Happy Friday! kind of...

My don't give up song for the moment:


                                       


So the sad news is that my Olympic Tri got cancelled for this weekend.  They will register us for it next year instead......  This was due to the rains we finally got, it washed all the ash etc from the fires into the lake and they are saying the water quality is too poor to swim in.  I received this information on Monday and for some reason it really disappointed me got me down a little.  I had trained so hard for this and the Olympic distance was always one that I had never quite mastered it's that weird middle distance that I never hydrated, fueled or trained properly for.  I was so ready to prove myself and I had given up some fun stuff in order to train for it and maybe even let it cause a few minor fights with the f.  It feels like all that was for nothing.  I threw all my mental toughness training out the window apparently and barely trained at all this week because I was so disillusioned.  But I'm digging my heels back in and am back to my regularly scheduled training this weekend.  I mean I do have a sprint next weekend but that was supposed to just be for fun and I do have the Disney Half Marathon in a couple of months.  But I still have this feeling like I don't want to sign up for any more triathlons this season, bummer...

Running Tips for Beginners

Recently I received an e-mail from  Lindsey   that started off with this:

Running Advice –

You've inspired me to try running. I'm burnt out on my elliptical (bored with it) and need a change. Though it is insanely hotter/more humid in Houston, I think it'll just add to the burn when I run.

Let me just say that is so exciting!  I love it when energy spreads.  I will do my best to answer some of the questions she had but let me invite all of you fellow bloggers to add your 2 cents especially in the areas I’m not familiar with (i.e. running with asthma) Obviously I am not a doctor so I guess I need to put the usual disclaimer of always consult your physician before beginning a new training program!

To get started I would suggest to have goals but make them attainable.  Running requires different muscles and stamina than other sports so work your way up gradually.  I hear people say “I can’t even run a mile!”  Well guess what at one point I couldn’t either.  A mile can seem far and you have to work up to it.  You can use a run walk method to work your way up to a mile then once you’ve reached that goal go from there.  For example if you walk 2 minutes, Run 1 minute and keep doing that until you’ve either reached 1 mile or set amount of time.  I’ve heard some good feedback on the Jeff Galloway Method: http://www.jeffgalloway.com/training/index.html

For stretching it is usually best to do active(dynamic) stretching beforehand and save the static stretching for after.  Hips and IT bands are usually the tightest for runners so make sure to stretch those out!

 Beginning-  Dynamic warm up

Middle         Actual workout

End-            Cool down/static stretching

http://www.elitesoccerconditioning.com/Stretching-Flexibility/DynamicStretchingvsStaticStretching.htm

For humidity and heat be sure to add extra water intake.  Personally I prefer a fuel belt for the longer runs I find that carrying a water bottle in my hand throws me off but I know this is mainly personal preference.  As far as using a camel back that is worn like a back pack I’ve heard the opinion that it can throw your center of gravity off and make it more difficult to run.

I don’t have asthma but I know it can be managed and have a lot of friends that still participate in running.  Here is an article I found on it:  http://www.roadrunnersports.com/rrs/content/content.jsp?contentId=300078

For running shoes I have always bought my shoes a half size too big.  This is due to the fact that when I’m running longer distances two things happen my feet can swell from the heat and there can be constant impact of your foot hitting the front of your shoe which I found out the hard way can lead to you losing a toe nail or two.  As far as what type of shoe or support most specialty running stores now offer gait analysis, personally I went to an orthopedic specialist and he told me that I am flat footed and what type of orthotics I needed.

Clothes can be a trial and error thing.  “Cool Max” type materials allow for moisture wicking and usually won’t lead to chaffing but can be more expensive.  For music I use it on my shorter runs and they even sell CDs that are all songs with the same bpm (beats per minute) to help you stay on track.  I find that for my longer runs it throws me off though.  I go out to strong and run out of steam, again a personal preference.  Obviously be aware that it can also create safety issues if you can’t hear a cyclist yell “on your left” or if on a busy road.  One of the best things I did is incorporate cross training so that I’m not just running.  When I swim and bike this helps build all the muscles around my knees so that it diminishes knee pain. 

My two favorite running stretches for after:

IT Band Stretch I usually have my top leg straight though.

Hip Stretch

Once you have this one lean forward for an extra stretch putting your forearms on the floor in front of you.

What did I miss?  What’s your favorite running tip for beginners?

Weekend Wrap Up

Very fun yet exhausting weekend!  F says me and Lexi (the dog) feed off each others energy.  I can’t help it if we are both a little excitable, might expend all of our energy at once running around in circles, pass out from the sheer excitement of it all taking a little power nap, growl if someone disrupts our rest, and then ready for another round.  J    Friday was my rest day so I kept myself busy with a couples date at an indoor glow in the dark mini golf, I know I’m not 15 anymore but isn’t it fun to act like it!?  We then were very excited that Kiva Juice has a special on their frozen yogurt after 7pm it’s half off what a deal!  And yes, I only ate this because I knew I had a long run ahead of me the next day. 

Saturday I woke up a little later than my usual for my run I got on the road at 7:10am for a 10.5 mile run.  It had some easy rolling hills on it.  The humidity was pretty bad when I first started and made it feel hard to breathe.  I also decided to try and carry a water bottle this time but decided it was throwing me off and ditched it about mile 2.  Once I got to the turnaround point the humidity lifted and it was still a little over cast so I felt myself pick up my pace a little.  The rest of the run I felt awesome, I stretched at the stop lights and this helped a lot.  I had a negative split which was awesome but I was a little disappointed to see it still came out to 10 minute miles.  It felt a lot better than this when I was running it, not sure where I’m going wrong.  I seem to be getting slower and slower even though I’m training more, on my sprint days I’m able to run faster and pick up  my speed over time but as soon as I get outside for my long runs it’s like my brain is hard wired to do 10 minute miles now!!!  Grrrr ok I will figure this out!  

We then drove to a nearby lake and took the doggy for her first swim ever!  I so wish I had my bloggy with me and could have recorded her freaking out with the water.  The first few times we had to carry her into the water. But after a while of getting used to it she was loving the water, trying to eat the water when we splashed it, and was swimming behind me chasing me.  This was so much fun and the f packed a wonderful picnic he put together at Whole Foods which is quite the treat for us!  On the way back we got to watch a thunderstorm.  

Sunday I went for a 32 mile bike ride and felt great!  Averaged 20.5 mph and am happy that I’m at least not slowing down in this department.  Now I start taper week.   Let’s keep our fingers crossed that they open Cochiti Lake before the weekend which is where the Olympic Tri will be.  I would hate to have it postponed and drag out my training not to mention I already have another Sprint Tri the weekend right after that!

Happy Taper Week!

Happy Friday!

Today's Get Up and Go Song:



Do you ever think:

“I wish I had their job!”

When I see people milling around at 10am on a weekday or out running in the morning while I’m on my way to work.  I think, Lucky!  Then I think well what if they think the same about me and it’s just their day off.  I am pretty lucky that I can commute  to work on my bike.  But then is it possible for that many people to all have the same day off?  Or maybe they work night shifts, yuck!

“Is it possible to cry while swimming with goggles on?”

I have the oddest thoughts when I’m in the middle of my workouts because let’s face it sometimes you run out of things to think about on the really long ones.  Well, the other day on my swim I thought I don’t think I could cry with goggles on.  Would the tears just build up inside the goggles?  Doesn’t it seem like crying requires squinting and goggles wouldn’t allow for that?

Have you ever:


Had to have a work conversation that involved farting?  "Well, no mam, if you read the definition of a hostile work environment that doesn't qualify."  Could you keep a straight face?

Flown off a treadmill?  Ok I haven't done this one but I just wanted to post the video!




Happy Friday and go be the best Weekend Warrior you can be!

Chunky Monkey

This race was on Sunday at 7pm and when I signed up for it I didn’t realize I was signing up for a p.m. race.  I needed to run a 10k to submit my time for the Disney ½ marathon so  that I can start in a coral that is not so far back and I was hoping to start with my friend that is going with me.  Well let me tell you that won’t be happening unless I pick another 10k to run and have a much better outcome!  This is the slowest race time I’ve EVER had for a flat course!!!!  I finished in 1:03:22 and it was everything I could do not to want to walk during it!  It was 97 when I arrived at the race and I think by the time I left it had cooled off to 92.  I thought to myself I’m getting older, fatter, and slower great!  Then I took a deep breath and calmed myself down.  It had to have been an off day for me.  I had run 4 miles that morning with a running buddy so that I could get the 10 in that was in the plan for the day.  This made my hamstrings very sore for some reason.  The day before however, I had opted for an indoor spin class instead of riding outside in order to be able to fit in a Yoga class after which did help stretch me out.  So it’s a toss up on what happened.

Either way I still love the sport I haven’t lost complete faith in myself, yet…  I’ve been training so hard for my upcoming Olympic distance triathlon that is what I have to believe so that I don’t give up on my training for my “A” race.  But I have to admit now I am a little nervous about my triathlon coming up in two weeks.  I slept a lot this last weekend on both days I fell asleep on the couch not even meaning to.  My legs feel very tired.

I have this week which is supposed to be my hardest week of training then next week will be my taper week.  So I’m going to keep on keeping on with the training plan I started and hope that the taper will do what it’s supposed to do and renew my energy!  Follow the plan and it will work right?!! PLEASE!

Ok so at least I got a cool shirt for the race.  And at the end there was ice cream and pizza, neither of which I wanted to eat because it was so hot I wanted to puke!  But I did take it home to try and enjoy later.  Maybe that’s part of the problem I need to quit entering races that have ice cream or beer waiting at the finish line J 

My doggy watching me get ready for work in the morning, she's not usually this calm!

Happy Friday!

This is my current Get up and Go song!  LMFAO may not be the most talented duo out there but I gotta love a song that can pump me up!
What is your Get Up and Go song?


This site had so many good cartoons it took me forever to pick one but this one stuck out right now:

It's funny how it's all relevant what people consider a long distance.  Just the other day a co-worker was teasing me because he asked me if we should take the van for our meeting and I said "no it's close"  He asked for water once we got there because he was dehydrated for our "LONG" walk!  :-)

Happy Friday everyone!  Enjoy your weekend!  I'm super excited for my long workouts this weekend because I get to do it on flats instead of hills and hopefully I'll get to see the benefits of having done hills the last 3 weekends!

Rapid Fire Interview

Lately I had been lacking a little bit of motivation in all aspects of my life.  It took me a little over a week to get a grip and I am so happy to be coming out of this funk!  I think I just got a little burnt out.  My training was going well but I was upping it by more than normal, so it just became like moving through the motions.  My work seemed to become boring and it was all of a sudden just "paper pushing" But I'm back!

I stole this little interview from TriMadness:

Wetsuit - sleeves or sleeveless?
Sleeveless for sure.  I don't have to wear wetsuits much around here but for the races I do I prefer to be less constricted.  I'm not fast enough to really see the benefits of a wetsuit anyway.


Goggles - TYR or Speedo?  
 
No preference, although it seems Speedo works a little better for me.  My face must be weird shaped because it's really hard to find goggles that don't leak on me and I usually have to make them sooo tight that my FOREHEAD GOES NUMB!!!

Swim preference - Pool, ocean, river lake?  I don't usually have this choice but lake.  Ocean is fun but so much harder and scary.

Hydration - Aero bottle, bottle behind seat, bottles on down tube?  Aero if its for a race because I'm not usually coordinated enough to get to my bottle without falling.  :-)

Wheels - tubular or clincher?  Ha you can tell this interview was written for a pro.  Tubular I'm still an amateur.   Correction:  See I am such an amateur I still get confused between the two, I actually have clinchers ( I just looked it up thanks to a comment by BDD)  I have the old fashioned tube and tire. 

Movies - Rom/Com or Action?  Action but my preference is usually a dark comedy.

Roller Coasters - Deathly afraid, Wooden, Steel or All?  I am deathly afraid but I still go for it, wooden.

Helmet - aero or not?  Again I'm not sophisticated enough for this question, I still have a dorky old school helmet.

Race preference - Small/Local or Big/National?  Small usually fits my schedule and budget best and you don't get lost in the crowd, but the few big ones I've done have been quite the fun experience!

Any other questions?  Happy Training!  How do you get your mojo back?  Me I just needed a recovery week of taking it a little easy..

Cheers!

I was in a spin class the other day and was mentioning to a fellow spinner that it was ironic that the time a crave a "cold one" the most is right after a really hard cardio workout.  I sometimes have been known to drink one right after, usually while I'm showering.  You see my shower has a little cut out that is just the right size to fit a beer bottle without it getting any water in it.  Now the thing is when I'm training for an "A" race or during my tri season I usually don't drink, much any way.  Hence, the dilema.  He mentioned that a German company was coming out with a non-alcoholic beer as a recovery drink.  Of course I had to immediately go Google it.

So here it is:

German Non-Alcoholic Beer Promoted As Sports Drink

Brian Kropf / Tue, Feb 22

Germany’s Andrea Henkel enjoys an Erdinger Alkoholfrei after finishing second in the World Cup biathlon women’s 12.5 km mass start last week. (Don Emmert/AFP/Getty Images)

A German non-alcoholic beer has been creating some buzz recently (or lack thereof..) with their claims that the alcohol-free version of their beer is a great post-workout recovery drink and a good alternative to sports drinks such as Gatorade. Erdinger of Erding, Germany says their Alkoholfrei beer is great for athletes as it’s an isotonic beverage, replenishing much needed vitamins and salts lost when an athlete sweats. Beer is also primarily water and very rich in carbohydrates and one doesn’t need to worry about the jitters of an energy drink and excessive caffeine or the buzz of real beer, both of which can lead to further dehydration.
How are athletes reacting? Surprisingly well as it is actually showing up on podiums around the world, proudly touted in huge glasses, and as far away from Germany as the World Cup Biathlon held this month in northern Maine.

What do you think?

Catching Up

Hi there!  Looks like we have rain coming our way towards next week, woo hooo!!  Los Alamos fire is doing better the evacuation was lifted.  The Sacramento  fire  evacuation was lifted.  We are seeing the effects still with smokey skies and abundant wildlife in areas they wouldn’t normally venture.  

I went to the mountains for the long weekend to visit the parents.  It was an awesome 75 degrees for the high and I did a 10 mile run on Saturday and 32 mile bike ride Sunday.  This is at 9,000 feet and I normally train at 5,400 feet.  There were also lots of hills to be conquered along the way.  For my run I was a more than disappointed with how slow I was.  It took me 1:50 to run the 10 miles.  I could tell myself it was the altitude, hills, and the fact that I totally forgot to take any water but I still thought I felt way better than that while I was running!  

I even got to learn about the Solar System while on my ride!  That's what happens when you ride towards a town called Sunspot..

Then on the ride it took me 2:20 and I felt good, granted pretty slow on the hills, there were a few at 9% incline and one was a 2 mile hill that felt like 10.  I saw three deer on my run.  On my bike I saw coyotes and a bear crossed the street right in front of me!  I will admit it was a little nerve racking, I was wandering how hungry he was.  I almost stopped to take a picture then I decided to just keep going.  I was going so slow up that hill though that I attempted to take my camera out of my back pocket and snap a picture, needless to say it came out blurry.  Got a flat with only 2 miles left to go and tried to ride it in as far as possible then walked it in the last ¼ to ½ mile to the car.  The nice forest service had left me a warning on my car windshield thinking I had gone into the forbidden forest but I was on the road.  I have too much respect for our open spaces to ever risk being the reason for damage to it.  

My legs were fairly fatigued from these hard workouts and that combined with reading fellow blogger’s opinions about compression socks I went to go buy a pair.  Then I saw they were $60 and decided I’d wait a bit, especially since I don’t think they are fully proven to work.  What is your opinion on those? 

My dear little dog is such a nervous car rider that I had to give her some puppy downers to try and calm her and with that she still let out some ear piercing yelps at passing cars (I don’t think my bro and his gf will ever travel with me and my dog again)  so we covered her line of sight with the window visors.  This seemed to work but the poor thing was so worked up and exhausted by the time the trip was over she’s still recovering.  I don’t know what to do other than not take road trips anymore.  She did seem to really love our trip to White Sands the only problem is she kept trying to eat the sand!  It was pretty funny watching her chase the sand down the hill and try to attack it if I kicked it.  I took an extra day off from work and it turned out to be an ENTIRE day of errands UGH! Which meant no workout on Tuesday.  Oh and on Mon. when we went to the pool I was told it was the 4^th of July so I should relax every once in a while and compromise by only being at the pool for 1 hour, which he failed to mention that 1 hour included my shower time, so I only got 800 yds in, don’t say I never compromise..  :-p

Did you know that Body Combat is just cardio kickboxing?  I tried it yesterday to overcome my lack of motivation and the class was so unorganized I could only stand it for 25 minutes then I ran to the treadmill and found my motivation again!

Hope everyone had a happy Independence Day!  There I’m up to date and will now catch up on some blog reading!