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!