This week started a little off (racing, and thus drinking copious amounts of champagne on a Sunday always does that to me), but we rocked it out of the park anyway.

Monday, we were pretty sore so we decided to skip kickboxing or any other formal exercise.  Instead, we hit up Costco for some bulk shopping goodness.  After a day of rest I was ready for a run Tuesday morning – it was definitely a run roulette, there’s been rain on the forecast just about every day this week, and it was cloudy and ready to dump.  However, I discovered that I don’t melt, and since my electronics are waterproof, I was able to knock out 7.1 miles slow (around 11 min mile pace).  It was a nice pace for me, I felt like I could go forever, but my legs didn’t want to go faster.  It was a great morning run!

I was going to spin that evening to make up for missing Monday, but I was pretty tired so I just rested.  Wednesday was a nice long strength session at the gym in the evening (pushups have made a comeback – I need to get better at them – I used to be able to do 3×20 no problem, and right now I barely have 3×12 in me…), and decided to just knock out a half-iron distance swim (2000 yds) – 200 EZ, 200 drill, 200 fast, repeat 3x, cooldown 200 EZ.  Thursday ended up being my epic day of making up workouts, with a 60 min group power class in the morning, and a double brick in the evening (15 mins on bike trainer, 1 mile all out run x 2).

After this epic 4-workouts in 24 hours thing, I was pretty exhausted and took a rest day on Friday.  Oddly enough, ended up at Costco again.  We washed the bikes and packed up for the next morning.  Almost felt like packing up for a race – except without the packet pickup and race shirt (maybe we should make our own, heh).

First Annual Lake Zliten and Quix Lake Pflugerville Practice Olympic Triathlon GO!

We had a back to back to back day of plans so our goal was to get out to Lake Pflugerville and be swimming by 8am.  Well, we slept in and couldn’t get going, so we got there more like 9:15 and were in the water closer to 9:30.  However, there was a “Walk for the Kidneys” event going on, plus there were a few tri groups training, so it was probably for the best that we got a late start.

We took the swim nice and slow.  This was Zliten’s first open water swim over 500m, and his longest swim to date, so I stayed with him.  We practiced stretches of freestyle between breaststroke breaks, and sighting.  Often he was going out to oblivion and I had to call him back.  However, we made it through 3 laps of the 500m course in about 45 mins (a guess, we didn’t pay attention to time) and got out and got ready for the bike.

We did not do traditional fast-as-you-can transitions, we probably took about 20 mins slowly getting ready, getting the bikes off the rack, pumping up  the tires, reparking the car not in the mud (since a lot of the kidney walk peeps had left), etc.  Once we finished all that, we were off.  It was a beautiful day, and we took our usual course for the first 7-ish miles, then made a left instead of a straight to get extra distance.  We held a 17-ish mph pace for the first half, but slowed on the second half as we came back right into the headwind.  The goal was 15 mph, and we hit it at an average speed of 15.3 for 20.15 miles.  An Olympic is usually closer to 25 miles, but we didn’t want to deal with busy roads, and really? 20 was close enough.

I was worried that we might be beat after the bike, especially Zliten after his longest swim ever, but we felt pretty good.  I had eaten 3 nutter butter cookies and had a few sport beans, and had a 200-cal bar for breakfast + some caffeine, so I felt pretty fueled and peppy, but the last time I ran after biking out here I felt soooo terrible and could barely make myself go.

Not the case that day.  We started out slow, around 11:20s, but quickly found our pace that day around 10:50s.  I think my avg pace read 10:52 from about mile 2-5.  I think there were both times that we felt like we could go faster, but tried to hold it to easy pace.  Zliten commented that it was a shame that we had people waiting for us, because he wanted to try to do a longer run after having a really nice, comfortable first lap around 32-ish min for 3 miles.  Then, the sun came out and started beating down on us – mile 5 was the longest mile EVAR.

However, I started feeling peppy again in the last mile and around 5.5 I broke away and started sprinting for 6.  I was actually hungry (the only thing I ate on the run was a small squish of Zliten’s gel) and in my head, the sooner I finished, the sooner I could eat.  I finished around 1:04 for the 6 miles – avg 10:45 pace.  With more nutrition… maybe I could have done another lap?

I was tired, but not exhausted-collapse-at-the-finish-and-lay-there-for-an-hour like I did at the TX Olympic Tri a year and a half ago, not to mention that we finished almost an hour quicker (I was 4:04 for that, and we did this in 3:08-ish, not counting transitions).

I feel pretty confident after that practice that the half iron is actually in my grasp this year.  The bike is still what I feel like I need the most work at (I’m super comfortable with the swim and run distance stand alone, but biking 56 miles is only something I’ve done twice and been uber tired after), but I’ve got a few months.

I feel like I need to work on 3 aspects the most – 1) cycling longer distances and time in the saddle, need to get used to a few hours (read: 40-50 miles) of cycling 2) running on tired legs and keeping up my distances and 3) strength… the stronger I am overall, the better equipped I will be to maintain a 7-ish hour effort.

No Rest For The Wicked

We rinsed off in the outdoor shower and changed and headed to early Mother’s Day lunch with my parents.  We had packed a sunbutter and jelly sandwich, and while I felt kinda silly eating on the way to lunch, I had a PIT in my stomach from an approximate 2000 calorie burn that morning, so it worked.  We enjoyed many, many plates of food at the soup and salad bar, and relaxed the afternoon away playing games.  I even had the energy to be bouncy.

We got home about 7:30, and we had a graduation party to go to, but we decided first we needed a quiet drink on the patio first.  It was a nice breath of calm before we headed back out into the crazy, and found that since the party was going for about 4 hours, it was pretty raging.  We weren’t sure if we were going to stay long (ya know, epic day and all), but I ended up being able to push through and we had quite a good time!

Today we have done a whole lotta nothing.  We attempted to pick up our disaster of a house and deal with the laundry pile, and we made a little progress, but that fell by the wayside due to important duties like eating, napping, and watching TV in bed.  Y’know, the important stuff.

While I enjoyed my day o relaxing a LOT, I also felt really bummed that it was such a beautiful day and I culdn’t be out again at the lake swimming, biking, or runniing.  A sickness, I has it.

Randomness

I want to stay here – it’s only 15k per person for a week.  No big d.  What wealthy benefactor wants to surprise us with 2 tickets?  For that price, their private jet picks you up, you get a stay for 2 nights in the underwater room, 4 nights on land, all the water activities you can do (lookie Zliten I didn’t say watersports, apparently that means something dirty and not, like, scuba diving, snorkeling, and personal sub-ing), all your food, drink, and most spa treatments.  I want to do this so badly… I’m not sure the price of a car is ever something I could consider dropping on a 1 week vacation, but it definitely would be an experience.

I cooked some freaking awesome black pepper chicken with baby bok choy in garlic sauce tonight, and served it with this brown rice/quinoa stuff I found at Costco.  Om. Nom. Nom.  So good.  I haven’t cooked Asian-y food much lately, and I may have to change that.

Is there anything you can do with old spoiled wine?  We found some in the garage that had been there for a few years in the hot and cold and hot and cold.  It was cheap wine to begin with, but now it’s probably spoiled.  Any suggestions on how to use it, or should I just dump it out?

Nacho kitty (other-wise known as kittyface this week) and Iguana Donna met today (through the glass, the iguana is strictly indoor except for rare, very supervised and short trips outside and the cat is strictly outdoor).  There was much hissing and puffing, but dang she looked pretty.  I do not think they are going to be BFFs, which is fine.

Speaking of Nacho, she has become extremely friendly and expects love and pets when we’re outside and pretty much exclusively lives in our mud room.  She likes to headbutt the sliding glass door when we come by, and actually is entrance and meows at me when I sing Nyan Cat to her.  Never thought I’d enjoy having a cat, but this one is a pretty bomb diggety feline.  I’m definitely in camp dog still, but… this one seriously might be part dog.

Back to back races can’t get much more different than a slow metric century ride one weekend, and a super sprint tri the next, but that’s how the schedule lined up.  Until last week, my goal was just to make a strong effort, and then, I got wicked stupid times in my head with my performance lately on the trainer and some superfast run speeds.  I even took an extra rest day to see if I could be even more rested to kick my 1:17:43 square in the ass (though, to be fair, I spent the morning before the race cleaning the garage and the afternoon running errands… so…).

We were UNREASONABLY excited for this race.  First (real) tri of the season, we’re both feeling great, and there were many chants of ROOKIE ROOKIE ROOKIE ROOKIE around the Quix-Zliten household.

Then, Friday, I feel like UTTER SHIT.  Sore throat, achey, ex-friggen-hausted, and I got really bummed because I figured I had to be coming down with something.  Skipped everything besides work that I planned to do for the day, went to bed at 10pm, and slept 10.5 hours and THANKFULLY woke up feeling like myself.  Really weird.

We’re refining the pre-race strategy.  Having a really big late lunch and not much dinner worked for us.  I had yogurt/apple/pb for breakfast, and steak, bread, salad, potato, a few bites of desert around 3:30pm, and that was most of my food for the day.  I had a roll with cream cheese a few hours before bed, but that’s it.  I felt GREAT both the day before and on race day.  Poo happened in the AM well before the race, no tummy issues during the whole thing, and I didn’t feel like SUPER BLOAT like I do sometimes when fueling up.

Sadly, the weather outlook went from ok, to sketchy, to terrifying.  Enter 2:45 am thunderbooms, lightning lighting up the bedroom, and torrential rains.  I got up, checked the weather, checked social media for any race updates, and then tried to go back to bed.  Instead, I just kept practicing the transitions in my head for 30 mins until the alarm went off.  Worst night of pre-race sleep EVER.

However, I was UP and AWAKE and we were actually ready so early we sat around after loading the bikes and stuff up because the parking wouldn’t be open yet.  That is a race first for us non-early birds.  I kept relentlessly checking the weather, and it said it would stop around 7.  Race was around 8.  I had faith.

We got there, got a pretty pimp parking spot, and decided on what to do.  I wanted to claim a bike spot but not set up transition yet, and Zliten wanted to set up transition.  After walking over in the rain, we decided that my course of action was the most prudent.  We were WET and had not thought to bring a tarp like some folks.  Then, it was more time sitting in the car, bouncing up and down, and willing the weather to be better.

At 7am, we just had to bite the bullet and do it.  I laid out my stuff, but instead of as planned, put my shoes upside down and my socks inside them, and covered everything with my backpack.  I also left the plastic bags tied on over my seat and aero bars/bento box.  Oops.

We found a dry overhang and chilled there, and the rain got a little lighter.  Then, we walked down to the water and met up with a few friends who were also there, and just tried to keep moving and stay loose.  The race was delayed 30 mins due to lightning to the south east, just to make sure it didn’t blow in our way.  With all this excitement, I didn’t get a warmup bike, run, and they weren’t letting people in the water early, so no swim.  I should have ran, especially once the race was delayed, but I didn’t put together the fact that I should actually have done it until it was too late.  Oh well.

Finally, we got the word that we were a-go.  Zliten was in the third wave, so I watched him go off, and then just ran through the race in my head.  Back and outside on the swim, don’t worry about finding a lane on the swim or getting ahead, just swim smart.  Cap and goggles off on the run up to t1, 5 (racks up) 2 (racks across).  Garmin, sock, shoe, sock, shoe, helmet, glasses, grab bike, go.  Bike safe in the rain.  Stop pushing hard on the bike on the last mile.  Rack bike, shoe off, shoe on, shoe off, shoe on, grab race belt + visor and run.  Run as hard as you can, don’t save anything.  You can do anything for 2 miles, you can guts out a 2 mile run no big d.  Finish with everything you have!

Then, as the wave before us went, and we stepped into the water, I turned off my brain and went into execution mode.  I found a good spot in the back half on the outside, waited for the countdown, and off we went.  I felt more comfortable swimming in open water that day than I ever had, no nerves at all.  There was some jostling for most of the short 300m swim, and some people SWIMMING BACKSTROKE AND BREAST STROKE in the middle of the pack (grr) but I just kept on going.  I remember last year I got out completely brain-out-of-my-body winded, this year I swam more conservatively and got out feeling warmed up.  I ran up the hill, hit transition, and didn’t execute perfectly (fumbled with garmin, had to HULK SMASH rip bags off my bike I forgot about ), but did MUCH better than last year, and got out to the road quickly.

I also fumbled a little bit mounting the bike.  I was on the wrong side, my pedals didn’t want to clip in after running through the mud, but I got going.  I had just the night before set a new field on my garmin: average speed.  THIS.  THIS A LOT.  It’s easy to get frustrated seeing a low speed going up a hill, or get lulled into a false sense of security seeing high numbers on a downhill, but it was nice to see it start around 15 mph and slowly creep towards 18, and then almost 20 as I got going.  I rocked the rollers in the first 5 miles, though I did take the downhills slow because, y’know, riding through little streams makes me nervous.

Then, we got to what they named Carnage Hill.  You have to slow to take the sharp right turn, and then it’s a STEEP ASS LONG HILL.  Couple that with the rain, I got around it, got a little up it, and unclipped and ran instead.  I had visions of getting so slow I was wobbling and my legs being too tired to unclip and falling over and getting run over by eager cyclists… yeah, no.  I felt like a wuss doing it, but it was the safe bet.  And, I passed most of the jerks that passed me chugging up the hill within a mile because my legs were fresh.

I ate a few powerbar cola caff chews, and note to self: eating on a hard fast ride is not as easy as a slow one – I almost choked a few times.  Maybe gels are better for sprints.  I also got a little stitch in my side – my hindsight guess is not enough hydration.  This stuck with me for the rest of the race, but it wasn’t too bad.  The second half of the course was hillier, and I had forgotten about the double hill of doom (you ride up one, and as you’re about to breathe a sigh of relief as you crest, you see a worse one), but 11 miles passed quickly.  I saw Zliten on the run as I was coming in with the bike and shouted at him and he waved.  I unclipped well before the line and dismounted and headed into t2.

This one went like clockwork.  Bike racked, helmet off, shoe off, shoe on, shoe off, shoe on, grab race belt and visor and roll out.  For those of you who have never done a tri you won’t understand (as I didn’t before), but the best way I’ve heard it described is that the gravity in transition feels about 5x as heavy as it does on the course.  Everything in you wants you to stop and rest, or at least slow down.  However, it’s SO MUCH MORE EFFICIENT to fly through transitions and recover on the course at 15mph or 10 min/miles while you get your bearings.

I got on the run course, and saw my pace dropping to where it should and then the hill of doom, which made my stitch go OWWWW.  I powered through the best I could and got ready to kill it on the downhill – which I had forgotten was on STICKS and now MUD.  And I chose to wear my minimalist shoes.  I flew as fast as I could, but I almost twisted my ankle 5 times and got a little discouraged in the first mile.  I fought a few negative thoughts halfway through, and just concentrated on going as fast as I could.  Once I hit the pavement and solid ground, I starting fucking flying to the finish.  I went from about a 10:15 avg overall to sub 10 in that last stretch (haven’t analyzed the garmin data, but I imagine it’s all 8s and 7s the last 1/3 mile).  I sprinted my ass into the finish and for the first time in a tri – Zliten was at the finish to cheer me in!

Results were:

1:14:12 overall (1:17:43 last year, so 3:31 faster)

SWIM: 7:31 for 300m – 2:30 per 100 (7:14 last year, so 17 seconds slower.  Oops, a little more juice on the swim next time)

T1 – 3:18 (6:30 last year – so 3:12 faster!!!)

BIKE: 42:19 for 11.2 miles – 15.9 mph (42:31 last year, so 13 seconds faster.  Last year was in perfect conditions, where this year was a mess.  I’ll take it, especially because some time here was due to pedal awkwardness)

T2 – 1:32 (2:04 last year – 32 seconds faster.  Even changing shoes, where I didn’t last year)

RUN: 19:31 for the 2 miles – 9:46 pace (19:21 last year, so 10 seconds slower. Bah)

The rankings are confusing.  For 30-34 women that have completed a tri before, I was 15/28.  I was 238 overall out of 815.  I was 6 mins faster than the average woman.

So as you can see, I pretty much PR’d by fixing my transitions!  I went from happy I PR’d to sad I didn’t PR more to content with my performance.  I’m really hungry to just NAIL one of these sprint tris and have the combo of a perfect day + perfect weather = ridic PR, but my eyes are on the prize.  Sept 30th is the half iron, the rest of these are playtime.

Also 10 lbs heavier this year did not impact my performance in the slightest.  Even though I had some lower numbers in my head that were reasonable if I had a stellar race day, but once the pouring rain started, I abandoned them for simply a PR and a safe finish and I have to remember that.  I have 3 more sprints this year to tear up!

Next major race is Pflugerville in 40-ish days.  Goals are:

-Beat my time last year – 1:40:35 (they didn’t record splits, just overall due to a timing chip error)

-Run the 5k under 10 min miles.  The last leg of my tri is the bane of my existence.  I lose it.  It’s part mental, and it’s part chowing down on the bike so I don’t hit the despair point that I’ve found is related to low blood sugar.  Also, this trail slows me down.  I will be running it a few times before race day.  I know I have WAY more than a sub 10 minute 5k in me on tired legs, but I have yet to execute, so let’s start there.

-18 mph on the bike.  This course doesn’t have stupid hills, and as long as we don’t get hit with 20+ mph winds like last year, I should dominate this.  We do EZ rides on this at 15mph+ now.

-11 min swim.  I want to push a little harder on the swim.  It’s all well and good to save myself for later, but it is a race..

-Transitions that feel as expedient.  Also, getting there super early so I can get a spot right next to the bike out/bike in.

-I may change my mind on this, but conquering the party trick of rubber banding my shoes to the pedals and putting them on after I get on the course instead of struggling with them at the mount line.

That looks like about a 1:33.  So A+) under 1:30, A) under 1:35, B) PR, C) Strong finish.

This weekend we’re doing a practice Olympic tri, and the next weekend we’re racing a 5k.  All race recaps all the time around here, but hey, it’s what I do.

This was an outtake, but I have to share.  I’m not sure what sort of look I’m giving Evilbike, or why, but it’s not good.  Hahaha!

So all in all, a great first tri of the season, and in 6 weeks, I’ll be ready to crush another one!

Can’t lie, I was actually a little nervous about this one since the last metric century ride a month ago.

1.  I know now how much it hurts to ride 60+ miles.  The first one was great because I was blissfully ignorant, having never done more than 35.  This time, I knew how hard the end would be.  I knew how wasted I would be the next day.  I knew I was in for 4-5 hours of biking.  It took me 8 months to decide to do a second half marathon after my first one.  It’s taking me 2 years to get back to an Olympic tri.  But this year is about building a massive endurance base, so my recovery time was one month for this new and challenging distance.

2. While we have most definitely got more bike time this month, it’s all been right around 1 hour or less – which didn’t leave me feeling confident that I was any more ready to be on the bike for 4-5 times that.

3. Feeling much better about the clipless pedals, but was still nervous about how I would do on tired legs.

Gear: blue north face shirt, pearl izumi bike shorts, moving comfort bra, bento box with nutter butters, chips ahoy, power bar caffeinated gel bites (cola and strawberry banana), pb pretzels, sesame sticks, solids, candied mango slices, and quench gum.  I even stashed some extra in my camelback which also had my chapstick, biofreeze wipes, an extra tube (we had 4 total), my compression sleeves, and it was full of icewater + grape nuun.  Also had an extra b0ttle of icewater on the bike.

Notes:

-I expect my nike dri fit tanks to take the place of this north face shirt as my faves, but it’s the lightest, comfiest, most wicking shirt I own and I didn’t want to try anything new and be stuck hating life for a long time, so I bit the bullet and wore the same thing.  Yes,  I do actually think about things like this for the race pics.

-I way overpacked food.  This time, I really enjoyed the powerbar gel chews, the nutterbutter cookies, and the orange slices at the aid stations.  I think I’ve learned what I love the most are new things and things at the aid stations, not what I liked last time, heh.  However, it was really good to have options.

We ended up not being able to fall asleep until way, way too late the night before, so we got a late start.  I think I’ve perfected my morning food routine though – the oat-mega bar was great on my tummy and a caff tea late got me going great.  We got to the race, which started at a high school, with just a little to spare.  After hitting the bathrooms (inside the school, which was really nice instead of porta potties), we got back to the car, geared up, chatted with the couple next to us (they were also doing the 63), had one more potty trip for Zliten, and we ended up starting with the family ride in the back.  Bah.

That made for dodging and weaving a lot in the first few miles which was sort of annoying, but kept us from getting out too fast.  I did a lot of “on your lefts”.  There was a lot of inconsiderate riding, like people riding 4-5 across slowly and taking up the whole road so it was hard to pass, or people riding REALLY slow on the lefthand side (note: it’s like in a car – you pass on the left, then move back to the right).  I was really happy when we got ~7 miles up and lost the family 14 mile ride folks.

The first 30 miles were strong as hell.  I had to reign Zliten in a little bit from going too fast in miles 10-20, I didn’t want to feel like I was pushing myself at all in the first half since I remembered how FREAKING HARD the second half was last time.  We varied each mile but every 20 mins, we were steadily hitting 5 miles +/- a few seconds, rocking our 15mph goal pace.  It was great.  It was looking like we were going to cut an hour or more off the time and finish in just over 4 hours.

We had determined to take as few stops as possible and keep them short, so we passed the first 2 rest stops and only hit one up at around 26 because Zliten needed to pee.  I had been dreaming about orange slices for about an hour and the station had them.  Hooray!  Speaking of nutrition, I learned the last ride that you just have to keep eating.  I took a caffeinated chew at 10 and 30, and popped cookies and pretzels and mango snacks as I remembered.   I didn’t feel like I needed it and almost felt bad eating so much so fast but I knew that by the time I was hungry, it was too late.  Also, the scenery was GORGEOUS.  Beautiful Texas countryside.  I look down a LOT on the bike because I’m a scaredy biker but I couldn’t help but notice the awesome.

Then, we hit the wall.  A big wall of WIND.  Somehow, we kept heading directly into the wind.  This is also the section where the most uphill sections were – nothing that would faze me normally, but add ~15 MPH headwinds and 30+ miles on my legs already and the fatigue set in.  My hands started to ache, my neck started to hurt, as well as my hips, back, and quads.   We slowed way down and kept losing ground.  From mile 30-35, we lost a whole 4 minutes on a pace we were easily keeping before.  And it just kept getting worse.

I also started getting really loopy.  Zliten gets kinda quiet during these middle miles, and I get delirious and talky.  It works.  I like to sing songs like “I wear spandex and I know it” (sung to Sexy and I Know It) or make new lyrics like “At the Copa, Copa Cabana, the hottest spot in Havana, they dance and they sing and they do lots of things THAT ARE MORE FUN THAN FUCKING BIKING UPHILL IN THE WIND”.  I also get the mouth of a sailor apparently.  I’m pretty sure my f-bomb count was at least in the triple digis.  Fuck you wind, fuck you hills, fuck you bumpy fucking roads, fuck green guy who was going 2 miles an hour on the left…  Really, how I keep myself sane on the bike is keeping myself amused.  It’s not going to be pretty when I have to ride long distances solo…

We took an aid station around mile 44 and saw our car neighbors.  They were holding together well!  I was almost out of nuun, so I filled my camelback halfway with gatorade.  It was like mana from heaven.  We didn’t want to lag too much so we took off quickly.  The despair hit then.  We were slow.  It was hilly.  There was still headwind, and it seemed like every time we’d get respite it was for a quarter of a mile or less, and then back in.  I kept getting ahead because I just wanted to be DONE and then I’d have to stop and wait.  Sometimes I’d get behind.  One fork wasn’t marked so we had to stop to check the map.  The miles went slow.  I just wanted to see the mile on my Garmin change to 50-something, and once it did, I got a little  boost.

We had yet to really take a real rest, so we were going to do that at the next rest stop.  Well, it didn’t come.  Around mile 53.5 there was a nice flat patch of grass, so we made our own.   We sat down for about 5 mins, stretched, downed a bunch of gatorade, ate more food, waved at passerbys, and I got my wind back.

After we took off here, I had lots of energy left but Zliten was still pooped.  The wind subsided a bit.  I kept both shoving food in my mouth (I tried to eat a bite of something each mile), singing silly songs to myself and I kept going fast because I just wanted to be done, and then I’d get so far ahead of Zliten I couldn’t see him, and then I had to stop and wait.  Aero position was my friend at the end, my palms felt bruised.  My legs actually stopped hurting this late in the game, but my lower back and neck definitely didn’t, but it was nothing I couldn’t handle.  Zliten, however, was having to stop occasionally because of leg cramps.  When I saw him get super slow and looking rough I would make him get off the bike and stretch.

When we hit 60 it was even worse.  Zliten slowed to a crawl and all.I.wanted.to.do.was.FINISH so I kept speeding up and having to stop.  We hit 61, then 62, then 63… then 64…. then 65… finally we saw the turn in to the school (on the back end, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR NOT MAKING US DEAL WITH TRAFFIC ON TIRED LEGS!!!!) and we crossed the finish together, touched down, and DRANK ALL THE GATORADE and ate the crap out of a bag of fritos.

My time biking was about 5:07, I think Zliten’s was about 5:19 (I stopped mine when I was stopped), and total time out on the course was about 5:50.  A little faster than the Rosedale for like 4 more miles, and in worse conditions (I hate you WIND).  My goal was simply to finish faster, and no crashes, and mission accomplished.

I liked the course, and the support, and it was a great ride on a great day.  Next year, perhaps we’ll undertake the 100 miler!  If it fits within our training and racing plans next year, we will definitely do this one!  A sweet tech tee with the course map on it also definitely helped my favorable opinion… I’ll just hope for less wind…

From there, we went to see my ‘rents (who live up there) to shower, eat pizza and ice cream, and play games.  From THERE, we hit up a friend’s BBQ for dinner, although it was very short lived – we both stayed away from sitting so we didn’t crash, but Zliten made the mistake of sitting down for a sec and then realized he needed to get home.  We had another invite to the bar, but we just couldn’t hack it.  We were totally beat.  We sat on the patio, popped some champagne, and enjoyed the evening watching tri videos on youtube.

I’m a lot more confident about the 56 miles of riding for the half iron after this ride.  It was less hard than I remembered the first one being, even with the wind.  While I didn’t feel like I was ready to run a half marathon, I did feel like I could knock out a few slow miles without dying (and if I would have had shoes with, we would have).  And I have 5 months to train from here.

Today, I have sat my ass on the couch besides a trip to the gym to use the hot tub, for a well deserved rest day.

Less than a week until Rookie Tri – the first tri of the season.  300m swim, 11 mile bike, 2 mile run.  My goal is to race it hard, so that I don’t have any of the “that’s all I get to do?” feelings I have now… and to beat my time from last year, of course.

Is it weird that if I see this and think about running, I sigh exasperatedly, but if I think about biking them, I get all wiggly with excitement.  Maybe I need to run hills once a week in the off season next year like I did with biking.

FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT

I usually blather about diet and exercise and races first, but as was pointed out to me by my lovely husband, “there’s nothing more boring than someone else’s diet or workout” (although, that’s why you all come here, right? RIGHT?) so perhaps I’ll lead with something else for a change.

Vacations, I has planned them.  Usually, we have lots of little random weekends out of town here or there for races or other reasons, but this year, we just *don’t*.  So, since I’m NOT OK with my first vacay of the year being in August, we decided to do a few mini trips:

First up next month – spa weekend here.  Looking forward to fancy hotel, dinner, spa, dance lessons?, and just chillaxing over a long weekend.

Then in June – camping.  We finally bought a tent, so we’re out to camp at least 2-3 times this year (and this would make it twice).  This place is so close to home, but feels like a nice escape away into the wilderness.

True story – I haven’t been camping except for one nighters which were basically just excuses for going out into the wilderness and getting drunk.  So I had to ask Zliten what the second day was for.  He went into hiking/running trails, swimming, canoe/kayak rentals, and just relaxing with a kindle and this view.  After that, I was on board, and yet again, wiggly with excitement!

That should tide me over until August and September vacays – which are San Diego and Alaskan Cruise times, respectively.  Don’t even get me started on how excited I am about running my first out of state half marathon in SD, biking and running amongst the glaciers training on the cruise, and going snorkeling in Alaska!

Aight, so now onto real life stuff… training, and food, and races, oh my.

PRACTICE RUN

Last weekend, our “long workout” was a practice swim bike run at Lake Pflugerville.  We did 13 miles on the bike in about 50 minutes on what could be described as rolling hills, nothing severe but definitely some up and down.  I gained a bit more confidence with my new shoes, and figured out a strategy – for the love of all that holy, if I’m riding on a busy street and anticipate turning soon or have any other reason I might need to stop, rock out with one pedal out until I’m onto a straight stretch.  We kept up about 15 mph pace, and it felt EZ peasy most of the time. We ran a 5k around the lake, which Zliten PR’d and I took it easy (30:19 and 30:49, respectively), and swam 500m in about 12-15 mins.  I wanted to get in open water before the tri next weekend just in case I freaked out, and I’m happy to report that nature’s got nothin’ on me. Last weekend was the first time in a long time I haven’t been exhausted by the intensity or duration of my weekend long workouts (and I did over 1.5 hours).  Next stop, half ironman!

BICYCLE, BICYCLE

This weekend is the second supported bike ride on our calendar, the Georgetown Red Poppy Ride.  This one could potentially get us into trouble, as it not only has a metric century (63 miles, which is the plan), it also has an 80 and 100 mile course.  Considering the longest we’ve ridden since the last one is 13 miles outdoors and we have a tri the next weekend, I think we’ll be able to control ourselves and just do the 63 we have planned.  But we both have that inkling that 80 isn’t that much more than 63….

The real goal is to do the 63, and to get closer to 4 hours than the 5 it took us to do the ride in March.  So that would be riding faster, and taking more expedient stops.  We’re also loaded up with goodies like pb pretzels, cookies, nuts, candied mango, and the like, so we’ll have better eatin’ without the rest stops.

TRI AND STOP ME

After my feet touch down on the finish line of this bike ride on Saturday, I’m officially calling it TRI SEASON.  I’m so full of wiggly excitement about this, I don’t even know what to say.  I’m sure that will change soon enough.  First up will be rookie – 300m swim, 11 mile bike, 2 mile run.  To combat my “that’s all” thoughts since I’m all but primed for about an Olympic distance tri right now, I’m fixing to race this one HARD since it’s the exact course from last year and I plan to PR the SHIT out of this.  Wiggle wiggle wiggle wiggle wiggle, yeah!

SMOOTHIE OPERATOR

In my ongoing quest to find a nutrition plan that works for me, I’ve been trying some smoothie lunches.  I’ve accompanied these with a small, savory item (like a greek salad, a cup of soup, etc), and I’ve been saving half of said smoothie for a snack around 4-5pm.  Some of my creations have been:

Strawberry Love: Strawberry 110 cal protein shake, chocolate pb2 powder, banana, 1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder, frozen strawberries

Spiced Late: 1/2 cup pumpkin, scoop vanilla protein powder, vanilla extract, apple, skim milk, cinnamon, all spice, nutmeg

If You Like Pina Coladas: Tropical protein powder, banana, orange, pineapple, mango, lite coconut milk, coconut oil

Not-In-The-Box Oreo Shake: Skim milk, oreo cookie protein powder. (200 calories of friggin yum, almost just as good as a jack in the box shake)

Creamy Raspberry Lemonade: Vanilla protein powder, frozen raspberries, banana, coconut oil, lemon juice

Really, the ideas are limitless.  It really just needs: 1) some sort of protein powder+milk or protein shake 2) some sort of fat – pb or coconut oil 3) a thickener – banana or pumpkin seem to work, without it, it’s ok, it just tastes really ice 4) frozen or fresh fruit.  I haven’t gotten brave enough to put veggies in yet.  I also put some stevia extract in each one because I like it sweet.  Each one (besides the simple oreo one) is about 300-400 calories and is really filling.  I plan to continue to do this a few times a week.  It’s just so simple and yummy, curbs my snackings in the afternoon, and really kills my need for any sort of desert.

HARDER BETTER FASTER STRONGER

Since they cancelled our weekly Monday crunchtime class, I’ve found a new love: group kick (kickboxing).  I’ve always wanted to try kickboxing, and it’s both a great cardio and strength workout.  It works muscles I didn’t know I had in my ankles and shins.  It’s pretty hard to get my abs to be sore these days, but they were definitely worked over.  Also, since I took the introductory class, I have these fun boxing wraps that do nothing, but they make me feel all badass.  I think I’ll stick with this one for a while.

I’m going to reiterate this to myself over and over, so just a warning you’ll get sick of hearing this mantra. a) The best way for me to change my body composition is to strength train.  A lot. b) The best way for me to improve both my race times and my general happiness is to change my body comp in a positive and healthy way. c) Therefore, I should NEVER want to skip a strength sesh for a cardio.

Enter this week.  Two things.

One, I got major cramps on my run Tuesday AM (which is a damn shame because otherwise it was a FANTASTIC morning, and I was feeling GREAT and SPEEDY) so I cut it at 2 miles instead of 5-6.  This is making me REALLYREALLYREALLYREALLY want to skip my weights class tomorrow morning so I can make up the run.  Because in my sillybrain, apparently I will die if I don’t get at least one 10k run in each week (even though I’m going to be almost triple digis in bike miles, hello…).  WEIGHTS ARE NON NEGOTIABLE, silly brain.  /sigh

Two, all of a sudden I got freaked out, realizing I hadn’t mashed up any bike hills on the stationary at the gym in quite a while.  I figured my hill skillz HAD to be deteriorating with all this ez trainer and outside riding.  I hopped on the stationary, and lo and behold, it even felt EASIER than normal.  Gotta give weight training credit for that.

So, long story short – the hills, the weights – DO THEM.  I need this tattooed on my forehead.  Although, it might get me funny looks in mixed company as it might be taken as a suggestion, perhaps?

Questions of the week: what gets you “wiggly with excitement” lately?  What do you need to just DO?

If you want to get a BodyBugg click there, since that will get you 20% off and I think it rewards me some how, but I am not sure how. http://bodybugg.extole.com/a/clk/2sghb

But On to Blogging !!!

Part 1. Reading!

Since we last talked, I have read,

Ashes of the Realm; Greysons Revenge

This was a fun continuation of the last book Ashes of the Realm: Juliette’s Dream, and it grew the characters up some, introduced a few new players in the galaxy and a new inter-dimensional race that is now set on enslaving our galaxy. So we now know what books 3 and 4 will be about at least. But as always Saxon Andrew kept the pacing up and even though when compared to his last series this is hitting on a lot of the same topics, they are in slightly different ways, so its still enjoyable. The character development is nice.

Then I read

The Expendable Few

After like 12 books in a row by Saxon Andrew, back to a book by Randolph Ladone. What a treat to go from a 3rd person narrative with an almost omnipotent view to a book written in the first and second person, that goes into the thoughts and feelings of the character as things happen rather than just observing them.

This book is the newest of the Spinward Fringe series, and does not follow or continue on with any of the main characters from the series. Think of it as a spin off book, or an expanded universe book. Things that happened in the series have happened and the universe is the same but things are continuing on.  There were some characters that made cameo’s but it really wasn’t about them. Wheeler ( one of the main bad guys turn good guys from books 2 to 4) shows up for about a dozen pages, and a few “relatives” of people you know from before.

I did really enjoy it though, there were some twists that I didn’t expect and there was some great descriptions of ground and hand to hand combat in this one. No epic space battles this time, but with the way it ends I am sure that is coming soon. To wrap up, Thanks Taylor for the book as a birthday gift, and I can’t wait until Raldolph gets the next hundred or so books out for that series. (Also if your in the media, the first book would be a great made for tv movie.)

Next I read

The Giver : What a terrible book. Apparently they are making a movie out of it, and I do love distopian type settings of the future. But this just left a terrible taste in my mouth, and a stain on my mind that I think will haunt me much like the ending of The Prestige , but Worse.

SPOILERS

To recap the story, there is a community in the future that is well regulated all functions are performed by individuals who excel at that function. Families though are not allowed to have more than 2 children, and children can only come from the women of the community known as birth mothers. Once their child has been born it is taken to an institution where it is  kept for 1 year, then given to a family that has requested a child.

Needless to say the book attaches you to not only the main character but a few others who end up being “released”. In other words put down like a dog, and it not only includes the elderly but also anyone who commits a crime or even a baby if it is not “acceptable”. So in one scene there is a “nurturer” who just delivered twins from a birth mother, and he weighs the two babes, then takes the smaller one, sings it a lullaby and then kills it. ( Arrg I am still all pissed off in side just writing about it. But then again that is probably what the author was trying to do.)

So yeah, apparently a required reading book for middle school kids here in Texas. Just disgusting.

OK after Finishing that terrible thing, I at least have something fun to back it up with. I had Emailed Saxon Andrew about a month ago just to thank him for the series I had read since it was so much fun, and I got a reply asking if I would read and give feedback on book 1 on a new series. He also just put it up on Amazon so that works.

Lens of Time Series: The Pyramid Builders

So far this has been a fun time about a genius professor, and his slutty dressing friend who has 4 doctorates but was sick of people being intimidated by her smarts so she started dressing like a bimbo. Not the best character introduction to the characters so far, but hey I already am happier about it than the last book I read. So expect in a week or two to have a real review of this since I am only on like page 50.

Training:

Its been about 3 weeks since my last post, so my training chart will be kinda big here.

As you can see I have been at it good for the last few weeks, although I should have put in a weight metric in today so that that was more accurate. Pretend there is a grey box on the 19th that says Weight 186.2. I was lowest on the 16th due to being dumb and staying up late on Sunday after the 10/20 having drinks and dehydrating myself. But we will get into the Dumbness of Sunday later.

Race!

SO the 10/20 was last weekend and it was a blast! I had to make 1 quick bathroom stop at mile 2.5, but thankfully it only really added about 2 minutes to my total time and I felt MUCH better afterwards. That redbull went through me fast LOL!

Click Here if you want to check out all my info for the race. gps, heart rate, cadence, elevation and overall great data! BTW Training Peaks is just awesome for the amount of info you can put on there, and the Garmin 310XT gathers a ton of data when you have the heart rate monitor and cadence sensor attached.

My perfect weather, perfect feeling, super awesome goal was going to be 1:45:00, but it was Humid, then raining then muggy, and a bathroom break added in, and my total time was 1:49:52. I am very happy with that time, its not the best ever but for sure the best 10 miles I have had so far.

TRI Season!

Rookie tri is in 17 days!

Lets list out things I need to do before Tri season.

1. Keep going to Swim Class. So for Christmas Quix got me “lessons” and we finally found a place to get them. Thanks to Moolala or what ever the deal site is called. This last Tuesday was my first lesson, and my goodness, I had no clue how bad my swimming techniques really were until I was shown how to do them properly and coached on it also. That explains all the pool time you see on my schedule this week.
2. Wash the bike again, and lube it all up. This is kinda important all the time, but with the more miles we have been getting in the trainer and on the road lately, this is a must. Really id I don’t post at least once a month saying I washed and lubed the bike, get on my butt for it. Its the longest portion of any Tri, and if its not in great condition how can I expect to do well.
3. More open water swims. I am not afraid of swimming in a lake or river, but it would be benifitial for me to get out there and practice my swimming in Not-a-pool just so I can get the feel again of waves, and the choppy waters.
4. Get mentally prepared for even more training. I really should step it up from 4 to 5 times a week to 6 to 7 times a week.

GUILT

Things I did wrong over the past 3 weeks.

Weight, I have seemed to have hit a lull in my weight loss, but I think a big part of that is I stopped tracking so consistently, and just kinda didn’t care much for some days. Here is an update weight chart.

The yellow line is where I want to be, the blue line is where I am.

Desserts have also been an issue, I can usually go without desserts, but lately I want chocolate after every meal it seems. or pie, or chocolate pie. I gotta get that under control.

Next I had too many drinks after the 10/20 race.. Too many, and it wasn’t that I was too hung over or evil or anything like that, but that I got it in my head to go prune a tree in the back yard that my mother in law got after me about the day before. While doing this, I did not hurt myself or anyone else, but I did get my glasses caught on a branch of the tree, and they somehow flung into the yard. We searched everywhere and could not find them. Needless to say I had to go get new glasses Monday morning.

NEW GLASSES!

Well Leah hated my old glasses anyways. Complained about them probably once a month that they were either dorky, or didn’t fit my head right, or something. That’s OK, this time I was prepared. At the glasses store I took pictures of 14 different pairs of glasses on my face and then emailed them from my phone to her desk at work. Then just let her pick out the ones she wanted me to have. (Guys, this works great. The sales people might think your crazy now. but Believe me, its worth not getting told you made a bad choice over and over.)

It really kind of worked out for the best, I knew my prescription had changed and I needed to go in. I had been getting headaches again every day while sitting at my computer for a  few weeks. But I had been avoiding going to the optometrist because the place I went to was full of jerks, or at least people I didn’t like dealing with. They also nickle and dime everything, like do you want the old machine with worse results included in your visit, or for 35$ more we will put you with the new machine.. There was no way I was getting an apt there without at least a weeks notice, so I went to the place next to the lens crafters that I had decided on since I could get the glasses in about an hour.

Well This place was amazing, the staff was nice, they had tons of modern equipment that all just worked the first time, and the Doctor even explained things to me as he was testing my eyes. (Unlike being berated at the other place for making the doctor late to his golf game since his own machine broke.)  Best of all the visit only was 35$ because they actually took my insurance!

The Lens Crafters experience wasn’t amazing, but I know their lens grinding machine broke or something and instead of 1 hour it took them 4, but over the next 2 days they kinda made it up to me.

Austin 10/20

My motto for the day was: I have thunder thighs, these thighs are gonna bring the THUNDER today.

I have always wanted to race a 10 miler.  Quite frankly, the last 3.1 miles of the half marathon are, in my opinions, the worst.  Story of my life is a great first 10, and then I just can’t hang on through the last 5k.  While I’m working on addressing what goes into that (with more strength training, planning for more distance, and a better pacing strategy), sometimes it’s nice to try something you think just fits your natural strengths and that you’ll be pretty good at.

And so, months ago, I signed up for a 10 mile race and was REALLY looking forward to it and wanting to train for it.

Months passed, and between lots of slower base running and getting up to speed for tris, the only thing even close to speedwork I’ve done is progression runs.  I had envisioned a finish time of something between 1:30 (A goal) and 1:40 (C goal).  However, since I’ve not been working up to 9 minute miles, I changed my goal and strategy.

A time goal: 1:35.  I figured if I was having a stellar day, I could potentially pull 9:30s.  They’ve been fairly comfortable on select days when I’m in the zone. B time goal was 1:40.  10s have gotten easier and easier as I get stronger and the year goes on.

A pace goal: negative split.  Since I’ve been practicing progression runs, I figured what a better way to try out my new skillz.  I pretty much have one race strategy: go out fast and try to hold on.  I’ve been finding more and more how much this DOESN’T work for me.  B pace goal: negative split in terms of effort.  Even if the pace didn’t work out, I wanted to feel like I was easing into the first half, and then really pushing it the last half.

Morning food routine: glutino bar, but I tried something new: a caffeinated tea late.  Worked like a charm.  This will definitely be my new pre-race drink.

Temps for the day: 75, overcast and 90% humid.  While other runners hate this weather, I love it.  I feel warm and loose right away and it’s not so warm that I’m overheating.  It’s a lot easier to start out EZ when you’re not trying to save yourself from hypothermia.

Gear list: cheapo black sweatband and wristband, north face blue tech tank, regular underarmor lucky sportsbra, one honeystinger gel in my small shoe wallet (which I actually clipped to my pants), old and busted grey capris I’ve had forever, wigwam thick socks, and my Brooks Racers.

Gear notes: get yourself a damn wicking visor already, headbands are so 1980.  Didn’t use gel (didn’t expect to but figured better safe than sorry).  Don’t wear old and busted pants in humid weather.  They will disintegrate around your thighs and chafe like a mofo.  The racers were a sort of risky decision that paid off – I had never run more than 7 in them, but all my runs with my other shoes have been crap slow (they were fine until about 9.5, which was NBD). Also I went sans compression sox, because I am vain and they didn’t go with my ensemble.  Zliten isn’t.

We got moving a little late, and were very thankful that a) the race was only 3 miles from the house and b) it’s essentially right where we work so we knew the secret back entrance.  We porta pottied and I got a warmup, and then we piled into our seperate corrals.  I was in 4, Zliten was in 8 (he should have been further up, but he put worst case pace, not what he expected, which is fine, he likes starting in the back).  No one was respecting the damn corrals (huge race pet peeve).

Soon, we were off.  During the warmup, my legs were sluggish, but as soon as we took off, 10 minute miles felt like a jog.  I obsessively garmin checked when I wasn’t fighting off the hoards of people who got in too-fast corrals, and ended mile 1 exactly at 10 mins.  Mile 2, I set my sights at 9:50.  Garmin ticked 2 miles at exactly 19:50.  Mile 3, I tried for 9:45 and there were more downhills than I expected so I came in at 9:35.  Mile 4 and 5 were right around there as well.

Mile 5 saw exactly 49 minutes.  I was feeling great, and figured it was time to start turning on the heat… just as the course started turning on the hills.  They advertised fast and flat, and that was true… except for the last 5 miles.   To be fair, I’ve run on much worse, but it wasn’t exactly what I was expecting.  Mile 6 and 7 were around 10:15s.

I was a little upset I was losing ground but the friggin hills were just steep enough to register, and relentless.  I just sort of ignored garmin time and moved to perceived effort, I just tried to go as fast as I could while also not feeling like I would die.  The end was also a little frustrating – you get ALMOST up to the finish line and then have to detour for another mile.  I didn’t think I had anything left in me but once I saw the finish I sprinted it in.

10.15 miles, 1:41:50.  10:02 avg pace overall, 9:48 first 5, 10:05 pace for last 5.15.  My ranking was higher in the second half than the first half, so I slowed down LESS than the average bear.  195/727 (26% beat me – almost in the top quarter) Age Group, 1075/3944 (27% beat me – again, almost in the top quarter) in Gender, Overall 2175/6009 (36% beat me).  And, since it’s my first 10, auto PR!

I finished, got my water and 3 juicebox thingees (the water stops were a little crowded, so I only took in 2 half cups of water and 2 half cups of gatorade so I was DEHYDRATED) and waited for Zliten.  He rolled in only 8 mins after me, his official time in the 1:49s.  While the big draw of the race was a post-race party, neither of us were into it after walking back to the car, so we headed home.

This was a huge win for me.  I am never good about pacing myself in the first half of a race, and if I really would have went out fast, I know I couldn’t have held on with the hills.  I’m pretty sure it would have been more like 9:20s and then 11s instead of an almost even split.

Speaking of Thunder Thighs, the strength thing seems to be working… I liked all my race pics from this race, and in general, I think my clothes are fitting better.  I need to weigh in this week and do my dang measurements, but I’m generally happier about how things fit and how I look.  Probably not coincidentally, I managed last week not to eat like an asshole, and maintain about a 800 calorie deficit on average.  So, we’ll see.  I’m trying to do that again this week.  Maybe, just maybe, the scale and tape measure will be kind.

Either way, I’m seeing marked improvements with my running keeping up the weight training sched 3x each week.  I need you all to hold me accountable through half IM training that a strength workout is worth sacrificing more time in the pool, in the saddle, and on the road.  It’s a gamble, but I really think getting stronger is the key.

Also speaking of being vain – I may want to take a great race pic, but this is how I rock it after in the backyard. Note: biofreeze is cold.

Next up: another metric century bike ride in 2 weekends, and then ROOKIE TRI in 3.  I’m so flipping excited for TRI SEASON I can’t stand it!!!!

It’s been busy!  Even with a weekend of relaxing and a 3 day weekend, I’m just now getting here to talk about it.

So yeah, things and stuff.

Rosedale Ride: I was going to talk about it in more details, but let’s just sum it up with these bulletpoints

• Hardest race I’ve done in a while.  Riding for 5 hours took a lot out of me.  This needs to get better by the end of summer because I certainly don’t want to be taking anywhere near that long to ride the 56 miles for my half ironman, but happy to prove to myself that I can go the distance.
• I’m still terrified of my new shoes.  Falling helped to get that freak out of my first crash out of the way, but the two times I fell down just stopped on the side of the road shifting my balance wrong, I think freak me out more even though they didn’t hurt at all – there is all manner of curb I’ll be riding on, and who knows if I have to stop near somewhere it will be tragic to fall over the wrong way.
• Regardless, I’ve got my big girl panties on about it and not changing my pedals back – everyone else seems to do fine with them so I’ll learn too.  My heart rate may just stay a little high on rides and I may be chanting *please don’t make me stop, please don’t make me stop* when I get to intersections.  10 miles last weekend went ok though!

My runs have been very hit or miss lately.  Some days I have just draaaagged asssss through the miles and it was all I could do to keep going (but also found that all I needed to do is slow down – 11 minute miles may be frustrating, but that’s all I have sometimes).  Some days, I feel like a rockstar.  I’ve been able to do some pretty fantastic 3-6 mile progression runs where after the warmup mile, I’m pretty easily running under 10 minute miles.  For example this morning, I did 10:45, 9:55, 9:40, and 9 for the last quarter mile.  I just have to have faith that even though the first half to full mile will suck, I usually perk up.

Swims, I’ve been maintaining about 1 per week, about 30 mins for 1500 yds.  I need to get some open water lovin’ in here this month before Rookie in May, but I’m just not concerned.  I did just snag a groupon to finally get Zliten his Christmas swimming lessons, so that’s exciting!

My eating has been fairly subpar (for me).  As such, my weight and measurements really haven’t gone anywhere (I assume with the measurements, as I haven’t gotten the tape out in a few weeks).  This week, I am trying something new: smoothies for lunch.  Instead of spending my lunch break frantically preparing food, I’m trying out some new recipes.  Today, I put in skim milk, chocolate protein powder, water, chocolate pb2, 2/3 banana, and a squish of chocolate syrup (just tasted not quite right without it).  Tomorrow, I think I’ll try the strawberries/strawberry protein powder/banana/milk (trying to figure out a fat to put in there – c0conut oil maybe?).  I’m having a small savory side with it (today, veggie quinoa pasta salad, tomorrow, maybe a greek salad).  I couldn’t drink it all and saved the other half for a snack and felt really full today.  Bonus!

Also, I think that what I really need to do is the “eat 500 calories less than Zliten” diet.  He regularly burns about 500 more than me, and we mostly split our meals down the middle (so he’s losing weight, I’m not).  That’s a lot though – that’s like a whole meal less!  I’m trying to eliminate more snacks instead of a meal then, because I really hate eating 300 calorie meals, I’d rather just try to suck it up and feel like I’m eating a real meal unless my energy levels are super low and I’m feeling bad.  And honestly, the way I’m feeling after my lunch smoothie, I don’t need no stinkin’ snax!

Working on the training program for us through the half ironman.  Let me tell you, having 2 races a month and two vacations (one 4 days, one like 10 days) within a month and a half of race day (like, right during peak training time) is providing a CHALLENGE, but I think I have it conquered mostly.  I’ve never followed anyone’s tri training program, just did my own by feel, and that’s what I’m doing this time (I’ve done a LOT of research and picked and chose what worked for me).  I discussed with Zliten, and instead of a lot of long single sport training, we’re going to pile on the brickage.  That is, instead of getting comfy with overdistances like wanting to bike 100 so that 56 feels like cake, we’re going to do more bike/runs that are closer to half iron distance.  And, of course, we’ll train with the caveat that if our body needs a rest, we’ll back off (and planning in more rest weeks than I have ever before so that should help).

Fun Things I’ve Done Since Last Report:

• Went to a wedding with a candy bar and BBQ for dinner.  I wished I could stay longer but it was Sunday night and work calls on Monday, so I had my sweets and danced my ass off for a bit and then headed home.
• Had a board game and pizza day at work as a fun day not last Friday but the Friday before.  We played a bunch of D and D board game and DAMN IT’S HARD.  Then we went home and drank absinth and played more.

• Spent March 30th without pants or workout gear on.  The most strenuous thing I did was hang out at the neighbors for a while.
• Saw Hunger Games on April Fools Day.  No foolin’, I enjoyed the movie a lot.  They skipped some of the nuances, but they definitely did the books good and I’m just sad I couldn’t watch the next one yet!
• Made some EPIC chicken and bok choy in garlic sauce.  I finally figured out awesome chinese food at home – it does just take a little chicken broth and flour to make it right.  I used brown rice flour so it’s a little better, I suppose.
• Booked our trip to San Diego this summer.  We plan on spending most of our time there with Zliten’s parents, but also are hoping to get in a nice long bike ride early AM Saturday and run America’s Finest Half Marathon on Sunday.  Finally, a race in a different state!
• Went to Camp Gladiator boot camp.  If I didn’t absolutely need to do traditional training for tris, I might blow off run/bike/swim for a month and do this.  It’s super fun!  We played freezetag!
• 10 mile ride and 6 mile run at Pflugerville.  We plan on making good friends with the lake this year.  Didn’t have time to swim, next time for sure!

• Played D and D (the actual role playing game) all day good Friday.  It’s an amazing core workout, the guys make me laugh so hard!  And, I fireballed FIVE trolls to death and ended the game early.  Ha!  Being a wizard is a good thing… here’s me triumphing over the fallen beasts…
• Did the Mighty Texas Dog Walk, with this cutie pie – he only has 3 legs but that totally doesn’t stop him at all!  He was definitely in the first quarter of finishers, he just wanted to run run run run *sniff sniff pee* run run run run *sniff sniff peeeeee*.  He definitely tired his owners out.  However, he was definitely a sleepy dog after… apparently he barely complained when his parents left to go out later.

• Between this and the next entry, had brunch, a short nap, got groceries, swam, lifted weights, and got all gussied up.  5 hours definitely was productive!
• Had fancy birthday dinner with my good gal pal D in which we ingested: blue cheese with honey, pork cracklins, garlic bean sauce on toast, a pimms cup, spicy pickles, a cauliflower steak, buttermilk pie, and sticky toffee pudding (lots of tastes and sharing around the table).  So yum!
• Then, we went to the Kung Fu saloon and I kicked ass at skeeball (I won almost EVERY game and they had it set up as a competition), drank grape vodka, watch people play an epic game of Jenga, played Jenga ourselves, and had a thoroughly fantabulous evening.  Here we are watching an epic match of centipede.

• On Easter, we slept in (OMG 9:30 wheeeee), went to my parents house.  We ate ham, played cards, played bocci ball, ate pound cake, played more cards, and then got home and had a little relaaaaaaaaax time.  Not the most flattering pic but whatevs.

So, please forgive me for not blogging, but as you can see, iz been bizzy.  This is ommitting the fact we’re still training 5-6 days a week and I’ve been working hard to meet a deadline at work (met today! woohoo!)

This week, hoping to just train and relax as much as possible, as Thursday is bike maintenance class, and this weekend is the 10/20 (10 mile run race) and Dad’s 79th b-day celebrations, so we’re booked.

Now, I’m off to log some more miles because I’m off work earlier than expected and get my crunchtime on!

Questions of the day: What’s the awesomest thing you’ve done in the last 2 weeks?  Any suggestions on how to conquer my pedals on my bike better?  How long do you need to warm up for on a run before you feel like you’re really IN THE ZONE?  Any bets on how long it will take me to come back and blog?

I am not very good at this sort of thing, but I kind of want to post to you people too. So I am going to start with a guilt post for yesterday. Because everyone wants to get to know me by a guilt post.

GUILT

Yesterday was a day of being sore and taking a day off from the gym. But by doing so I over did it in the food department. I try to burn about 3000 to 3500 calories a day and take in about 2400 calories on average. You know to keep with the weight loss but keep fueled. Yesterday though, it was backwards. 3200+ intake and only 2600 burn. Oops… Oh well I will just have to make it up the rest of the week.

So really, stop trying to give me cake, cupcakes, ice cream, candy, or beer. For a few days at least

TRAINING

Now that that is out of the way, lets talk about how excited I am for the up-coming Tri Season. Its almost here. Only like 5 and a half more weeks until Rookie! Can you believe it? Last year Rookie was my first Tri, and probably one of the most fun I have ever had in a race. I was so nervous and really didn’t do all that great, but it was amazing. This year it will be my 4th overall Tri, and my second one this year, if you count the Indoor Tri. (Not sure I really count that one but for this I will)

Compared to last year, My swimming has improved drastically along with my biking, and I am a whole different person now when it comes to running, I think I was doing about 13 minute miles for a 5k back then, this year I am about 10 minute miles, so its going to be amazing.

My training plan for the week in case anyone cares.

INTERNETERY

I use Training Peaks as the place where I track all my workouts, races and other stuff. I used to use it for food and exercise, but it was getting out of hand tracking my food in 3 different places.

I have been a Spark People tracker for years now, sometimes on sometimes off the wagon so to speak. It always drives me crazy when I start tracking but once I get a few weeks in it gets better, then I just love seeing the data I have. (Yes I am a data junkie, the more data points I can have the more I like something) Just like this here is my weight chart that starts Jan 1 2008.

I also have a Bodybugg but will go into that on another day. It gives me great stats too.

READIMICATION

Finished my 17th book in 17 weeks last night, it was pretty darn good, it was Ashes of the Realm: Juliette’s Dream, Book 1 of the new series from Andrew Saxon. I have to say I tore through the Annihilation series 8 books in 7 weeks. It was a fun romp around the galaxy with a group psychics. Just my kind of pulp science fiction.

Once I finish book 2 of the Ashes series, I will be reading The Expendable Few its the new one from Randolph Lalonde, My buddy Zorak got it for me for my birthday. It’s going to be a fun read I hope. I think its an offshoot of the main Spinward Fringe series, but if you think of all the spinward fringe books its like book 11 of something. Gotta love how prolific these writers are now that they can self publish on the kindle with only a touch of a button. (Sure sometimes there are some errors an experienced editor and publisher would find and fix, but they are mostly ignorable)

Two roads diverged in the Austin ‘side
And sorry we could not cycle both ways
And being one pair of cyclists, pondered deep and wide
And thought about a 40+ mile day
That it would still be an grand foray

But we took the 60 miler, as just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it beconed to us wanting wear
(And said you’re a badass for going there)
And our asses ride would never be the same

And that morning we didn’t follow where safety lay
Road open, no “on your left”, no need for care
Oh, we risked our asses (literally) that day
Yet knowing regret is in what’s not done, they say,
I doubted the demon would follow us there

And though this morning I sigh
With back and legs sore, a petty grievance
Two roads diverged into Austin, and Zliten and I,
We cycled the one less traveled by,
And that made all the difference.

Nod/tipothehat/apologies to Robert Frost.

Yes, we did a metric century ride yesterday.

Yes, we are dumb.  We did the equivalent of training badly for a half marathon and just deciding race day to do the full (longest ride last year = 35 miles, longest ride this year = 14 miles).  Don’t be us.

Yes, we are very, very sore today.  More later!

March madness.  That’s my excuse.  Not the basketball thing, but the crazy busy month.

Here’s been my life since last post.

Video Game Salt Mines

Work, while it has settled down hours-wise, have been very full 8 hour days.  Occasionally I’ll be able to take brain breaks and collect my thoughts for a few, but not right now (the way I work bestis generally OMG MANIACAL PRODUCTIVITY for 2 hours and then “whew, catch my breath” for 15 mins, rinse and repeat, it’s just all OMG for 8 hours lately).  I’m actually trying to do that less and/or look at more work-related but maybe not company specific stuff, but that means other internetting is falling behind.  Good times, good things, and I’ll take being busy over the alternative, but still… I’m waiting for the little bit of “ebb” in ebb and flow and I don’t see it coming.

My Crazy Life

So far this month: 3/3 practice du (2.5 mile run, 10 mile bike, 2.5 mile run) + birthday crab dinner + birthday bar fun + birthday after party at the house (this was the most mellow weekend because we had a full day of recovery on 3/4); 3/10-11 birthday lunch with the ‘rents + packet pickup + gear shopping + Blue Norther Du in Seguin TX in the rain;3/14 birthday celebrations for Zliten (lunch, presents, drinks, staying up way too late on a schoolnight) 3/17-18 midnight spin party on the trainer + 10 mile run + renaissance festival + birthday camping/drinking/fire show + birthday crawfish party (yes, 2 different birthdays).

All this, and I’ve been sticking to 3 weights and about 4-5 cardio seshes (so in general, 6 days per week, with 2 of them being short 30 min days).  And it doesn’t stop.

I Am Dumb!

I need your good thoughts for this weekend.  I don’t care about finishing first this weekend or AG placing or frankly even finishing last.  I would just like to finish with my body intact.  See, we’re doing the Rosedale Ride – aiming for the 43 miles, but if we’re feeling great, we want to try to complete the full 63 (i.e. over a metric century which would tick off one of those major new years resolutions).  However, my riding experience lately (read: since October 1, 2011) on evilbike = 10 mile outdoor ride, 14 mile outdoor ride, approximately 4 hours of trainer time.  My longest ride to date is 35 miles. What could go wrong?

Also, last weekend, Zliten installed my birthday present – clipless pedals.  Experience with clipless pedals – approximately 50 mins on the trainer, 0 mins outside (where it counts).  Everywhere I read said “expect to wreck a few times figuring them out”.  (LATE EDIT: Only almost fell and freaked out once, thankfully getting unclipped is easy – getting clipped in while moving is the harder part…) DO NOT BE ME, PEOPLE!!!

We’re heading out into the beautiful evening tonight to ride and practice tonight and will probably get another chance Thursday morning (either outside or on trainer), but really?  This is not my smartest hour in race prep.  It really snuck up on me.  At least I’m going in eyes wide open, knowing that I have an out at 20 miles (the shortest distance which I have zero doubt I can do) and we’re going to take it really slow.

Then, we have some chill/relax/cleaning/errand time Saturday afternoon/Sun morning, and have a wedding to go to Sunday.

The weekend of March 30/April 1?  We’re blocking off as a total chillville weekend – the plan being no plans (and obvs no races, the next one on the calendar is Apr 15).  I’m even scheming ways to load up even my long run and all workouts during the week so relaxing can start Friday night.  May not happen, but we’ll see.  I can’t think of the last weekend I’ve not done either a long run/ride or both so it does seem intriguing and kind of exciting.

Fooding

I succumbed to March madness and ate like shit for the better part of last week (read: three birthday celebrations in 5 days + leftover junk food from other birthday celebrations in the house).  At least I have the quick notification from my body that it doesn’t like that very much, in fact, it doesn’t appreciate it at all.  I feel bloated, yucky, growly guts, and um… let’s just say we could use a marriage saver blanket this week.  I felt it on my run Saturday.  I had nothing in my legs, lungs, or brain – worst run in a LONG TIME but I got through all miserable 10 miles at what was a ridiculously hard effort for 11:30 min/mile pace.  I’m usually dancing and singing around Zliten, I even let him go ahead of me a few times because I couldn’t keep up.

As of yesterday, it’s back to it.  No sweet treats (no refined sugar/flour stuff like cake/cookies/ice cream/etc) until Rookie Tri May 6, excepting said wedding this weekend and Easter (sorry pal above, you may be on my diet, but you’re no cream egg…).  Trying to really limit processed/simple carbs like delicious french bread and noodles except in close proximity to workouts.  In turn, I’m going to attempt to change my macro nutrient ratio a bit.  I’m pretty close to 40 carbs/30 fat/30 protein now, and I’m reading more and more that endurance athletes should be closer to 60/20/20.  So I’m going to let more sprouted grain bread, whole wheat tortillas, quinoa pasta, and the like, into my life, while trying to also ratchet up the fruits and veggies, and take down my protein and fat consumption a little.  I’d like to be comfortable with it by the time I really start half-iron training, because I have a feeling I’m going to be a human furnace with the crazy amount of workouts I need to do…

I found it a little easier to keep a lower calorie count when I had more carbs to sop up that protein and fat.  I don’t know how to describe it besides that, but there you go.  It is really, really weird for it being a stretch to eat MORE carbs but it’s something to try.  We’ll see if it’s good for me or just makes me feel awful…

Other stuff

-As for my weight?  Don’t ask.  I haven’t.  I’ll get on that tomorrow but I know today is just bad food bloat weight still so I’m holding off as long as possible.

-I got Zliten a bowling ball for his birthday, totally unintentionally!  I got him this:

He had been saying he wanted to just be able to space out and just hit a button to count laps, so this would do just that.  Two days before, he realized his watch did the same thing and was waterproof.  D’oh!  I gave it to him anyway, and then we decided I would just use that (because unlike him, I am LOATHE to get my garmin near water).

-One of my biggest focuses is recovering quicker.  I’m going to need to do some mad volume to rock the Half IM, and I want to keep up the 3 weights sessions per week as long into IM training as possible.  So that means I need to be able to recover quicker.  I’ve been doing that by intentionally loading two weights workouts in a row  (7:30pm crunchtime then 8am Group Power today), or a spin and then a run 9 hours apart (and of course, monitoring my body, making sure I’m ok, and then adjusting if needed).

The next step I think is to start doing some crash weeks.  Maybe.  Still considering what effect it would have on my every-other-week race sched.  Crash week = intentionally stupid high volume week, especially in one sport, essentially, training like you’re a pro at that sport.  It needs to be followed by a recovery week.  I’m interested to see over 6 weeks what progress I could make doing say, one crash week of swimming (4-5 swimming workouts, and maybe 1 short run and bike for muscle memory…).  Then again, crash week has the title because you absolutely can crash and burn.

-We have an outdoor cat.  The poor thing looked super malnourished and definitely looked kitten sized, so we have given it food and water for the last week.  It’s definitely not feral, it looks as if it wants to curl up on our lap (but Zliten is super allergic so we can’t let it inside).  We’re advertising all over the neighborhood to see if we can find the owner, but we are also trying to train it to go in the crate so we can take it in to be spayed/neutered.  We are not allowed to name it, but have been calling it Nacho (nach yo kitty… hehe).  Hopefully we find the owner soon.

That’s about it from my corner of the world!  I’ll be back with bike results (did I poop out at 20, make it to 43, or rode my sore ass to 63?).  Any