But I’ve been busy… see… since last Thursday…
Friday, I got up early and ran sprints at the track, same program as last week (100×2, 200×2, 400×2, 800×1, and back down, with equal recovery walk/jogs in between, about 45 mins. After work, we went downtown for fancypants dinner at Gumbo’s. I indulged and had a slice of bread, a crab cake, and bite of cheesecake, but I stuck to greek salad, filet mignon, and veggies so it wasn’t all bad. Noticed that I’m not used to a big dinner anymore and it actually felt really bad on the ol’ tum tum. Here is me fancied up!
Saturday, we tackled a 20 mile ride in the neighborhood (I reset back to 20, Zliten and I are going to work back up in 5 mile increments). It was a nice mellow ride that took about an hour and a half. Then, I got a haircut which I am MAD happy with (the last one traumatized me a little, it was a drastic change), and she even dried it straight for me. My poor hair will never look this nice again, I so don’t have the patience for it. I’m so so so thrilled it turned out awesome. Haircuts kinda traumatize me…
Then had lunch with friends (chicken taco salad – good. Corn chips – bad), and then got some shoppings done. We were real adults and purchased a for real pot and pan set (a good one), and various and sundry other things that we needed and spent way too much money. Then, we fired up the grill and had friends over, brought our TV and PS3 outside to the patio, and played Katamari Damacy, Trivial Pursuit (I won 3 out of 4 games, wheee!) and ate ribs and stuffed peppers and (organic) corn, and broccoli salad and boozed it up a little (rum + coconut La Croix + lime + stevia = MAGIC), until I got sleepytired and passed out happily. Thought I learned my lesson from the big dinner the day before? No way. I ate way too much.
Sunday, this made me feel kinda crappy, but I managed. We ordered some chinese food (chicken in black bean sauce, brown rice, eggdrop soup, good. Eggroll? Not so…) and proceeded to chill all day. I got groceries, did laundry, and basically chilled out all day watching star trek and dorking on the internet. Dinner was pretty epic – mahi mahi with a side of veggies and brown rice pasta w/olive oil, garlic, and parm. cheese. OM NOM NOM.
Monday, I did 45 mins on the bike doing hills and I think busted my pace record at 18.9 mph average. 19 SOMEDAY (maybe next week?)!!! Then, had a pretty brutal crunch time class as usual. Eats were fairly unremarkable, normal yogurt and berries breakfast (trying to eliminate the oats), soup and salad lunch, and a repeat of the awesome chicken tostada I made last week + a little extra bowl of nommies.
Tuesday, I got up and did 9 miles. Honestly? Wasn’t as hard as it has been. I’m getting heat acclimated fo sho, and this was the first time trying the coconut water and BOY DID IT HELP. Some weird body sensations/feelings were absent and I’m thinking… mild electrolyte imbalance/heat exhaustion? Maybe. My 9 miler was slow as molasses (11:20 pace), but if you apply the 20% rule, it actually was more like low to mid 9s. Which is way faster than I would normally kick out a long run like that. So, I’m either getting heat acclimated, faster, or both. I actually felt pretty great after the run! I had a mega smoothie w/cherries, pineapple, and mango to go with my protein powder, pb, and banana, lunch was veg. curry (which honestly ended up with a few too many grains, lentils, a small amount of rice, AND a flatbread, but thems the breaks when you don’t have meat to compensate…). Dinner was a very yummy dish of crab legs, drawn butter, homemade mashed potatoes, and normandy veggies. More OM NOM NOM indeed.
Wednesday I was feeling kinda wiped so I took it easy. 20 min weight sesh instead of 45 like I wanted (but did lots of combo exercises so I was sufficiently worked), and an easy 30 min swim (only 1400 yd). I really need to put in some more quality swims before the tri Oct 1, but it’s hard with all the running and biking and weights. Priorities. The swim is only 10-ish mins of the tri so it’s hard to justify spending a lot of time on it. Eats included picking up bbq from Rudys (chopped beef, turkey, coleslaw, beans – good. One slice of bread, creamed corn – not so), normal yogurt and berry breakfast, and homemade chicken taco salads for dinner. We stayed late at work and played a game called munchkin with some coworkers. Oh man, so much fun. Started at 7:30… didn’t finish until almost midnight which is WAY past my bedtime.
Yesterday was sprints at the track (400, 800, 1600, 800, 400 w/400 in between). I’ll talk about this more next week but it was pain, but went by fast. With the 20% rule, I was happy with my splits (my last 400 was like a 6:30 min/mile pace, with the 20% rule of course). Lunch with the girls at the company and had an amazeballs greek salad w/chicken, but splurged and had a mini-brownie cupcake thing which was SO WORTH IT (best desert I’ve had in forevs). Dinner was grilled chicken (holy god, organic chicken is expensive but SO WORTH IT – the taste was like finally tasting filet mignon after eating hamburger all these years….), leftover mashed potatoes, and normandy vegs. There may have been a few drinks due to work stressin’ me out, but early to bed as I was EXHAUSTIMACATED!!!
So, that’s pretty much the last week. Eats generally good, but not angelic. Workouts, on pace and on plan. Work and life – busy as usual.
Some deep thoughts:
-Need to continue with the running and biking outside. It’s part of my plan to not be such a wimp this year with conditions. Austin has about 3 good running months in the spring and about 2 in the fall. I refuse to spend 7 months of my life indoors anymore. I have beat the heat, I can (ulp, way worse for me) beat the cold.
-With work/life being summer crazy, I think I’m scrapping the Olympic Tri idea this year. I can train distances all I want for fun, but it takes a certain amount of hours to put them together that I don’t have/don’t want to give up right now.
-However, this recent conquering of both morning running and not-so-ideal conditions is making me consider that 2012 may be the year of the marathon. 9 miles is far from 26.2, but I think this might be the time where I don’t get up to 13.1 and just want to die after. I’m training smart this summer and not biting off more than I can chew with tris and races and whereas I was getting burnt out last year, I am feeling invigorated and fresh (again, I’m over 1.5 months out of my two October races). Slowing down in the heat is actually making me appreciate running for running sake again, not a goal pace or time, just getting out, enjoying the morning, and running more by feel. If I keep with THAT mentality, I might be able to do it instead of being a dummy and trying to push my pace hard. I can take walk breaks or go snail pace if needed. The great thing about my first marathon is it will be a PR!
-While I have not made progress on the scale – my legs are getting super buff and there is way less to pinch. I’ve been having some weird stomach bloaty things this week, but I still feel a bit less in the waist too. I’ll take it!
This weekend – Harry Potter, 25 mile ride, lunch and games with parents, bbq, and then a nice relaxing Sunday… what are y’all doing this weekend?
Miz
holy moly you do more in a weekend than I do in a month!!
and you look so beautiful doing it as well.
Loving the superbuff legs shoutout too.
Carla
Felice
Your hair looks great!
Good luck beating the heat and the cold. Beat ’em down! Run, run, run!