Random Things

1. I have kind of been a slacker this week on my workouts. I will try to make up for it with a run and ride after work today, even though I just want to sit on my back patio and have a beer.  

 

2. I have to coach at a gymnastics meet in Delaware on Sat. I have four sessions which means I will be there from 7:45am - 8:30pm. Super long day with lots of driving. I hope my girls do great!

 

3. Going for a 50+ mile bike ride on Sunday, then going to the B-Ball game...hopefully :)

 

4. My parents found 6 kittens in their yard! I want them and would go pick one up right now if it wasn't a 6 hour drive :( Kiwi really needs a buddy though!

 

5. Just got out of a 2 hour meeting at work and I didn't fall asleep!

 

6. So glad this Royal Wedding stuff is going to be over with! I am so sick of hearing about it!!!

Vacation Booked!

This post really has nothing to do with training, but I will start off saying that on Jason and I's actual one year wedding anniversary I will be doing my first triathlon! Sorry Jason, but looks like you will be stuck cheering me on that day :)

Since my triathlon falls on June 19th, we decided to book a 11 day Baltic Sea Cruise with an extra three days in Copenhagen instead! I am super super excited for this cruise as we get two days in St. Petersburg, Russia! I have been wanting to go to Russia for a long time now. Since the weather was crappy last night, we booked all our shore excursions, which basically took forever! The best part is there is only 2 full days at sea and the rest are port stops. Here is at list of all our port stops: Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki, St. Petersburg, Tallinn, Berlin, Aarhus, and Olso. 

I will basically be missing a solid two weeks (June 24 - July 12th) of training for my Olympic distance tri in sept. I will try to get in as much as I can during this vacation, but probably will not be doing any swimming. I found a running tour in Copenhagen that looks pretty cool and the guide runs at whatever pace you feel comfortable at.

Happy Thurs.

Cycling Fears

While riding yesterday I was thinking about how many fears I have while cycling! So here they are in no particular order:

1. Cycling itself! - I have been scared of it since I was a child
2. Going around tight turns or curvy trails
3. Running into other cyclists, runners, and walkers
4. Going fast - yes I put my brakes on while going down hill
5. Traffic! - I've been hit by a car twice
6. Other people running into me
7. Clip shoes - I don't even have them because I'm scared
8. Riding over the 14th St Bridge
9. Wind - can it blow you and your bike down?
10. That I will meet my death on my bike!

So my conclusion is that these fears are holding me back and I have to get over them if I want to become a better cyclist or just a cyclist for that matter. I have to push these thoughts to the back on mind and just ride.

Happy Wednesday!

Test Run = Success

Somehow in the DC area we have seemed to skip over spring and went right to summer! I only ran 2 miles after work yesterday and it was so HOT! I was almost thankful that I did not have time to do more.

So, today, (being the smart person I am) I woke up early and ran 5 miles on my way into work. The weather wasn't too bad and there was small breeze that felt pretty good! This is the longest distance I have ran since March 26th and it was somewhat a test run. I would say it went pretty well and I only had a little bit of knee pain at the end of the run. Overall, the run was a success and I'm pretty happy about it!  Not a  bad pace too, 8:20. Now, my co-workers may not be so happy...I showed up to work a hot, smelly, sweaty mess! And no I did not give myself enough time to shower. I just splashed some water on my face and changed into my work clothes that I had brought in yesterday. I think my face was still pink for at least an hour after sitting at my desk. Oh well. I always look like a mess at work.

Looking forward to biking with M (aka Jason) after work. Thinking about doing the Mt. Vernon Trail. On a side note: does anyone have any suggestions on were to ride for a 50+ bike ride? 11 more days until the Black Water (56 mile) bike tour.

Weekend Recap - Easter Edition

I had a great weekend visiting with my family in Ohio!

I got up extra early on Friday so I could fit all my workouts in before traveling that evening. After work I meet Jason at Union Station and we took the Marc up to BWI. Our flight was suppose to leave at 6:30pm, but it was delayed 2 hours! So we didn't get to my parents till 10 pm and everyone was already tired and sleepy. 

waiting in the airport = no fun!

Saturday was a planned rest day and the day started off with my dad making made to order breakfasts. He loves making breakfast. Afterwards we pulled out all the stuff to make Pysanky (Ukrainian) Eggs. Making the eggs is very time consuming and involves using a wax tool and dipping the egg in different colors. I made two eggs. One with a Ukrainian design and one cheesy triathlon egg!  

Then we headed over to my brothers house for my niece's 4th birthday party, which was so cute.

Sunday I got up early to try to fit a run in before everyone got up. My parents live on 50mph country roads, and I was too lazy to drive up to the park to run on the trails. So, instead I just went for a short run and luckly I only saw 4 cars out.

The rest of the day I visited family and ate yummy food and desert.

Kiwi sure was happy to see me when we got back about 8:30pm lastnight.

Overall, I had an ok week of training and a great weekend with my family. My miles for the week were as follows:

walking: 7.57

running: 18.24

biking: 30

swimming: 2.12

core + arms = 1.5 hours

Hopefully I will have more time this week to get in more cycling miles and strength.

Random Things

1. I woke up early to use the station bike at my work's little gym they have. I jumped in the shower afterwards and realized I forgot to bring a towel. So, I had to use paper towels to dry off! Good thing no one else was in there because it would have been super embarrassing!

 

2. I'm feeling a lot better about my swimming now that I can swim a mile without resting. But, I am still so scared of the thought of an open water swim! yikes!

 

3. I found an awesome site: http://www.akapparel.com/custom-apparel/jersey-builder.php that you can design your own bike jerseys at. I am so tempted to make me and Jason matching jerseys for our blackwater tour that is coming up. I love cheesy things! I don't think $100 bucks a piece is so bad for something that will look awesome!

 

4. Only 4 of my gymnasts showed up for practice last night which meant they got to have a fun day and I got to have a fun day as well and flip around in the gym :)

 

5. Taking the Marc train up to BWI after work to catch a flight home.  I hate flying out of BWI, but the flights are always so much cheaper than DCA.

Skipped my ride....

So my plan for this week was to go for 3 rides. Well, it's Thursday and I have really only rode 18 miles on Tues. The weather was perfect out yesterday, but my motivation level was low and I felt tired. I did 35 minutes of core/arm work thinking that this may wake me up a bit and I was hoping when Jason got home he would motivated me to get my butt on my bike! Yeah this did not happen. Instead we had to run up to the hardware store and get grout sealer for our back splash before the store closed. So, I ended up working on the kitchen instead of cycling.

Well, I thought no big deal, I'll go this morning.....but, this did NOT happen! I hit snooze a bunch of times and ended up just riding to work which is only 4 miles, (but I'll take the 4 miles as one of my rides). I'm just really beating myself up now though for skipping last night and I guess this morning!

I don't know when I am going to get this make-up ride in?! I have to coach tonight and swim, so I don't get home till 10pm. Tomorrow I will pray for no rain and try my hardest to get up super early and ride HP before work. If I don't do it tomorrow then basically I will not get it in this week! I fly to Cleveland tomorrow night and won't be getting back till late on Sunday and will have no access to a bike or gym. Ok, I'm doing a lot of rambling and complaining, sorry.

Happy Thursday :)

The Pain Returns!

So, in my head I had planned out how wonderful this post was going to be! The title was going to be I'm Running Again! Well this is not the case :(

I went for a small 2 mile run on Monday, NO pain. I went for another small 2 mile run in the morning on Tues, followed by a 4 mile run after work, NO pain. So I'm thinking to myself I'm in the clear, right? My plan this morning was to do another test run and add an extra mile. Well this has nothing to do with my knee, but I didn't eat before my run so decided to just run 4 instead on 5, no biggy. Well right around the Washington monument I started to feel some pain in my knee. I thought to myself, maybe I'm just imaging it, my knee is better now?!?! No, I wasn't imaging it, my knee really started to hurt around 9th St, which was about 3.25 miles into my run. So, I had to walk the rest of my run! OMG, I am so sick not being able to run!

Maybe, I'm trying to run to many days in a row without a break, before my poor knee is all the way healed? But I feel like I have not been over doing it and have been running short distances. I will take tomorrow off from running and try a 3 mile run on Friday. Then over the weekend I will talk to my sista, who is a PT, and see if she has some advice for me. This whole ligament strain is killing me!

On a side note, I saw a poor cyclist getting pulled over for going through a red light by Constitution and 3rd nw this morning. Don't the cops have anything better to do, then to pull over a poor cyclist on his way to work! I got pulled over about a month ago on my bike and it sucks! What is a bike commuter to do?

Weekend Recap

So my weekend kicked off with a 20 mile bike ride around Haines Point after work on Friday. It was super nice out on Friday and I thought what a great day for a ride. I should have known better than to go to Haines Point (but it really is the easiest spot to get to, to get some miles in). It was extra windy that day and I thought my bike may blow over with me on in! 

After my windy ride



Kiwi - wanting to ride! HA

I went to bed early on Friday with hopes of getting up early and getting a ride in before my parents arrival around 10 am. Well, I got up and it was raining! Booo! So I never got my ride in before they came. Instead I made a fruit salad and a pasta salad (with carrots, broccoli, radishes, and baby tomatoes) for the cookout I had planned. 

Pasta Salad

Plus, who doesn't like some healthy snacks?

Fruit Salad

Once my parents arrived, we began working on putting up a black splash in our kitchen. We have had the boxes of tiles on our living room since feb. so I was glad to get them out of the box and onto the wall. It took us 7 hours with all the cutting to get the tiles up. But, once they were up, I loved them!  



Working on the tiles

And as most of you know, it never stopped raining on Sat, so my cookout turned into us ordering Chinese food instead :(

On Sunday we finished grouting the tiles in the morning, then I took my parents over to Eastern Market to walk around. It was a super nice weekend and I loved being able to spend time with my family. My parents left around 4ish on Sunday and I was sad to see them go. I wish I lived closer to home.  



Finished Result!

 After my parents left I thought about going for a small run or a ride, but decided to clean up my house and take another rest day instead. And cook the hamburgers on the grill/corn on the cob, that I had planned to cook on sat.

So I should feel extra energized, right? but I don't! My plan this week is to get in 2 swims, 3 rides, and 3 small runs. As I will be traveling back to Ohio this weekend for Easter.

Random Things

1. Went for my first 3 mile run in almost 3 weeks yesterday on my lunch! The weather was prefect out, but my knee not so much! I am thinking about making a follow up dr apt if it continues to bother me this much. This no running thing (or barely running thing) is really starting to suck. On the up note I was surprised at my time: 23:45.

 

2. I am going for a ride after work today in my new super cheesy jersey! But for some reason I like it. And I remembered my sunglasses today: bonus!

 

 

3. I have been on an orange kick for about 2 months now. I eat one just about every day with my lunch. Well the streak has come to an end. I ate a horrible one, yuck! Onto to McIntosh apples now = yum!

 

4. My parents are coming to visit and will be here tomorrow. I am super excited to see them! My cousin and aunt will also be visiting this weekend. Which means I have to clean and to the grocery store. My two least favorite things to do in the whole world.

 

5. Since my family will be here this weekend I am not sure if I will get as much cycling in as I would like.

 

6. My co-worker is leaving for Boston tomorrow and will be running in the Boston Marathon! Dare I say I'm jelous! I haven't ran a marathon in a very long time, but would love to run Boston.

 

Happy weekend all!

Getting back on Track

So after my weekend of eating bad and hurting my good knee, I have been trying to get back on track this week. My little dancing injury ended up being just that, little, and felt fine in two days! Thank goodness! Now my left knee is a different story L  

I went to the orthopedic last week and they told me I could start running again! Well I tried running a couple times this week and it basically starts hurting after 1-2 miles. Yes this sucks! Yes I really want to start running again! But, I suppose I will listen to my body and just run 2 miles a few times a week. That is better than nothing, right? I’m trying to stay positive about this whole thing and have been walking some days instead of running.

Talking about running… I have been wanting to sign up for some many races. They all look so fun! I held out on registering for half marathons in the fall, but I somewhat went on a little race shopping spree yesterday and signed up for two new races: Splash N’ Dash and Duthe2. The splash in dash is swim 300m, run a 5k. I think this one will help me learn a little about the multi-sport world. The second race is a duathlon: run 2, bike 26, run 4. I am excited to do this one as I sucked Jason to sign up with me J He doesn’t know it yet, but next yr. by this time he will be training for a triathlon with me! I also went to Express and did a little non-sport shopping and picked up three new tops and a pair of pants.  On top of that I ordered a new bike jersey which should be here today. Oh how shopping makes me happy.

So without being able to run as much as I would like I have been trying to focus on improving my cycling. Jason and I went down to Haines Point last night to do some laps.  I think I might be the slowest person down there and always get passed! Ugg, how this sucks! My mom always tells me I hated biking when I was young and was always slow. Well, she is right, I never really liked it, but I’m really trying to learn to love it and get out there for a ride when I can.

Happy Thursday all. Tomorrow is Friday and my parents are coming to visit for the weekend (and help us put up mosaic tiles in our kitchen)! Yippy!

To go or not to go!

That is the question....

 

It never fails after every swim I do, I have to run into the locker room and pee right away! I always have to go so bad! And I'm thinking to myself: "I sure hope they have some port a potties at the T1 because there would be no way I would make it on the bike. So, I was doing a google search to see why I always have to go pee so bad after all of my swims. What I am across was an interesting pee survey for runners and triathletes that I found pretty funny and nasty at the same time.

 

Here are the questions:

 

1. Have you ever peed in the pool while at practice, or do you get out of the pool to go to the bathroom?

 

2. Have you ever peed down your leg in 5k race?

 

3. Have you ever peed while on your bike?

 

4. Have you ever peed in your wetsuit?

 

My responses to the questions:

1. No, I hold it until I'm done with my swim and use the restrooms in the locker room. Not to say that I'm not tempted and not to say I haven't peed in a pool or ocean before.

 

2. I think a 5k is too short of a race to have to go in the middle of the race. I always make sure I go before the races starts and have only stopped to use the port a potty during two races: a marathon and 10 miler. I have never just peed down my leg, but might consider doing it if it was raining out and I was in the middle of race that I was going to PR.

 

3. I never even knew people could pee while riding a bike! This seems impossible to me and I would hate to just wet myself then have to sit in it. But, hey if you can do, all the more power to you!

 

4.Well I haven't been in a race that I needed a wet suit, but I would have to say I would in this case, especially if I was still in the water, I would probably just let it go :) 

 

 

 

My conclusion after reading the survey and other people's responses to the questions was: ATHLETES ARE GROSS :) Myself included I suppose :)

 

So what do you guys think? Have you done any of these before?

Weekend Recap

I will start off saying this weekend was pretty unproductive!

It started on friday night with me  not having a taste for any real food! I wanted everything and anything that was bad for me. I started off with some popcorn, but it wasn't hitting the spot, so I stopped eating that and decided I needed to go to Mott's Market (at the end of our block) to get some junk food! I came back with orange pop, an oatmeal cream pie, and ice cream! And yes I had a little bit of everything. I went to bed Friday night happy and full of junk food.

Sat was off to a slow start, I woke on sat at 10:30...wait did I just see the clock right! 10:30! I never sleep in this late and still felt tired. I guess from being sick all week I really needed the sleep. I dragged myself out of bed because I didn't want to waste the whole day and went down to cook scrambled egg paties on english muffins for Jason and I before heading out for our longest bike ride to date. We planned to bike up the Mt. Vernon trail and back which would give us a ride of about 40 miles.

Getting down to the trail is always super annoying to me: stop and go, stop and go! Oh and don't get me started on all the tourists out and about because of the cherry blossoms. Once on the trail, the ride was pretty good until we hit the area around Old Town were they were setting up the finish line tents for the GW Parkway 10 mile run. There are some railroad tracks in that area that hate bikers! I was riding behind Jason and saw him go down! He couldn't clip his foot out fast enough and he went down with his bike on-top of him! Luckily though he was ok for the most part with just some bloody knuckles and scrapes along his leg. Battle Wounds! 

Dangerous Tracks and the Battle wounds to prove it!

 We continued on with our ride and got a little lost because they are doing some work along the trail and there was a detour. The trail gets a little twisty and turny as you get closer to mt vernon and made me think of the song: skinny -ma- rinky- do. ha.  When we made it to the Mt Vernon we stopped for a 5 min break to drink some water and eat our granola bars we brought with us.

We made it!

 The whole ride I was holding Jason back because I am not as fast of a rider as he is. Overall the 40 mile ride went well, but I really need to improve on my speed!

We decided to treat ourselves to dinner at Lourial Plazza (I have been wanting it for months). They have the best chips and salsa and margaritas.

Then we headed over to Gazuza to met up with some friends for a couple drinks and good times.

Afterwords, we headed to Front Page (this was a really bad decison)! I fell while dancing there which was pretty embarrassing! But hey we had a fun night and kiwi had her own party as well while we were out!

The bad part about this night is when I woke up in the morning my right knee was killing me! Did this happen when I fell??? I have no clue, but this is my good knee! It hurts on the inside to just touch, walk, and bend at 90. OMG this sucks!

So the plan for Sunday was to do a shorter ride of about 15 miles and run 3 miles. What am I doing instead because I can't walk....being lazy and eating bad! I did mange to re-fill my exercise ball with my bike pump which was a huge production with-in itself. But I have yet to use it :(

Overall, I just ate really bad this weekend, got one long ride in, and hurt myself being stupid! I'm hoping that with a day of doing nothing and not pushing it to make it worse, my knee will feel better soon! I still can't believe this happened! Just when the dr said I could start running again! I must have really bad luck or am just really stupid!

A Sprint TRI - All spread out!

Somehow I ended up doing a Sprint Tri today in a crazy order and  really spread out!

Thursdays are one of my long days (I work my full time job, get off at 4, then start my coaching job at 5 till 8:30). Anyhow, my alarm went off bright and early at 6:15 this morning so that me and Jason could ride down to Haines Point and do some laps since I didn't have to be at work @ 7:30 this morning. I could have used this opportunity to sleep in since my doctors apt wasn't till 10, but I didn't! We rolled out of the house at about 6:30 and for the first time in a week I could breath out of my nose :) The ride down to Haines Point is always so annoying. I hate all the stop and go and I have no real way to actually know how fast I'm going because I don't have a fancy GPS for my bike (which is a whole new story). By the time we got to HP my cold that I thought was gone, was back in full effect. My nose was running and I was hacking up a lung! We only made it one lap around then I wanted to head back home because I felt like crap. On the up note, I only got passed once... I'm such a slow poke! We did 12 miles in total.

As I mentioned I had a doctor's apt today to have my knee checked out that has been hurting me to do basically about everything for almost two weeks, though it has been feeling better this week.  He took some x-rays and did lots of knee tests and said I probably had a sprained ligament and he also through a bunch of other dr talk in there that I can't remember. But the good news is that he said I could start running again in small distances! In hopes that this was the news I had brought running clothes with me to work so I could get a small run before having to jump in my car to get to coaching.

I left work at 3:55 and the weather was great for my run and more importantly my run was great! I was so happy to be out there again, but boy do I feel out shape! Who knew this could happen when you don't run for two weeks. I think my legs might hurt tomorrow from this? I did a total of 2 miles :)

After coaching at 8:30, I am always so tired and hungry it's a struggle to get myself into the pool. But, I work at a Sportsplex and the pool is free, so you can't get any better than that! I forced myself into my suit and dragged myself into the water. I did a warm up of a 50m swim, then had planned to do a ladder workout. As I began to swim, I knew if I stopped that I would most likely just jump right out of the pool and go home! So, I swam the whole 1600m without stopping and did a 50m cool down. Total swim miles 1.06

So all in all I did a mini tri today with lots of rest breaks: Bike 12 miles, Run 2 miles, swim 1.06 miles.

Just got home from my swim and had to get some kiwi time in

My First Post

Hmmm....I don't really know where to start for my first post? I was going to talk about my ride tonight, but ended up feeling sick and ended up skipping it.

 

While training for the National Half I decided that I did not want to drink a month before the race. So, while out on a Friday night with my husband he says to me: I don't like what you're becoming....an athlete! I look at him and laugh, because I would like to think I have always been an athlete, but I may not have been one with the most focus over the last couple of years. Being more focused on my training does not make me different or less fun (I still like having a beer here or stay out late) but I would like to think it will make me a better swimmer, biker, and runner.

 

I'm really starting this blog because I have never done a triathlon before and I am hoping that by talking about it will help me stay on track for the Nations Triathlon 9/11/11. Plus, Jason is getting sick of me talking about swim.bike.run and his favorite... brick! I am nervous and excited about doing the TRI and don't really know what to expect or wear for that matter. Since registering for the race I have convinced two of the other gymnastics coaches that I work with to sign up as well. We have not had a chance to train together yet, but knowing that I will be going out for the race with two friends makes me feel more at ease.

 

So hopefully through this blog I will be able to talk about what I love, life, and be able to stay on track of my training:)