Holy Spin Class….

Have you ever wished for death during a workout?
I have, a couple of times. The most memorable time was during the Portland Marathon when I contemplated jumping off the bridge, just to be done with it…read about it HERE. Ok, that may be a tiny over-exaggeration but still. One other time I was running 8x400 hill sprints. The funny thing is that I could stop at any moment. I could quit. I could walk. I could have gotten in my car and drove to Mandolin Café for a coffee and a brownie. I could have had Mel and Jill scoop me into their car during Portland Marathon at mile 13 or again at 18. But I didn’t.

I didn’t quit.

Why?

I have no idea.

Today during spin class I wished I would black out. Fall from the bike and sleep peacefully on the floor until the class was over. I felt that way 30 min in. It was tough!! I was dripping sweat. I could watch the sweat drops roll down the bridge of my nose and follow it falling to the ground.

SPLAT!

My sweat was pooling under the spin bike.

Weird.

I have never seen that before.
I sweat, don’t get me wrong, during runs and other workouts. I just don’t generally see it pool beneath me. As I looked ahead at the mirror I could see my fellow spinners taking breaks, sitting back in the saddle. Why couldn’t I? Why was I still climbing? Still “turning it up”? Good question… So I would say spin was a success. I will be trying to hit the class at least once a week , doing one ride on the trainer at home and my weekly long ride outside on my gorgeous new Felt….she still needs a name. (Time is almost up to win some Yurbuds or a 50% off coupon to Optic Nerve. Check it out HERE)
After spin I ran 3.25 miles. I didn’t want to. I was tired and wanted to be done. I was hungry. I had a side stitch. I was thirsty and had no water. My head hurt (Why, yes, I would love some cheese with my wine. Thank you.)
So why not quit? Why not just get of the spin bike and walk from the room? Why not hit STOP on the mill and be done with it? I don’t know. It is not in me to quit. I am the dumb one who might fight to the death. I would be the one to gnaw off my own arm to escape from under a tree.
Ok. Maybe not. But who knows?
In Portland Marathon at mile 13 I was done-zo. But I wasn’t. I wanted to quit but I couldn’t. I was going to die trying. Just like a year ago in the Million Inch run (HERE) when my hip hurt so bad the sounds of pain coming from my mouth were not even human, I did not quit, not until I hit exactly One Million Inches. And I know this is probably not healthy. Not smart. Not ideal. And I know I can be smart and quit, stop when the time comes. But for now, I have not hit that point. What will it take? I shudder to think…
In the end I think this will help me, it has helped me way beyond exercising and racing. I have carried this over into my every day life. When I know others would lay down and cry I got myself up and went on. When I felt the world was crumbling beneath me I ran to solid ground instead of falling into the crevasse. Running has made me stronger and taught me invaluable lessons.
And for your viewing enjoyment, I love bell peppers. I had the most delicious one tonight with dinner and just thought you would like to see it:


Do you like bell peppers? That is a bell pepper, right? The orange ones are my favorite and yellow is a close second.
Have you ever kept on going when you know you should have stopped? Or am I the only nut case out here?
And finally, how do you think a spin class converts to road biking? I was supposed to ride 20 miles today but did an hour of spin instead….

Back to normal…

Almost.

Today LB’s school is on a two hour delay. I have no idea why. The roads were perfectly fine yesterday and they are find now. At least he is going back to school before I go nuts. Actually, I was able to get a workout in yesterday so I am not quite as grumpy as I could have been.

The Hubs called yesterday and said he was going to the pool on his lunch break. I got ready faster than I thought possible, got LB’s swim suit and we were out the door. We pulled the ole switcheroo. The Hubs was finished swimming laps by the time I got there so he played with LB while I swam. I had 20 min and was able to get in 880 yds. Too bad I was fiddling with my goggles the entire time. I need new ones. Wearing contacts with leaky goggles is not a good combo.

From the pool LB and I headed to the gym so I could get my run done. He sat in the kid area and watched Sponge Bob, not usually allowed in our family, I can’t stand that kind of humor for kids. The sound was off so he could only watch, not hear what was happening. Anyway, I was on the treadmill knocking out my 6x400 yd repeats.

800 yd warm up @ 10 min/mile pace

400 yd @ 8:00 min/mile pace

400 yd @ 7:52 min/mile pace

400 yd @ 7:52 min/mile pace

400 yd @ 7:52 min/mile pace

400 yd @ 7:32 min/mile pace

400 yd @ 6:28 min/mile pace

All those with 400 yd @ 9:40 pace between

4 miles total.

Today I run 3 miles and bike 20 miles (to be done in a spin class). I’m still patiently waiting on my Cycle Ops!!! It’s like Christmas that never comes!

How many of you got your Daily Mile Year End Report? I got mine and it was kind of disturbing. “Why? “You ask. A couple of reason. First I did a bad job inputting all my workouts and didn’t even start on DM until mid Feb and somehow none of Dec showed up? So it doesn’t portray the 900 miles I ran last year. And the biggest factor? Well take a look…

27 pounds burned!

TWENTY SEVEN POUNDS BURNED!

While that is awesome it is also awful….how on earth do I still have 15 pounds I would like to lose? It’s simple really, calories in calories out. I need to change my eating habits. So on one hand I realize that I work out so I can eat M & M cookies from Safeway (not anymore now that I have moved to NC) and junk. On the other hand I see where I could have been, could be RIGHT NOW if I hadn’t ran my tail off, literally, all year. 27 pounds heavier. Ugh. That certainly would not be a happy place for me. So, I will continue focusing on my diet (the noun not the verb, remember) and strive to be healthier. After all, that is why I do this. To be healthy.

Did you get your DM review?

Were you surprised by it?

***Also, if you want to check out my Half Iron (70.3) training plan go to the Current Training 70.3 link at the top of my page.

1/18-----0/2

“What does THAT even mean?” you ask. It’s code for “Off to a bad start”.

Oh wait, that was yesterday’s blog title. Well, in week one out of 18 of half iron training I am ZERO for TWO workouts. Great. Just great.

Yesterday’s beautiful, fluffy, whimsical snow is now covered in ice and frozen rain. Again no school for LB today and school has already been cancelled for tomorrow. As of now The Hubs is on a 2 hour delay for work tomorrow. I am about to pull my hair out. I just want the snow and ice to go away. I have no idea how you people cope with this all winter long! If I could get down my driveway to the street without sliding on my bottom I might be able to go for a short, slow jog. On the other hand there is a solid sheet of ice covering everything. I might just die if I try to run on this.

This morning The Hubs came in with our flag. It was frozen solid and had broken off the pole. I was still in bed (slept in until 8:30!! Woot woot!!) and grabbed my iPhone because he was so silly, I had to capture it. It reminded me of the photo of the flag on the moon…

Hopefully tomorrow things will thaw out a little bit by mid morning and I can get to the ONE gym on post that has an old racquet ball court that has half of it sectioned/fenced off so kids can play while their parents do cardio. This is where I used to do my cardio when LB was a baby until we moved to WA when he was 18 months old. Tomorrow I have 6x400 sprints on the schedule. This can be done on the treadmill…

In other news, our Cycle Ops indoor bike trainer is on its way…to my house!! I have been wishing it was here the last three days. I could have been doing some serious biking and sweating, all in the comfort of my own living room! Soon enough…

And finally, today I took advantage of the free time to help LB with this weeks homework. He had to write three sentences using action words. I didn’t help him at all, i.e. I didn’t tell him what to write or how to spell things. I was just there for moral support. See for yourself what he wrote:

#2 is my favorite….although I’m not quite sure what is going on there with my arms, hands and head. Hey, so he’s not an artist. Eh, whatchagonnado?

P.S. 400 followers!!! Awesome!! Shout out to the two that got me 400: The Runner and Kittee I am a Runner!! Welcome to the 5 Miles maddness!!!!

Off to a BAD start.

Today is Day 1 of Week 1 of my Half Iron training. I am off to a bad start, already.

I worked so hard over the last few days perfecting my plan, getting everything just so, perfect, manageable, and even coordinated with Breaking Pace and Jessica for our long bike rides. Today I was ready to hit the ground running with a swim and a spin class. Excited about it even!

It didn’t happen and wont happen. At least not today.

LB’s school was cancelled last night (they love doing that WAY in advance) and already for tomorrow. The Hubs is home from work today too, due to a winter storm. It is beautiful but everything is closed down, including the pool on post and the gym with the spin class. Dumb.

I love LB. He cracks me up constantly.

Too bad we haven’t purchased the bike trainer yet. Today would have been a PERFECT day to have it set up in front of the living room window so I could watch the huge snow flakes fall, oh yeah and watch a chick flick at the same time.

I guess I’ll shoot for a short run in the snow. That could be fun and certainly better than nothing. I’m sure we will take a family hike out in the woods behind our neighborhood too.

I need to get on schedule. I have laps to swim, bikes to ride, and pavement to pound people! Don’t you know I don’t have time for this wintery nonsense? I’m moving to the tropics.

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!

57 Things Thursday….

Nahh, just kidding. I don’t think I have 57 things to share, but maybe?

1) Today I passed my NCE (National Counselor Exam)!! Hallelujah! This is a big deal!! I have been putting this thing off for a while then when I finally registered for it I ended up rescheduling it. Then on the rescheduled date it got cancelled because of snow and ice. So this has been hanging over my head like a stupid anvil for WAY too long and today I passed!

2). I am drowning in a sea of wild training plans!! Holy moly! Half Iron training is ridiculous! I work on my plan then have to start over. Part of the problem is that I have a half marathon in March. I would like to do well, like PR (<1:55). But I don’t think I have the time to commit to that sort of PR training with all the swimming and biking that I must do as well. So I am trying to finagle it so that I can do my 5 or 6 days a week of running and speed work plus the bike/swim. But I know this could be trouble. Over training and injury are serious possibilities right now. I don’t want to risk that.

3). With my test being today I took the day off from training. Oh wait, no I didn’t. I spent 15 min sitting on my bike in the door way practicing putting my feet in and taking them out of my clip-in peddles. Oh man, what a work out. I was sweating like a hog. Ok, total exaggeration, I didn’t even get winded.

4). The shake weight rocks. No really. Dec. 29th was my friend Christina’s birthday. So naturally when she came over on New Year’s Eve I had to present her with a birthday present and this is what she got:

It is a strange piece of equipment and kind of weird and humiliating to purchase, but lemme tell you…OUCH! I did it for one minute and my arms were burning. I am considering getting one for myself!

5). Passing a HUGE exam compelled The Hubs to make dinner!! Score!

6). Swimming makes my skin itchy and tight.

7). My hair is always, ALWAYS greasy! What is up with that? I try to not wash it so often but it just gets worse and worse. I washed it after my swim on Tuesday and today, it looks like a stinking grease ball. What helps this stupid problem? What can be done!?

8). The names for my beautiful bike are entertaining. I thought of a name today that I really, reallllly like. I hope someone suggests it so they can win! But that doesn’t mean I wont like one of the suggested names better. Want a chance to win some Yurbuds or a 50% off coupon to Optic Nerve? Click HERE and help me name my bike!

Not quite 57 things, what do you have to randomly share on this fine Thursday?

Swim: Check. Bike: Check. Repeat a jillion more times.

I’ve gotten some pretty amazing name suggestions so far…not to burst any bubbles but I’m not sure I am feeling a winner just yet so keep them coming! Not sure what I am talking about? Check it out HERE.

A few months ago, like before Portland, Adam from Yurbuds contacted me, almost like he heard my distress call, read my mind. He asked me if I was interested in giving Yurbuds a try. Um, is rain wet? YES. No brainer. Ear phones and me have a bad history. We don’t get along. I have tried all sorts: the over the ear type works ok but I don’t get a good sound from them, ear buds fall out unless I am sitting perfectly still, and other kinds are just awkward, bulky or stupid.

So, he sent me the coupon code, I logged on and ordered my first pair of Yurbuds. I was a bit skeptical. Aren’t we all at times? Within a few minutes someone emailed me and asked for some pictures of my ears with either a regular ear bud in them or a quarter held up to the ear (they give you specific directions). Me being, well…me, I sent them like 4 pictures of me doing what was needed. Within a week my custom fit Yurbuds showed up!!

I couldn’t wait to give them a spin! So I didn’t wait! I wore them out for the first time in the pouring PNW rain. I was sure they would get wet and slip out or short out (like all my others) but NOPE. They held fast and stayed in place and the sound!!! Oh the sound was awesome! It was like I was sitting front row of a concert, that loud and clear.

So here is a pic of me using them back in August. This particular day was HOT. And sure enough, with all my ear sweat (I know, sick) they did not slip and slide out. They stayed put!

I really don’t have anything negative to say about them. You can imagine my horror when, on the morning of the Portland marathon I pulled my iPod and headphones out and put them on only to find that one of the small, blue silicone pieces that fit over the ear bud was missing (so be aware that they can come off, I suspect mine had something to do with a certain 5 year old, not naming any names though). I was devastated. I knew my ear bud would not stay put with out it. I can’t stand listening to music in one ear. It makes me feel off balance. So, this was one of many things that contributed to my mentally challenging marathon. In the end it didn’t matter because my iPod died at mile THREE anyway. Stupid.

But, it didn’t take me long to order a second pair! So that should tell you something. I like it so much I had to replace it!

Why am I telling you all this? Simple, I’m giving you an opportunity to get a free pair!! Just help me name my bike! She’s a beaute! Stop by the Yurbuds website HERE and then head over to my post HERE and give me some name ideas….really that simple!

And now, for the workout portion of this blog…oh yeah. I have to work out? I guess. A half iron man doesn’t complete itself. Sheesh.

Tuesday I swam a mile just to make sure I could. I can. But I have to swim 1.2 miles in the half iron. I could have gone further but time did not permit. I was able to do it in about 50 min. I need a good waterproof watch for timing and laps. Any suggestions ??

This morning I headed out with The Hubs on a small bike ride. We went 7.66 miles in 28 minutes. A far cry from 56 miles but it is a start. I felt smoked! My legs were TIRED! I think as we were flying on the roadside I yelled something along the lines of, “I’m going to have a killer body when this is all said and done!!” And you better believe it BETTER be true! Holy smokes you guys!

I am super excited to progress in the training and see what my body can do. I need to figure out nutrition and trim off a few pounds (the ones that came on after Portland). So the journey starts here. I’m stressed just thinking about it. Time for a bowl of ice cream. Wait, that doesn’t quite fit into my nutrition and slimming and trimming plan….time for some protein.

I’m a Big Girl Now…

So, the madness has begun. I am looking for a pool. I don’t think the bathtub is a good place to train for a half iron. Or maybe it is….

There are three gyms with indoor pools (that I am aware of) in this sorry excuse of a town (sorry to anyone who is emotionally attached to Fay-Town). With a population of 198,061 I find this utterly ridiculous, mainly because there are maybe twice that many gyms in the town. Ok, well there are more because there are 13 gyms on the Army Post. But ONE of those gyms has a pool that is open and functioning. The other two pools in town are ok. One is in a gym that cost $58 a month and is about a half hour drive with no traffic from home. Oh it sure makes me miss my YMCA that was 3 min in RUSH HOUR away from my T-Town home. The third and final pool in town is at a YMCA and it is small but wet so I can’t complain. It is also a hike away. I am quickly realizing that the swim portion of my training is going to be the most challenging. I love swimming and consider it my second strong suit after running. The bike is my weakness-more on that in a minute. But I have to be able to train. Luckily this week is dedicated to getting my training lined out.

And finally, a Big Girl Tri calls for a Big Girl Bike. The Hubs surprised me with a new tri bike! Isn’t she beautiful????

He is so proud. It’s cute. He even signed up to do the sprint tri the following day.

The aero bars are amazing! The ride is smooth as butter! Oh man she handles like none other! I love her….The clip in peddles, well I need some practice for sure! We don’t quite get along just yet but they will earn who is boss, gravity me.

LB tried to help me out this evening. And don’t worry, this blog wont become all about tris. I still love running! I never have my running shoes too far away, see?

And now, my Tri Bike needs a name. Suggestions welcome! Actually, let’s make this a competish! Throw some names out there, no limit to the number of suggestions, give as many as you want. And I will chose a name by Jan. 15th. The winner can chose between some free Yurbuds (HERE) or 50% off coupon from Optic Nerve (HERE)! So go ahead, name my ride!! Spread the word or not, what ev. I just want a good name…So pretty much, I will pick whatever name suits my fancy and if I don’t like any of them then we will extend it or I’ll name her myself. It’s my bike, my blog, my party: I’ll cry if I want to.