Run Commuting

Today I had a dentist appointment at 9:30. My dentist is in Dupont and is about 4 miles from my house. I wanted to run 5 for the day, so I figured it would be easy to tack on an extra mile to the route. The sad part about this day is that I still had to work after the appointment and it was raining and probably still is raining (I have no window) cats and dogs out there!

So this is how I  usually make my commute run work.

1. Bring in my dress clothes the day before: I usually bring in my outfit the day before (along with my swim stuff) and drop it off at my desk. This way I am not hassled with running with a bag on the next morning.

2. Keep necessities at your desk: One of my filling cabinets is basically like I transplanted my bathroom from home. I have everything you could think of: brush, makeup, deodorant, extra towel, etc ...

3. Keep an extra outfit at work: I always have an extra outfit (and now undies and a bra) at work just incase I forget something because yeah I don't always remember everything.

I thought I was being smart by bringing my clothes in the day before, but when I looked out the window this morning I saw that it was raining and raining hard. Which defeated bringing my clothes in since I was going to still have to run to the dentist with a small bag on my back. I really didn't want to sit through my appointment wet and freezing.

I packed another running outfit in a 2 gallon zip lock bag and stuffed it in my bag and out into the rain I went. The run itself was great even though my garmin didn't like it and was beeping all over the place. Once at the dentist office I was that crazy looking girl who was dripping wet from head to toe and used to bathroom to change in. I wasn't too happy with the bag while I was running, but boy was I happy to have warm dry clothes to change into!

Once my appointment was finished, I went to the 711 next door, bought myself an umbrella and made my way to the metro like a normal commuter. My dry outfit of course got wet even though I had an umbrella, but have no fear I had another full outfit change waiting for me :)

5 happy miles in the rain done and warm dry clothes ftw!

Happy Wed all :) 

Confidence run

Sunday I felt like death warmed over me, so I pushed back my final longish run before the B&A Half till Monday.

 

I was wondering how I was going to fit this run in since I coach after work and lets face it, I'm not a morning person. Although I know I will have to be a morning person sooner than later. I did set my alarm for 5:50 but turned that sucker off and got up an hour later :) Which left me with one choice, do an extra long lunch run.

 

And that's exactly what I did. Unlike Sunday my body actually felt awake and I was excited to run. Plus it was warm and sunny out which means I always wish I was running instead of sitting at my desk.

 

Running in the middle of afternoon can always be a little tricky food wise. I had a cup of dry cereal at 8:30, greek yogurt at 10, and an apple at 10:30. My stomach seemed happy with this during the run and didn't give me any issues.

 

I was out the door running by 11am and my legs felt so happy. I could tell I was excited to be running because my Garmin beeped 7:28 for the first mile. I knew I had to slow down and my second mile was a little slower at 7:52. I really didn't have a pace goal in mind at all for this run and really just wanted to be taking it easy, but I was feeling good and just went with the flow of things.

 

For the rest of the run I tried to ignore my Garmin, best I could. I passed the Lincoln and made my way down to Haines Point were I saw some cyclists out and I got jealous of them. I don't know when I started to get jealous of people riding? I have always gotten jealous when I see people running and I'm not, but now this silly thought has moved onto cycling as well. And with that I guess I can say I'm officially addicted to biking which is a good thing since I will be doing a lot of it. Anyhow, after leaving Haines at 15th St, I made my way back down to the Capitol, up the lovely hill and back around to my office.

 

It such a beautiful day out and I felt like I had a really strong run. My splits for miles 3 -7 were around 8:10 - 8:15 with my last mile at 8:05. I think pushing this run back one day was a smart move on my part because I would have struggled big time on Sunday and felt defeated when I was finished. But now, I can go into the B&A half with confidence and I can only hope I feel this good on race day.

 

Happy Tues All :) 

Training Week 6

Last week marked week 6 of half ironman training. The week started off great then I fizzled out as the weekend came along.

 

Monday

* Swim: 2150 yards ~ This was a nice easy swim and I had the day off from work which  meant I could swim in the middle of the afternoon. OMG this was so nice and I always wish I had Monday's off.

 

Tues

* Bike: 26.5 miles (1:45 on the trainer) ~ Not a bad day doing interval work on the trainer, but my poor little kiwi! She got bike grease on the white part of her fur and was the first casualty of IM training. I'm sure there will be many more #IMtrainingcasualties

 

Wed

* Run(am): 5.65 miles ~ I'm pretty sure I already bitched about this tempo run once, but it didn't go as planned at all. I wanted to hit 7:30 splits and didn't hit any of my splits at that pace. I felt tired and the run was hard for me.

 

* Swim(pm): 2500 yards ~ Just an average swim day as I swam against the clock before the pool closes at 5 for swim classes. I really wish they kept one lane open during these classes so I wouldn't be restricted by the clock. Still not sure how I'm going to work this out when I need to swim longer than 45 minutes.

 

Thurs 

* Bike: 4 mile commute + 21.4 miles at Haines ~ The weather was perfect on this day with a high of 70 I think? So I planned ahead and came into work an hour early so I could take an extra long lunch break and go enjoy the weather and ride my bike outside instead of on the trainer at 9:30 at night. I met Karen down at HP and we had a great ride. I really didn't want to come back to work at all and could have stayed outside all day.

 

Friday

* Run(am): 4.35 miles ~ Fridays = hill work for me. I ran up and down Capitol hill 7 times and managed to drop my phone while doing so. Lucky for me somehow my screen did not crack and the back part of my case only got all scratched up. I really need to invent something to hold my phone in while running. But back to the run, I am still running at about a 9 minute pace up the hill and I would like to get this down to a 8 something.

 

*Swim(pm): 2600 yards ~ I did not want to do this swim at all. I sat at my desk thinking of ways I could get out of it. But in the end I did the right thing and went to the pool. And boy oh boy am I glad I did. I had an awesome swim day!! First plus was I got a lane all to myself :) And I guess just overall I felt great in the water this day and before I knew it, it was 5 and the life guard was kicking me out.

 

Sat

I had a 2:15 hour ride scheduled for this day, but I couldn't do it due to coaching. I had to be at a gymnastics meets all day at the Eastern Shore in MD. It was a long day. I left at 5:30 in the morning and didn't get home till around midnight. My girls did great though and we came home with some first, second, and third places.

 

Sunday   

Run: 8 miles, Swim: 30 minutes ~ But I didn't do either! I know, I know, what's wrong with me? Two rest days in a row, well if you want to call Saturday a rest day? And yeah I don't know what was wrong with me? I can tell you this though, I was so tired and my body was aching for some reason. I woke up at 7, stayed up for an hour and went back to sleep until 10:45. After watching a cheesy movie I was back in bed taking a nap. I think coaching whipped me out? I thought about running and really wanted to, but I didn't move off the couch. When I finally did move I went out to dinner instead of running. Big fail in motivation for the day and big fail for being so tired.

 

Overall, I think I had a great week besides the weekend. Today is usually my rest day on the schedule, but since I didn't do anything yesterday, I will be doing Sunday's workouts today. Hope my co-workers like me extra sweaty after my longish lunch run. 

Happy Monday All :) 

My Bike gets a Name...

Like all the greats that have came before it and all that will come after it, my bike needs a name...

Yes, I am naming my bike :) I figure me and her are going to be spending lots of time together over the next several months and my new best friend just can't be called "bike".

This won't be the first time I am naming something that really doesn't need a name... I actually love naming stuff. My college roommates thought I was a weirdo because I had a name for my blanket: Shredded Wheats. When I would get a new blanket, I would name it too. Lets see there is also Princess, Mr. Fuzz, and Lambie. I also like naming my pillows: The Rock and Marshmallow. Yeah, ok ok, I'm weird or just a big dork.

Now, I have been staring at my bike leaning against our fireplace for weeks now. I couldn't come up with a good name for it. Then I thought of something that I love: Battle Star Galactic. Yes more nerdiness is seeping out... but it really is one of the greatest shows!! 

I choose to name my bike after the character Boomer. Not because she was my favorite character in the show but because her name seemed to fit my bike the best. And I love nick names and I can easily say Boomer the Zoomer. Plus well Boomer actually ended up being a cylon in the show and everyone hates those evil cylons. So when I'm having a bad day on the bike I can yell "you stupid frakkin toaster."

So anyhow there you have it... My bikes name is Boomer :)

Who else has a name for their bike?

Happy Friday All :)

Three Things Thurs

1. Yesterday evening was a little odd, as I sat on the couch playing on my lap top, M was changing and getting ready for his swim lessons. Usually it's the other way around. Now as much as I would love to go swimming at the same time as M (so we don't miss each other at home) the thought of leaving my house at 7:30pm to do so just doesn't appeal to me. He didn't even get home till a little after 9 and that is when my eyes start to drift to the dark land called sleep. So, I guess I will be keeping my Wednesday swim schedule the same which is from 4 - 5 and just have to deal with being home by myself for the evening.

 

2. I ordered a bunch of nutrition off amazon yesterday. I like that you can order it in bulk as apposed to paying the higher prices at some of the stores. I ordered the following: PowerBar chocolate energy bites, honey stinger vanilla waffles, honey stinger pink lemonade energy chews, and Luna bars. I still have a whole box of tropical punch shot blocks as well, but I really don't like the flavor and thought the honey stinger chews tasted a little better anyhow. Plus since they come in a pouch they may be easier to eat, especially if you are not eating them all at once. Now onto the liquid nutrition... I'm going to have to do some taste testing here and figure out what I like and what works for me.

 

3. I struggled through my tempo run yesterday. I set off to run 45 minutes before work, with 4 of those miles at a 7:30 tempo. My first mile was at 7:37 ... ok maybe I'm still warming up... second mile: 7:44 ... ugh ... third mile: 8:11 ... WTF why did I just see an 8 on my watch and OMG I feel like I'm dying ... fourth mile: 7:40 ... ok a little bit of an improvement .... and the rest of the run I ran at a 8:15 pace.  I guess I was just disappointed with myself because I didn't hit a single split at my goal pace. That's ok though, I know I will have plenty more chances for a better run and not every run goes as planned.

 

Happy Thursday All :) 

Wordless Wed

I can't believe it, two years ago around this time there was so much snow in the city we didn't know what to do with ourselves:

.

This year we are enjoying very mild temps to say the least. Tomorrow it's suppose to be a high of 68 which means I can go do this:

And time not spent on the trainer makes for a happy me :)

Hope everyone has a chance to get out and enjoy the weather over the next two days. 


Happy Wednesday All :) 

Weekend Fun

Ok. take two on this post, since I had the whole thing written and then re-started my computer without saving it.... yeah I hit the stupid stick today!

Anyhow, I had a great weekend filled with working out with friends!

I had decided to switch my long run to Saturday since Sunday's weather was calling for cold rain and or snow. In general I try avoiding crossing the river into VA at all costs, but when Erin invited me to come run with her and some of her friends I couldn't say no. Running with friends out weighed the whole whopping 9 mile drive. We started at Erins house and made our way down through Old Town, then onto the Mt. Vernon trail before turning back. It was a fun 10 mile run filled with lots of talking and laughs. Time just flies by when you are running with other and before I knew it we were back at her house after a somewhat hilly run.

On a side note: I can not talk and run at the same time while crossing the street. I almost got hit by a car and it was all my fault :(  

After getting back home and getting some lunch in my belly, I grabbed M for a 2 hour bike ride. Our plan was to ride out on MacArthur blvd but it was already 2:30 (sun time was running out!) and there is no good way to get down there. Drive? Nope would be to much traffic. Bike? Would be too much traffic and I would be super frustrated! We needed to plan better and leave earlier, so that only left one place to ride.. Hained Point ... whomp whomp... It's boring, flat, and windy! At times I felt like I wasn't moving forward it was so windy. The extra wind made up for no hills...

With this being my first day of two longer workouts in a very long time, I went to bed pretty early #ilovesleep

Sunday, I found myself driving across the river again as I made my way back into VA. (I know, twice in one weekend. who am I). I was meeting up with the off season tri girls at the PR Running store in Arlington. This is the first time I could actually attend one of the off season tri events and I was excited! We met at 8am and set off on a fun run.

There was probably about 20 girls there and as we began to run we split up into different pace groups. I ended up running with Erin, Erin, and Rachael before we made our way back to the track.

Once at the track we played a little game that involved running a 4 x 200 using a nuun tube as a relay baton. I can't remember the last time I actually sprinted because well I never seem to do track workouts. I guess that in itself is a whole other story in itself. My team, team cola favored nuun, actually won :)

After about 5 miles of running the group made it's way back to =PRR= where we did a core strength session. Near the end of the core session we did a plank-off.

I obviously did not win, but the winner held hers for a little over 5 minutes. That's awesome!

Then onto the good part: food and prizes! There was everything there from whole made nutrition to honey stinger waffles ...

And so many prizes: Road IDs, free entry into Nations or the DCTri, sparkle skirts, and much more! I wasn't holding my breath that I was going to win anything because I never do, but I ended up winning a blue sparkle head band :) I love this head band from Bic Bands and ran with it on the following day.

Overall it was such a fun event and a big thanks goes out to Karen for organizing all this!!! You rock!!!

Monday was filled with a recovery swim of 2150 yards and before I knew it I was waking up today heading back to work. Where did my three day weekend go? I want another day!

Happy Tues All :) 

5 Things Friday

1. I am weather stalking for this weekend and am happy and sad at the same time. On Saturday it calls for about 57 degrees out which means I can do my two hour bike ride outside! No trainer makes me a happy girl :) The sad part of the weather is Sunday. I hope they are wrong because right now it calls for a high of 37 with a rain/snow mix. I have my long run on this day and plan to do some of it with the girls from the off season tri. Blah, obviously I will still run, but I would just rather not do it while it's cold and rainy.

 

2. I am still not liking my Thursday schedule. I only have a hour to hour and 15 minute bike ride on this day. I don't know why in the world I can't make myself wake up before work to do this? Every time I just turn off my alarm. And let me tell you getting on the trainer around 9:30 at night sucks! Although yesterday it didn't seem so bad as I listened to Pandora and watched project runway all stars. Next week I will try to do this in the morning again, but my guess is I will be doing it at night.

 

3. I feel like going on a shopping spree. Yesterday I bought two non related tri things on line: a pair of boots (on sale) and a shirt from Nordstrom. Actually shopping online can just be dangerous. Just one click of the mouse and boom, new shiny things show up on your door step. But onto tri things...I am tempted to get a new swim suit, matching bike jersey/shorts, and a hydration system for my bike. I guess the only thing I really need is the hydration system since I only have one water bottle cage and no water bottle for my aero bars yet.

 

4. I found a cool website a couple of weeks ago and love the tri community on it: http://iamtri.com/ It's a great place to ask questions about IM Louisville and connect with others who are also racing.

 

5. I am really looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow! And unrelated to sleep, maybe just maybe I will actually get to painting my hallway in my house since it's a three day weekend :)

 

Hope everyone enjoys the long weekend :)  

Vegas Trip Booked!

We (M and I) have been checking out plane tickets to Vegas for the past couple of weeks and yesterday they dropped in price! Which meant two flights were purchased to Vegas!! We will traveling there at the beginning of May to celebrate M's big 30th along with my friend Jill's big 30th! I'm not much a gambler, but maybe I'll break even :)

 

 

Regardless, it is sure to be a crazy fun weekend in which my liver will not be properly trained for.

 

 

Speaking of training I think it will be a nice little break from it. Although I am already freaking out about what I am missing. I will be traveling Friday morning and not getting back until Monday night at like 12am. 

 

 

Monday is normally my rest day so at least I'm not worried about missing anything that day. As it get's closer I will try to re-arrange my schedule and will probably move my Friday workouts to the beginning of the week. The run I can always do while I'm there. So I guess I will just be missing my long bike. I know the world will not end if I miss this and I have no clue why I am worrying about it now. By the time May rolls around I'm sure I will kind of want a break in the middle of my crazy training.

 

Happy Thurs All :)

Happy Valentine's Day

It's Valentine's Day and love is in the air ... and I couldn't think of a better person to spend the day with than my M. Ok more like spend the evening with after I work and get my bike in.

M is my moao (my one and only) and is the best thing that has happened to me. I wake up every morning and feel very lucky to have found such a wonderful person. I would have never guessed that meeting a guy at the bar, in Adams Morgan never the less would turn into something so wonderful.

I don't know where I would be without him and I don't know how I would make it through all my training/races without him. M is very supportive of what I do and never complains that I want to go to bed at 8pm because I'm so tired or because I have to get up at 5am for a training run. It means the world to me that he comes to all my races.

He wakes up with me at the ungodly hours to come support me at a triathlon even though he might only see me zoom by on the bike for 5 seconds. But, in that 5 seconds that I see him my spirits are lifted and a big smile comes across my face making me forget that my legs are on fire. I don't know if I could train or race, day in and out if he wasn't supportive of me. Sometimes I think spectating a race can be just as hard as racing one. M has ran miles going from one point of the course to another to see me, he has stood in the pouring ran for hours, and has been turned into a popcicle in the cold. I don't know what I would do if he wasn't there for me...

I guess what I am trying to say is that I love my hubby :)

And not that I needed a gift but he got me a Garmin Edge 500 bike computer! What else could a girl ask for?

Happy V-Day All :)

VA is for Lovers 14K ~ Race Report

Race season has kicked off and I wish every race could be as run as the Virginia is for Lovers 14k!

 

My alarm went off at 7am on Saturday morning. Yes 7am! How sweet is that? The race didn't start till 9am so it was actually nice to sleep in on race day :)

 

As I proceeded to get ready and make my way to Jill's kitchen I realized she is a carb hater and had none in her house!!! Shouldn't that be a crime or something? I looked around and found almost a year old box of shredded mini wheats and was happy to eat those little guys with a banana.

 

We were out the door by about 7:30 to make the short drive to the Virginia Beach Field House where the start line was located. Sadly we grossly under estimated race day traffic and we started to panic a bit as we sat in a long line of cars headed all the same direction. We did make it there around 8:15ish so we still had plenty of time to hang out and go to the bathroom a couple dozen times before the start of the race.

 

It was a little chilly out, around 40 or so, but it didn't feel too bad. And what was cool about this race is that finish line and the post race party took part in the field house which meant everyone stayed nice and warm, which was awesome! We hung out in the field house for about a half hour or so and if you know Jill, than you know she knows about half the world and we ran into a bunch of her friends who were also running.

 

We made our way back into the cold and started to line up in our corrals. I was assigned corral #1, but since I would be helping Jill pace her very first race, I would be starting in corral #3 with her. They actually had us start in waves which helped make it a little less crowded. Once the gun went off we were on our way weaving in and out of people trying to find that comfy happy pace.

 

sparkling and ready to run!

 

With Jill and Mel before the start


Miles 1 & 2: 9:01 & 8:49

My hands were freezing and I had wished I had my gloves on! I told Jill that the first person who tossed their gloves, I was going to go behind them and pick them up and wear them!! Anyhow, the first two miles felt good and I think we should have started closer to the front of our corral or went in the correct corral. I think we ended up in corral 4 and we really had to go around a lot of people. I asked Jill if she was feeling alright and she said she was. She also did not want me to tell her our time/pace so I had to keep my mouth should the entire race. I was a little nervous that we were going out to fast since her goal was a 10 minute pace and were a minute faster than that!

 

 

Miles 3 & 4: 8:46 & 8:39

As we approached mile 3 we ran by the VA Beach Amphitheater which for some reason was my favorite part of the course. I guess I kind of wish that they had a big band playing there, but oh well. Around this time we also passed a couple that we made friends with at the start line and we joked with them as we ran by. We continued to pass other runners and I asked Jill once again how she was feeling and she said great, so we kept running at our awesome pace. Lover's Lane was right around mile 4 and a couple who was running the race stopped and actually had a quick wedding ceremony and got married! Then they jumped right back into the race. It was such a cute idea for runners.

 

Miles 5 & 6: 8:44 & 8:47

We caught up to Jill's friend Mel, but he had his music on and was in the zone and didn't see us, but he saw us a bit later and waved at us as he picked up his pace. At this point of the course, there seemed to be a lot of turn arounds and little loops and you could see the field house, but knew you still had about half of the race left. Some of the parts of the course went over small gravel paths and Jill was running in those toe shoes and I wondered to myself that her feet must be killing her running over gravel.

 

Miles 7 & 8: 8:46 & 8:58

Jill was still looking strong and I kept telling her we were so close and she was doing great. I don't think she herd me though since she ran with music on. I mean I guess who would want to listen to me talk for 9 miles? Mile 8 was probably the hardest mile of the race as we ran into the strongest head wind! It basically felt like you weren't running forward at all. It was hard! But the whole run went by so fast that I couldn't believe that we were almost finished!

 

The last .7: 5:38

The course let up the last .7 as they had us turn out of the head wind and we now had a tail wind a we made our way to the finish line! Jill really started to kick and I was happy to go along with her. She stepped on a big rock about 400 meters from the finish and let out a big yelp! I thought her half was cramping or something, but was glad it was just a rock. It was a neat finish because the finish line was inside the field house. As we entered I was looking around to find my M, but I didn't see him. We ran continued to run side by side and crossed the finish line together :) And as we got our medals we noticed Mel who finished just a minute in front of us.

 

 

Total Time: 1:16:10 (8.7 miles)

 

Post Race

I must say this was the best post race swag I have gotten. We got a glass, a medal that is also a can opener, a flower, and 2 free beers. Oh we also got a sweet looking jacket in our packet pick up.

 

 

I def. want to do this race again! Oh and Jill, for her first race did so awesome!!! She had wanted me to pace her for 10 minute miles and she was a bad ass and totally crushed her goal with a 8:46 average mile. I am so proud of her!!! I also love friends who will wear sparkly things with me :) Running in sparkle skirts always makes races fun :)

 

 

 Anyhow, we hung out for about an hour after the race enjoying our free food, but more importantly enjoying our free beers!

 

 

After running 9 miles nothing tastes better and yeah I may or may not have been getting drunk. The more we continued to drink our beers the sillier we became.

 

 

And just because two beers is never enough we used our sparkle charm to get another free beer :) Good thing M was driving because I def. could not have drove us home.

 

On our way out we ran into "Cupit" ...hahaha ... this should be my new race outfit ... NOT!!!

 

 

Overall

I had so much being able to run Jill's first race with her!! Running has got another one and she is officially addicted! Plus the race itself was just great. Good swag, a nice course, and a warm field house for those who are not racing can hang out in. I will be back next year :)

Happy Monday All :)

It's Race Time: VA is for Lovers 14K

My first race of the season is finally here. Virginia is for Lovers 14K. I wish I was more excited about it than I am, but with everything going on in my life right now, I'm just not...

 

Anyhow, I will be leaving today to make the trip from DC to VA beach to visit and race with one of my best friends :)

 

 

The weather for tomorrow looks better than it did earlier this week, but I'm still not super excited about running in the rain. Hopefully the weather people are wrong since they usually are.

 

 

What I am looking forward to about the race:

 

1. Start Time: The race itself doesn't start until 9am which is nice because I think I can actually sleep in! That's a big plus in my book!

 

2. Running with my friend: My friend just recently got into running and I love that I am able to run one of her first races with her. I am going to play the roll of a pacer and help her pace 10 minute miles. It should be a nice fun run and I know I will talk to entire time which should make the time fly by.

 

3. Sparkles: This is a V-day theme race and we will be wearing pink and red sparkle skirts along with pink/red leg warmers. I don't know when I started to like to dress silly for running races, but I love it! I guess who am I kidding, I have always liked to dress up and look a little dorky.

 

4. Photos: With our awesome outfits hopefully the photographer will love us and we will get some good race pictures. If not M should be able to capture some good pictures of us.

 

5. Having FUN: That's my main goal for this race since I don't have a personal time goal for myself. So I really just want to go out there and have a blast.

 

Happy Friday All and I hope everyone has a great weekend:

3 Things Thurs:

1. Yesterday I was at the pool early at 6:45am. Well that's early for me since I usually don't swim in the morning. And to my surprise the pool at Eastern Market is pretty crowded in the morning. I'm kind of spoiled with the whole lane sharing thing since I usually swim from 4-5 and get a lane to myself. Or I swim at Fairland from 8:30-9pm and get the whole pool to myself. So anyhow I hopped in a lane with two other people and the lane sharing worked out great since we were all the same speed. The workout was a struggle for me though. I think I was half asleep and the water was rude to me when I jumped in. I set off to do 4 x 500 with 5 x 100 to finish up. By the third set of 500s my stomach was growling and I was hungry. Swimming while hungry = fail! But I did push through and finish.

 

I walked home changed into my running clothes and sat on my couch for 10 minutes while I stuffed my face with a granola bar and some fruit snacks. I was pretty tired and unmotivated to run, but out the door I went. All I had was 35 minutes of easy running and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, even though my legs felt heavy. I was happy to see my front door when I was done though :)

 

2. After riding 25 miles around haines on tues after work I get home to discover I couldn't get into our back gate! I don't keep my front door key on my back door key ring so I couldn't use the front door to get in our house. I waited for 15 minutes while my sweat began to freeze until M got home at 6. I figured he would have the front door key since somehow our back gate got locked even though we both rode? Weird?!?! M did have the key, but he never unlocked the chain from the front door so we couldn't get in. So, in the end I had to scale our fence anyhow to break into my own back yard :(

 

3. My dad is the best! Yesterday he went and took my car and got me two new tires! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

 

Happy Thurs all :)

My Love/Hate Realtionship with my Garmin 405

How did I used to live without a cell phone? The same way I used to live without a garmin! but once you get hooked on these little buggers you're done for! They are like crack I tell you...

My Garmin forerunner 405 has been giving me hell since OCT.... and it's been a long 4 months of mixed emotions.

At first it was little stuff like beeping low battery even though the battery was 100% charged.

Then it started messing with my races! The first one was during Jason's half marathon where I was going to help pace him for 10 minute miles and the watch shit the bed a mile into the race. I was so mad but at the same time glad I wasn't really racing the race myself, so I didn't care too much (selfish I know). When it came time to my own race I did care though. I wanted to PR at my half in Nov. and I locked the bezel before the race and it froze on the time screen never letting me start it. Big FAIL for the day even though I PRed without the help of the little computer.  When I got back home after the race and put it back on the charger it came back to life and I forgot about how much I hated the thing!

I used it for some training runs and during the month of dec and I thought all had returned to normal. That my garmin finally decided to behave itself...

WRONG! All of Jan. I have wanted to stomp, kick, jump on, and kill my 405!!

The sad story goes like this:

1. put on charger all night = 100% charged

2. take off charger and still says 100% charged

3. walk outside and start the timer after finding satellite - beeps at me 0% charged - WTF!!! I will then attempt to run anyhow and see how far I can make it. Sometimes the entire run or sometimes not. That is when the name calling and swearing begins ...

or

4. 10 minutes into a workout the thing continues to turn itself on and off! And it keeps turning itself on and off for hours! I can't tell you how annoying/embarrassing this is! At haines point riding for an hour and half: beep, beep, beep. Doing hill repeats: beep beep beep. Tempo runs: beep, beep, beep and no that's not me hitting my splits.

I had enough and just when I thought I was going to throw the watch as far as I could, I did the adult thing and called garmin to see what the heck was going with this POS of a watch!!

To my surprise they sent me a set of simple instructions to set my watch back to the default settings and to update the software on it. And to my surprise it worked like a charm and I have no clue why I waited for long to call them?!?!?!

Anyhow, I'm sorry I was mean to you. Are we ok now?


Happy Tues All :)

Week 3: HIM Training

I have nothing to really complain about from last weeks training. I actually thought I had an ok week besides one blah day. Here's how it went:

Monday: Rest Day ~ Bike 4 miles
Mondays are rest days on my schedule. I will always have a small amount of mileage though since I commute to work either by walking, running, or biking. This week I chose to bike.

Tues: Bike 27 miles, Run 5 miles
It was super nice out with a high of 70 for the day I think. I went into work from 6:30 - 3pm so I could ride at Haines after work. And it was just to nice out not to run so I met Carly for a nice easy lunch time run. It's always nice meeting a friend and being able to chit chat. I can't think of a better way to spend my lunch break.

Kristine was able to met me down at HP after work, so I had a bike buddy for the day as well. It was a nice easy ride as I am still getting used to my new tri bike. I am thankful though for the nice weather we have been having and it has been so nice to ride outside instead of on the trainer.

Wed: Run: 6.65, Swim 2500 yards
My new shoes came in the night before and I did a small run commute of 2 miles to test them out. My feet felt like I was running on fluffy clouds and I knew they were keepers. After work I attempted to do a tempo run. It was pretty much went like how you should not do a temp run! I went out way to fast and died at the end. My splits were: 6:51, 7:42, 8:06, 7:28. Last .65 were a cool down at 5:55.

Later in the evening I went to the pool with M while he was at his swim class. Swim felt great and I did a ladder that was 100-200-300-400-500 and back down. I somehow finished just as his class was finishing up and we stayed a little extra so I could tried to help M with his stroke.

Thurs: Bike 10.5, 20 min strength
Bike commute of 4 miles then a failed attempt on the trainer. I felt tired and unmotivated when I got home from coaching. I spun for 25 minutes and felt like I was doing it half assed so I just stopped. I was suppose to ride an hour, but I don't think the world is going to end that I only did half the workout. I did manage to do some gymnastics strength with the girls I coach though. I need to do more strength in general.

Friday: Run 5.64, Swim 2600 yards
In the morning I did a mile warm up run then did 5 x Capitol Hill repeats. This was my first day of hill work and I thought it went ok. I would like to add a couple more repeats so I need to remember to wake up a bit earlier.

After work I ran 1.5 miles to the pool so give myself a little more time before it closes for classes at 5pm. I had 50 minutes in the pool and set out to do 4 x 700s. I only managed to finish 3 sets and my last set was only a 500 before the life guards kicked me out.

Sat: Bike 31 miles
2 hours of biking glared at me on my schedule and I wasn't sure if I wanted to ride outside or on the trainer. In the end I was a cold weather baby and chose to ride inside. This is the longest I have been on the trainer and it wasn't so bad. I did a 15 min warm up, then 9 x (5min hard, 5 min easy) with a 15 min cool down. It also helped that I set it up in the middle of my aunts living room and I was surrounded by family. The best part of the ride was when my mom gave me a chocolate covered potato chip and hour into the workout. Yum.. thanks mom! I also thought it was cute that my cousin's son was asking me a bunch of questions. He is 5 and couldn't understand why I was riding my bike in the house...

Sunday: Run 11 miles
My mom made a great dinner on sat night that included roast beef, roasted veggies, and roasted red potatoes. I of course loved it so much I had leftovers for lunch on Sunday around 12:30ish. By the time I made it back to DC around 2 my stomach felt super full. I waited an hour to go run hoping my stomach would settle a bit. I still felt full an hour latter, but didn't want to wait and longer and lose my window or running while it was still light out. So out the door I went and from mile 1 - 11 my stomach killed me. I felt like was going to puke the entire time!

I wanted to stop, but at the same time I didn't. I had set a goal for myself of maintaining an 8 minute pace for this run. Surprising I actually maintained that pace despite feeling like shit. My splits were: 7:54, 7:47, 7:58, 8:01, 8:19, 8:03, 7:51, 7:57, 8:17, 8:01, and 8:07 :)

Total Miles for the week: 104

Happy Monday All :)

Friday Ramblings ...

One of my gymnasts was recently sick and showed up to practice half asleep and with zero energy. After watching her put no effort into her bar assignment and struggle to finish I asked her why she came to practice if she felt miserable. Her response was: "at least I'm not missing practice with our meet only 2 weeks away."

 

True she wasn't missing practice, but it would have been better if she just stayed at home in my opinion. I explained to her that showing up to practice when you can't give it your all is a waste of time and it would be better for her to stay at home next time. She was standing around more than she was taking her turns. When she did take her turn she was lose and her form was sloppy. Staying tight and focused in gymnastics is very important because if you don't do it while your flipping upside down you can land on your head. And, it actually looked like she was going to hurt herself because she was so sloppy. To me this doesn't help you improve but instead causes you to form bad habits and worse yet maybe injury.

 

Where am I going with all of this? I guess that not every practice or workout goes as planned and sometimes it's better to do nothing at all....

 

Last night when I got home from coaching at 9 something I was tired. I pulled out my trainer anyhow and started spinning. I wasn't feeling it at all and felt like I was giving about a 20% effort level. After 25 minutes I decided it would be better to just stop. Sure I could have kept going for the hour I was suppose to ride, but I don't think I would have really got anything out of it.... Now was this the right decision, I don't know?

 

Anyhow, I hope everyone has a great weekend :)

 

I am looking forward to not cooking (if I even ever do) and going out to dinner tonight.

A Cycling Tour... Yes Please

Just in case my credit card was getting lonely this week (which it wasn't) I made sure to use it to register for yet another event. Jason implanted the idea of riding a century on Tues. night and on Wednesday I found myself scanning the web to see which ones would fit into my schedule.

 

We rode the Six Pillars - EagleMan course last year and had a blast.

 

 

I would love to ride it again this year, but we will be in Vegas celebrating Jason's big 30th birthday! Which reminds me we still need to buy tickets for that. Anyhow, the only other century that really fits into my schedule is the Total 200.

 

 

Now, I really have no desire to actually ride 200 miles in one day so we opted to register for the shorter course which is 200k or 125 miles. Tours are always fun and I'm really looking to this one. Plus, I am so thankful that Jason likes cycling as well so I will have a built in training buddy :)

 

And I swear this is the last thing I am registering for! Jason registered for the Marine Corp Historic Half Marathon on his own and I resisted and did not sign up. So, see I am getting somewhere with my race addition....

 

Happy Thurs. All :)

New Shoes

On Monday I thought it would be a good idea to replace my running shoes that I have had since Oct. I ordered the same ones ~ Asics Nimbus 13's. The only difference is I ordered them in a different color and a half of size bigger. In my old shoes my toes were rubbing on the top and I was getting blisters on them, so hopefully with a half size up this little problem will be gone because I love everything else about the shoe.



New Shoes = Happy Feet!

And I'm not the only one who enjoyed getting new shoes.... Kiwi had a party in the box they came in and made her self a new bed for the night.

 

 

Anyhow, I know what I will be doing after work today: Running in my new shoes ...yippee!

 

Happy Wednesday All :)