is no diet talk/self-shaming/desperation talk going on in my head, which feels SO nice.  I'm in a good place.