My Holiday Week

So Wednesday I flew to San Diego to spend Thanksgiving with my bro, his awesome wife, and our parents.  But of course, you can't stop training, just because it is a holiday!

On Wednesday it was an hour swim and 40 minutes of core, but I can't seem to get that much core done in 40 minutes, so it took me about an hour!

I was the only one at the pool that day.  I guess everyone else was all warm inside enjoying time with their families.

But the next day, Thanksgiving, I got to enjoy it with my family! Kathy and I did a 10 K, and then we did a 5K with our parents and John and Sugar.

But we did get to relax in the hot tub afterward.  Gosh, I love visiting my brother!

Yep, those are mimosas in our plastic cups.  Hey, I am training, but I still have a life!

Then Friday it was back to the gym for the best spin class ever, then another hour swim.  This time a really cute guy who swam well and looked hot in a speedo was in the lane next to me.  Sorry, no pics of that.  :(

Flew home Friday night and Saturday morning had to get up bright and early for a 22 mile ride in the rain with the Team.

We got to ride all around Tiburon, it was beautiful!  And it only rained for about 12 miles out of 22!

And then today, swim, run, core.  I was told I need to practice sticking out my chest more in the water.

How do you think I am doing?  Funny thing is, this summer, the run coach said I needed to stick my chest out more...hm...what am I doing wrong, I definitely need to practice this more often, either that, or people really want to see my boobies.  ;)

We finished the workout with everyone's favorites: burpies!  If you don't know what these are, consider yourself lucky!

And then we got to go eat! Pictures of that to follow....

Thanksgiving

I am so thankful for so many things in my life. First of all I am thankful for my parents, who not only gave me life, but have helped me have a wonderful one.  When I wanted to work in Ecuador when I was 16, they sold boxes of grapefruits all year to help me fundraise enough money to go. When I said I wanted to move to New York to be a teacher, they flew out and helped me move into my new apartment.  When I realized I hated teaching, and didn't know what I wanted to do with my life, they helped me take 3 months off to go to Brazil to volunteer at a hospital there and re-evaluate my life, and ever since I joined Team in Training, they have been there to help me fundraise, cheer me on at my races, and help me get all my training in.  Today they drove me to the gym in San Diego, and after they had driven away I realized I had forgotten my goggles and swim cap, so they drove back to my brother's to get it for me.  I truly am blessed with the best parents ever.


I am also thankful for my awesome brother who has always been such an inspiration and who always helps me in school.  From high school when I used to drive into Berkeley and he would help me with my take home physics tests (by doing them for me) to these days when I call him asking him to explain respiratory processes because I can't seem to get them.  It's amazing how much simpler Anatomy and Physiology is when you have an awesome, patient doctor explaining it all to you. And I am so thankful he married the most amazing woman ever, who I am so happy to have as another sister!

And of course I am so thankful to my other wonderful sister Erin, who has the kindest heart in the world. And who is infinitely more responsible than me, even though I am ten years older than her.  She is the best auntie to my baby Dizzie, he couldn't ask for anyone better.





And then there are all my friends who I absolutely love.  My old friends from pre-school, middle school, and high school, my friends from college, and from St. Anthony's, and New York, and Brazil.  I really am super blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life.  But I have to say a special thanks for my five home slices who have gone above and beyond for me.  Cathy, Carolyn, Joy, Jessica, and Loulena basically dropped everything they were doing a few years ago in order to help me through a very difficult time in my life. I cannot thank them enough for all of their love and support.

Wow, the list could go on, and on, and on.  How could one girl be so lucky?

Thank you to everyone in my life who makes everyday wonderful and beautiful.

On Your Own Weekend

So this weekend had two On Your Own workouts, where we are supposed to do all of the training by ourselves.  But lucky for me, I have such awesome new teammates, I didn't have to do anything on my own.
Saturday morning I woke up bright and early at 6:20 am to head over to King Pool in Berkeley, where I met up with coach Elaine, Mark, Elizabeth (not Iron yet, but working on her to join), Jasmine, Rocky, David, Mark, and Eddie. We had a lovely hour swim, although I have to admit, I didn't really follow the schedule.  I tried, but there is only so much Catch Up I can do, so I did a couple of IMs (Butterfly, Back, Breast, Free) and then went back to Freestyle. We were told it wasn't going to rain until 10am, but it started in the middle of our swim, so I jumped out of the pool to help the life guards save all of our stuff from the rain.

It was still raining pretty hard when we started our run.  And I thought I was going to be miserable, especially since coach Elaine decided we were going to do strength training to get it out of the way for the weekend.  So after every lap we ran we had to stop and do squats, or lunges, or toe touches.  I can't decide which was harder and which is making my butt hurt the most today: doing lunges around half the track, or doing 75 squat jumps in a row.  All I have to say is that my ass better be awesome by August or I want my money back!

We were lucky and the rain stopped mid way through our run and the sun came out in time for us to take pictures.

Our muddy legs.  I think Rocky's and David's were the muddiest. 

 Then on Sunday I drove up to Santa Rosa to meet up with Les, Jenn, Joel, Rachel, and Megan. It took me about an hour to get there...but it was well worth the drive.  Besides the awesome company, the ride was absolutely gorgeous.  Sonoma county is so beautiful right now.  I can't believe I've never ridden up there before. 

I love biking up here, it is awesome.


I will be missing all team workouts this week because of Thanksgiving, and I am really going to miss everyone.  But I am so excited for the next 10 months.

Go Team! Iron Team!

Strength

Do I have enough strength to keep going?

So I just realized that Iron Team is going to be a lot different than my last two seasons on Team in Training.  I thought I would just be swimming, biking, and running longer distances...but no...they want me to get stronger.  We have strength training 4 times a week.  Now, I am not complaining, because I have always known I should be doing strength training...I just haven't done it.  It's hard.

Last night we were sent home from our track workout and told to do our strength training on our own.  That was a tough one.  Something in me just didn't want to do it.  Finally I realized that if I start taking short cuts now, I will never get to where I want to be (crossing that finish line on August 28th in Canada). So I sat in my room doing squats and lunges, and push ups, and wall sits, and crunches until I was so exhausted I just lay on the floor, and almost fell asleep there.  The funny thing is that last night's workout was only 20 minutes.  Tomorrow we are supposed to do 40 minutes! 

I am sure if I keep doing it, I will have the physical strength to keep doing it...I just don't know if I have the mental strength right now.  Any suggestions on how to make core workouts more fun, or at least not so terribly frightening? 

Pondering Poo

So the conversation got a little dirty during the half marathon this weekend.  And when I say dirty, I don't mean it in the naughty way...but the yucky way.  And yes, it was probably my fault...but who can really be held responsible for the conversations they start when under the duress of running 13 miles?  Anyway, Nic, Bonnie, Aly, Emily, Dave and I went down to Monterey to run the Big Sur half marathon this weekend.  (Well Dave went down to cheer us on).

Emily and Aly and I ended up running the whole thing together. Well run/walk-9 min run, 1 min walk, which I have to say was awesome.  I think I can totally do a marathon if I do it like that.  I feel great today.  Hardly sore at all.  It took a little longer than when I ran the whole thing, but only 25 minutes longer, and I had so much more fun than when I ran the whole thing and was dying the last 3 miles!

Anyway, the scenery was absolutely gorgeous!

So back to the dirty talk.  Don't get all excited, this wasn't the fun dirty pillow talk...but I had some questions I needed answered about pooing while doing triathlons.  See I swear that someone told me (maybe my cousin Sarah?) that when people are really intense and are doing a triathlon and don't want to stop, they poo in their pants and then hold open the leg of their tri shorts and let it fall out.  I even recall that whoever told me this, also told me there was a hand signal for if you do this while on the bike to let the person behind you know what will be falling out.  So I told Aly and Emily this, and they said there was no way that could be true.  They said you would chaff too much, which seems true.  Then we decided you could maybe pull down your shorts before you went, but it might fall on your seat, and that would be kind of disgusting.  So they almost convinced me that whoever told me this (I wish I could remember for sure) must have been joking.  But at the same time I know there are people who do Ironman for time, and if they have to poo, what would they do?  It seems unlikely they would pull over and stop...so my question is...can anyone tell me if people only pee on themselves while doing Ironman, or do they poo on themselves too?

I am just trying to be completely prepared for next August.  :)


Just kidding, I will probably pull over and use a porta-potty. Unless someone can tell me how to do it in a really clean way!

Aly, me, and Emily at the end.  

 Oh and I can't forget to say what an awesome job Aly, Emily, and Bonnie did.  They all completed their first half marathon this weekend!  Go Gu-Gu Dolls!

And congrats to Margo who got a PR 1:48! We never saw her because she was so fast, it was like lightening shooting past us!

Back in the Saddle

So I just did my first workout in 2 weeks.  Who knew running 3 miles could be so difficult?  Oh, wait...just so you don't think I am lying, I did go to the track workout last Saturday and ran a mile, but I don't really think that counts cause it was really short and I was coughing and wheezing.

Today I felt ok...I mean I didn't start coughing until I was done running, and I could tell my body was still in good enough shape for running 3 miles, but I have to say, mentally it was really challenging.  I kept wanting to stop the whole time, I kept thinking, "I am just getting better, I should be able to walk some."  But the thing was, physically I could tell I didn't need to walk.  Mentally I totally wanted to walk.  So it was kind of a struggle. And of course, me being me, I mapped out a run where the last mile was uphill.  Don't ask my why I did this.  My philosophy on running is always that running uphill is always better at the beginning of a run than at the end.  But what can I say, sometimes I don't really think ahead.

So the last mile I was running up hill on a street that kept twisting, so I couldn't tell where it was going to end.  Each corner I would think, "maybe this is it," but it wouldn't be.  The one thing I had going for me was that I knew I was on my last mile, so I repeated my trusty mantra over and over again: "you can do anything for one mile, you can do anything for 10 minutes, it's 10 minutes, you will be done in 10 minutes, you can keep going."  I love that mantra, it works for longer distances too...like at Big K I started it at mile ten. "You can do anything for 3 miles, it's only 3 miles, you can do anything for 3 miles."

It may sound silly, but it got me to the top of the hill, and let me tell you, it felt great to finish and to know I had run the whole thing.  Although I do have to say my legs were all tingly which normally doesn't happen, and then I went and did a circuit workout with weights at the Fit-Lite on Solano, and I felt a little shaky the whole time.  I'm sure it's just cause I am starting out again.

Tomorrow is our first long team work out.  We are training from 8am until 1pm.  Swimming, then running, then core work out.  I am super excited!

Go Iron Team!

One Down Four to Go!!!

Today was Kick Off!  Iron Team has begun!  But don't feel left out, there is still time to join.  It's fun, it's exciting, I'd say it's easy, but what in life is worth having if it comes easily?  Nothing much that I can think of.  But this will be challenging in the way that will help you see yourself in an entirely new light.

Today was our first work, just some strength and track work.  Lucky for me, I've been sick all week, so I got to feel like I was just starting out again.  Lungs burning after two laps, wheezing, coughing. Good memories of how I used to feel when I first started doing all this stuff.  It was a good reminder of how far I have come.  Today the thought of running 3 miles terrified me (so I was really glad we didn't have to), and that's just because I've been sick all week, and this was the first time I had even gotten out of bed. 

Sometimes I forget how hard it used to be, how each step was torture...so today was a good reminder.  It helped me realize why people don't do this.  Because at first, it can be kind of hard...ok, it can be really hard.  Ever seen Biggest Looser?  Those people don't look like they are having fun at the beginning of the season.  But it also made me realize what a good decision it was to start doing this and why I keep doing it.  After the initial shock to the body, it actually become fun.  Challenging, for sure, but fun.

So...I've gotten my friend Sherri to sign up for Iron Team, and I only need four more people to join.  You will absolutely love it, and I will win a really cool windbreaker, which I will let you borrow once in a while!

All winter teams are just starting now.  So why not try something new?
 (Sometimes I feel like TNT should be paying me for all the publicity I give them)

Who knew Ironmen make excellent Wheel Barrels?

                                       

A Little Under the Weather

Nov 3rd...I should be snuggled up under my blankets, trying to keep warm and sipping my peppermint tea to help me get over my cold, right?  Well I am in my shorts and tank top, no covers on, window wide open, sweating thinking about how I wish I wasn't so lazy because I would really like a popsicle  from up stairs right now...but I am too tired and lazy to go get it for myself.  Yes, this is me, the person who plans to do an Ironman in 297 days, and I won't even walk up the stairs to get something refreshing to cool myself off.  But that's because I am under the weather.

I got a cold or virus this weekend, and I'm full of snot, and tired, and a little cranky. For some reason when I am sick I begin to think negatively.  I guess that isn't that abnormal, but considering I am usually pretty optimistic I find it strange when I start to think negatively about things.  I guess this is the time to relax and be lazy.  I am sure I will be feeling better by Saturday (I hope I will be feeling better by Saturday, since it is kick off!) And everyone needs some down time, right?

So I guess I will just embrace my tiredness and sickness, go to bed early, sleep in, and have an excuse to call my roommates tomorrow morning and see if I can get them to bring breakfast down to me in bed. (I live in the basement....but that's another story).

Shot of my bedside table full of medicine and tissue.  And yes, I have a teddy bear, although I don't know why my captains pin is there...I couldn't find it all summer!