Fired up

Last night I checked my online workout calendar. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that Coach had put my schedule for nexty week up. Why? Because next Saturday is my first Tri of the season! Seeing all the pre/post race preparations and suggestions got me all excited. I felt like a kid in a candy store… I had a big grin on my face.
The race is relatively small, capped at 250 enties (currently they have about 150 people signed up) and a short one at that. Swim: ½ mi. Bike 11.4 mi. Run 3.1 mi.
The swim is a point to point (whatever that means); the bike is a whole bunch of rolling hills (I’ve had plenty of training on those) and the run is supposed to be flat (my legs will be thankful for that). Saying that I am excited about it is an understatement. I can’t hardly wait.
It will be the first race that I attend SOLO… Todd is not coming with me not will I know anyone else racing it. In a way, that takes a whole bunch of pressure off; but on the other hand it leaves me alone with my thoughts.. and sometimes those tend to be not as positive as they should. Hopefully if I practice all the excercises that Coach wants me to practice (visualize the race, have a plan, etc.) I will be able to leave those “bad” thoughts away.
I will let you all know how it goes as soon as I have time to do it (between us, I am hoping I can have the RR ready by Sunday). The only thing that kind of “worries” me is that I have not been able to swim for 2 weeks. Next week I have 2 swims on the schedule and I am crossing my fingers for them to be good ones, so I can build up my confidence in the water.
After being sidelined for a couple of days I embraced this week for all it had. I left my heart at each and every one of my training sessions. Especially on the bike. There is something about getting up at 4.20 am to get on the trainer that makes you want to beat it up… just to teach it a lesson. Ha!
I also finally admited what my long time goals with this sport are. I finally accepted that I am competitive… VERY competitive. It is good sometimes because it makes me want to always better myself, so I can beat other people; and it is bad sometimes because I focus too much on beating other people… It is hard to find the balance between both of them. With some luck, now that I have admitted this I will have an easier time dealing with it.
In a nutshell, I told Coach that I wanted to be “good” at this sport. What do I mean with this?? I want to be better than average. I have my sights set on becoming as good as Katie, Marit or Ashley.  It will be hard work, but it is definitely my top long term goal.

I am getting all fired up, and can't wait for the fun to begin. The countdown to saturday has started.

The week that was

There has been so much going on this past week.

- I was out of commission for about 4 days.
- Managed to sort of work out 3 days
- My daughter has a case of the “I want to go somewhere mommy”; so we have been out and about everyday after school/work
- My friend from Virginia came to visit for the weekened and it was great to catch up and see her and her family.
- Todd has been working crazy hours and sometimes that makes me mad.
- I had a monster ride on Eleanor on Saturday. It was hard and I almost coughed out a lung.
- I discovered that the casssette on my bike is NOT meant for climbing, so I took the bike to the shop and changed it.
- I got the seat water bottle racks installed. So now I can hydrate properly.
- I discovered my stomach can handle powerbars and Cliff Blocks, and oddly enough I like them both.
- This was supposed to be a rest week, but since I was forced to rest last week, I think it will be hard training instead.
- I am still exhausted and on medication for my ear infection/strep.
- The medicine tastes HORRIBLE and kills my stomach.
- My eating habits have been sucking big time and I am having a hard time getting back on track.
- My body CAN tell when I am not eating healthy.
- One glass of whine will make me open up about personal stuff, especially when I share it with a friend.
- I wish my mom had been with me while I was sick, so she could have given me some TLC (yes, I miss my momma)
- Even though I try to ignore/brush off the people that make me mad.. they still manage to make me mad. I need to find a way to channel that energy towards something else.

So, as you can see this past week has been one full of ralizations, good times and not so good ones too. I am looking forward to this week; spending some time playing with my daughter and working out as hard as I can. Bring it!

On the mend

First of all I want to thank you all for your well wishes.

After a few days of being completely out of commission, I can say that I am finally starting to get better. 

I went to work yesterday, but still did not have the energy I am used to. This morning was different and I actually felt like training. I was not able to do it in the morning though, so I just got done with it. It felt great!

Tomorrow I am heading to the gym for an easy morning run and then on saturday I get to ride Eleanor outside for 2 hours... I am so excited!!!

Last time I rode her was saturday and we had quite some fun. We managed to ride pretty fast too; and that is always nice, don't you think?

I had a great email conversation with Coach today; and each day I am more convinced I chose the right guide for this journey. 

I am looking forward to getting back into the swing of things. My first tri is in 2 weeks and I can't hardly wait.

And the winner is...

The double ear infection and strep throat I got...

I went to the doctor this morning and she just glanced at my ears and said: "Those are not happy ears"... No sh!t Sherlock. 

Then looked at my throat and said: "It is a little pink... I won't even do the swab because I will already put you in antibiotics for your ears". Great!

So I left, with a prescription for horse sized pills, a NO swimming for 2 weeks (or you could lose your hearing) warning; and a whole bunch of contraceptive advice I really didn't ask for... 

I guess I have to understand... the lady is a doctor with teenage daughters who evidently are sexually active, and she just HAD to share how she makes "sure" her daughters don't get pregnant.

Just what I needed :)

What not to do when you wake up with a fever on saturday morning

1) Do not get out of bed and change into your bathing suit to go open water swimming.

2) Do not take Tylenol so the fever goes away for a while so you can get to said open water swim.

3) Do not drive 1 hour to arrive at the lake for the open water swim.

4) Do not swim in the open water even if you are feeling good.

5) Do not ride your bike for 18 miles after the swim.

6) Do not run for 30 minutes after you get off the bike.

Why? Because after the adrenaline stops pumping through your body, and the Tylenol has worn out... You will have an even higher fever, be achy all the way around, and will want to sleep for hours... Only problem will be, you are feeling so miserable, you can't even fall asleep. And that my friends is what my saturday looked like. 

I think I learned my lesson.

Grrrr.....

And that is just to put it nicely. After an exhilarating friday 5k, and an OK swim and bike on saturday (it could have been really bad, but it was OK because I took Eleanor out for the first time) I had a really bad training day today.

My daughter got strep throat and has been home from daycare yesterday and today. I had a run scheduled for yesterday, but I was forced to move it to today. Daughter sick+Husband working long hours=no workouts for moi. But I told Todd that I would get up early today and go to the Y to do my tuesday swim and also my monday scheduled run.

I had to go to the closest Y because Todd needed to go to work at a somewhat decent hour. That reads, the pool temperature was 87 degrees!!!! It is a "family" friendly Y and they do not have a lap pool. Just the fitness one, where they hold kid swimming lessons as well as water aerobic classes. The good thing is that a 5.30 am there are no kids in the water or water fitness classes scheduled.

So I get there and upon seeing the water temperature sign, I brace myself for a not so pleasant swim. I keep repeating in my head: This will be good training (temps wise) because on race day, chances are the water temps will be like that or even higher... I change into my swimming "uniform" and head to the pool.  Every lane was occupied! And here I thought that since this Y is the furthest out from downtown people do not exercise there at the very early hours of the morning. WRONG! I see a guy that seems to be swimming at a pace that sort of looks like mine and I jump in. 

My "cheat" sheet calls for 200 easy swim, then 2 series of 4x50 just as warm up. Followed by a whole bunch of 75's at different speeds... I try not to look too far ahead on my sheet as to  not get discouraged... Deep breath and I start swimming... Putting it into IM-able's words "It sucked money balls". I cannot get a hold on my swimming! it seems that instead of making progress I keep going backwards. Coach says that it takes time and patience and technique... yeah, I kind of lack the last two... Let me say for the record, in case you didn't know... I DO NOT like swimming. I suck at it, i feel like I will never get better. It does not come naturally to me, I feel completely out of place. But, being as stubborn as I am; I will keep trying it until either a) my arms fall off or b) I  get better at it. And to prove I am determined, I recently emailed coach asking her to schedule me to swim at least 3 times a week, because if I do not practice it a lot (read at least 3 times a week) I feel like I lose any progress I might have made. Now remember, swimming is not one of my favorite past times, yet I emailed Coach to swim more... Talk about self torture!

After the pool, it is time to tackle the run that got postponed... It is just a 50 min one, I should be able to do it no problem. Warm up 10 minutes... Wow, my legs are feeling sluggish, I feel heavy... Two sets of 15 minutes on high zone 2 with a 5 minute "easy" run in between. First set begins and I am running at a nice 10 min mile... Definitely an improvement from when I started HR training (i could not even jog without my HR skyrocketing), but still kind of slow for the pace I was used to running at... It feels hard, but I get through it. Easy 5 minutes, check. Second 15 min set begins and I am forced to slow down to a 5.5 mph pace... WTF??!!! I am pissed, my HR is all over the place and I just want to get off the darn treadmill. I am forced to slow down even more... By the time the set is done I am completely demoralized. All I want to do is get home and pig out on some chocolate... Too bad it is only 7.50 am.

It is incredible how you can be on the most high of highs one day, and then the next you are feeling like a slowpoke. Emailed Coach with how I was feeling and she said that stress could be a factor on why my HR was all messed up, also I could be dehydrated (didn't do a very good job at drinking water over the weekend). She basically said not to worry about it to much... If only I could.

Say hello to my little friend....

As I promised earlier, I took some pics of Eleanor... Here they are

Here is a picture of her from a different angle

And another one :

Oh, and I also have a new helmet:

Because the helmet HAS to match the bike (and red is my favorite color)

I am all ready for racing, see??

Twilight 5K

Last night it was my first race of the season. Coach wanted me to race at least a 5 k before my first tri. So a couple of weeks ago I signed up for the Twilight 5 k here in Charlotte. It was an evening race, so I thought it would something fun to try, as most races are usually in the morning.

I went to work, just like any other regular day; but for some reason I was sort of "nervous" all day. Yes, I have done many 5k's and 10k's, but I usually just ran them; never raced them. Big difference, at least in my book.

The work day was pretty uneventful, we are currently working on some budgets for our next fiscal year; so besides having to learn a new software in a whim there was nothing out of the ordinary. The race was going to take place about 2 blocks from the building I work at, so I brought my clothes to change in the bathroom at work. When 5:30 rolled around I was ready to go. I dropped off all my stuff in the car and went to the race site to pick up my race packet and timing chip.

At this point I could really feel the butterflies in my stomach. It was weird to be getting THAT nervous for a 5k. I kept telling myself... You are just running, you've done this a million time. I guess on the back of my head the knowledge that i would be HURTING for the whole 3.1 miles, sort of scared me.

Coach wanted me to warm up for 15 minutes and show up at the start line 5 minutes before the gun. I did as she indicated.  The place was packed and it was considerably warm (I think it was about 80 degrees at 7 pm). I placed myself towards the middle of the pack. I did not want to get ran over nor I wanted to be stuck behind people who could slow me down. Finally the gun went off. The pack started moving and it took me about 20 seconds to cross the start line.

My instructions were to pace for the first 1/2 mile and then let it go. On Coach's words: "5K is all about going fast, speedy feet, hard. By the end this should HURT in your lungs & legs." 

I ran at what I thought was a conservative pace for the first 5  minutes, I figured that would be about 1/2 mile. That put me along the same speed as the fire department team. The race had a challenge between the police department and the fire department. They were carrying banners and running like they do in the military... The troop leader would sing a verse and then the rest of the squad would repeat it. I heard some funny yet provocative verses the firemen sang about the police and was tempted to stay so I could be entertained the whole race; but I knew this race had another purpose. As Coach would say I needed to get into my hurt box. So I picked up the pace. And who would have thought that I would start PASSING people... me? Passing people? This feels awesome... So I picked it up some more... When the first mile marker showed up, I looked at my watch and could not believe my eyes... it read 8:44. WTF?!!!! My mind went crazy.. I just ran a sub 9 mile! I wanted more. I kept running, and yes, it kept hurting, but it was a good hurt. I could feel myself getting warmer and warmer. I could feel the back of my throat getting dryer and dryer. I needed water. Mile 2 showed up there was the one and only water stop. I walked I think 5 steps, enough to get one sip of water and then off I went again. My legs were protesting... Walking was a BIG mistake. The water stop was also uphill, so that didn't help. My legs complained again, I didn't listen and kept pushing. Now, don't think i was a speed demon or something. Yes, I was passing people but there were people passing me as well.

The last mile was pretty much a killer, I think about 3/4 of it were uphill. I wanted to stop really. bad. Almost did. But one thing came to mind: What would Coach do? Coach would stay in her hurt box and would push even harder just because the thought about slowing down crossed her mind. So I pushed. Harder. The last hill was the longest and the head wind made it even more difficult to climb. I put my head down and tried to control my breathing. When i reached the top of it, we had to take a left turn and there was the finish line. A mere .2 miles away. I glanced at my watch.  I liked what I saw...I could reach my goal and maybe some more. I dug deep inside and picked up the pace again. I sprinted to the finish.  I crossed that finish line and I could feel my lungs and legs on fire. Mission accomplished.

My goal was to break the 30 minute mark. I did it. I finished in 27:07. I would have NEVER thought I could run this fast. I was ecstatic. I still have a smile on my face and the race was almost 24 hours ago. I know that to some of you this is a slow pace but this is HUGE for me. I have always been afraid of my "hurt box", afraid of not being able to handle it, but I did. 

Now it makes me wonder how much longer can I stay in it. Can't wait to find out.

Friends...

I made a new best friend!!! Her name is Eleanor and she is a beauty....

Yes, I splurged and for mother's day  got a new Tri bike!!! I will post pictures later, but let me tell you I am so super excited about this new addition to my household. I can't wait to take her for a spin. Saturday won't come fast enough...

You might be wondering why I decided to name her Eleanor... Well, did you watch the movie Gone in 60 seconds? The one with Nicolas Cage and Angelina Jolie where they steal cars?? In that movie, there is ONE car that Nicolas Cage has always wanted to steal and he names it Eleanor. There is also a song by Low Millions called Eleanor that I LOVE, and when the tune came on Todd's ipod on the way to work, I just knew it. The name stuck with me and I could just picture my new friend every time I said the name (or thought about it)

I picked her out on monday, went to the store, rode on her for a bit and after talking to coach about wheel size (I am on a size 50 and it only comes with 650 wheels), I decided she was the one I wanted. I left the store that night with an appointment to get fitted on wednesday (today). This is going to sound super geeky and ridiculous, but I dreamt about my bike, and taking her for long rides. I could not wait! Finally today after work I drove myself to the Tri store as fast as I could (traffic was pretty sucky). My stomach was getting nervous like I was going to be on a race or something. Once I got there I changed into my tri-shorts, socks and bike shoes and got on the computrainer to get fitted. At first they did all the measurements and adjusted the seat and aerobars. We decided not to go super aggressive on the aero position until I get used to the bike; I want to familiarize myself with my friend since I have never had a tri-bike before and the riding position between my road bike with aerobars and the tri-bike is considerable different (not to mention the saddle... hello saddle sores!) 

And then it was time for the "real" test. They turned on the computrainer... Let my just say: HOLY SH*T. I loved the thing!!!!! it gives you such a realistic feel. Un-freaking-believable. Anyhow, they wanted to see what I looked like when I was really into pushing hard; so that they could gauge if I needed to be adjusted differently.  We decided not to for now.

I cannot tell you how excited I am about this. I have wanted a Tri bike for so long! And to top it all off, when i got to the store, I discovered that my in-laws had called in and got me a gift card! I have not spent it yet, since I KNOW I will be needing more stuff... I always do :)

I will take pictures of Eleanor and post them over the weekend... If I can figure out how to do it :)

The weekend is here!

What a whirlwind week it has been. It was rest week, but I really did not rest much.

I work in accounting and this week was month end. For those of you that don't know, month end is kind of crunch time for us accounting folk. Deadlines and more deadlines piled up on top of each other plus any "new" projects that the people we support figure out they need NOW... the last day of the month. And of course they needed it by yesterday... Go figure.

We got back from MN on Sunday evening after a very short an busy weekend. We saw family, friends, visited some places that brought back memories and got new tattoos :) Todd's cousin is a tattoo artist, so we always go to him when we get our new art. My new drawing is so little it literally took him longer to prep than to tattoo me (all of 5 mins). Megan's sleep schedule was all messed up the entire weekend, so by the time we got home sunday we were all crabby and super tired.

Rest week also saw me retesting on the 3 disciplines. I actually did 2, the swim and run, the bike is scheduled for today when my daughter is taking her nap (she got up at 5.30 am this morning, and yes, it is SATURDAY!). I think the other 2 went really well. 

The first time I did the swim test Coach had me do 10x50 with 10' rest in between. She had offered 10x100, but said that 10x50 would be ok too, since she did not know what my swimming endurance was. I replied along the lines of "I will stick with the 10x50 since I do not want to be an overachiever from day one". She replied: "Oh really? Next time is 10x100 then. You will learn to love me for things like that" Let me say, lesson learned. So she stuck to her word and prescribed 10x100 for my swim test. I was able to keep a consistent pace compared to when I did the 10x50. She said that was great because it is not easy to do, but I still felt a bit disappointed. Here is my dilemma. I want to get faster at swimming, and I know it will require extremely hard work, which I am ok with doing. I know nothing good is easy, but at the same time I am scared. The water is super intimidating to me, and that has a BIG role in my ability to swim (or not). I know it is all in my head, and I am working on overcoming my own self set limitations.

When I did the run retest I thought I had killed it. I knew I gave it all I had and was hoping I had gone a much longer distance. It turns out that I didn't. My HR was a lot higher than last time but my distance was the same. How you ask? Well, when I did the test the first time I could not get the HR monitor to work properly. It would not pick up my signal. I had to stop and restart the test at least one time. So this leads me to believe that the data I got the first time was all wrong and I have been training in WAAAAY lower HR's than I should have (I have since changed my chest strap and I am now able to get a HR read as soon as I turn my watch on). I started thinking (maybe over thinking... one of my pitfalls) that all the training I had done this past 4 weeks didn't make me improve at all and actually made me weaker/slower. I was really upset. Coach said that now we have ACCURATE data and I will be able to run faster since the data we had before was super wrong (over 20 bpms difference). I decided to forget the past and focus on working harder going forward. What's done is done and can't be changed, but I can affect how my training goes next week.

I am officially signed up for my first Tri this year. It will be June 7th and it is just a nice little sprint. I am looking forward to it. I know it sounds crazy, but I am looking forward to feeling the butterflies in my stomach the morning of (I ALWAYS get nervous before a race, even if I have done it numerous times... I think it has to do with the swimming). I can't wait to get my season started. Fun times are coming.

I discussed with my Husband and after we get some minor bills paid off, I will be able to get a new bike!!!! I am already drooling over a couple of nice looking ones. Like the Quintana Roo Dulce, or the Orbea Ora Ultegra, or the Quintana Roo Chicqilo. Todd even said I might be able to have it before my 1/2IM distance tri at the end of september. Can't wait! When reading bike specs I have no idea what it all means, so I will have to ask Coach to share her expertise with me, so it helps me make a nice informed decision.

Speaking of decisions, I have made up my mind to do an IM in 2010. I do not think I will have the time or be physically ready to do it in 2009, so I gave myself some extra wiggle room and came up with 2010. Which one? Florida. A fellow blogger said she would do it with me. Anybody else game?