A totally jacked up visualization

-But before I get to that….

Last week we were welcomed home from Oklahoma to a ton of snow! Snow is fun, despite being frozen and a pain in the rear. The Hubs decided to dust off the old snow board and give it a whirl. I gave it a shot, wearing my Uggs and sweat pants, hardly snowboarding gear. I fell. I got a neck injury. Seriously, I gave myself whip lash. I am finally feeling much better and am only reminded of it when I take the last drink from my water bottle, tilting my head ALLLLLLL the way back. So, would you like to see the aforementioned snow boarding accident? Of course you would. It is humiliating. I love how The Hubs laughs as my skull cracks on the ground.

Me and my MAD BOARDING SKILZ. Look out Shaun White-I may just come flying down the pipe, out of control and run you over…

I have decided that I really need to focus on these 15 pounds I have gained since August. Yuck. How did this happen with TWO marathons between then and now? I’ll tell you, marathon training makes me HUNGRY. So I will be combing blogs and literature for some good ideas on high protein and adequate carbohydrate diets, and I don’t mean diet as in I am on a diet, I mean diet as in a healthy diet…not the verb but the noun. Let me repeat, I AM NOT ON A DIET. I don’t diet. I hate it. I am trying to find a healthy eating plan that will work to fuel my body and muscles and allow me to lean up.

Today’s workout was cra-Z! I hit up the gym and ran a mile warm up before my weight lifting. I ran it pretty fast, I felt so good. I haven’t been running much. I miss it. I am ready to be back into training after almost an entire month off! I had a few random runs here and there in December but not many.

I did my weights and then headed back to treadmill for my speed work. This is the first time I have done real speed work on the mill. The track was occupied by a bunch of uniformed dudes hauling a huge log, around and around and around…in formation. I wasn’t going to fit on that track. I programmed the treadmill and dove in to my 6x400 yards at 5k pace (each fast one followed by a slower one). I did the first 400 slow (10/mile pace) and then jumped it up to 8:00/mile pace for the next three sprint 400’s. My next two I bumped up a bit and were at a 7:52/mile pace and my final one at 6:42/mile pace. I finished the workout with 3 miles, 4 counting my earlier warm up mile.

Oh, it was not over yet…I headed to the pool to get in another swim. At 1/2 mile I was kind of bored and ready to quit but then The Hubs showed up (he’s doing the sprint tri the same weekend as my half iron) so I decided to do another 1/2 mile. I ended up with a mile total.

I have a lot of work to do to be prepared for this half iron man. I feel confident that the 13.1 will be ok. Although today I went into a daydream, never too early to start positive visualization. Let’s just say it was nowhere near the glittering dream of Vegas I had (don’t remember THAT visualization? Check it out HERE). I was imagining myself getting off the bike, racking it and heading toward the shoot to the run portion…upon closer inspection of my own face (in my brain’s eye view) my mascara was running down my cheeks, I was a bawling mess…I was saying something along the lines of “WHy!? Whhhhhhhy? I just want to be done.” And I vividly recall thinking that 13.1 miles seemed like an ultra marathon at that point.

So what did I learn from my visualization today? Wear waterproof mascara.

Ok, ok….and train hard so that I don’t feel THAT way as I begin the last portion of the race.

Happy Friday!