Adjusted Reality

When we talk about something somewhat unobtainable at work (figuring out an issue that only happened once, while Jupiter was aligned with Mars, and only while standing on your head), we tend to call it “chasing unicorns”.  Very occasionally, you’ll catch them, but most often, they will elude you.

Well, dear readers, let me assure you that unicorns were caught this day.  My mother, on facebook, asked what I was going to do with them, and I didn’t really have a good answer besides BBQ’ing them, but that was after bottle #2 of champagne.  I felt kinda a lot like this…

Let me back up.  Way up.

Last year, the conditions were a wee bit rough (wind wind wind), but I had what I thought was a pretty great race, with a time of 1:40:36.  The timing company screwed the pooch and didn’t get any splits, so I can’t compare with that, but when I laid out what I thought I could do, I figured out that if I had an attainably perfect race (stringing together paces which were within my grasp, but just barely) I could swing about a 1:33.  Realistically I expected to PR at least by a little, but I wasn’t sure how much that would be.

Things had been going right this week.  The old bod, even though I still maintain an extra 5-7 over what I was at last year’s race, was feeling pretty good.  Sore in the right ways from training early in the week, and with 2 days of active rest before Sunday, I was feeling rested, loose, and rarin’ to go.  Also, my last training session was the best brick I’ve had in memory – 20+ mph on the trainer, and sub-9 minute miles off the bike both times.  I was riding the confidence train pretty high into this race.  I knew it had the potential to be magical.

These were my strengths going into this race:

1. Lots of form work while swimming.  Better form = faster swims @ less effort.  Long body, kicking as close to the top of the water as possible, breathing without lifting my head out of the water as much as possible.

2. Since this bike course isn’t very hilly (some rollers, it’s no pancake, but nothing epic), the constant effort on the trainers I’ve been doing is great.

3.  Lots of mental training for the run.  I’m trying to keep my enemy – the all out 5k pain pace – very friendly.  Running really fast outside off the bike really, really helps this.

4.  Practicing transitions really helps.  I can’t stress this enough.  This is the fourth sport people!

5. Having an actual nutrition plan.  Eating on the bike keeps you from the despair point on the run.

6.  This is now really my home turf.  We train here all the time.  I wasn’t sure if this would help with familiarity, or hurt me because it would be hard to keep the intensity up, but I do believe it helped me, indeed, to not panic.

Pre race notes:

-Eats: Saturday = Apple and milk for breakfast.  Did the normal steak, veggies, salad, wee bit of bread lunch around noon.  Little bit of ice cream for desert around 3pm.  English muffin, cream cheese, and bacon around 7pm.  Sunday AM = chai tea + milk upon waking, oatmega bar slightly after.  Tummy happy.  Pre-race nutrition success!

-Movement: last workout Thurs AM, active rest Friday/Saturday (seriously active Friday – I burned just as many calories as a workout day running a billion errands).  Sunday AM – lots of walking around race venue (at least a mile or two).  About half a mile warmup an hour before the race start – .25 EZ jog, .25 with fast striders with no garmin.  200m swim warmup about 30 mins before race start, mostly just getting the arms to work properly (water was crowded so I didn’t do too much too fast).

-Gear/Transitions: #1 Success was laying everything out, practicting transitions about 6 times, and then immediately packing it all up and putting it in the car.  I knew I had everything I needed because I had just used it! #2 Success was getting to the race site right at transition opening, since I knew it was open racking, and we got the exact positions we wanted (as close to bike in/out as possible).  It took away an hour or so of sleep we could have had, but it was nice to get to the race super early and have plenty of time. #3 Success was spending a LOT of time mentally going over and over my entire race plan.

Swim strong with good form. Swim in until you touch the bottom with your hand.  Cap and goggles off.  Pick up flippy floppies.  Run to bike.  Garmin, glove 1, glove 2, sock, shoe, sock, shoe, camelback on, camelback buckled, sunglasses, helmet, unrack bike and run.  Bike strong.  Maintain 18mph average if possible.  Don’t tuck in somewhere and get comfortable and slow.  Get in easier gear last mile uphill.  Rack bike, helmet off, camelback off, gloves off, shoe on, shoe off, shoe on, shoe off, grab racebelt/visor and go.  Change garmin to run mode.  Get your legs under you while you put on the race belt and visor.  Settle in below 10 minute miles.  Get faster as you can.  Push the pace.  Don’t get about 10s even if it’s painful.  You know you can maintain this pace, it’s about pain management.  Save a little bit between 2 and 2.5 so you can accelerate to the finish.

My only complaints with the morning was that I got crappy sleep the night before (eh, race days, it’s hit or miss, and it’s hard to get a good night of sleep when your alarm is set for 3:30am), my wave was second to last (which meant it just got hotter and hotter while I waited to start, and I did have a last minute bathroom trip right before my wave (no big d though – especially since my wave was so late).

So, let’s get to the actual RACE report, shall we?  🙂

I sent Zliten off in the 3rd wave, and our buddy Bacon off in the 5th, and did said trip to the potty, and then came back just in time to cheer Zliten out of the water.  He looked a little scatterbrained, and later, he said that having me cheer him on helped him focus and get his head back.  Yay!  I kept reviewing my race plan in my head until we were called to be on double deck, and shut off my brain and joked around with the ladies around me that we had one of the smallest waves (weird).  We got in and I decided I would go for the middle and see how that fared.  The start was actually past the point where I could stand, so as they counted down, I started breaststroking towards the start and just about hit it when the air horn went off.

Swim:

I concentrated on my stroke form.  Usually I have a good idea of where I am in the swim wave, but this time I was so focused I had no idea who was ahead or behind me unless I could visually see them/bump into them.  Can I just say I REALLY hate backstrokers and breaststrokers?   If you can’t be buggered to learn the proper stroke, then stay to the outside please… I’m not a terribly aggressive swimmer but each race I’m getting closer to being one.  I found my lane a few times and felt like it was a pretty solid swim.  I wanted to push myself a little more than normal to see what it did to the other legs and I think it was a success.  I got out of the water a little more tired than normal (with normal being not tired at all), but felt recovered after the jog to transition.

Swim time: 11:36.  Considering Kerrville was just as calm and the same distance, and I swam it in 13:37, I’ll call 15% better time or 2 mins a HUGE improvement.  Goal was a swim in the 11s.  Done and done.

T1:

Never walked, jogged as much as my flippy floppies and the slick stairs would allow, and executed transition almost perfectly minus a little garmin fumble.  Jogged out in my bike shoes, got to the mount line, got clipped in quick, and was on the way.

T1 time: 2:53.  Considering the amount of ground I had to cover, I’m happy (and nothing to compare it to from last year).

Bike:

Got going, and put a nutter butter in my mouth.  Tummy did NOT like that.  Peanut cookie + sprint race = bad.  I started working on my honeystinger chews and those were much better – those will be my go to.  They weren’t stringy like the powerbar ones that kinda got caught in my throat, but they were nice, clean, happy sugar and caffeine.  And that’s all I need on a short course.

The first few miles went very well – I even got my average pace up around 20mph through the first few.  Then we hit the rollers I train on and I was ready for it.  In my head, I had thought the second half of the course was easier, so when I was at about 19mph halfway through, I was ecstatic!  Then, I hit a little middle fatigue – I think I wasn’t eating enough because the pb cookie made me very unhappy and I slowed down in the middle miles – I lost 19, and started working just to keep above 18 and lost that too.  Finally the easy part of the course came and I picked up a little speed but it was never enough to get back above 18.

The awesome part from last year where I accelerated to 25mph and kept it for about a mile?  Well, some dumb slow lady was hogging the middle of the road on the turn and messed with my mojo so I didn’t get that awesome stretch I was looking forward to flying past – oh well.  I also really didn’t like starting the bike that far back – I love passing people, and REALLY love passing dudes.  Zliten’s recount was being buoyed up by getting in a pack with fast dudes, and mine is being really frustrated dodging slow older ladies on a Sunday ride.

Bike time: 48:16, or 17.4 mph avg.  I really cannot be disappointed with this, but I feel like it was my weakest leg of the course.  No pb cookies, and I need to work on keeping myself motivated internally on the bike – I never realized before this race how much I rely on other people to push me on the bike.

T2:

Went as expected, except I realized I was still really dehydrated even though I had my camelback and used it, so I spent 5 extra seconds to suck more of it down.  Camelback for constant bike hydration = totally worth the extra 6 seconds to deal with in transition (I’m not good with the bike bottle in a cage and I have yet to spring for a front mounted hydration system).  What was not expected was I heard the announcer call Zliten’s name – he was already finishing.  I realized that a) he was a lucky sonofabitch to be finishing now because the clouds and cool had just finished burning off and it was hot hot sun run time, b) he had a really great tri and c) I better book it on the run if I wanted to beat him.  I saw my buddy R who was running transition and he cheered me on and I said “Zliten just finished, I want to be done…” and he just told me to gogogogo so gogogogo I did.

T2 time: 1:19.  Not too bad.  I was a little out of it and could probably get this under 1 minute, but definitely went “according to plan”.  My position next to the bike in/out really helped this one

Run:

While I was crossing the line, I hit my garmin running mode, and started.  I put on my race belt, and my visor (it fit weird, so I don’t have high hopes that I have any pretty pictures with it on, but it did it’s job).  Then I started paying attention to the garmin.  In my head, 10s were unacceptable, and things that needed to be fixed, whatever the cost.  In my head, the better I did on my run, the better I would feel later, even if I felt crappy then.  And it felt crappy.  Mid-80s, no shade, no wind, freaking trail I hate running on (give me pavement for short races any freakin’ day, I feel like I can actually get a grip).  But I got myself around 9:45s, and made myself stay there, and it oscilated between bearable, and just short of bearable.  I wasn’t ready to try for sub – 9s, I was really afraid of blowing up, so I kept it between 9 and 10.

The run really was a blur.  Green shirt 29 year old passed me and I simply kept up with her.  She really helped me.  I zoned out and focused on my run and what it meant to me to keep up a decent pace, and how disappointed I would be if I just let go and the miles went.  Slowly, but they went.  I really ran at capactity the entire time.  I didn’t think I had much of anything for the finish until I saw Zliten, who ran me in the last 100m or so and told me to speed the fuck up so I picked up my legs and sprinted with the last oomph I had and crossed with the clock reading 2:08.

Run time: 28:07 – 9:22 average.  I clocked the course a little short, but it was definitely way under 10 minute miles.  Eff yeah!!!

Post Race:

I got my bottle, my towel, and I had to sit down.   I really and trully had spent everything on that run.  I got my freezy pop (and a second and a third).  Once I was recovered, we went to check out the results.  Zliten had a 1:33:28 – which is about 34 minutes!!!! faster than last year.  I couldn’t for the life of me work out the math when I actually started and I had finish times in my head anywhere from 1:28 to 1:38.  I knew I had biked and ran MUCH better than last year, but didn’t know about the swim or transitions…also, had I beaten Zliten?  He had really had the tri of his life!

Finally, they updated the finish results tent.

1:32:12.  Over 8 minutes better than last year.  I was overjoyed.  All day.  1:33 was my A goal (and frankly, I set REALLY HARD A goals) and I beat THAT by almost a minute.  Honestly, it took me until I just dissected the race above to find anything I could do better besides just “get faster with more training”.  And that’s just a given.

The magic of Lake Pf tri even extended to the next day – barely any soreness (so I hit the gym), and today, we race again (little splash and dash – 750m swim, 3k run).  I’ll continue my “What’s next” thoughts in that post because for now, this is becoming novel length and I must get on my with life.

Onwards and upwards!

Also – I met someone who read my blog!  Wheeeee!  Marlena? Maggie?  I think your name started with an M – and speaking with you made my day even more awesome, but I’m horrible with names (especially coming off a super tri PR high).  If you see this – comment and let me know who you are. 🙂

Some people celebrate national running day with running (which we did, 2×2 miles during bricks off the bike trainer).

Some people celebrate national running day with margaritas afterwards (I deserved one after said 4 miles in the 90+ degree heat)

Some people take advantage of national running day race discount (owww, my poor amex blue, it’s now black and blue)

This gal did all 3.  And somehow 20$ off, in a way that nothing else thus far has, got me to actually sign up for my first marathon.  Rock n roll San Antonio, November 11, here we come!

Let’s see if this 3rd time is the charm.  This is the right race for me – it’s flat, the weather should be just about right for me (60s), it’s 6 weeks after my half iron, which means I’m banking on all the endurance I’ve built up in preparation for swimming 1.2, biking 56, and running 13.1, and shifting it into pure run miles.  It worked well for me before at the Olympic Tri->Half Marathon distance, I just have to, um, double it all.  No big D, right? (eep)

What this will mean is a more run focused summer.  I’m going to start doing more runs on back to back days (ez short miles) and look at other ways to otherwise ramp up the mileage beyond the 10-ish max these legs are used to right now.

I’ve also consulted with my chiropractor on my “tightness” issue in my hammies and glutes after running 13+ and she thinks it may be a form issue, and that I should get analyzed by someone to fix that.  Any suggestions on where to seek that type of thing out?  I’m not really ready or wanting a full on COACH because I like setting up my own training program and I enjoy doing the research and experimentation, but I wouldn’t mind someone to consult with.  Are there people like that out there?

Here’s what I did last week:

Monday: 1600yd swim in 30 mins, 30 mins weights at gym after work
Tuesday: 7.1 mile run before work (1:17)
Wednesday: morning weights (30 mins), bricks after work (5 mile bike, 2 mile run, 5 mile bike, 2 mile run, 5 mile bike) (~85 mins)
Thursday: off
Friday: 1500yd-ish open water swim (missed my planned weights session – although I swam casually in the lake for about 2-3 hours beyond this…)
Saturday: off
Sunday: 40 mile trainer ride (2:13)

And here’s the plan for this week (mini-taper for Lake Pf triathlon, that is, not increasing the distances or volume)

Monday: 1600yd swim, 30 mins weights at gym after work
Tuesday: long treadmill run after work (bad sleep and major tummy unhappy last night)
Wednesday: morning weights, triple bricks
Thursday: off
Friday: swim + weights
Saturday: off
Sunday: Pflugerville Tri!!!

Week after, I’m going to change it up a little.

This weekend was pretty relaxing.  Thursday, we had Dungeons and Dragons night, which is always a blast.  Friday, we crammed a stressful day into a stressful morning, but then had our annual company boat trip fun day, so we spent the afternoon on the Ark and the Large Marge (our company has gotten so big we need two boats now!), eating bbq, drinking (wine in my case), and doing crazy flips and floating in the lake.  Rough day at the office.  Although, I took care of serious business as soon as we docked and got in just under a mile (estimated due to time and strokes) of open water swim goodness before said fun.  I definitely burned a bunch more calories too diving off the second story of the boat, and wrestling the stupid inflatable shark and splashing around with coworkers.

After, we came home, had a few people over to turn the boat party into a patio party and friends brought over chinese takeout for dinner (with the best wonton soup EVAR), but after sun and fun for many hours, I found my bed fairly early.  One of the best parts about this weekend was the fact that it was a NO ALARM weekend.  I woke up Saturday morning around 10:15 and DAMN it was nice.  We did almost nothing and it was glorious.  Sunday, it was like we had an extra weekend day, it was so productive.  It was another no alarm day, and I slept about 10.5 hours and got up around the same time.  We cleaned up the house, did many loads of dishes, did many loads of laundry, cleaned out the fridge (oy, did it need that – we are horrible, slobby people), watched a bunch of movies, and even did a 40 mile trainer ride! (note to self – MORE OF THOSE)

Eats were not the best, though I paid attention to portions.  One plate of bbq on the boat for lunch, shared a big bowl of wonton soup for dinner on Friday, Saturday, my food pretty much consisted of Dominos pizza, breadsticks, and chicken strips.  Realizing that I had made a pig of myself at lunch, I didn’t eat much dinner (veggies, fruit, a little soup).  Sunday, I had a sbh sammich (sunbutter + honey) on sprouted grain bread for breakfast, and made a freaking awesome buffalo chicken casserole I ate on all day.  Sounds decadent, but it was pretty healthy.  I used a crap ton of veggies which made up most of the casserole (celery, carrots, onion, broccoli, and green beans), two servings of quinoa pasta, two servings of natural shredded chicken breast, and made a sauce from about 2 cups of skim milk + corn starch, and added franks red hot and some blue cheese.  Definitely quelled the craving for mac and cheese.  Will make this again.

We watched a bunch of movies this weekend, lots of Indie comedies, some terrible (Fubar – Balls to the Wall – watch this if you ever want to feel good about your life because you’re not THESE DUDES) and some pretty awesome (10 Inch Hero – very reminiscent of Empire Records) and some in between.  However, one thing I watched while Zliten was sleeping was Knives Over Forks.  I’m not entirely sure I fully agree with the whole “no meat no milk” thing, especially when said animal product is organic, but I know that while I do like meat, I am not inherently a “give me big chunks of meat” person.  So since I’m on my own for lunches for the next few weeks as Zliten is on overtime, I think I’m going to try plant and grain based food (for the most part – I’m not ready to give up the small smattering of dairy and oils I use) for breakfast and lunch during the week and see how I feel.  It may be a huge fail but it will be a fun little experiment!

So far I have done two days of it and guess what – I don’t really miss meat.  I had my normal yogurt/apple/pb for breakfast and black bean veggie tacos w/cheese, sour cream, guac, salsa, olives, and sprouts for lunch, and a mess of pistachios and sunflower seeds and veggies and hummus for snacks on Monday.  Tuesday, I actually (accidentally) skipped my breakfast today and ate a mess of cherries instead, and had a greek wrap + salad for lunch (lettuce, tomato, onion, cucumber, feta, hummus, olives, lite caesar dressing).  My breakfast will probably be my snack – sprouted grain english muffin, no-dairy cream cheese (trying it out), and a black bean veggie patty for a breakfast sandwich.

We’ll see – I’m giving it the three weeks to see if it does any good (unless I just feel AWFUL) so I’ll keep you all in the loop.

For reference, my first weight I’ve taken this week is 179, so we’re hanging out about that same as it ever was.  I’m going to be tracking food as I have been and aiming to try to keep the calories, most days, around 1600 (unless I am particularly active and/or ravenously hungry).

Question(s) of the week: what is the best advice you have for a newbie marathoner?  What style of eating suits you the best? Know of any place that does running form analysis and helps you correct it?

It feels as if I haven’t raced in forever.  It’s been two weekends.  I think I may have a little problem. *twitch, twitch, twitch*  June’s races actually are really squished together – one in two weeks from today (Sunday), and one two days later (Tuesday).

However,  I may not be racing, but we have gotten out there and trained.  Lake Pflugerville has become our BFF.  If I didn’t hate driving so much, I’d consider getting a house out there so I could train at the lake more.

Ah….my happy place.

I’ll get back to that in a moment, but for now, let me tell you my exciting news: WE ACTUALLY REGISTERED FOR THE HALF IRONMAN!!!  Shit’s getting real.  I mean, it was always the goal, and the intention, but so was the marathon, and we all know how that went.   I feel really good about where we’re at with our training and think we can do it.  I have a few trouble spots to conquer (lots of bike miles indoor and out, running more than 10k off the bike), but I’ll get through it.  Less than four months to go!

This last week was extremely hectic due to being out of town all weekend, but at least it was a short week to cram all of it into.  There was that.  Besides a lot of work stuff, here was the training schedule.  Needs more run miles and I skipped weights on Friday due to time constraints, but pretty happy with it.

Monday: leisurely swim + 35 mins weights
Tuesday: 1 hour bike trainer (approx 17 miles)
Wednesday: weights, bike/run bricks (7 miles, 1.75 miles, 7 miles, 1 mile – both bikes around 20mph, both runs around 9:15s)
Thursday: off
Friday: 1600 yd swim – 30 mins (skipped weights. bad Quix!)
Saturday: 1100 m lake swim (~25 mins), 10 mile bike (39:45), 6.2 run (1:12)
Sunday: off

Heat training sucks (I prefer it to cold, but I also prefer my nice comfort range between about 55-79 degrees, thanks).  It didn’t mess with me that bad on Wednesday night, but running for an hour in the 86 degree sun on Saturday really did us in.  I had wanted to do at least 3 laps around the lake but we just couldn’t keep going after the second one.  I just have to accept that the paces for running outside will suck this month but start to get better as I get acclimated.

Getting more comfortable on the bike in aero (especially going up the hills), and dealing with clips.  Also, 10 miles on the bike feels very short.  Also, also, the hills felt a lot easier than last time for some reason.  Yay!

I could tell we’re two weeks out from the tri at that lake, there were a LOT of people swimming, biking, and running the area.  It was also kids fishing day, so there were a lot of people out there fishing and hanging it.  Looked like fun!

Swimming drills are starting to work, my form is improving, which means that I’m a little faster, but a LOT less tired getting out of the water.  I keep feeling like I could easily tack another mile onto my swim, and I plan to test that soon.

We had a small neighborhood type BBQ and had about 10 of our friends that lived close by over for tacos and blendy drinks on the patio and doggy play time.  Lots of fun.

I’ve also been tracking food again and surprise, surprise, I’m eating more calories than I should to lose.  Go figure!  Working on that more this week.  However, I’ve been weighing in the 178-179 range this week, which is at least consistent.  Maybe if I can get a good week under my belt maybe I’ll see the 177s again. I redid my measurements today. Hips and waist have not changed, but I’ve lost an inch in my calves, almost an inch in my hamstrings, and gained a little in my bicep (.5 – I think it’s muscle) and .25 in my neck.  My neck and my calf are almost exactly the same size.  Also, I have bigger biceps than Zliten ;).

I also got a link to a sale on all my race pics by a certain photography studio and it was interesting to see them.  I may not have lost any weight since tri season last year, but I have less jigglies.  Also, saw some old, old ones and thought a) dang, I’d like to be that weight again and b) my legs look weirdly deformed in some of them, like they shouldn’t even work for running.  I definitely have more leg muscle now even if I also have more leg fat.

Example – Kerrville last year in Oct (ughughugh)

Rookie in May – same tri-suit, just about the same angles

And my triumphant race to the finish!

Subtle, but a little less squish.  Just for fun, here are the pictures from my second race, the Texas Round Up 10k.  While I do miss the definition of my legs from the second picture, the first one makes my leg look deformed.  WTF?

Workout goals for the week: more run miles on the weekdays, less calories (around 1500-1600 per day), 3 solid weights sessions, and a good, solid week.  Friday is the company boat party, Saturday is a friend’s birthday, so the majority of training this week will be MTWTh.

Life goals for the week: put away laundry tonight, play at least 3 hours of the game I work on (I’m falling behind in levels…), and clean out the fridge.  It’s getting scary in there.

What’s your goal for the week?

Pretty much lately, when I think about my weekend, it’s about planning the logistics of whatever race and/or training we’re heading to, and where the drinks are after.

This weekend, it was time for something completely different.  Well, there was still training.  And drinks.  And logistics.  But COMPLETELY different, I swear.

First of all, there had to be training (of course!).  We decided to abandon the swim and the bike and do a nice long run around Towne Lake.  Just like the old days (aka – Jan/Feb).    And just like the old days, we slept in and didn’t get going until about 9:40.  In the winter, that’s actually advisable.  In the (almost) summer, that’s death.  We ran 10 miserable miles in mid to upper 80s, with high humidity and no wind.  I swore my garmin was playing tricks on me (that’s all we’ve run???) and we went from respectable pace to slog to run/slog to “omg no more walking so we can put this run out of it’s misery” slog.  We learned that a) get your ass up when the alarm goes off and take a nap later instead of sleeping in and b) it’s that time of the year to get heat acclimated! Woo!  June is gonna *suck* but the rest of the summer will be worth it.

However, we couldn’t be too upset because after our run, it was time for a long weekend away!  Real, non sarcastic woo!  We grabbed some lunch, did final packings and got cleaned up, and then hopped in the car and headed down to San Antonio.  The goal was just to get away as close as possible (read: not much travel time), while still being “away” (read: not at home, hence not getting distracted with chores or plans or projects or extra training), so 1.5 hours away at a fancy spa resort sounded like exactly what the doctor ordered.  We got there around 4pm, had a little bit of trouble finding the place and found out how very new it was (no signage, not even “grand opened” yet, etc).  Finally, after getting it all sorted, we got to our room, headed to the pool, and spent some quality time reading, drinking margaritas, and lounging in the sweet cabanas.  I have decided we need one of these for our backyard.

Normally, I’d be all up in the pool but we had planz… our little package deal included a dance lesson.  Totally random, but it had been a while since we’d taken classes so we were down.  When we get there, we find out that the owner would be giving us the lessons, and that owner was Corky Ballas – who apparently was on Dancing with the Stars this season.  Sweet!  We were a little stumbly at first (and yeah, I haven’t spent much time in heels for quite a while since I ramped up my running) but it all came back to us and by the end of the 45 mins we were able to complete the little routine a few times and I only had 2 toes stepped on as casualties!  We even got invited back for a special performance in a few weeks (though it’s doubtful we will make it).

After that, we headed to the bar for some pre-dinner drinks.  The place was super fancy and focused on sustainable, local food (which was cool).  We had a few cocktails and decided to snag an order of hummus.  It ended up being so freaking tasty and filling that we had a few more drinks and split a chicken pesto flatbread appetizer instead of foods.  The bartenders were super busy and it looked like the were way understaffed, but as the night went on and it got a little less crazy they were pretty cool.  Since the place had wifi we um… watched Olympic videos on youtube.  Because we’re huge nerds and CAN’T FREAKING WAIT for August.  The bar closed around 12:30, so we took our last drink and headed up to the terrace lounge.  While it was tempting to order their 24 hour bottle o champagne room service, we were strong and headed to bed instead.

Day 2 was a major milestone as I slept in until 10am.  Crazy.  No matter what I’ve gotten up to the night before nowadays, I’m up at 9 or earlier.  I credit the super comfy bed and dark curtains.  I woke up feeling pretty awesome, and it was time to head back into the sun for some pool and reading time.  We ordered a chicken caesar salad to split for lunch, and to be honest… notsogood.  We nommed on some jerky and nuts we brought from home to fill the void, and at 2pm we headed to the spa for our couples massage.  Oh, I had been looking forward to this since we booked it.  We got changed into robes, relaxed in the relaxation room, then got to go back to get worked on.  Of course, I picked Deep Tissue because I like the abuse.  Dude knew what he was doing.  He spent a long time on my neck and shoulders, probably 10 mins just kneading my back, and also did my extremities.  My legs are EXTREMELY ticklish and dude barely triggered my giggle reflex.  So, so good.

We hit the sauna after and then showered and headed out to late late lunch around 5.  So, dinner really.  We decided on Tex Mex simply due to the virtue of the fact that they would bring us chips and salsa right away and we were HUNGRY!  The first place was a bust (it ended up just being a burrito shop, and not what we were in the mood for), and then saw a listing for a place called Alamo Tortilla Factory, and heralded their amazing tortillas and queso.  Sold!  It may just have been our hungries, but their food was totally excellent.  I always covet veggie fajitas but need some meat in there – they had a chicken and veggie fajita platter.  It was the balance to the fact that we had taken down a boatload of chips and queso.  After gorging ourselves, we needed to settle our tummies, so we headed to the grocery store.  We picked up breakfast for the morning (fruit and yogurt for me, donuts for Zliten), sandwiches to eat later, and most importantly, some wine and beer to take to the pool.  We spent about 30 bucks on the booze, plus coolers/transport, and since beer/wine was 5$ per glass, I think we scored.

We spent the rest of the evening, from about 7pm on, feet in the water, reading our respective books, lounging either in a cushy cabana or nearer the pool, taking a few dips to cool off.   The pool lights were amazing – in the waterfalls and the fountains and even just in the pool, they changed from green to blue to purple to pink and back.  It was truly a wonderful, relaxing night.  When they kicked us out around 11, we headed back up to the lounge area and I read on the lounger until I started going cross eyed drinking from my “baba” (my insulated plastic bottle my wine was in), and headed up to the room and drifted off to sleep.

This morning, I slept in until 10:30.  Bliss.  I was so ingrained in my book  I woke up and immediately fixed myself my yogurt and fruit breakfast, decaf coffee (a huge treat for me), and read for 2 hours.  We felt a little slothy, so around 1, we found the weights room and did a nice 30 min lifting session.  It was a nice facility and cold and it felt wonderful.  We took a look at the indoor pool and it looked amazing for lap swimming, but decided instead on a nice 40 minute leisurely swim outside.  Zliten always has to drag me out of the water and today was no exception.  We took the quickest showers ever, got our bags downstairs and into the car, and left our happy weekend getaway weekend feeling super destressed and happy.

The trip home was uneventful, we grabbed lunch at Red Robin (again, it was 4pm lunch time so I went crazy and got a cheeseburger and fries and ate it ALL), ran a few errands when we got into town, and got home in time to feed the pets, do some laundry, and chill on the couch.  Best Memorial Day Weekend Vacay Ever.

Other things that happened this week:

-I started tracking again this week and trying to make a serious dent in the extra fluff.  I’m not entirely sure what damage vacation did, but I did pretty good last week.  Each weight I took was in the 179s, and 178-something on Saturday after the run (even after re-hydrating).  That’s better than it has been.  Even though the first day I was trying to be good my loving husband brought this into my office.  Sigh.

-Two favorite things foodwise this week: cilantro lime shrimp from Costco and vanilla maple Arctic Zero (the 150 calories per pint frozen desert).  The shrimp was an awesome, ez meal for a few days and snacks (and would have been a few more if we didn’t leave town), in tacos, on salad, with homemade cocktail sauce as a snack.  I will get them again when I’m in the mood for a shrimp fest.  The Arctic Zero – the other flavors range from ok to pretty yummy, and this one is AWESOME.  Its the creamiest and it tastes like pancakes.  Nomnomnom!

-The video game studio across the street laid off a bunch of their staff, and a day later, two huge studios shut down.  There are a lot of folks looking for work right now.  I feel bad for ’em, and very very happy to have a job, which seems to be pretty stead, which I enjoy.  The early part of the week was frustrating for me due to some folks and I not seeing eye to eye, but I’m just very appreciative of being gainfully employees right now.  Perspective, I has it.

-Last weeks workouts: Monday – 30 mins weights at the gym, 30 min swim after work, Tuesday – long trainer (27.25 miles in 1:34) ride before work, Wednesday – morning weights at home, evening triple brick (15 mins on the trainer at about 20mph, run 1 mile fast ~9 off the bike, repeat 3 times), Thursday – OFF (oops – tiiiiired), Friday – off (oops – was going to make up Thursday’s workout but work got in the way), Saturday – 10 miserable miles in 2:02, 1 hour dance lesson, Sunday – OFF.

This week I’m playing it by ear a bit, my back feels a little tweaked for various reasons, so it may be a run tomorrow, may be a trainer ride, and we’ll see what happens from there.  The goal this weekend is to do ~3-4 hours of swim/bike/run goodness at the lake, and I think the ratio will depend on what we get in during the week.  For now though – it’s bedtime for bonzo, and time to finish my darn book.

No more swanky vacations until August, however, we are going camping soon, so I’m definitely looking forward to that.  Question of the week: what’s your next vacation planned.  If you don’t have one planned, where would you LIKE to go?

It’s been a while since I did a standalone 5k all out… and when you race as much as we do, that’s saying something.  I really don’t like 5ks.  I’m not working speed right now – it’s killer for me to run even a mile in the 8s (and my fastest mile is 7:07), but give me some time to get warmed up and accelerate and on the good days, it’s not all that much slower.

However, this is the race that fit well into our month, plus Zliten wanted to soundly thrash his 5k PR, plus it was a dollar to enter, so we headed to Berry Springs Park in Georgetown and prepared to race.  Plus, with all the tris and splash and dashes where I’ll be wearing the same thing over and over, I wanted a chance for a race day pic in my new fave nike shirt.  IT’S PURPLE and STRIPEY, people!

I had been mentally preparing myself, even if I haven’t been training speed.  I know the 5k is a huge mental game for me.  I don’t mind a moderate amount of pain, but 5ks are INTENSE.  There is a point where things go from hard to unbearable, and it’s a small window, and somewhere around mile 1.5-1.75, it changes even if my pace doesn’t.  That’s typically my despair point, where I slow down and lose it a little after running way too hard in mile 1.

I have found now that reigning myself in on mile 1 and speeding up from there is my ace in the hole.  I decided my goal would be a 9 minute mile for mile #1, 8:45 for mile #2, and fast as I could fly for #3 on in.  Considering the fastest mile I’ve ran in the last few weeks was a 1 mile 8:58 off the bike (which was honestly kinda brutal), I wasn’t sure how this plan would end up working. Oh yeah – and I’d been out drinking TWICE this week (not the night before, but still), and eating way too much restaurant food.  So I was TOTALLY primed for success here.

My fears got worse that morning, as I a) had a slightly unhappy tummy, which is never a good sign for 5k all out pace and b) in the warmup, my legs were rough… I ran about .5 mile in the 11s because nothing faster my legs would have, and then struggled like hell to get under 9s for some race pace striders.  Let’s just say I’ve started races a little more confident about my upcoming performance.  However, messed up head aside, the race still started and off we went.

We got going and looked down at my watch expecting to see 10s… I saw 7s.  That was not going to work.  “Slowing down!” I told Zliten and he followed suit.  I settled in a little under 9s feeling pretty good, and we ran together for a bit, but then he dropped back and I kept going.  Proud as hell of that guy, he kept me in his sights the entire time, we got to hi-5 at both turnarounds, and he got a huge PR (and he’s noting this is our TENTH race this year… crazy… or maybe he’s waving his hands in the air like he just don’t care…).  But anyhoo, this is MY race recap.

The first mile it was definitely a struggle to not go too fast, but I conquered and ran it in about 8:54.  One down, two to go.  I started magnet-ing (seeing someone in front of me, attracting myself to them, passing them, picking someone else, etc).  Some went quick, some went slow (most notably the 16 year old in front of me around mile 1.25, and the 7 foot tall dude took quite a while to pass around mile 1.5).  Just as expected, around 1.6 it started getting rough.  I tried to come up with a mantra to get me through the second half – the first one I came up with was “go faster and you’ll be done quicker” but yeah, I’ve tried that before and it doesn’t work.  I was thinking “Bring the pain” that morning before the race, but what really got me through was “Expect the pain, manage the pain, push through the pain”.

I felt pretty darn good after mile 2.  At a 9 minute mile, I obvs didn’t actually speed up any, but it contained a big hill and some slight uphills that did not rock my world.  The last mile is usually pretty good for me, and while I wasn’t running lightning speed, I wasn’t sputtering out either.  I played leapfrog with a guy this mile that was walking, then sprinting, then walking, but I am happy to report that everyone that I passed on the course stayed behind me besides this guy.  The last turn around had another decent incline, so I maintained up that and put the gas on when I crested it, for an 8:58 third mile and a 8:20 pace for the last .13.  I took the final turn and powered to the finish for a 27:58 garmin time for 3.13 miles – 8:55 average pace.

My 5ks since 2009 have been as such: 27:48, 27:19, 26:31, 25:10, 27:51, 28:26, 29:26, 27:58.  The first 4 I actually trained for, the last 4 were just “hey let’s do a 5k”.  So while it’s not my best, it’s definitely not my worst, and I’m pretty happy that I’m not just consistently getting WORSE at them.  And have an 8-something as avg pace, at this point in my volume build for the half iron, makes me very happy.  One workout that seems to be keeping me conditioned for a little speed too are these double (and this week we make them triple) bricks – 15 mins on the bike trainer, 1 mile run at like 90% effort x2 (or 3).  Do believe that these will stay in the rotation for a while.

Of course, we can’t just leave well enough alone, and 4-ish miles with warmup and cooldown are just not enough for a Saturday, so we did a wicked 25 mile hill ride around my parents area.  Let me tell you, it sounded like a great logistical idea at the time (hey, we’ll be in the area, and only have done a few miles!) but these were two back-to-back leg thrashing workouts.  We were going to do 30, but it just worked out that we were back at the house at 25 and we were both just *DONE*. We gained and lost 1800 feet in 25 miles, that was enough thxuverymuch.  Slow as molasses with an avg speed of around 14mph, but it was good hill training.  Aero bars are my friend and I found a great new way to pedal up hills that uses my calves more when the other stuff gets tired.

Other stuff I have done this week:

-Went to a high school production of Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog.  Those kids were pretty talented!  I wish I would have had the option to go to an “arts” high school!

-Drank fancy cocktails in a room that used to be a happy ending type massage parlor called the Midnight Cowboy.  The two drinks I got there, the Jinx remover and Lindsay’s Lament, were both fantastic!  I would have taken pictures, but the place asked that you not use your cell phone to keep it quiet and mellow.  It was a great 2 hours for our reservation of quietness and intimate chatter with some friends I hadn’t seen in a while, and then we stepped out onto 6th street and… CHAOS.  It was so bizarre.  I would definitely go there again.

-Actually made it to a game developer beer night at Mr. Tramps and didn’t overdo it!  Only 4 glasses of wine…

-Discovered a fantastic place with 5$ happy hour burgers and drinks called the Park – and the burgers are so big Zliten and I found we could split one and be full.  Fun evening – and I totally earned half a burger and some fried pickles after a good 10k run that morning.

-We lost power on Wednesday night and didn’t get it back until the morning.  It was a trip to be so… unconnected.  Also, it meant that I really couldn’t cook dinner so it was another unexpected night of eating out.

-Got in some good training.  30 mins weights and 25 min 1400 yd swim Monday, 10k (supposed to be 10 miles, but I didn’t wake up in time Tuesday, off Wednesday, group power class and double bricks Thursday, and a 30 min swim Friday.  I missed one weights workout and missed a few running miles, but all in all I’m pretty happy with my week.

I also slacked on tracking food for the last two weeks, and certainly haven’t been pigging on junk 24/7, but I have ate and drank not like my normal self, especially this last week (see above).  Back to it this week, and going to stop using the awful body bugg software and track on sparkpeople.com again.

And of course to support me, my husband brings THIS into my office today.  I actually made him remove it, or threatened to take a big ass bite out of it or lick it and he didn’t want that (his idea was to slice it like a cake) so it has left my office and I feel better.

This week, changing it up a bit and doing a long 2 hour trainer ride tomorrow morning, and a longer run (10-14 miles) on Saturday, along with the rest of the normal schedule (M: swim+weights PM, W: triple brick AM+weights PM, Th: weights class AM + swim PM).  Looking forward to a little R+R this 3 day weekend.  Should be nice!

Questions of the Week: What’s your plans for the long weekend?  What 5k training or pacing tips do you have for me?