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.

One Year Ago Today

Man, how time flies.  One year ago today, at this time, I was working, and trying not to think about the fact that I was going to do a triathlon in 2 days.  One year ago today was the celebration dinner to applaud the commitment to training that my friends and I had completed, and to share in the excitement of it all coming to fruition the following Sunday.

This week, I've seen a lot of Facebook posts about pre-triathlon jitters/nerves/worries/weather concerns, etc. from the amazing group of ladies that I helped mentor this year.  It really brought me back, so I thought I'd share my own recollection of concerns on that week that I had last year, that is oh so similar to what many of these great ladies are feeling right now.  Hopefully it will help quell fears, drown worries and get them pumped for this coming Sunday, when they will become triathletes.  No matter what these ladies accomplish in their lives from that moment forward, they will always have the right to call themselves triathletes.

Here is a little summary of the days leading up to my very first triathlon in July 2012.  Two weeks prior to the race, we'd gone on vacation to New York, to celebrate the anniversary of my in-laws.  While I was fretting over missing that week's training, and so close to the actual triathlon, I did get in a very successful run session, in the wide open country, with beautiful, inspiring scenery, and I got in LOADS of swim time.  I had my husband's entire family cheering for me in the pool, as I practiced drills and swimming 250 meters almost daily, with my husband timing me and throwing back yard celebrations whenever I would beat my previous time by seconds.

Cut to just a couple days before leaving to head back to North Carolina.  I had neglected to faithfully use my swimmer's ear drops while on vacation, and suddenly I was faced with severe pain in my left ear.  I went to an urgent care in New York, where I was given antibiotics that essentially did nothing.  I was so miserable that taper week, for me, became "writhe on the couch in pain and force back tears week".  I was bummed.  I missed the taper week social activities for my group, and, ultimately made a last-minute decision to visit yet another urgent care, this time in Charlotte, to see if swimming would even possible for my upcoming race.  Fortunately, I went just in time.  After getting what can only be described as a tiny tampon viciously jammed inside my ear canal in order to open the passage to allow for antibiotics in the form of ear drops to enter, and the suggestion of using an earplug for that ear during the triathlon, I was sent on my way.

During our celebration dinner, I couldn't hear what anyone to my left at our dinner table was saying.  I said, "huh", more times than I could count, and I just felt...off.  I was sad.  All my training partners were celebrating wonderful, progressive, last-minute training success stories, and I was too embarrassed to admit that I had done absolutely nothing physicial that entire "taper" week.  Unless you count visiting the grocery store for comfort food.  I did lots of that.

I worried that I would get a flat tire on my bike and that I would be too nervous to remember the things I learned during the tire change clinic.  I fretted over forgetting essential items for my transition area.  I worried that it would be too hot, or too rainy, too muggy or just overall uncomfortable.  I worried about how lacking the sense of hearing to some degree might mess with my body.  I worried that my nutrition was crap.  I worried that I would get sunburned.  I stressed about where my husband would park when he arrived to the race to cheer me on, and what my mom would do to occupy time since she planned to ride to the race site with me and would have a couple hours to kill.  I worried about how I looked in my tri suit and about the inevitable barrage of photos I'd be tagged in on Facebook, where I was wearing tight spandex.  I thought about my knee troubles I'd had during training, and wondered what to do if it hurt on race day.  I tried to estimate the number of ounces of water I would swallow during the swim, and wondered if chlorine was a diuretic, or if I could consider pool water to be legitimate hydration.  Where would I keep my cell phone?   Where was my transition area going to be, and would it be near people that I knew?  The list was absolutely ENDLESS.

But on race day, on glorious race day- I was calm.  The swim felt like a dream sequence.  Hard to explain, but I never once hyperventilated, like I tended to do during nearly every swim practice.  My breathing was calm and controlled.  When I was tired, mentors were there to cheer me on.  When I was done with the swim, it felt so surreal.  So much easier than I had imagined, planned for.  Oh yes, a calm, peaceful swim, cut short only by the realization that my earplug had fallen out mid-swim, was stuck in my hair and the side of my swim cap, and aforementioned tiny ear tampon had become filled with water and was inching it's way out my (still deaf) ear.

The bike went well too.  I made it up the dreaded hill both loops without issue, proud of the fact that due to my awesome training, I was NOT one of the many who jumped off their bikes on that hill and walked.  No sir, I was PREPARED.  I did have a little issue with my gears at the end of the course, but nothing earth shattering.  The bike was probably my favorite part.  I even reached down and grabbed my water bottle to drink, without stopping.  Something I couldn't do nearly all 12 weeks of training.

The run wasn't phenomenal, but I didn't (and still don't) consider running my strongest part of the race.  The run is where I started to feel the heat.  I was sweaty.  The running tank I'd thrown on over my tri suit kept riding up.  My sunglasses got foggy.  My legs felt like the heaviest lead known to man.  Somehow all my bricks combined didn't feel as bad as that run did, yet still, I finished it.  Sandy, one of my most favorite mentors saw my struggle near the end of the run and came out (after finishing her own race, mind you) and ran the last leg with me, cheering me on, pepping me up, and lighting a fire under me.  She ran right alongside of me just up until the finish line was approaching and she vanished, letting me have all the glory of finishing my very first triathlon.

The next few minutes were a blur.  I remember someone handing me a water bottle, the cold metal of the finisher's necklace around my neck, my husband taking pictures and hugging me, my mom beaming proudly, friends chattering about their estimated finish time.  It was all so surreal.  Then it hit me- I really had to PEE.  I think I had to pee around the time the race actually started for me, so nearly an hour and a half later, I had to bolt to the restroom.

And there I sat.  Alone on the john with my thoughts:

"I just finished a triathlon."

"I am a triathlete."

"I just swam, biked and ran, and now I'm done.  I'm a triathlete."

"I don't know what this means for future fitness endeavors, but right now, as I sit on the toilet and take the most rewarding pee of my life, I can honestly say- and no one can take it away from me- that I am a triathlete.  Something I never even fathomed."

I was a mother 'effin triathlete.  And after Sunday, they will be too.

New Start Coming- Take 3!

Warning:  I am about to sound like a broken record.  Let's go ahead and get that out of the way, okay?

I have sucked at training for triathlon #2 of the season.  I really haven't pushed myself.  I think I was a little burnt out from triathlon #1.  My eating has been all over the place- some good, some bad, lot's of the really bad are just habits I need to break (diet soda, going nuts on the weekends, over-consumption of sugar and carbs, etc.).  Some of this is due to a bit of a struggle I've been having with menstrual migraines for the last 3-4 months.  My doctor and I have pretty much narrowed it down to my birth control pill being the cause, and switching pills has at least decreased the number of weeks per month that I get headaches down from 3 to 1, but they are not completely gone.  This week in particular has really thrown me for a loop, as I suspected that the headaches were now just occurring on the week of my period, but I started a new pack of pills without waiting around for my period this month, and I STILL got a migraine on what would have been my period week had a I not started a new pack of pills.  It's so frustrating, and when I have them, I don't really give a #$%6 about healthy eating or exercise, I just want to burrow under the covers in the dark and eat junk to try to make myself feel better.

Now onto the good stuff.  Triathlon #2 is THIS Sunday, and it's going to be great for a number of reasons, but mainly it's going to be great because I get to watch all the athletes who I got to mentor this year become triathletes.  To me, that is more exciting than whatever happens as far as my own race, and, well, that's probably good due to aforementioned lackluster training.  This was my first year as a mentor and while it was harder than I thought it would be in terms of not always feeling like I was of any help to people and maybe feeling like I wasn't always as patient as I could have been, now I know what to expect as a mentor next year, and hearing other people's stories on what brought them to Tri It For Life has been really fun.  I've really enjoyed getting to know approximately 40-50 new people this year, all thanks to this group.  I learned that one of my friends from last year has a husband who is not naturally skinny like when I first saw him and assumed.  He's actually lost a ton of weight over the last several years.  I met a girl who was over 350 pounds, but you would never know it.  It's neat how triathlon training is the beginning of a journey for everyone, but a lot of times it's in the middle of some bigger journey.  Very inspiring group of ladies!

As for me this Sunday,  I do think the bike portion will go well, and if I am having a good swim day, I think I can at least not be WORSE than last year.  The run will just depend on my legs, and, I'm not going to sweat it.  I'd LOVE for my total time to be less than 1:14, but if I can't do it this time, I have another chance to give it a go at the end of September.

I have a huge to-do list this week prior to the race.  Tonight I am going to yoga with the tri training girls, as it is taper week.  I'm not tapering as much this time since I've technically been in training since February.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to go run a half marathon on Saturday, but I'd like to get 3-4 workouts in this week along with the triathlon.  Last year I did absolutely NOTHING the week before the tri because of what was the worst case of swimmer's ear I believe I have ever had, and that was a bit of a setback, although I was MORE than ready to do a triathlon after sitting on my rump and wallowing in pain the entire week before. 

Tomorrow after work, I'd like to catch a spin class, as I haven't been to one in like 12 weeks since I've been biking outside, but I also need to work on adjusting the cleats on my road bike shoes because I've had a hard time getting clipped in since I changed them out myself a couple weeks ago and I don't want that annoyance on Sunday if I can help it. I think I just need to move them forward a bit on the shoes.  Thursday I plan on a short run/walk interval set on the treadmill and some weights, then I plan to take Friday off due to having to rush across town after work for our celebration dinner for the new athletes.  I have to help set up, then take blood pressures and weights prior to the  dinner (our group gets grant money by tracking weight and blood pressures before training starts and after we are finished).  Saturday, I am helping with packet pickup for the race on Sunday, which earned me a free entry into the September race, which I am pretty pumped for.  Sunday is the race, and Monday I plan on getting a pedicure and celebrating.  If my body says I'm up for kickboxing on Monday evening, great.  If not, I will call it a rest day.  I just don't want to get into the habit that I've gotten myself into after the last two races where I just don't do any form of exercise for several weeks.

There is still a chance that I may do the triathlon in August, but as a relay with two other people where I will only be doing the bike portion, so I'm not really sweating it either way.  I would love to do a relay though for the experience, but if it doesn't work out, it's okay, because that race would involve me carting my bike up to my parents' house two hours away, then getting up at like 4am to get to the race site which is an hour from their house.  No amount of coffee makes that sound fun.

I am really, really aiming to do more meal preps as well in order to be more on top of my eating, and I've found a decent food/diet combination that I think can work for ME- kind of a hybrid of Weight Watchers and clean eating, but with the clean eating rules bent just a little so as not to feel deprived or like meal prep/shopping is so much work.  Basically I'll eliminate MOST processed foods, try to shop more local fruits and veggies, but keep it convenient.  I have a bad habit of over-complicating meal planning, and I think that is why I don't stick with it so well.  If anyone has tips for easy meals to cook for two (dinner only- the hubs doesn't eat breakfast and eats 99.999% of his lunches on the road), that would be great.  I'll track "points" with an app on my phone Sun-Fri and take a cheat day on Saturday, but try to keep it sane.  I really would love to get about 20 pounds off before the next race, and I KNOW I can do it if I stick to it.


I can't wait to write a race report next week and compare this year to last year!

What a Difference a Day Makes!

So last night, after the dog walk, I realized my back was for real on the mend.  I hit up the grocery store last night for some sandwich items and some snacks, and then came home and took a hot bath, all the while forgetting to take any more Advil before bed.  When I realize what I'd done this morning, I worried for a minute that I might not be able to sit upright.  To my surprise, I felt 97% back to normal.  It still feels a tad tight when I stretch, but no longer painful- even with sitting at a desk for 10 hours.  Wahoo!

My nutrition today has been spot on, I got plenty of water, and I went on the group bike ride.  I got new cleats for my bike shoes, and I must have put the right one a little too far up, because I had a heck of a time getting in and out of my clip on that side, but otherwise it was a WONDERFUL ride.  Storms were going kind of around us, but it cooled the temps off nicely and the cloudyness helped make it a more comfortable ride as well. We went 8 miles exactly in just under 40 minutes.  I wanted to take off and ride a few more miles with a few of the folks who were sticking around, but alas, I thought it wise to take it easy and then some lightening showed up, so I hightailed it home.  No storms at home, so I am stuck yet again watering the trees.  The hubs is out of town this week for work, so I'm sure it's quite comical to see me weaving in and out of them trying to move them around to the different trees.  Yeah, definitely have to visit Lowe's this weekend for a different sprinkler setup.

I grilled some shrimp in some ginger lime glaze, alongside a small red potato.  I'm about to have my second serving of watermelon for the day and hit the bath to soak away just a tiny bit of stiffness and dive deeper into the sequel book to The Devil Wears Prada (called Revenge Wears Prada).  It's starting a little slower than TDWP, but it's still good.  Aside from the shrimp, I think my food choices for tomorrow will be very close to the same things I ate today, as they were delicious and filling, and I am REALLY trying to keep things simple.  I think I get too over the top with food stuff during the week (planning to make difficult recipes on the same nights I'm out training until 8pm, trying to mix it up too much every day, etc.).  I just can't even put into words how much better I feel, both in terms of general energy level and desire to work out/train when I am eating things that are good for me.  It's SO stupid that I don't do things this way every single day.  How do I get so lost sometimes??

Get it DONE

So on Saturday, I declared that this week was going to be my, "go hard and strong all week at the gym, catch up on slack triathlon training, and feel ready for my July 14th race" week.  Then I hurt my back from what I assume was poor body mechanics while planting trees in our back yard as part of Project-I'm-Tired-Of-Seeing-The-Back-of-My-Neighbors-House.  Don't get me wrong- they are nice, but if there's one thing I hate about new construction and building a home, it's the lack of trees.  Unless of course you are fortunate enough to get a wooded lot.  We chose a corner lot across from where the neigborhood pool will be once it is built, so it's not ALL doom and gloom, I just would merely like to sit on my back porch and have a beer without broadcasting what I'm doing to 3-4 other houses.  And consequently, I don't really like for other people to feel like I'm sitting on my back porch watching them. 

Anyway, I have NEVER had a back injury before.  Well, aside from the strained right side of my lower back that I've been dealing with for about the last 6-8 months, but it is 98% better, and I don't really classify it as a back injury because I could still exercise while that was going on.  This back injury?  Totally different.  It felt like sore muscles in my lower back on Saturday directly after we were finished planting the trees.  Sunday was near impossible to sit or stand upright, and if I had to bend over, you could pretty much forget it, but the 1-2 times I managed to do it out of necessity, I felt a weird pinching in my lower spine- one that kind of takes your breath away while at the same time making you gasp and have ugly face. 

It feels lots better with Advil (which I have been consuming like they are Skittles), but I'm still really feeling it when I'm having to sit in my desk chair for work and when I first wake up in the morning.  I do think I just strained it, and I am feeling much, much better three days out, but still very nervous to go work out.  I'm giving myself another night off aside from maybe walking the dog since it's not too hot out.  I think I may be able to tackle something at the gym tomorrow.   I hesitate to go on the group bike ride out on the road just because I'm afraid I will start to have a don of pain and won't be able to stop.  At least if I try and catch a spin class, getting off the bike and going home will be an option if there is still pain there.

Bottom line?  Hurting your back sucks.  I should have known better.  I am a nurse, and I spent several years practicing very good body mechanics when lifting and moving heavy/immobile people and never got hurt.  I am just mad at myself for being an idiot, basically.  And man, I have SUCKED at training for this 2nd triathlon.  And annoyed that my times were less than stellar for the last triathlon.  And worried that it's too late for me to train enough to really progress and have a better time than last year.  And upset with myself that I continue to flounder when it comes to nutrition and a STEADY exercise plan.


I guess complaining about it is not really going to get me anywhere, and neither is continuing on this pattern I've been on.  I may not be able to exercise the way that I want right now, but I CAN still manage to eat healthy/clean and do what my body allows me to.  I can come here and post more often for accountability.  I can do a better job at planning healthy meals and snacks.  All this is within my capability- so I just need to GET IT DONE.

Plan for the next 24 hours:
Dog walk tonight.
Prep breakfast/snacks for tomorrow.
Go out tomorrow to the grocery store at lunch and get some healthy lunch foods.
Defrost some shrimp for dinner tomorrow.
Hope and pray that I can get out of this house for a real exercise session by tomorrow!

A Review of the South Charlotte Ramblin' Rose

The South Charlotte Ramblin' Rose Triathlon was almost two weeks ago and I'm just getting around to writing.  I've kind of been in a weird mental space since then (more about that later).  I did want to write about my experience and hopefully get to the bottom of the case of the yucks that I've had ever since.  I kind of equate it to how you feel after Christmas is over- all that buildup, then poof- it's all over with.  Only this is more exhausting on some levels.

Training and Nutrition

So, for starters, I want to congratulate myself on sticking to a 12-week training plan, most of which I did all on my own.  I learned that training on your own is much harder and less fun than training with a large group.  Towards the last few weeks of my training, the training for the new athletes with Tri It For Life started training for the Ramblin' Rose Rock Hill, so it got a little more social there at the end.  *Note: I did NOT ride my road bike alone.  I mostly did spin class for I'd say 10 out of the 12 weeks, then eventually when it started warming up, I did get out for a few group rides, and got to test the race course.  I do think spin class was a good enough substitute to train for a 9-mile bike ride, but if I were doing anything more, I'd probably invest in a bike trainer for the colder months.  My nutrition was somewhat better this time around too.  I dabbled with Clean Eating and definitely noticed that I felt a lot better and more energetic when I left out all things processed.  I'd say I'm about 60/40 on that right now- could be better on the weekends.  Also, I still I haven't kicked my Diet Mountain Dew habit.  It's more of an addiction than a habit.  Remember the famous line from Brokeback Mountain?  Yeah, I wish I knew how to quit Diet Mountain Dew.  Diet Brokeback Mountain Dew, y'all.

Race Day

There's just no kind way to say it.  The race day conditions were a bitch.  You'd think on May 5th, you wouldn't be dreading taking off your FLEECE and BEANIE to get ready for the swim.  It was cloudy, cold and super windy.  I ran around the transition area after setup jumping up and down.  My bones were freezing.  We had to line up outside in just our swim gear/tri suits for the swim.  It was pretty brutal.   Many of us were in full on penguin huddle.

The Swim
7:21  (Last year's time:  6:49; with an extra 50 meters)

I was least excited for the swim.  I knew I didn't get enough time in the pool and I never did really focus on any drills to get faster or better, I just kind of swam freestyle once a week for twelve weeks.  Maybe I went twice during one or two of those weeks.  I am glad I'm better at swimming, but I still don't enjoy it per se.  You place yourself in a group that swims a certain time, and this is to (sort of) prevent bottle-necking in the pool, because with people swimming down and back in each lane, its kind of hard to pass people.  I didn't even time myself until the Friday before the race.  The swim for this particular triathlon was shortened to just 200 meters, but you still had to place yourself in a timed group based on how fast you swam 250 meters.  I think this was mega-confusing to people and I think a lot of people put themselves in too fast of a group because they thought they were basing it off their 200 meter swim time.  My 200 meter swim time that day that I timed myself was 5:32 or so, and it took me 7:01 to swim 250.  I kind of took it easy on those last 50 meters.  So, on race day, I put myself in the 6:30 group, and planned on hanging towards the back.

The swim had been moved inside at the last minute due to the fact that the outside pools were just too cold.  Spectators were not allowed inside because there was not enough room for athletes plus spectators, and that was kind of a bummer.  I think I was more towards the middle of my group, and even though I felt like it was one of my faster swims ever (felt like around 5 minutes in my head, though I did not time myself), there was much bottle-necking in the beginning and there were so many of us on top of each other that no one could really pass until we got to a wall.  That was super frustrating.  Then, we had to run all the way out of the side of the pool, down a long corridor, down some sidewalk, and FINALLY crossed the "swim finish" mat.  It was seriously far away, and for that, my swim time was 7:21.  I crossed some kind of a mat as soon as I got out of the pool and mistakenly thought this was the swim finish mat and that my transition time had started.  I took my time during the transitions because I knew I wanted to be completely dried off and comfortable for the bike portion, given the craptastic weather.  Just for a reference point, I did the 250 meter swim last summer in 6:49.  Ugh, just....ugh.  It was a mess.  I couldn't figure out for the life of me what took so long until I saw a friend posted on Facebook that most people could shave about 2 minutes off their swim time due to the odd placement of the mat.


Bike

35:48 for 9 miles (Last year's bike:  33:25 for 8 miles)

What can I say?  I was pushing against the wind for a good portion of the bike ride.  Oh, and the Wells Fargo Golf Championship was going on during our race and we rode by two entrances to the country club where it was held, and there were giant charter buses and extra traffic to contend with.  I will say the route was well marked, and the placement of the police at the intersections was great.  I never had to unclip from my pedals or stop, which was nice.  There was another "bottle-necking" episode on the bikes, too, and it was unfortunately right at the entrance to the golf tournament where there was a bit of traffic, so I was forced to ride behind some slower folks for about a mile.  Seriously, this one girl was riding to my left during this point, would not pass me, but was eating a bag of trail mix she had tied onto her handlebars.  It's a nine-mile ride.  You don't need a snack.  It was a little infuriating.  That brings me to another point about the bike.  If you are passing someone- FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS HOLY- shout something out.  I don't care if you say, "I'm about to own your ass on this bike ride", so long as I know you are there.  There were SO many people who snuck up on me without saying a word.  I'm thankful that I train with some of the best, and we follow ALL the rules!  I think it wouldn't have bothered me as much if the route hadn't been smack in the middle of all that golf stuff.  Anyway, so much for being so much faster on my fancy new road bike with my fancy clip pedals.  Really, I know the weather and conditions were a factor.  My hands were frozen stiff to the point where at one time I thought I was in my lowest gear (because I clicked down and nothing happened) and that I was just tiring out, only to try again a few minutes later and learn that I could gear down FOUR more times before I was in my lowest gear (helloooo sore legs).  My hands were that cold- with my bike gloves on.   I know I rode a lot faster on the practice rides.  I know I can do better.  Oh well.

The Run
25:39  (Last year's run time:  28:47)

Huzzah!  Finally, some progress somewhere.  My runs felt a lot (a LOT) easier this season.  I'm still no runner.  More of an intervalist at best, but I can see big improvements compared to last year.  I also got smart this year and wore a watch with a timer so I could time my walk/run intervals.  This was really helpful during that first half a mile or so when my legs were wobbly from the bike ride.  Also, I ran about the last 3/4 of a mile without stopping at all.  That was good stuff.

Total Time
1:15:42  (Last year's total time: 1:14:00)

I had really, really hoped for a drastic improvement.  Like, an hour or less type of improvement.  I really did feel like training went a lot easier and I felt like I had made a lot of progress.  This swim was 50 meters shorter and the bike was a mile longer, so ultimately I guess I was pretty much the same.  I do attribute a lot of it to the weather.  It was nasty.  My transition times were pretty much twice as long as last year, but honestly the thought of getting on my bike soaking wet in the cold, rain and wind sounded like hell on earth, so a 4 minute transition time might as well have been a 45 minute transition time so long as I was dry and not as cold.  I came home and took the longest, hottest shower of my life when it was all over.  


What's next?

You know, I really feel very similar to how I did after the triathlon last summer. I"m kind of over swimming, biking and running.  I just kind of want to go to yoga, or kickboxing, or maybe lift more weights, order P90X- really, anything different.  But what I've found myself doing over the last two weeks is barely working out at all.  I've done one bike ride and one gym session where I lifted weights and ran on the treadmill.  Let's be honest here, it's not like I just completed and Ironman, where maybe two weeks of doing nothing would be warranted, but all I did was a silly sprint triathlon.  Now I totally have the doldrums and can't seem to get really excited about doing another one in July, August, September and October.  I haven't signed up for any more as of yet, even though this was my goal in the beginning- to do all of them (minus Raleigh).

I really don't enjoy swimming.  I feel like I'm suffocating when I'm in the pool and I still feel like I have no endurance.  It's crazy how your cardiovascular endurance on land absolutely does NOT transfer to the pool.  I am really enjoying my new bike and clip pedals and really don't want to end up not using it.  I also am liking running more now that I suck slightly less at it.  Part of me wants to challenge myself to a half marathon.  Part of me wants to find some kind of bike group and just bail on triathlons.  I'm stuck between deciding if this is REALLY how I feel, or if I am just needing a little break.

I hate to ditch this blog, but I've also been daydreaming about starting a blog about home decor, crafts and other fun stuff.  But I don't want that blog to detract from my working out. Also, I don't want to bail on something I set out to do, but you just get to a point where you have to ask yourself if it's worth it to complete what you set out to do if you aren't truly enjoying it like you thought you would.  Maybe "Agree to Tri" will become "Agree to Tri all kinds of things".  Argh, I just hate feeling this way.  I'd say everything is "TBD" at this point, and I'm going to just have to be okay with that until I can sort through it all and decide what to do.  I hate to be a quitter, but I'm wondering if I'm cut out for this at all.  It's not like doing four more sprint triathlons is going to qualify me for some larger race (nor do I want to do anything on a larger scale).  I don't want to graduate to open-water swims (I hate "varmits" in the water and unknown things brushing up against me).  So, I guess what I'm struggling with is, if I know I'm not going to get so awesome over the next 4 months that I place in my age group, or qualify for some other race, or anything like that- what is the point?   Guess I need to decide this before I shell out another $300 in race fees...

Race and Training Updates

First of all, I feel that I should follow up to my last post and share my good bike riding news.  Last Saturday, I was determined to shoot over to the bike shop in the morning and bite the bullet- buy bike shoes and cleats, and go ahead and put my clip in pedals back on (they came with the bike).   There was even a group of girls meeting that afternoon to ride in a safe area for me to practice getting in and out of the pedals and I was really excited to get out there and try.  Unfortunately, the bike shop did not have my size in the shoes and had just sold the last pair of the type of cleats I needed.  Bummer.  They went ahead and ordered them for me, and I decided to watch the ACC basketball tournament instead of meeting for a ride.

But the weather last Saturday was so wonderful!  77 degrees, albeit a little windy.  My husband rides flatland BMX, and I could tell he wanted to go ride his bike somewhere, so I suggested we go together.  He typically rides in empty parking lots, so I figured we'd head over to a local business park where I could ride using the dreaded cages on my bike and work on getting my right foot in without panic.  And so off we went.

It took a few tries, but I was able to master getting in and out of the cages and had a hugely enjoyable ride.  With both feet properly in the cages, I could really feel a difference in speed, as well as how much easier it was on my left quad to not have my left foot being the only one in the cage doing all the work.  I zipped and zipped around the side streets and empty parking lots while the husband worked on mastering a "hang 5".  Some parts were tough when I was working against the wind, but ultimately it ended up being a good ride and I left feeling  confident instead of defeated.

^This is my happy bike face- complete with crazy helmet hair^

In other training news, I've been doing most of my bike training during the week in spin class.  I am not sure if it is an exact replacement, but it whoops my a** every single time!  I've never been so sweaty in my life!  I have also been doing the majority of my running on the treadmill due to weather and amount of daylight after I'm done working (though I'm happy that has recently changed and look forward to some outdoor runs soon).  I've stepped it up and realized that when I put my mind to it, I can run faster and for longer than I realized.  Running *really* is such a mind game.  Admittedly, I am not as great at "mind game" type sports as I am at other things.  Put a personal trainer in front of me and I will lift weights as hard and heavy as I can go.  I will kick and jump and punch with the best of them in kickboxing class.  But running is different, it's just you and your thoughts.  Your mind telling you what hurts, what you probably cannot accomplish, how out of breath you feel, etc. 

Swimming is going okay too.  I haven't exactly been using "drills" like last time, more just swimming up and down, down and back, freestyle for the most part, kickboard when I'm tired, backstroke when I'm not sharing the lane with anyone else (I'm a weaver when I swim on my back).  Last week's swim had me feeling really breathless. My allergies were acting up and you really need to have open nasal passages to feel like you can breathe when you are swimming.  If you rely on your mouth, your air gulps usually also contain a bit of water with them.  And today I woke up with a cold, so I'm even more stuffy and decided to spend most of the day parked on the couch, so I'll need to try to make up a swim this week if I feel up to it.  I started to try to time myself for the length of the swim for the first triathlon I'm doing, but got distracted when a rogue 5 year old went kamikaze and jumped into my lane, forcing his dad to go in after him.  Kind of killed my buzz, so I will try again this week.  

In race-related news, I have decided I'm not going to do the Ramblin' Rose Raleigh race.  For one, it's a mere two weeks after my first tri of the season.  Also, it falls on the same weekend that we are in Raleigh for a BMX contest that we've been helping out with for the last couple years.  My husband brings his bike and rides, and helps with setup and take down and somehow I have won myself the role of registration helper, so I generally sit in a tent all day and take money and talk to the riders (and a lot of parents, if the kids are under 18) and usually have a pretty decent spot to watch all the contests go down.  If I were to to the Raleigh tri, I'd basically be sprinting to the BMX event the minute I was done, looking like a drowned rat, with race legs, and probably starving, having gotten up at 0'dark thirty, and I just don't see it being an enjoyable day.  All that on a Sunday, then having to drive 3 hours to get home and work the next day.  Ugh.  It was stressing me out for weeks on end, and last week I missed the deadline to register before the price went up, so I considered it a sign and officially bowed out.  Also, the swim is outside.  While it will probably be "ok" by May 18th, it certainly won't be warm, and if it's a cold day, the thought of getting on my bike to "dry off" with it being possibly cool and windy sounds just AWFUL.  I really wish they would make this race in June.  Out of the entire series that runs from May to October, there are no races in June and two within two weeks in May.  Dumb.  Maybe I will volunteer or something, so I can scope it out for next year potentially, but still be able to bounce and show up at the BMX thing looking respectable, instead of looking like a wet version of Grumpy Cat.

So, the new race schedule includes one respectable race in May, all of June to train for the July race, then a race per month from July-October.  Then I'm going to drink a keg of beer all to myself in celebration.  Not really, I am a complete lightweight these days.  I'm talking fall asleep holding the first beer of the evening kind of lightweight.  What would my college-aged self say to this thirties version of myself?  The horror!!


I do see progress though, despite doubting myself at times.  For my very first tri, I did the bike ride in 33:25 and the run in 28:47.  On Saturday, I did a 9-mile bike ride in 29:30 and a 2 mile run (a couple walk intervals) in 26:27!  P-R-O-G-R-E-S-S!!  I really plan on using the May 5th race as a marker for what I need to work on for July, so I'm not going to sweat whatever the results are.  It's the first race of the "season" of races, and it's going to be in a very familiar place (our old neighborhood YMCA- where I do ALL my swim training), and the bike ride is through the area we used to live in, so I think it's going to be great.  I hope for great weather and a fun first time out on my new bike in a race.

Next up, mastering these guys.

Doubt is a Dirty Little Word

A few weeks ago, I bought a new bike.  Saturday was my first real ride.  I was so pumped.  I had a cute new jacket to wear (with THUMBHOLES- yay!)

I loaded up my new bike, and I was SO pumped.  I couldn't wait for our 10 mile, "easy" ride to see how going from a heavy hybrid bike last year to a feather-light road bike was going to feel.  I just KNEW it was going to make me tons faster.  After all, last year everyone kept telling me I was going to be unstoppable once I switched up to a road bike, and I believed them.  I was soooo hyped for this ride.  I had a new bike rack for my car, and my new girl was all loaded up (I'm still trying to come up with a name for her).

It was COLD at 7:45 that morning. 37 degrees and kind of windy- or at least windy when you're riding your bike.  I don't know.  I think I blanked out for the first few minutes.  It's hard to see in the picture, but I put pedals with "cages" on them on my bike.  When I was practicing with them in my neighborhood, it was a bit tricky at first to get my second foot in the cage while riding.  The foot you start off with is not hard, because you just shove it in there as you push off, but then you have to coordinate getting your other foot into the cage while riding.  The point of these stupid things is so that you get some movement and power from when you pull your legs up as well as when you push the pedals down, hence, making it easier to go faster.  I chose pedals with cages because I thought they would be easier to get in and out of than pedals that you clip into with your special bike shoes.  Also, I didn't really want to spend more money on special bike shoes, and, I like biking in my running shoes because that's one less thing to have to change out of during transition in the triathlon.

Anyway, I guess I just freaked out. The ride started out on a pretty busy main road by the bike shop.  I panicked and basically never got my right foot into the cage the entire time.  I was not in a good state.  Fortunately one of the awesome guys from the bike shop was sweeping (basically, he was escorting me while everyone else rode off into the sunset).  He told me it was no big deal that my foot wasn't in the cage and just to take it one pedal at a time.  He reminded me about changing my gears when I couldn't focus on anything other than the fact that my left quad was on fire- partially from spin class earlier that week, and that fire was totally stoked by the fact that my left leg was working harder since it was the one I kept in the cage.  There were hills.  I was an emotional mess.  I was mad at myself.  I was FAR more out of breath during certain points than I thought I'd be (though I think a lot of it was the result of nerves).  At one point, I considered just falling off my bike into a ditch and pretending I couldn't go on, but I'm not very good at lying, so I didn't want to make even more of a fool of myself. I finished the ride exhausted, in pain, and super annoyed with myself.  And by the way- cages SUCK.  I might as well get the stupid shoes and put the pedals back on my bike that I can clip into.  They can't be nearly as hard as squeezing my running shoe into a small wedge of plastic, and well, if I can't get unclipped in time and happen to fall off my bike- well, they say that you're not a true biker until it happens, so bring it on I guess. 

The spiral of doubt started on Saturday.  It was briefly interrupted when I attended the kick-off meeting for the new athletes on Saturday and got to meet and greet and see all the excited faces.  I got to talk and give tips and be excited for them.  Briefly, the doubt left my mind.  I did this last year.  Not all of the training that let me there was fun and fantastic- a lot of it was exhausting and challenging.  I guess I had forgotten that.  Sunday, we did the swimming assessments for the new athletes and I brought my swimming gear so I could get in a swim workout.  I felt out of breath.  My goggles were fogged up the whole time.  My new swimsuit is cut lower than my old one and there were several instances where I thought my boob might have popped out. 

I have skipped working out Mon-Wed of this week.  Why? I don't know.  I guess because of the doubt.  I started thinking, "What if I just don't do any freaking triathlons?"  Then I would feel awful and would be a failure.  So this afternoon I looked up all the courses and read about them and ran through the lists of people who had already signed up to see if I saw any familiar names.  I looked at the race results from last year, and you know what?  My time wasn't terrible.  1:14:00.  And I remembered that I did that with what was the worst case of swimmer's ear I have ever had.  Where I had a stick of cotton wedged in my ear by an urgent care doc to open up my ear canal.  I could not hear out of my right ear AT ALL.  Losing one of my senses really threw me that day, but I did the best I could.  And it wasn't terrible.   I think maybe the person who got first place did it in something like 45 minutes.  I also think she was 15.  I am cool with being 29 minutes behind a 15 year old for my very first tri.  All this made me very excited to see what I can do this year.  What if I got better at each and every race?  You know, assuming no dreaded flat tires on the bike route, this is entirely possible.

So, I am still shaky.  I still have no idea what's going to happen on that bike the next time I get out there.  I a still rattled that I had such a bad ride on Saturday.  I really am at a point where I feel like I am TOTALLY NOT READY.  I guess I didn't feel like this last year because I knew I had the whole 12 weeks to get ready, and this year I feel like I should be "born ready" since I've already done a triathlon, and the truth is, that is not the case.  Especially since I spent most of the winter only going to the gym very sporadically.  A lot of my training buddies have been on their bike trainers all winter, or running with special run training groups, or swimming every week all during the off season, and I didn't do all that.  There is nothing I can do about it now. 

All I can do is get out there and train hard until May 5th.  That's 41 days from now.  It's a lot of time, but also not much time.  I have to make the rest of my days count.   That means the rest of this week will need to be packed with workouts.  No more days off.  No more pity party.  I've got this.  No more doubt. 

Week 1 Training and 12 Week Training Plan

Week 1 of training ended right on schedule.  I got in a swim, a run, a bike and a bike/run combo.  That's a bare minimum week, and I'll work my way up.  I could definitely feel it in my workouts that I had been out of the loop for a while. I also needed new running shoes desperately, so that cut my running a little short during the week, but I was able to get new shoes over the weekend and have a great bike/run "brick" and another great run tonight as part of Week 2 training.  I'm doing interval running for now- usually run 2 minutes, walk 1 minute.  I hope to increase that time as I go and spread out the running to longer intervals.  I hope that at a minimum I'm able to run the whole time during the last 2-3 triathlons of the season, but it would be super great if I could run all of them.  It's not that far to run, it's just that it's after two other workouts, and for me in particular, the running part involves a lot of me dealing with my mind telling me I can't.  Some of it is more mental than physical, and I hope to make strides in this area this year.


I like to throw in some variety on some of my "free" days, so the plan is to incorporate variety workouts at least 1-2 times per week.  I'm also going to be sure to include some weekly yoga and/or stretching to the mix on slower days.  Last year, I did the bare minimum of swim, run, bike and bike/run each week.  There weren't really many weeks where I did more than that.  I also ate like crap most of that time.  I was able to finish the triathlon, but because I didn't eat great, I didn't always feel great when I trained, and I think it kept me from progressing much.  That being said, the bare minimum with no real nutrition plan will be enough for you to complete a sprint triathlon, but it might not be pretty, or you might not feel your best.

Here is the plan I've mapped out for this time around.  It gradually builds up and incorporates some things other than swimming, biking or running on "off" days.  Some ideas for what to do on those days would include kickboxing class, Zumba, Yoga, Pilates, etc.  Also, I will probably consider adding some weight training 1-2 times per week.

	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Week 1	Swim	Rest	Run/Walk	Bike	Rest	Rest	Bike/Run "Brick"
Week 2	Swim	Rest	Run/Walk	Bike	Variety Workout	Rest	Bike/Run "Brick"
Week 3	Swim	Variety Workout	Run/Walk	Bike	Rest	Yoga or Stretching	Bike/Run "Brick"
Week 4	Swim	Rest	Run/Walk	Bike	Variety Workout	Rest	Bike/Run "Brick"
Week 5	Swim	Variety Workout	Run/Walk	Bike	Rest	Yoga or Stretching	Bike/Run "Brick"
Week 6	Swim	Variety Workout	Run/Walk	Bike	Variety Workout	Stretch	Bike/Run "Brick"
Week 7	Swim	Variety Workout	Run/Walk	Bike	Yoga or Stretching	Rest	Swim/Bike/Run
Week 8	Swim	Variety Workout	Run/Walk	Bike	Swim	Rest	Bike/Run "Brick"
Week 9	Swim	Variety Workout	Run/Walk	Bike	Swim	Rest	Bike/Run "Brick"
Week 10	Swim	Variety Workout	Run/Walk	Bike	Swim	Rest	Bike/Run "Brick"
Week 11	Swim	Variety Workout	Run/Walk	Bike	Swim	Rest	Bike/Run "Brick"
Week 12	Swim	Rest	Run/Walk	Bike	Yoga or Stretching	Rest	TRIATHLON!