Tic-Toc

Lol yes I am biting off Kesha's song but it's also... Less than two months until the half iron..

So my training has been increasing and I'm starting now to do two-a-days twice a week. The weather has been poopy so I haven't been able to get into the pool this week. Wah Wah... So let me give you a run through of my workouts starting from Friday...

Friday: I decided to do a mini training run :) So I decided to do 40 miles on bike and then a 7 mile run...It took me 4 hours and I actually felt good enough to keep going but I didn't. However, my knees hurt after the run... dude I feel like an effin old lady complaining about my hurt joints but they frickin hurt! Overall, I was happy with my mini training run, but I will attempt to go farther in two weeks.

Saturday: Training Break.. I got to go to a Baby Shower and eat a cupcake lol

Sunday: I wanted to do about 10 miles so I set out early for my "little" run lol.. My Garmin wasn't working so I decided to go longer.. yeahh almost 2 miles longer I'm pretty sure lol.. So in total I did about 12 miles and I'm not going to lie I was pretty sore.. go figure I wasn't sore from Friday but I was for my 12 mile run. I did do some strides during the run so maybe that was it.. IDK...

Monday: I woke up early to go to spin.. now I'm a pretty cheery person but 5:30 a.m. workouts are hard regardless if you're a morning person or not lol. Now I'm not the biggest fan of the spin instructor at that time but I go anyways. The biggest thing I have a problem with in that class is the music! It's not my cup of tea and doesn't make me want to spin... it is composed of 70-80s music that doesn't really have a fast beat. Look I don't have a problem with the music that period of time but cmon people... it doesn't motivate me to spin! Anyways, I finished the class and then went to the gym again with my husband  (YAY lol he never goes to the gym)... and I did a mile warm-up some arm weights and abs on a decline...

Tuesday: Spin with my favorite spin instructor :) Always a frickin challenge but so fun. I also attempted a new workout from Fitness magazine... It is a fat blasting workout that totally kicked my butt lol...

It's been a While..

Sorry for not posting in a while .... I'll catch you all up to speed!!

Saturday: I finally beat my 5K time!!!!!!!!!!!! This is like super duper exciting and might be a once and only thing but I don't care I did it and I am just frickin excited.. I came in at 24:33... yup thats right... I actually had a small stomach ache which sucked but still who would have thought??? Anywho, the race itself was amazing. It was for wounded soldiers and there were even some wounded soldiers who participated in the race. I'll tell you what seeing them cross the finish line really was amazing. Here were these men some blind, with one leg, no legs, etc. with smiles on their faces. I couldn't help but cry and really just look to them as heros. It was incredible, I'll do this race every year..

Sunday: Since I was bum and decided to actually have fun Saturday night I suffered the consequences of waking up late and so I spun on my trainer for THREE HOURS!!!! IT was ridiculously miserable, and I cramped in my legs at least there was March Madness (yes I play the brackets and I'm currently in the lead woot woot)...

Monday: Another two a day today... well... I took the early spinning class with the boring teacher and did pretty well. Nothing to exciting to report. Swimming in the afternoon of course was a cluster. So many people are there that it's just stressful. However, I caught one guy getting out of the pool and jumped in and did my half mile.

Tuesday: Did core workout (just focused on abs) and then spun. I spun my little heart out too. On a side note, while doing abs I realized how long its been since I shaved... lol I know... gross...

Swim Swim Swim

I swam again today... and it felt awesome!!! Plus there weren't that many people out there which makes it even better!!

So from now on Fridays, my day "off" I'm swimming at least a half mile. It definitely felt a lot better. I think if I just get in the water and keep it up I can do well in swimming again. Tomorrow I'm running a 5K and I think I'll just do that distance for Saturday and make it a fast run.. On Sunday I'll get a long bike and run in...

Started two a days this week :)

I needed to start incorporating two-a-day in and so I incorporated one this week...

Tuesday: I went to my usual spin class which is always fun :) I really like the teacher so I actually enjoy spinning for 45 minutes instead of hating my life lol...I have had some spin instructors who don't impress me, and its usually because they are quiet during the whole class. Before spin, I did some arm weights... I can't really do a lot of weights but I did about 5 different types of arm exercises with 5 pound weights/12 reps.

Wednesday: started my two a days... I did my usual 3 mile run in the morning which was quicker than my usual pace.. On Wednesdays I like to keep a 10ish minute pace but this Wednesday I kept a 9ish minute pace... then in the afternoon I swam a half mile. It was annoying to swim because the pool was BUSYYYYYY.. Wednesday's are my best day to do swim but idk man...

Thursday: 1/2 mile repeats .. only 4 but still... it was hard.. to start off we did our warm-up of about a 1/2 mile... then we climbed hills for 2 minutes. After hills we did our 1/2 mile repeats in which I kept a 3:41 for the first 3 and then 3:44 my last one... not bad... I then cooled down for about 10 minutes..

Overall good workout week.. tomorrow I'll go swimming again :)

Taking It Easy is For Weenies... lol j/k

So I felt pretty good this morning when I woke up which made me pretty pleased. Can my body really be getting used to all the craziness I've been putting it through??? lol - Guess so...

I wanted to do some sort of physical activity (because yesterday wasn't enough right?) and so I decided I would have a pleasant bike ride.. I pretty much conned my husband to go with me and so we rode... We rode over 11 miles. Nothing crazy fast or even close to race pace- just a simple ride to get my legs moving. Afterwards, I took my dog (the crazy spunky one) on a one mile jog. I felt good. I didn't want to overdo it. I just wanted to get something small in.

My quad is still acting weird- not always but only sometimes- and so I put icy/hot on it not too long ago.. So far, so good. Hopefully this won't be a nagging pain... Anywho... tomorrow I'm off to probably do weights and some spin :)

I conquered Wildman :)

Well folks this was my second Olympic distance triathlon and as we all know (or maybe don't know) I sucked wind the last one that I did in August. So it was super important for me to do well in this tri and assess my progress....I didn't do as well as I wanted to BUT I felt great crossing that finish line- opposed to feeling like death and laying on the ground for a couple of minutes refusing to move. Overall I came in a minute slower - 2hrs and 59 minutes (still under my 3 hour mark woohooo lol). 

So lets start off with an analysis of my tri times (bwahahaha I sound so smart here)

Swim- 13 minutes SLOWER than the last one... that is a HUGEEEE disappointment. However, I need to man up and say that I have to go to the pool and practice more - not wait 8 months and wing it in an Olympic triathlon. The wetsuit also threw me off, the water temp threw me off and also being inefficient  swimming from buoy to buoy (next time I need to NOT swim outside of everyone).. but excuses are excuses and I need to really improve on this.

Bike 1 minute faster than last tri :) Woot... Progress is progress nonetheless and I'm happy considering all factors. My hands and feet were definitely frozen from riding bike in the cold temperature and I can't believe how miserable it was the whole time I rode. I just need to keep practicing and practicing (and also up my distance).

Run- 15 minutes FASTER people :) Heck yeah... am I proud- I'm not going to lie if I got slower on my run I'd go crazy. Last tri I had to walk some of it because I was at the point of exhaustion. I came through the finish line fatigued and overheated and started hyperventilating when my friend E tried to pour water on my head to cool me off- I've never in my life felt so horrible after a race. So I was super happy with this time. Not only was I happy about my run, but I felt like I could longer and farther.  

Transitions- slower overall than last time. This is probably attributed to spending a good amount of time taking off my wetsuit and also dealing with being frozen. Need to work on these a little bit too. 

Overall, I'm pleased with today. I froze my hiney off which was miserable and not my way of spending a Sunday- but I'm happy I did it. Don't get me wrong, I wanted to find an excuse not to go... seriously I was thinking of all sorts of ways to get out of this race lol- but I didn't. Right now I'm sore and I am slow moving which is pretty funny coming out of a 25 year olds mouth but its true lol. I get to go into work late tomorrow so hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow :)

Oh side note: I'm 25 and my race number was 25.. How cool is that lol

Wetsuit

So after being pretty nervous about the tri situation- I decided I would go out and buy a wetsuit. Now this went against what I was giving up for lent- shopping. However, in my defense I think it was necessary. See I haven't swam for 8 months.. Some of you guys might think I'm an idiot for not even practicing the swim (and you are 100% correct). The reason why I'm telling you this is because that means swimming might not be the easiest thing for me tomorrow - add in cold water and I could have very well cramped up out there mid swim without a wetsuit. So I went off on my voyage to find a long-sleeve wetsuit.

So first I decided to set my sights on Sports Authority. I checked their website to make sure they carried wetsuits and they did so off I drove. I got to the store and only saw short-sleeve ones- that wasn't going to fly. You see, I am a person who hates being cold (no joke I was so anxious about attempting to swim in freezing water) and so short-sleeves would only cover some of me, not all of me. So I asked the guys who worked there where else I could go and they told me I should try a local surf shop.

So off I went on my second voyage. I walked in and right away someone helped me find a long-sleeve wetsuit (plus it was purple how frickin awesome was that?). The price tag wasn't great though (ugh 240 to be exact), but I knew I had to do it. I tried it on and it fit like a glove... I was sold :) Plus it ended up being 25% off for a grand total of $190...

So I came back with my wetsuit and started trying to read up online on what to expect and how I would feel. I read not so good things (problems dealing with the buoyancy, hyperventilation, etc) .... So I started getting anxious again. My neighbors had been outside pretty much the whole day and knew the story about me and the wetsuit so when I went outside with it on my neighbor suggested we try swimming in our retention pond. Now at first I wasn't too keen on the idea, but after a couple of minutes I figured what the hell I'm swimming in a lake tomorrow.

So I jumped into the water and it felt weird, but I could deal with it. It was frickin hilarious swimming in the back of the neighborhood in the retention pond but it calmed my nerves. I'm pretty ready tomorrow... I hope the rest of my body is ready too :)

Cold Weather

So I'm getting nervous about how cold the water is going be at tomorrow's tri, especially since I don't have a wetsuit. Before I go into my anxieties I'll summarize my workouts.

Thursday: I decided not to workout with tri club since I knew what their workout consisted of and I would be doing an Olympic tri on Sunday. So instead I decided to ride on my trainer for two hours. I especially wanted to do this because my quad has been acting up. It was actually pretty fun. I watched Fame and was motivated by all the music lol...

Friday: I took it easy... I feel like I've been saying that alot lately- so that's why in two weeks I'm starting two a days. This should help me get more mileage in and also more endurance. On the plus side I took my two doggies on two walks!

Saturday: I did a decent 4 mile run. I felt good but am pretty nervous about the temperature for tomorrow's tri. It's been pretty cold in the water and they're allowing wetsuits tomorrow- problem is I don't have a wetsuit so I don't want to buy one just for this race... I also haven't swam in 8 months lol.. I know - this is a bad situation. I gotta stop thinking negatively though and start getting in the right mind set. I'll be letting you know how I do tomorrow... sigh pray for me lol

Ugh Really??

So I think I pulled my quad.. ok so I don't think I did- I'm pretty sure I did. I've been feeling pain in it since yesterday but I chose to ignore it. Note to self- choosing to ignore it results in 50% of the times it going away and 50% of the time getting worse. Since I chose to ignore it and push myself yesterday I'm pretty sure my quad muscle was not happy with me when I chose to wake my body up at 5:30 and attempt to run three miles.

I tried to do my usual three at home but this morning my treadmill felt different- and not in a good way. It just started squeaking and made me feel as though I was going to fly off of it mid stride. So it was pretty much a blessing in disguise when my husband walked into the garage and groggily asked me if I could close all the doors so that he couldn't hear me. Instead I jumped off the treadmill and told him it would be better for me to go the gym. So I went to the gym and finished up my three miles and headed back home. Other note: girls in the gym are catty. When I picked up my run where I left off (I didn't warm up when I got to the gym) one of the girls specifically commented about how important it was to warm-up before you run... Listen lady- I don't tell you how to run your workout and honestly you don't LOOK like you should be giving athletic type of advice so please don't get on your soapbox and passively try to irritate me. So I held back from turning around and glaring and instead focused on not hurting my quad during my run. I ended up finishing but felt some pain in my quad.

I ordered my thigh compression sleeves and they came in this afternoon (Yay for Student Prime shipping from Amazon)... I started wearing one of them since my thigh was acting up and I must say that I think it's doing something to my thigh.. I don't know if its good or bad but we'll find out soon enough... Anyways we'll see how much I workout tomorrow and how hard I workout....

Happy Workouts Everyone :)

Stupid Mardi Gras...

making me eat delicious King cake.... ugh I ate so much CRAP today....

sooo I had to balance out and spend some good time in the gym.. AND....this week is my Olympic triathlon so I gotta make sure I'm ready..

So after being hopped up on sugar from eating a donut, king cake and swedish fish lol...I went to the gym and started off my workout by jogging two miles (I did in 16:03 so not bad lol)... then I did 2 set of arm exercises and two sets of leg exercises...then I went to my usual spin class :) It was awesome but I felt my exhaustion in spin class. It was so hard... and of course my bike I think was acting up because after turning the knob ten times it literally was so hard to turn the pedals that I stopped mid air for about 10 seconds lol.. I loosened the knob alot to get it to where I could spin again lol.. Needless to saw it was AWESOME!!!

On a side note: I'm not sure if I mentioned this before but we're playing Biggest Loser at work... Alot of people signed up of all shapes and sizes.... and I didn't think I would lose anything but guess what my friends.... I've lost 10 pounds... and let me tell you what... I feel great :) Note to mention I'm in 3rd place... WOOOOO...

Tomorrow... running my usual 3 :)

Put to the Test this Weekend

This weekend I did my first BRICK with the group... and thats how my legs felt during our run.. like bricks lol...

So for those of you who don't know what a BRICK workout is- its a bike ride and run combo. They're usually not pleasant and are in preparation for triathlons- ok lets be honest they really suck. So, I set my alarm for 5:40 in the morning and got ready for the next day. I'm not going to lie when my alarm went off I wanted to ignore it and go back to bed, but I knew this would be pretty awesome for my training. So I got up and dragged my happy butt to practice. There were a good amount of people that showed up and I was pretty intimidated. You see biking isn't my strongest suit and I feel almost embarrassed going out with all these people who are good bikers. So off we went and to my surprise- I didn't do half bad. I did go harder than we were "supposed" to but I figured it would still help my training. However, once we got off our bikes after riding 1 hour and a half to go on a 30 minute run my legs were KILLING me. I quickly caught my way up to one of the front groups, but couldn't keep pace on my way back. When I was finished I felt great. It was hard don't get my wrong, but I DID IT! Now obviously the front pack is just amazing in everything they do, but I can't compare myself to them- they're a whole other breed lol. Pure athletes, I'm pretty good but not amazing- and that's okay I'm proud of what I've done so far. Next weekend I've got my Olympic tri and let's just say this race kicked my a$$ last year. I was done after the race and have NEVER felt that bad after a run. This time I will defeat it. Oh I also forgot to mention that when I got home mu husband wanted to go biking. I did a little over 10 miles with him putting my biking total at about 35 miles... not bad huh lol

Sunday- My friend V and I had originally made plans to go run 6 miles, however, when she got to my house she wanted to do 8. So off we went on our journey and we did frickin 8 miles. Now, I wasn't super sore when I went on my run so thats a plus- I thought I would be. The run was pretty much uneventful- and we ran with her son P which was fun. He's not a runner by trade, but he did 8 miles no problems... that makes me sick lol. We did a pretty decent pace and finished strong.

Now that I did all this stuff this weekend, not only will I take tomorrow off.. but I'm going to go stuff my face with chocolate at the chocolate festival :)

Run Test

So I've been "Taking it easy" the last couple of days but let me recap my week..

Tuesday: Jog/Walked with my friend T... I then decided to spin for an hour... I watched Biggest Loser while spinning :)

Wednesday: I usually do my three in the morning but this time I did it in the afternoon (plus a little more).. I felt pretty good and kept up a good pace ...I had to take my dog to her agility class and had to jog a little there too...

Thursday: We had a run test at tri club... I'm not going to lie.. I was not excited. However, I didn't do half bad. I ran three miles in 24:48 woot woot. I didn't think I was going to go that fast but I did it.. I'm pretty excited. Afterwards we did legendary abs...

Right now I'm craving chocolate milk .....
 
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