Run, Run, Run and then how about we run some more...

Did you really think I was going to get through the winter months without lacing up the running shoes. I was naive enough to think it would happen... so if you believed me I don't blame you!

It's time for mama to put some mileage in. I've been talking to my friend Tara (who is an amazing kick ass ultra runner... who I don't even pretend to come close to in the athletically inclined department. She also kicks my ass in crossfit every time I go!!) and we are mixing things up a bit from the way I normally do them.. be it marathon training or tri training. This time I'm going to do 3 days on (easier pace), 2 days off, 1 day on (tempo / TT pace), 1 day off. I'll start at 3-5 miles per run and ramp up from there. The reasons behind the change will all come to fruition soon enough!!! Still working out some negotiations details.

I'll still be doing crossfit 3x a week and will teach spin 2x a week. (note ZERO swimming.. it will come.)

I've come to the conclusion that spinning HARD 2 - 3 times a week has basically TRASHED my legs (okay.. I've talked about this before so this is not new information) and I MUST stop doing that! It's time. I had a week off because of the snow storm and gosh my hamstrings felt a lot better... back on and my hamstrings are not right. Time for me to take it back a notch. No reason to destroy myself while teaching. Must write in sharpie on my arm... BIGGER GOALS. Not looking to be a kick ass spinner!!!

Today was the first day I held back... if it hurt I either eased up the tension or the effort... not my style, but I still got a workout!

It's interesting making all these little adjustments to things I'm doing and listening more to my body.

Where could you stand to LISTEN a little bit better!? We all have our thing that the body is trying to tell us and we are trying not to hear!

Simplicity and training

I love to train. I've known this about myself for a while now, but I could never really put my finger on exactly what it was. (It's a lot of things, but I had an aha moment today). Since having kids it's the only thing I will make time for for JUST ME and it really clears my head. Why? Why does it clear my head. Well I figured it out today.

Since returning from our WONDERFUL trip to Texas my head has been a mess. All over the place.. can't settle down.. can't focus and can't seem to be able to accomplish much of anything. It's like I my head was a tin can filled w/ marbles and someone was shaking it! Today I got on the spin bike at the gym and rode for 1.5 hours, took an hour long class then continued to spin for another hour. It was great. While I was on my own for the first 1.5 hours I listened to a book then after the class the instructor (a friend) stayed and rode and another triathlete happened to come and join us and we talked through the last hour. It was great. And after the ride my head was no longer a tin can and the marbles are gone.

Why is my head so clear after a good solid work out? Well, I'll tell you!

Because it's the only time I do just ONE thing and ONE thing only. My life is a chaotic mess and I'm scatter brained as it is. Okay, calling it a mess isn't fair... it's not a mess, but it's busy. The kids, the house, my odd jobs and my eclectic interests cause me to spin topsy turvy a lot. Generally speaking I enjoy this, but after a while it gets a bit crazy. Particularly if there has been a lull in workouts (as there was previous to our return from TX).

So everything I've been reading about simplicity has been talking about not just simplifying your surroundings by way of cutting the clutter, but also simplifying your life and it's processes. Getting rid of stuff has been no problem. I've never really been one to be too attached to stuff (I'm an army brat we moved a lot and didn't carry a ton of stuff around with us), but the simplifying life/processes is a challenge for me.

One book (The Power of Less by Leo Babauta) in particular talks about SINGLE-tasking instead of MULTI-tasking. It makes sense really... multitasking has you going all over the place getting a little bit of everything done, but not ALL of ONE thing. This is all well and good in theory, but is proving difficult for me to execute on! He goes so far as saying that you should downsize your goals to ONE, yep one, and when that one is done move to another... PRIORITIZING them and thus simplifying your life and tasks. This is a work in progress for me. I'm a born multitasker (and YES this means it takes me a long time to get stuff done... if I get it done at all... just ask my DAD! :D)

So what's the point? God, who knows huh? The point is that is that I do love to SINGLE task my workouts.. I feel balanced and strong when I do that... so I'm willing to BET that if I figured out how to SINGLE task in other aspects of my life I would feel BALANCED and STRONG there too! :)

I'm going to start small. I'm not ready to DROP to just ONE goal... I've got THREE biggies going right now, but I am going to start doing ONE thing at a time. I baked some bread last night while doing a bunch of other stuff and almost went to bed without actually baking it (it had been in the oven to rise). That would have made for some really crappy toast this a.m.

So you know what I'm doing right now? I'm writing a blog post. That's it. I'm not writing a blog post, eating breakfast, checking email, updating my facebook and twitter status, baking bread, coloring with the kids AND stretching all at the same time! Leo suggests turning off the internet when you sit down to do something on your computer that doesn't require web access... thus forcing yourself to SINGLE task! Give it a shot! It feels pretty good and it didn't take nearly as long to write this post as it usually does. I'm not saying it improves my quality of writing.... that will only come with practice!

So what do you do to simplify? Does a good workout knock the marbles out of your brain too?

Stay Injury Free - Part I Movement Prep

I've added a goal to the list for 2011... STAY INJURY FREE.

The irony of this being that I'm limping a bit and my hamstring / glute is throbbing a bit as I type this. I think it was a combo of snow shoveling (I AM SO DONE W THIS WEATHER), spinning hard three days in a row and two epic duathlon workouts. On a scale of 1 to 10 it's maybe a 2 or 3, but it's there... EARLY in the season. So I went to see a chiropractor that also does ART (Active Release Techniques). I've been to  number of chiropractors in my life, but this is the first time one has watched me go through a number of range of motion exercises to look for weaknesses. Granted I first saw him the day after my 14mile run/1hour spin/4 mile run workout. When he told me my glutes seemed weak I told him about this workout and he didn't bat an eye so I'm not sure if my glutes are indeed weak or if they were just fatigued.

Prior to this pain and my visit to the chiropractor I had been poking around at Jessi Stensland's website Movement U and a site she seems to participate in and/or just link to a site called Core Performance regarding strengthening the core, form and preparing for movement techniques (instead of stretching pre run or just jumping right in). There is so much information at both of these sites that I quickly found myself overwhelmed.

I was pretty excited when it all came full circle and the chiropractor demonstrated a couple of moves for me to do a couple of times a day (which reminds me that I haven't done them yet, ugh) and they were THE SAME as some of the moves Jessi talked about. It's all coming together.

So - though they honestly bore me to tears - I know that these exercises are important to keep me doing the ones that DON'T bore me to tears. I've reached out to coach for some strength/range of motion stuff and am also looking things up myself... cause I like to do that. Jessi talks a lot about going through the exercises WHILE PAYING CLOSE ATTENTION TO YOUR CORE! Do the exercises, but only to the degree and length that you can maintain proper form.

There is SO MUCH information out there in regards to how to prevent injuries that I decided to do this in a series. Part I will be:

MOVEMENT PREP!

The best resource I have found is the Core Performance site. I did this movement prep for my last two runs and I have to say that I felt it helped a lot. Normally I feel some aches and pains as my body gets warmed up and things really start to jive after about 3 miles. These past two runs I got right to work after having done the movement prep moves at Core Performance. I also felt that doing them kept me thinking about my core and body alignment during the run. They are worth the time!

These moves include:
Marching Glute Bridges
Hip Rotations
Leg overs
Knee Hugs
Reverse Lunges
Knee hug to forward lunges
Drop Lunges
Lateral Squats
Inverted Hamstrings
Heel to Butt

Each of these moves is shown (complete with videos) very well HERE at Core Performance so I won't try to explain them. I would say all told these moves took me about 10 minutes to do in total. If you don't have that kind of time (you really do you just don't think you don't) then I would say pick some to do each time and rotate them for different workouts.

Trigger Point Therapy

I first heard of Trigger Point Therapy on Megan's blog inTraining. Now I've been a user of THE STICK and it was okay, but never really did much for me. I've seen and used that big foam roller thing at the gym, but mostly just on my IT Band. This system takes it to the next level. Not only are the products solid they provide endless amount of information on their WEBSITE and YOUTUBE!

And on top of that I mentioned something about being really sore and wondering if you can overdo the TP Therapy and THEY RESPONDED to my tweet! I was shocked! They reminded me to hydrate properly. Told me that YES you can indeed do too much (uh, Laura, newsflash... all things in MODERATION!) and told me to message them directly if I needed more info. Talk about making me feel special and cared for!

So what's this Trigger Point stuff all about? (Trigger Point people please add anything I missed in the comments below!) It basically brings myofascial release to you at home! Massage, while wonderful, can become quite costly and as endurance athletes (or desk jockeys really) we need a lot of it to keep us moving.

Okay that's nice and I'm all for the frequent massage, but really how's this roller and ball going to get me the nice relaxing state of a massage... uh, well it's not THAT kind of massage. It's the kind of massage that hurts a little (ok a lot), but is functional. You won't be relaxed and you might actually break a sweat and it will make you VERY happy you did it.

Per Wikipedia Myofascial release is a form of soft tissue therapy used to treat somatic dysfunction (the impaired or altered function of bodily structures) and accompanying pain and restriction of motion. This is accomplished by relaxing contracted muscles, increasing circulation, increasing venous and lymphatic drainage, and stimulating the stretch reflex of muscles and overlying fascia.^[1]

By performing the Trigger Point Therapy/Myofascial release you can relieve muscular aches and pains and restore full range of motion!

TP Therapy has a nice CHART on their site showing various trigger points, but I found THIS one that I think is one the coolest sites I've seen in a long time. It's an interactive Trigger Point Map. How cool is that. Have a pain? Find it on the dude and it will show you a close up of that muscle group and show you where you need to perform your TP therapy to relieve the pain... sometimes it's not in the same place as the pain.

I think I may have over done it on the ol' glutes this go round... so I think I'll stick to the shorter sessions daily to continue to release without so much pain. As I am devouring the TP website I just found this:

"When using Trigger Point's Performance tools, three to five minutes of pressure within each muscle group is all that is needed. This method is recommended before and after workouts and races and prior to stretching. Athletes tend to overdo things. That's what gets them into the painful situation in the first place. Moderation is the key."

I love the lower leg release! LOVE! I swear it keeps me out there.

If you have doubts check this out! I did this little test myself the other day and I COULD NOT believe the difference it made in ONE sitting. I have been doing this awhile, but never tested it.



If you haven't used this system you need to get it! I guarantee it will have you feeling better (so long as you subscribe to that whole ALL THINGS IN MODERATION thing!)

Do you roll your legs? Use the stick? Already a devout TP Therapy ball sitter?

Struggling!

Today I struggled through a 14 mile run. I'm supposed to be entering true marathon training. Thank God I'm base building right now and not working on speed yet. I've been sick (as I know I've mentioned). It's been hanging around for weeks. I noticed while looking at my training log that I was mentioning feeling 'something coming on' over a MONTH ago. Seriously! Then the family got sick while I was still fighting the bug. It came to head and I really felt like garbage and now it's lingering. I'll start to feel like maybe I'm getting my groove back and then I feel crappy again. My energy is 'okay'... mentally I'm shot! This is not boding well for my attempt at a BQ. I know I've got some time, but time is going by quickly. I'm almost 2 months away from race day. I'm going to have to start doing tempo work and I'm worried that I'm not going to be able to bring my A game. Shit I feel like the best I've got right now is my C game. I'm running slower now than I've run in years.

I'm trying really hard not to freak out!

Not only am I feeling weak in my training efforts my normal daily tasks/routine has me feeling overwhelmed. I still feel like I'm just peeking out of the rabbit hole... not quite coming out. I feel socially stunted. This is not like me. I'm a social person, but I'm struggling just to reach out to people in ways that I used to do easily.

None of this is causing us to have a joyful holiday. It's all just like regular day... or not even as good as a regular day. These things happen right. I'm so ready for a break. A day where I can sleep in (which I'll probably never do.. I'm not a good sleeper inner) then just laze around and not worry about the state of my house, the growing laundry pile, the xmas stuff that is looming, what to do w/ the kids during the cold rainy days.... blah blah blah... I'm whining. I know I've got it good. I have a roof over my head, we have expendable income to pursue things we enjoy (ie marathons/triathlons), my kids are fairly good... NORMAL 4 year olds, my husband is loving and understanding. I know I should just be happy to have all these things....

Okay I'm really sounding pathetic now. Just wanted all my bloggy friends to know I'm still here. I'm still checking in on you... I'm just feeling lazy and slow and like a hermit. It will all come together again and I'll be 'normal'... RIGHT!

And I want everyone to know it's not all sunshine and roses, speedy runs and great recovery. We all have our slumps. I'm right smack dab in the middle of one... I'll see you on the other side!

PS. I couldn't really handle anymore echinachea or Vit C.. just so you know I'm hitting all the usuals to try to get the funk out! Maybe I should just start drinking heavily. Surely this funk couldn't exist in that environment right? :D

Recovery Week...

While this recovery week has hit at a good time regarding scheduling (read: finding someone to watch the spawn) it's come at a bad time for my mood. I'm like a caged animal right now... caged w/ two wild crazy 4yo spawn that I'd like to eat just so I don't have to listen to the general craziness! ha ha (before you get your panties in a bunch I clearly love my spawn and would NEVER eat them.)

I KNOW the recovery stuff is part of the deal (and is highly beneficial), but I've always been outright TERRIBLE at recovery be it a single workout or a full on week. I always push too hard in the workouts and usually 'feel good' so I throw an extra workout in. This coached thing is going to really going to MAKE me do this and HELP ME to see the true benefits of it.

Now if I could get these kids to take a recovery week! DAMN!

One of the reasons that I exercise is to burn off tension, bring me down a few notches and help me cope with the craziness of kids. The sheer volume of it has already made me want to put on my shoes and RUN AWAY about 50 times and it's ONLY 9:30 in the a.m. Thank GOD Coach let me swim today! Mama needs a good workout. Time with my head underwater sounds about right!

I dropped my gym membership to move those funds over to coaching... well, the reality has already hit that that means running outside 100% of the time through the winter. Hmm. Northeast winter, curvy roads, snow plows... doesn't matter how much bright/reflective wear I wear I'm libel to get mowed over by a snow plow if there is fresh snow.

I have been spin certified for years now and never used it ... basically because I'm a huge chicken shit. I used to get up and talk in front of hundreds of people (in a past life) and while it was nerve wracking I did it, but I feel paralyzed to get on a spin bike in front of say 25 people. What's with that? My main problem isn't the workout.. I know I can make people work / sweat and generally suffer. It's the damn music. Putting it to music! UGH! Music people like. I had the exact same playlist on my ipod for OVER TWO YEARS!! TWO!! Over and over again I listened to the same music and it didn't bother me a bit. Also.. most of my music is explicit. CRAP! Anyway... 2011 is the year of awesomeness right? Time to get over this BS! And what a perfect time. I need a treadmill... don't want to pay for it... let's do this thing. So I start teaching spinning in a couple of weeks. I did a practice spin for my 50 min class last night. Worked up a good sweat, but my music ended at 34 mins. I've got a lot of work to do to get some playlists and profiles together. Hmm.. think I could just play music and wing it? So put a little prayer out there that I don't freeze up and that my music somewhat goes with my profiles.... oh and that the class members are merciful as I work out the kinks! Everyone starts somewhere right. Come on this isn't rocket science people! :)

Austin MARATHON

Yes you read that right! I will be doing the Austin MARATHON! The FULL!

Some of you might remember MY POST about whether or not to do the full marathon in February and shoot for the BQ...

Some of the responses to that question were:

EMZ: BQ Baby

Melanie: All depends on where your heart is. If you miss Maratahon training and can give it your all then go for a BQ, if not, focus your attention and heart on what is currenlty peaking your interest.

AM-Goals for the Week: I'm probably buzzkill over here..but work your way up and be STOKED with the progress along the way!!

Kovas Palubinskas: I'd train for the tris and if the BQ happens, it happens.

Velma: You can answer this question - you know what you want to do :)

Thank you all so much for your feedback. As I thought about it I was really feeling like I wanted to give it another shot. I was really thinking a lot about running long and wanting to be out there. I had at one point decided I was definitely doing the marathon.

Then on the day I was supposed to have my first talk with John (I need to come up with a better / cooler name for John... is there a nick name I'm missing? Something about a shovel.) I went out for a run and convinced myself that I wanted to get faster faster faster and didn't think that marathon training was conducive to that and that I was worried about taking time off to recover from a marathon before starting in on triathlon. So I told John.. nah, screw Boston for now.

Hmm.. he had other ideas. He proceeded to tell me that he thought the marathon was in a great spot because it kept me running (and working on my base which is all part of the plan), kept me motivated over winter and kind of FORCED me to take a needed break before breaking into hard core triathlon training.

He then said that I could just train for the marathon and run that half. WHAT!? Put all those miles in and prepare for a marathon then NOT RUN THE MARATHON! Leave the opportunity for a BQ on the table. That is not how I roll.

So thanks Coach!!! This is why I hired someone who is all knowledgeable and stuff! So I swim now for 6 weeks... The SWIM Cycle. Then at the end of that 6 weeks we start ramping up the running. Take a little break post Marathon and then bring it all together for a rockin' tri season!!!

Coaching is awesome already! How has your coach guided and directed you in directions you may not have gone had you not had a coach?

Coaching by John Hirsch

So I posed the question and got lots of answers.. and took the plunge myself!

I am now own board as one of the CREW with John Hirsch. I'm SO excited!

I had some great email conversations with him, but today's phone call was AWESOME! His energy is great and his philosophy's make sense!!!! First up swim swim swim like a fish.. or until I swim like a fish. I really should have seen that coming. Then we'll up up up the running as I run my way to the Austin Marathon on 2/20/11.

Then a little mini break and we start TEARING into tri season. That is still a bit up in the air. We have a plan but the GREEN thing is to be determined. Once I know which way that is going we can get the plan together. Thankfully we've got some time!

I am beyond excited. I'm excited to see what this body/mind can do and to see what it does w/ a coach to guide me instead of just some piece of paper holding all my dreams!

Let's go COACH take me to the finish line(s).

more swim tips. And a cry for help!

Thursday night we worked on rotation a lot.. We did the one arm drill and focused on using your core to create the forward momentum and not your arm pull as much. This really helped me to feel and realize how much you can use your core to help you AND use your lats/core vs shoulder to move you forward. (note my cry for help below)

In the video below note the second drill where you drop your arm to your side and work on rotation.



The coach threw some real loops out there too. I won't go into too much detail, but he had us do some swimming without doing the LONG GLIDE. He basically had us swim in the way that EVERY coach has told me to NOT do. The way I used to swim, but w/ more rotation. His point was that what works for one may or may not work for others and you need to find the best thing for you. AND that you would swim and all out sprint differently (similarly, but differently) than you would swim a long endurance (ie 2.4 mile) swim. Um, maybe he would.. pretty sure I would swim it EXACTLY the same way.... but some day I will have enough swim 'finesse' to know the difference. I used to have ONE running speed too, but after much work that is changing!

Cry for help:
My shoulders are HURTING! I'm hoping that I've got the offending move figured out (swimming flat and pulling with my shoulders), but it could be just the huge increase in yardage. I'm generally okay during the day, but I wake to aching shoulders multiple times in the night. I'm not huge on the vitamin I regimen, but did it last night. Helped a bit. Any suggestions? Ice? Rest? (NO!!) I don't want to take time off b/c I finally feel like things are clicking in the pool, but in reality.. it IS the off season!

So WHAT do I do about the Shoulders and Do YOU have different swim speeds?

More swim tips!

Things continue to 'click' in the pool. I watched some videos on the drills that we did last week right before I left for last night's swim session and I think it really helped me keep it present in my mind.

Here is a video again using a 'contraption' which is not my point. I like this video because it helps you to really see the hip rotation and 'snap'. When I first started working on rotation I focused on rotating my hips out of the way - all well and good, but after watching some videos and reading some stuff I started 'snapping' my hips more the use my core to power my arms a bit. I went to a swim clinic recently and the coach used the symbolism of a boat. If you want to get a boat moving with out a motor you rock it back and forth to create the motion. The same is true in swimming. I was really surprised at the ease of the stroke when I focused on SNAPPING my hips and using them to power my stroke. I could tell when I was getting tired and stopped focusing on this. I started to feel like I was DRAGGING myself with my arms again.



And, of course, it wouldn't be a 'youtube swim watching session' without a little Michael Phelps, right? So I found a video of him at multiple angles and the first thing I noticed was the position of his arm during his pull. The last two weeks I've had bad shoulder pain and my right shoulder felt like it was going to separate. I chalked it up to lifting too heavy and tweaking my stroke and figured my body would acclimate, but it wasn't. So I noticed that through is pull his arm actually comes UNDER his body. I think I was trying too hard to maintain the high elbow position and the wide arm and was pulling WAY TOO FAR OUT! You know I'm not expert so if I AM SUPPOSED to continue doing that please let me know in the comments below. I changed my pull to be more like (er, resemble kinda sorta) the one Phelps does here and I'll be damned if my shoulders didn't feel better by the end of the first 25 w/ this modification!

CRAP I can't embed this video.. been turned off on YouTube. So you'll have to click this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ax77_hHq9Dc

Please share your favorite swim tips or drills in the comments below. What makes things CLICK for you!?



And one quick thing. I ordered some samples of TriSwim the other day... partly in the interest of checking out the sponsor for Team Trakkers and partly because I had heard such good things about it. I gotta tell ya! THAT STUFF WORKS! I can always smell the chlorine on me and feel the itch even the day after the workout. (wears off just in time for the next workout!) The shampoo, conditioner, bodywash and lotion all had a pleasant (not overwhelming) smell and they WORKED! Left my skin smooth and with no itch. I didn't smell the chlorine right after my shower, but knew that my husband "the nose" would be the true test. I stand next to someone eating garlic and I get accused of eating a whole raw bulb of it for lunch. NOT KIDDING! I put my hair in his face when I got home from the pool and he told me he couldn't smell ANY chlorine. Now that's amazing. You can go to their website and order a sample to check it out yourself if you don't believe me! :D

FIRST training

FIRST (Furman Institute of Running) Training is essentially THREE days of training w/ required two days of cross training. You have one day of speed/intervals, one day of tempo and one day of long runs. You are to cross train two days a week.

I've started this program, but I can't remember if I've ever completed it for a race. I think it's what I used to do the Danbury Half back in May, but I was coming off Miami Marathon and I think I really just kind of winged it / coasted to that race. I was feeling a bit 'over it' at the time.

I was feeling like I was getting faster over the years - clearly my marathon got faster (not quite 'faster enough', but faster), but as I looked back at old race results for triathlons my running times really haven't changed a whole lot. I want to change that.

I know that the speed work WORKS! I did see some improvements and I want to see more.

Right now I'm still teetering on the "KEEP PUSHING, KEEP TRAINING, race the half in Philly and then step it up and do the Austin FULL marathon. Gun for a BQ again. You've aged up, you only need 5 more minutes! FIVE MEASLY minutes. You can do that!" and the "Take it easy and rest before you start a big block of work toward your triathlon goals."

I plan to hit some serious speed training starting in January which not real conducive to marathon training. It's hard to hit intervals on the bike and the run when you just came off a 20 mile run!

Fortunately or unfortunately for me I know and am acquainted with some really amazing fast chicks. Dedicated women that I KNOW would step up and race the half then the full and shoot for the BQ all while absolutely NAILING the speed work!? What the? What are you waiting for? What's w/ the hesitation?

This is not uncommon for me. It takes me a while to come to decisions, but generally speaking after I do the 'inventory' and make a decision I stick to it... though I know that at TIMES there is a fair amount of mental struggle and waiver as we get close to race day.

So what's my point?? Who knows! That's the way I roll! I started w/ FIRST training... and now I'm here floundering in neverland. Typical! Let's see if I can pull this together!

So the FIRST plan has speed work incorporated. Similar to my goals to do speed work in the 'off'season, no? And I'm supposed to cross train. I'll have plenty of speed sessions on the bike for that right?

There are some things hanging in the balance with the whole "will I be wearing GREEN?" thing. IF I'm wearing GREEN I plan to hit the REV3 tri series. Um, two of those races are EARLY season... May 15th and June 4/5th. Surely I can hit an Oly in May after all that speed work right? Right? (I have no idea when I'll know if I'm sporting GREEN or not... the waiting is the hardest part!) Oh, side note: they are adding another race to the series... somewhere down south. Should know by the end of the week. This all has potential to keep me busy and provide lots of fun!!! Keep crossing your fingers for me!

What would you do? Would you (WO)Man up and shoot for the BQ again? Or would you do the half races just to keep yourself out there and continue to MOSTLY/ONLY focus on triathlon?

IF YOU ENJOYED THIS RAMBLING PLEASE 'FOLLOW' ME SO YOU DON'T MISS MY NEXT SCINTILLATING POST!

Race alone or run with a friend... the verdict

So this weekend was the weekend I was thinking about running a local half marathon and I posted about not 'feelin' it' and deciding to run with my friend instead.

Well, my friend wanted to get an 8 mile run in to test out an injured ankle. I was all tapered for the race I was going to do so I decided to run part of the run by myself and the rest alone.

BEST DECISION EVER. Little did I realize that I NEEDED some girl time. It was so nice to be able to run with my friend and chat all along the way about various things. Certainly wouldn't have gotten that racing ALONE!

I got behind in the a.m. and wasn't able to make my usual oatmeal so I slammed a half a pb&j on the way out the door to start my mad dash (almost entirely uphill) to get to my friend's house on time. I had no idea how this sandwich was going to sit in my stomach OR fuel me on my run. It was PERFECTO! My stomach didn't revolt and it carried me threw the run. I had some shot blox, but that's it.

3.5 mile speed workout up the hills to my friend's house then a nice mellow 8 miles up and down the hills here in the CT Alps then a nice 3.5 miles home. Was a fantastic long run. I wasn't really aiming for a certain distance... more than 10 was all I had in my mind. I felt great and am not totally zapped today. BUENO!

No medal for this run, but sure do have some warm fuzzy to carry around. And BONUS my husband took the kids to the aquarium w/ his parents so I am ALL ALONE in the silence right now. PERFECT DAY!!

What would your perfect day look like?

Race alone or run with a friend

I found out about a small local and cheap half marathon right here in Ridgefield CT a few weeks back and was considering doing it. I was already on a training plan to do the Hartford Half marathon on October 9th when our plans changed (our being my training partner and I) so we wouldn't be running that race. I continued to run on the plan just to have a plan. We've now settled on Philly on 11/20 - so long as my training partners long run goes okay this Saturday.

As I've posted lately I've been feeling a bit off lately. Tired and crabby and not hitting workouts like I wanted to. So I've been debating on whether or not to do this race. Well I need to decide today. I get a text form my TP and she asks to run long this Saturday so I'm thinking I'd rather run long (not 13.1) with a friend than I would race a longer distance. So I'm going to go ahead and listen to the ol' body and run w/ a friend. Take it easy, slow down and enjoy the changing leaves and friendship.

I've also decided not to lift this weekend. LOOK at me!! Listening to my body for a change. How cool I have my own barometer! ha Swim was AWESOME last night. I was able to settle in and work on stroke and not blow myself up, but as anyone who swims knows when you make shifts in your stroke it can be hard on the new muscles you are using lap after lap. My shoulders started barking at me. I'm supposed to do Shoulders and Arms today and Chest and back on Friday, but I think my arms could use a break too.. particularly with all the swimming I've been doing.

Despite the shoulder pain I had a GREAT swim workout. I was actually able to focus on my stroke and not worry at all about speed! I got some awesome pointers from some of my fellow swimmers... real swimmers not triathletes. There's a difference. A HUGE difference. We did the catch up drill holding a bar. It keeps you HONEST and you can really feel what you are supposed to feel. The extension and glide.

We did it a little bit differently than this guy. We held the bar parallel to the bottom of the pool, but you get the idea.



After we did this and I could really feel the difference my fellow swimmer reminded me about the whole "get your hip out of the way" thing... accentuating the proper rotation from your hip not just your shoulders and I could, again, feel a difference. Now whenever you switch things up with your stroke you feel a bit slower (though my buddy assured me I wasn't slower) I did feel like it was a bit 'easier' as in I wasn't struggling so much to try to glide as I usually do.

This is an Advertisement for something, but you get the idea.



I'm pretty excited about last nights developments and hope this is the beginning of some good progress in my swimming!

LISTEN!!!

Listen to your body. I keep reading that over and over and over, but why oh why is it so hard to listen. To both the advice AND my body!?

So it's September - almost October - and while I didn't race a lot this season I did work hard... not to mentioned I opened the year w/ a huge marathon PR. My body (and mind) is starting to bark at me a bit right now. I wasn't really feeling like I needed an off season, but I'm starting to rethink that. I'm thinking that from now on when October rolls around it's time to cool my jets a bit. I mean I'll still work out - obviously, but it won't be so focused, so intense, so purposeful. Well it will still be purposeful, but the purpose will shift from 'go out there, kick ass and see what that body of yours can do' to 'go out there and have a BLAST!!!'. No worry about speed and intensity.

I've been toying with doing a half marathon (local, small, fun, cheap) in a few weeks, but have been hesitant to register and couldn't figure out why. On my run today (a tempo workout that I was totally NOT nailing) I figured it out. I feel like I need to put up a good number... ie. race the race and go all out, but right now I really miss just going out for a nice long run and enjoying the scenery. The leaves are changing after all and I don't really SEE that stuff when I'm out there pushing myself into the puke, er, red zone.

So I'm thinking it's time for me to scale it back a bit and run because I love it. Push myself, but not to the brink. I'm getting ready to ask a lot of my body (and mind - okay, mostly mind) come January I think they are both entitled to a little fun over the next couple of months.

I think my body is also requesting more sleep and LESS caffeine.. silly silly body of mine, but it's time to listen. So I'll be moving the 'get coffee/caffeine consumption under control' from a December goal to an October goal. (Come on I can't go cold turkey people.)

Focus!

My dad has always described me as an inch deep and a mile wide as opposed to an inch wide and a mile deep. Hmmm I really do take it as a compliment (though I think it was his way of calling me a scatter brain) bc I like doing and knowing a variety of things, but it makes it hard for me to concentrate on any one thing for a very long time.

I have made some decisions about what the next two years of my athletic life are going to look like, but still find my mind wandering and me spending time unwisely looking into and at things that are not in line w/ my two year goals. I then have to remind myself to stop wasting time (it really is nice to have some things figured out and not feel like I'm spinning my wheels and wasting time looking at things over and over again) and remember that I've already made this choice ... I don't need to be looking into marathons in the next two years, I don't need to find training plans and looking into different strength routines. I need to remember my choices, remember my goals and only do things that push me forward to the completion of said goals. (I'll talk about those later)

I'm working hard to stay focused. It seems I'm able to find the focus for each workout or for a training schedule, but things are always flitting around in my mind and steering me off course for bigger picture stuff. Maybe that's why I like the training schedule so much. It keeps at least one part of my life somewhat organized and focused. Now to figure out how to bring that into my everyday life.

Here are some things I am doing to stay focused on the goal:
1. CLEAN OUT MY HOUSE! Get rid of all the extraneous stuff that just clutters up my space and wastes time. I want to have this done before I start the main set of work on the next two years. I figure this will help me maintain focus and not get distracted by the 'stuff'.

2. CHOOSE A TRAINING APPROACH AND STICK TO IT! I've stumbled upon Endurance Nation somewhere along the way and have decided to go with them for my training for the next two years. As they say, "I'm drinking the Kool Aid" over there! This saves me from researching training plans and changing things up mid season ... and wasting MORE time. Dumbs things down for me!

3. BE A TRIATHLETE! at least for the next two years. I want to qualify for Boston. I tried this year and missed by 10 minutes. I know I could do it and am convinced that my race strategy Fd me up this time..... BUT I want to do Ironman.. I want to focus on triathlon. This does not jive w/ thrashing my legs by RACING a marathon. (again 'drinking the Endurance Nation Kool Aid' on this decision.

4. SET MY BIG PICTURE GOALS and follow through w/ shorter term measurable goals! Thanks to AM at Goals for the Week for providing guidance and motivation in this department. This should help keep me focused on the 'big picture' while doing what I do best.. focusing on the little chunks one day at a time.

What are your tips and hints for staying focused .... especially when life throws you curve balls or your motivation just isn't there and the wheels are starting to fall off???

Caffiene!

I am a die hard coffee drinker. Okay not die hard.. I'm really quite the snob. I blame it on the fact that I started my love affair with coffee in THE coffee city - SEATTLE! Man I love that town. Anyway.. focus.

I drink coffee every single day. I've quit here and there only to come back and I've decided that I love coffee not for it's caffeine jolt (though that's a nice bonus), but for the experience and process of it. It's a nice comfort food and I WILL NOT give it up.

Well my consumption ramped up as my frequency of early morning workouts ramped up. I would have a cup when I first got up... then my normal two cups. Well yesterday I had that PLUS a HUGE chocolate bar... well beyond my 'one serving' allotment. And to add insult to injury it was espresso laced chocolate. DAMN that stuff packs a punch. Uh, maybe not so much if you stick to ONE serving, but yesterday I was flying so high I could barely concentrate and had the jitters. It was bad. I had said chocolate bar in the late afternoon... and all the while I was eating it I was thinking, "I'm going to regret this later".. this did not stop me from eating it. UGH!

By the time dinner time rolled around I could barely stand to be in my own skin. I got out of the house for some quiet time before swim and my head was just spinning. Getting in the water helped to calm things down a bit and I'm glad I did it, but I was still a mess and didn't get to bed until midnight. Obviously there was going to be NO early a.m. workout today. Not a great start to my day.

I felt like I got hit by a truck this morning when I woke up. Had some 'hair of the dog' so to speak w/ my a.m. cup of coffee... and then another. SHIT! Here we go.

Well, my speed workout SUCKED today! I still couldn't focus very well and my heart was pounding out of my chest and my attitude was in the shitter... damn damn damn. Why does caffeine make me feel a bit psycho? Oh well. Lesson learned, right? At least until the next time I get a hankering for a chocolate bar and go and eat most of it! I was feeling a bit more calm half way through my weight set, but am still definitely feeling the aftermath of a caffeine overdose!

So, note to self ALL THINGS IN MODERATION!

First Open Water Swim ... in a LLLLOOONNNGGG time.

The crew that I swam w/ over the winter is now doing open water swimming down in Fairfield and I've become friends w/ one of the ladies that lives here in Bethel so she and I rolled down to Open Water Swim (OWS) with the Trifitness team. They (er, we) swim in the Long Island sound. A far cry from the weedy fresh water lakes of Wisconsin. Bonus: NO algae... BUT and it's a big BUT.. it's FING cold. At least it was last night.

When I got my wetsuit out I realized I hadn't been in it.. or open water... since August of 2008 when I raced Chicago with Team in Training. UGH!

I was surprised at myself for getting in the water so quickly. It was COLD. I mean freeze your hands/feet/face off cold. I am proud of myself for just swimming in it at all. We were given some things to focus on w/ stroke for our warm up and were told to swim back and forth between two buoys then to come in for more instruction. Most of us would swim a bit and bob a bit. Me bc that's the way I roll the rest bc it was so cold it took your breath away.

We did our warm up then rolled back to the shore for more instruction and were asked who was racing this weekend (trifitness sprint tri this sunday - I can't race bc Tom is out of town and my back up isn't in town till Wednesday). So all of those people were told we were going to do a mock race. I decided to just jump in w/ them. Swimming a half mile in frozen cold water just randomly proved to be a challenge for me, but I got it done and am proud of that. I still need to figure out how to find a groove and just swim w/o breaks. I KNOW I can do it, but I'm mentally challenged for some reason. I stop to get my barrings way to often. I will say that I was a bit dizzy/disoriented through most of it. I'm not sure if it was the open water/tide or the freezing coldness of it all. I haven't ever experienced it at all and was relieved when another woman asked if I was dizzy.

When we got out of the water our feet, hands and faces were bright red and numb. I couldn't even get my wetsuit un-velcroed or my jacket zipped. It took a good 30 mins before I could put my thumb and forefinger together to actually do anything.

All in all I felt like it was a success. I got there, I got in the fing cold water and I did what some people might call swimming! :)

I just registered for a triathlon The Houatonic Valley Tri.. wow been awhile since I did that. I plan to register for more, but haven't pulled the trigger yet. My friend Jill registered for this one and I wanted to be sure that I didn't miss it ... since I may have kind of encouraged her to join me. This will be her first ever and I'm pretty excited for her. The good news, for both of us, is that this race has a really short swim. Only 1/4 mile. I still have work to do and hopefully will be able to swim the whole thing w/o stopping.

This should help on that front:


I just joined the Brookfield YMCA and purchased a summer family pass for the pool. A FIFTY meter outdoor pool. I can swim in the early morning or evening and on the weekends... and there is a playground and picnic area for eating and playing fun for the kids. I think we'll be at the pool a lot considering how much the kids love the water and how hot and humid it gets here.

The kefir is going absolutely gang busters. I'm going to have to freeze some of the grains or just get rid of them b/c I have a gallon of kefir in the fridge right now and another half gallon ready to be strained and stored... it's doing well in the warmth that's for sure.

Here is a jar ready for straining and a jar ready for the fridge...


For those of you that might be curious here is what kefir grains look like.


I'm also made some saurkraut. It's super salty so I'll try a different recipe next time, but other than that it's pretty good. I mix it into stuff so the saltiness is diluted a bit.



And here is where all the magic happens. My fermentation station.


I'm also making kefir water, but don't have any photos of it right now. It's kombucha like for those of you that are familiar with kombucha.

I knew I was forgetting something.... P90X is coming along. Almost done w/ my first 90 days... then it's onto round two.

Well that didn't take very long...

I like the weight lifting/plyometrics in P90X and want to continue to weight lift now, but I MISS endurance sports. It's just a different kind of 'burn'.. not the muscle burn the mental and calorie burn. I miss feeling like I used it all up. You endurance junkies know what I mean. I just can't explain it. I love that feeling like I left it all out there and the following empty need to eat feeling.

I went for a random almost 40 mile ride the other day and it felt GREAT! It was hard.. HILLY! I've mentioned that it's hilly here right! This was the first ride w/ a new friend (well and her friend) and this was Nicole's longest ride to date. We rode from Nicole's house over to meet Monica and by the time we were done w/ the main part of the ride (still needed to ride home) Nicole and I were both pretty used up. We had a MASSIVE long hill to ride up to get back to her house or we could add another 5 miles to our ride and still have hills, but not the big MASSIVE long one. We decided when we were initially done w/ the main ride to do the extra five and skip the big climb because frankly we were worried we wouldn't make it all the way up. Well, we got closer to the hill and Nicole said, "you want to add 5 miles or climb for 5 mins?" We had just come off a nice long downhill (you know the kind where you go like 35 miles an hour w/o working at it) and I was feeling pretty good now (uh since I hadn't used my legs for a few minutes) so I said, "Let's climb!" And we did. We got all the way to the top w/o falling over. And were definitely SPENT by the top. It felt AMAZING!

I was really expecting to barely be able to walk the next day. Weekend warrior syndrome. But I felt FINE! FINE!!!! I couldn't believe it. I did take the day off (aside from 2 hours of mowing.. ugh).

There are a lot of sprint races around here so I'm considering just jumping into a few. I'm working myself up to start swimming in the sound once a week w/ the tri group in Fairfield. It's a haul down there, but I'm going to tag along w/ Nicole. It's worth it to have people to swim with.

We've been doing a lot of yard work lately. Our yard is wild and out of control and every time I mow I day dream about truck loads of mulch. I do want to make more beds around the house and around the perimeter of the yard and have started buying plants here and there to fill in these areas. You could plant hundreds of dollars worth of plants in this yard and would barely notice it's so wild and big. Of course we are used to 'urban' yards that are much smaller.

I'm finally getting around to putting a fence around our piddly little veggie garden. I have potatoes and a few plants that Nicole gave me that need to get in the ground NOW! I'll put some seeds in too to see what happens then might get some starts to put in too. All one big experiment.

My kefir water and milk are going gang busters in this warm weather and I'm getting it in the kids in smoothies.. they won't drink it straight up. I'll have plenty to try some cheese recipes soon. Probiotics are GOOD!!!

Hope everyone is having a great start to summer and for all of those racing.. Good luck. It's starting!!! I'll be out there spectating for sure... and maybe jumping in here and there. I'm going up to Lake Placid w/ dad to volunteer for Ironman on July 25th! Can't wait!

What's up at Che Mount?

Lots of things rolling around in the ol' noggin'... Have that caged animal feeling again.. I come and go w/ this. A good work out should help. Hey, wait.. I had two good work outs over the last three days.

I'm feeling like I don't want to register for races for a while. I just want to do ... whatever. I know I need to run, but I don't really feel like it right now. I'd rather ride my bike... and that's all well and good, but I have another half marathon coming up in three weeks. I should run. Really. I also kinda want to focus more on weights, but as I said after the Danbury 1/2 lifting and running and riding 'some' doesn't prepare you well for an endurance event... So that's what I'm thinking today. We'll see how I feel after some time goes by. I will go to spin class tomorrow. I will lift tomorrow. I will ride my bike on Thursday w/ Tom. I will lift on Thursday. I'll run on Friday and Sunday (we'll see if I can cram something in on Saturday before we head out on our trip) and I'll run next week while we're in Seattle...

And I've made a decision about going back to school. I'm not. 1. it's not the right time for me and 2. I'm not even sure that's the direction I want my life to go. I've got nothing but time. :)

I'm starting to feel like some goals are surfacing in my mind. Will work on getting them on paper.

In the mean time I couldn't be more excited about spending some time in the PNW! I miss Seattle SO much.

What Race and 3 year brainstorming

So TOMORROW is the Danbury Half Marathon. I feel like it's not even on my radar. So unprepared fro this... just going to run it for fun. I haven't really 'trained' for it per se. I know I can complete it. I was going to go run for 4 miles today, but we had such fun as a family and I didn't want to step away from it knowing I would be gone for 3 hours in the middle of the day tomorrow. I did a little Core Synergistics from P90X and got a sweat on so I called it good.

I really want to focus on my core and get stronger in that department. Which means I must start doing the core work outs huh? :) This week was a good week. Did some P90X Ab Ripper, Core Synergistics and some stuff off YouTube just to mix it up. (the name suggested that I would get a 6 pack if I did it regularly... :D ) So this week I hit my goal of three times a week.

I'm VERY excited to find out that a new friend is into weight training and works out in the early morning. AND she just joined my gym!!!! I so could use some motivation and support from someone that's into weight training. I've seen so many women working the weights at this gym... way more than my last gym. And they look GOOD. Strong, lean women. I love it, but I haven't yet met any of them yet. They get in there and do their workouts before I'm even done slugging it out on the treadmill. AND they look way better than me. HMMM. Who knows what they might be doing outside of the time that I see them, but it's starting to look like I could work out WAY LESS in a DIFFERENT way and get BETTER results. Regardless of the fact that I'm a total endurance junky and need my fix... but it's looking like perhaps I wouldn't have to add THAT much time to my work out allotment for the day/week and I would get good results. So the weight training continues via P90X and hopefully will get kicked up a notch w/ my new buddy. I'm lifting as heavy as I can for now to see what kind of results I can get.. okay so maybe not as heavy as I can for I am limited by the weights I have at home, but heavier than I ever have (in my intermittent past weight training programs). Maybe I'll get crazy and take some photos of myself in a bikini to post LATER w/ my AFTER photos!

In my obsessive blog surfing I found Goals for the Week, and particularly THIS post. As most of you know I really love the new year... looking forward at a blank slate that I can mold to my (well mostly my) liking. Dreaming of all the things I want to do. I was excited to see her process and decided to give it a whirl myself. Fancy new sparkle pen (Lily's new obsession) to make it fun and a blank page. Now 3 year goals. SHIT! I couldn't really come up with anything that I felt was all that exciting or inspiring. HUH? What? Same old stuff getting written down. I decided to walk away from it for a bit. I reread her post and then noticed the word brainstorming and decided that might be a better approach for me than the list. Here is how far I got. "Jason and Lily will turn (GASP) seven and will be in first grade." Stumped. That's it. That's all I wrote.... comes to mind.. the same old same old... be organized, STOP being bloated, move back to the PNW, have a six pack, be able to do proper pull ups and more push ups (I'm up to 10 REAL push ups right now.. thank you very much. I suppose the P90X is starting show dividends.)... and there you have it (okay... Ironman may have been on that list)... that's all I could come up with. I feel like a goal setting loser and failure. I know that is not the point.

I won't give up. I will keep coming back to it until I have something more interesting for myself.....

We are now in the ONE WEEK count down to our trip to Seattle!!!! YEAH!