Tag Archives: schedule

Christmas Festivities!

10 Dec

I tell ya, even when you try to not get too busy during the holiday season, it happens anyway.

Here’s our December lineup:

Nov 30: Operation Christmas Child (Ok, not December, but it’s related to Christmas!)

Dec 4-5: Minnesota trip

Dec 10: Christmas tea at church (set up in morning, tea in afternoon); baking sugar cookies, putting up Christmas decorations, and watching A Christmas Story (I’ve never seen it!) with Travis

Dec 11: Christmas party after church

Dec 17: Christmas Carol 5K in the AM; Dinner with friends in the PM

Dec 18: Going up to Evergreen as a birthday/Christmas/done-with-grad-classes celebration to go ice skating and have a nice dinner; hoping to watch another Christmas movie I’ve never seen like It’s a Wonderful Life or Miracle on 34th Street (I know, it really is tragic that I haven’t seen these classics.)

Dec 20: Zoolights at the Denver Zoo after work with friends

And then it’s Christmas! Since we’re not going to be with family, I’m voting for just staying home to do a whole lot of cookie eating, movie watching, and game playing on Christmas instead of going to any big gathering. Relaxing sounds absolutely wonderful right now!

Even though we have lots of fun stuff planned, for some reason, it’s been harder for me to get into the Christmas spirit this year than others. It just doesn’t feel like Christmas and I don’t know why. It’s probably something to do with feeling exhausted from being on the go and also the fact that we still don’t have our Christmas decorations up! I’m really hoping to get that done tomorrow. In the midst of the frenzy, though, I am striving to keep my focus on experiencing and savoring this season, not just viewing it as one giant to-do list.

What fun things are you doing this holiday season? 

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And the marathon winner is…

9 Nov

Since work is still pretty slow, I used the majority of last Friday to compare, via detailed spreadsheet, every marathon I could find in the months of March, April, May and June of next year that fit my criteria of being either a big race (5,000+ marathoners) or well-supported by spectators, and being in a location that could double as our 5-year wedding anniversary trip. So I looked up airfare, race reviews, course information, number of participants and local attractions. The (most likely) winner?

The Eugene Marathon on April 29.

Eugene, Oregon, is about 2 hours from Portland and even though it’s a smaller marathon (about 2,000 finishers last year), the race drew 8,000 athletes with the other events and since running is so popular in this city nicknamed Track Town USA, a lot of spectators come out to support. The course is flat and beautiful from what I’ve read. And Oregon is a state that neither Travis nor I have ever been to, but always wanted to visit. I mean, how can you not get excited about the food cart craze?

So I have adjusted both my base building and marathon training plans (updated on this page), since this race is a month earlier than the one I thought about doing in Minnesota. It’s a long {and boring} story about why I decided against the race in MN but it involves a wedding, a bunch of hills and a lack of both runners and spectators.

But I’ve encountered a little hiccup in my marathon goal: a lack of motivation.

It’s a bad sign when I can barely muster up enough willpower to force myself out for a 3 mile run. What is going to happen to me when I have to do 8, 9, even 10 miles on a work day? I’m serious. How am I going to manage that?

I’ve thought about running during lunch (although the max there will be probably be about 5 miles, since I’m slow and lunch can’t last forever). I’ve thought about doing 2-a-days and splitting those long runs into morning and evening runs, or lunchtime and evening runs (I think that would work fine because I’d still have my continuous long run on the weekend). I’ve even thought about breaking up the mileage between the track and the dreadmill treadmill at my gym. Because I don’t think I could stand to run a full 10 miles, either in 100 circles or in place.

I need to dip into my reserve of this:

I’m trying to not think about how much I don’t want to go on a 4 mile run after work today. I’d rather go lay on the couch and stuff my face with leftover corn bread. But that’s what I did last night so… I should probably go.

The deal I’m making with myself is that I have to at least get all my planned mileage and weight training in. If I want to skip my cute little cardio workouts, fine. But no skipping runs. And no skipping weights. Because I am not going to get injured this time. Remember?

The cupcake image reminds me of a shirt idea I had for the marathon – Will Run for Cake. Which turned out to not be such a unique idea after all… I’ll have to change mine to say something like:

That’s a million dollar idea right there.

I like this shirt too (from gypsyrunner.com):

I saw a girl at the Malibu Half last year that was wearing that shirt and I immediately thought, “That’s the shirt I need!” But until I saw them at the Denver Rock ‘n’ Roll expo, I had only been able to find the shirt in cotton. Apparently, those who run like turtles don’t sweat.

Remember that you still have time to enter my 400th blog post giveaway!

How do you stay motivated to train or exercise?

Have you ever done 2-a-days?

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Survival of the Busiest

21 Oct

Well, I survived. Not only elk hunting, but also the season of busyness that I thought would never end. But it has ended. Well, sort of. I just realized this morning that I have coffee with Cathy tomorrow morning and then a girls’ night tomorrow morning (let the eating commence!), and then Sunday morning, I’m doing lights, plus we have a church meeting at night. Then there’s the giant pile of dirty, stinky clothes that Katy burrowed into last night instead of sleeping on her dog bed. And the rest of the house is a mess.

Ah, open weekend – you still elude me.

Seriously, every time over the past couple of months when I thought I had an open weekend and was poised to bask in its gloriousness under a blanket on the couch, something happened to make it not-so-restful. The weekend I was swore I was going to do nothing was eaten up by antelope butchering. Then my darn obsession with productivity robbed me of another weekend. And here I am, after 5 months of frazzled activity and constant plans, completely burnt out.

Last night was the tipping point. I came home from work, already in a bad mood and completely exhausted. Last week had been a frenetic blur of cooking, baking, church meetings, and packing. Then elk hunting was surprisingly exhausting. I was ready to collapse onto the couch in a coma and not move for the next 4 hours.

Instead, I came home to cook dinner and vacuum seal elk meat all night. {Side note: I realize this is a part of hunting and because I enjoy elk meat so much, I try to remind myself that this is worth it. And my in-laws were very considerate of my anal-retentiveness. But alas, tired people [moi] are not rational people.} The combination of Chardonnay, raw meat everywhere, piles of laundry, unpacked bags, more piles of laundry, blood on the kitchen floor and carpet, every dish I own being used for butchering, and knowing I had to go back to work in the morning culminated with me pretty much having a meltdown. No more Mr. Nice Guy. When I ran out of vacuum seal bags 15 minutes before Target closed, I did a little happy dance inside, snippily refused to go buy more and instead, cleaned up my sealing mess and went to bed. If they needed my help, too damn bad.

I was hoping that I’d wake up this morning in a better mood. Nope, still bitchy. I am just done. Don’t ask me for anything because all you’ll get is a black eye. You want coffee? Get it yourself. You need clean clothes? Wash them yourself. You need a lunch? Go buy one yourself. I don’t care anymore. Leave me alone or I will rage on you.

I think it’s safe to say that I need a break.

But I’m torn. Part of the reason for my mental breakdown is that my house is in complete disarray. I do not function well when things are messy. But do I compromise the time I could have on the couch for cleaning? Or do I blow off the cleaning for the sake of relaxation, only to be bothered by the mess all weekend?

My thought is to relax tonight, do laundry tomorrow, and clean on Sunday. I would say that I should do everything tonight so that I’ll have the weekend open but I’ve discovered that my Work Now, Play Later philosophy is the reason why I usually end up with no time to relax. What’s better than sitting down with some hot tea and a good book in a clean room?, I reason.  The problem is, I usually end up finding just one more thing to do here, one more thing there, and before I know it, the day is over and all I’ve done is work.

Up next: Elk Hunting Extravaganza

Do you like to Work Now, Play Later or Play Now, Work Later?

How do you keep from being a bitch when you’re stressed out?

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A Morning Routine.

6 Oct

Last weekend, when I was going through all my old files at my parents’ house, I came across novels I had written in junior high and high school and a sheet that said my life goal was to publish novels. Seems I’ve  known for a while that I wanted to be an author someday…

I realized a while ago that I just need to buckle down and write already. I just have to put my nose to the grindstone and get ‘er done.

I had actually forgotten about my BHAG of finishing my book by the end of this year. Whoops. It might still happen. But it might not. I’m not going to get rid of that goal completely, but I’m making it more concrete by shooting for writing for 45 minutes, 5 days a week. 

So I am going to implement a new morning routine (bet you haven’t heard that before!). I am going to get up at 5:30 and after feeding the dogs and eating breakfast, get in the Word from 5:45 to 6:30, then write from 6:30 to 7:15. After that, I will resume my regular morning duties, such as showering and making a lunch. All workouts will be pushed until during lunch or after work. So far, I’m 1 for 1! It feels good to be productive in the morning and be able to relax with God and the Bible before heading to work.

And I’ll just leave you with this hilarious pic:

 

 

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Marathon in 2012

22 Sep

Marathon Training Plan

So remember when I said I was excited to not have a training plan since triathlon season is over?

Well, that’s not really going to happen.

You see, I want to run this little thing they call a marathon in May 2012 (I’m eyeing the Stillwater Marathon in MN, which should be the last weekend of May). While I had been {stupidly} thinking that I could sit on my butt until January rolled around and then start a training plan, almost every website and person I’ve talked to has said that I need to be running 15-25 miles per week before I even start the training program. And since I’m not the world’s smartest runner, I guess I’ll trust them…

Since I’ve been training for triathlons and not concentrating on running, my weekly mileage has been somewhere in the single digits. Paltry. All of this means that to avoid injury, my marathon base building starts right after the Denver Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon Relay. Real marathon training starts on January 23.

To be honest, I’m kind of excited. Marathon, here I come! You will not evade me in 2012!

But since I have really missed doing yoga, pilates, the elliptical, and yes, even weight-lifting, my base-building plan includes 2 days of cross-training and strength training, 3 days of running (1 regular, 1 speed, 1 long), and 2 days of rest.

Base Training Plan

I think I can handle that.

For my marathon training plan, I used Hal Higdon’s Novice 1 Plan but I might sub out the runs on Monday for the same amount of cross-training, depending on how I feel. I think coming up with training plans is so stressful. I’m wary of running 4 days a week because I got injured last year from over-training. But if I don’t add in that extra day, my mileage won’t be that high. I decided to put the run on the schedule and will play it by ear whether that day should be an easy run or cross-training.

Like I have mentioned before, I am going to do things differently this year for marathon training. Last year, I signed up for the full Malibu marathon but ended up running the half because my IT band flared up. So as you will note on my training plan this time around, I will strength train. I will do speed work. I will stretch. I will cross-train (mostly on the bike and in the pool).

I posted these plans on my new marathon page for future reference.

I have discovered one more thing that I think will help me a lot:

Heart rate training.

I bought a heart rate monitor back in 2009 when I was training for my first triathlon. But I don’t use it like you’re supposed to. I only wear it to time my workouts and know how many calories I burned. And sometimes I like to look at my heart rate for fun.

Well, since things have slowed down at work and I just read the SELF cover story featuring Lauren Graham, I’ve been doing a little research about why staying in your aerobic zone is so beneficial. Here’s what I found:

The more work you perform aerobically, or in the presence of oxygen, the more efficient you are. Prolonged aerobic training produces muscular adaptations that improves oxygen transport to the muscles, reduces the rate of lactate formation, improves the rate of lactate removal, and increases energy production and utilization. These adaptations occur slowly over time.

So why haven’t I been doing this? I asked myself.

The hard part of base training is having the discipline to train at these low intensities. It may mean running very slowly or even walking. It may mean separating from your training group in order to pursue your individual goals. It also means avoiding the contest of egos that group training often turns into. If you can find a training partner with similar goals and fitness level you may be able to train with them, but more often than not what I see is a base work gone awry. Even spending short amounts of time above your aerobic zone degrades the work out.

The area between the top of the aerobic threshold and anaerobic threshold is somewhat of a no mans land of fitness. It is a mix of aerobic and anaerobic states. For the amount of effort the athlete puts forth, not a whole lot of fitness is produced. It does not train the aerobic or anaerobic energy system to a high degree. This area does have its place in training; it is just not in base season. Unfortunately this area is where I find a lot of athletes spending the majority of their seasons, which retards aerobic development. The athletes heart rate shoots up to this zone with little power or speed being produced when it gets there. {source}

Hmmmm… so you’re saying that I’m such a slow runner because I’ve been refusing to say in my aerobic zone? You mean I have to slow down to get faster? I can do that.

Based on a few different calculators I found for Maximum Heart Rate (MHR), mine seems to be somewhere around 195. That means my Aerobic Zone is somewhere around 157 – 171. My heart rate is usually around 160-165 during a regular run, so that’s good.  Easy recovery runs are supposed to be done in the Fat Burning Zone: 143 – 157 beats per minute. I hardly ever do runs that slow.

I hope this knowledge impacts the way I train – so that I can make sure to not overdo things and see the benefits promised by aerobic training. And if it doesn’t, oh well. I’m just doomed to be slow.

I would, however, like to keep up the pace I have been running (11 min/mile) and possibly even improve that. I think the strength and cross training are going to be key.

Now I just need to find the motivation to finish my training plan for this blasted half marathon relay! We found out that it’s not split into two 10Ks – the first leg is 7.8 miles, the second is 5.3. So Travis decided to do the first leg. I can’t lie – I’m relieved. It’s not that I’m sick of training – it’s that I’m sick of trying to balance everything and constantly strategize about when to fit workouts in. I have so much other stuff that I want to (and have to) be doing! (What really should go is this job thing. 😉 ) But I’ve been thinking – working out is not only important because of my athletic aspirations, it’s also important because it keeps me healthy and enables me to keep up with the other areas of my life. So behind God, my husband and church (oh and work), exercising has to be a priority. No matter what else doesn’t get done.   

Any advice for me on my marathon training?

Do you pay attention to your heart rate during training?

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A Day in the Life

19 Aug

I always find it interesting to see what other people’s days look like (shoutout to SUAR!) so here’s one of mine (though not every day involves so much dog drama, clothes changing, and bean throwing. 🙂)

2:45 am — Get up to pee and decide to let the dogs out while I’m up. Charlie does not go. Go back to bed.

4:30 — Hear dogs moving around. Get up and feed them so I can leave them in the laundry room. Go back to bed.

4:45 — Hear dogs whining. Get up and let them out of the laundry room. Go back to bed.

4:50 — Realize that Charlie might have to pee now so get up to take her outside. She doesn’t go.

4:55 — Come back inside to see that Charlie didn’t go outside because she had already gone inside, right after getting out of the laundry room. Clean pee up and go back to bed.

6:00 — Alarm goes off for the first time.

7:00 — Finally get up after many, many hits to the snooze button, and eat breakfast.

“Do I look like a trouble maker?”

“Not to me.”

7:15 — Evaluate my hair in the mirror and decide to wash it. Hop in the shower.

7:25 — Do my hair and makeup.

7:40 — Get dressed in Outfit #1.

7:50 — Set up iron and ironing board for wrinkly shirt. Make lunch and snacks while waiting for iron to heat up.

From left to right: banana; Laughing Cow Sun-dried Tomato & Basil cheese; Triscuits; Colorado peach; 2 clementines; leftover Baked Mac & Cheese; spinach salad with craisins, feta, almonds and poppyseed dressing; and bing cherries. (For the record, I didn’t eat the clementines or peach and I ate the banana right before our swim.)

8:00 — Iron shirt and promptly decide to change out of the skirt.

8:03 — Get dressed in Outfit #2.

Eh. Not feelin’ it.

8:07 — Get dressed in Outfit #3. Winner. (Or I just no longer care.)

8:10 — Sit down for a short time in the Word.

8:25 — Make iced coffee while talking to the husband.

8:33 — Leave for work.

9:05 — Arrive at work. Our campus is comprised of four buildings like this one:

The desk where I will spend the next 8 mind-numbing hours being extremely bored:

At least the campus is pretty:

3:00 pm — Actually have work to do! Last 2 hours fly by.

5:05 — Time to go home! Traffic is bad but there are pretty views.

I can see Denver from my car!

5:35 — Arrive home. Let pooches out to pee while I check on our zucchini jungle garden.

Mmm… sweet cherry tomatoes.

Yes, our winter squash grew through the fence.

5:45 — Feed pooches. Travis gets home.

6:00 — Decide to do an open water swim so we change and leave.

6:35 — Get to Big Soda swimming beach.

The water’s actually not that bad once you get used to it. Decide that the water is too choppy for an extended swim (hello, water up the nose!) so do roughly 750 yards and get out.

7:10 — Drive home and take a shower to rid me of algae and stank. Eat Stacy’s Pita Chips while writing grocery store list.

7:40 — Travis takes dogs for a ride to the auto parts store and I go to the grocery and liquor stores to buy some dinner necessities.

8:15 — Get home and start making dinner (Spicy Crab Salad) while Travis grills some corn on the cob and waters the lawn.

8:20 — Crack open a glorious Mike’s Hard Black Cherry Lemonade. Hits the spot.

8:35 — Finally sit down to dinner. Delicious!

8:55 — Leave the dinner table in a huff after an intense debate on whether healthy eating involves carbs (one of those conversations where Travis and I probably agree but just can’t seem to communicate in a way that we both understand).

9:00 — Make Travis not do the dishes because he faked throwing my black beans in the garbage. (Hey – I was angry and nonsensical and didn’t want any innocent food to meet an unfortunate end.)

9:10 — Dishes done. Watch Downsized for a bit, feeling pretty good about our financial choices.

9:45 — Decide I need to go to bed so brush my teeth, make the bed (I can’t stand getting in a messy bed!), and soon after, Travis follows.

10:30 — Finally asleep, after laying awake thinking about what we’re going to do with the dogs on our upcoming trips, what my Warrior Dash outfit is going to look like, and how nervous I am to freeze my butt off during the Oly Tri in just a little over a week.

Whew!

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Par for the Course

18 Aug

{source}

Travis and I joined the projection team at church recently as leader/co-leader and fellow projectioneers. (I just made that word up.) Having a responsibility on Sunday morning again (we worked in the toddler room until I took the job with Your Cause Sports in January of 2010) has brought into sharp focus how much church we will be missing over the course of the next month and a half, as well as how uncharacteristically busy we’ve been this summer. When we first moved out to Colorado, we hardly ever had weekend plans. Now, we hardly ever don’t. Since I’ve been reminiscing on everything we’ve done since June and are still planning on doing before November, I thought I’d share it with you.

June 4-5: Boulder Sunrise Sprint Tri

June 11-12: Greeley Sprint Tri (missed church)

June 18-19: Visited our friends, Jon and Chasta, in Divide, Colorado

June 25-26: OPEN WEEKEND! That’s shocking.

July 2-4: Got my butt kicked Backpacked on the Eaglesmere Trail near Silverthorne (missed church)

July 9-10: Ran 5 mile trail run in Evergreen, hosted care group BBQ

July 16-17: Birthday weekend! Dinner, bowling and ice cream Friday; Bike ride from Frisco to Breckenridge, BBQ and Rockies game Saturday

July 23-24: Arrived in Minnesota on Saturday; Day of relaxation Sunday! (missed church)

July 30-31: Cousins wedding on Saturday; Drove back to Colorado on Sunday (missed church)

August 5-7: Care Group camping trip near Twin Lakes, Colorado (missed church)

August 13-14: Helped friends move on Saturday

August 20-21: Warrior Dash at Copper Mountain (will miss church)

August 27-28: Steamboat Springs Olympic Triathlon (will miss church)

September 2-5: Going to visit our good friends, Mark and Sarah Norman, in Charlotte for the first time in FOUR years! (will hopefully go to church with them, but will miss our church)

September 10-11: OPEN WEEKEND! I am going to do NOTHING this weekend (except maybe eat). Travis will be antelope hunting.

September 17-18: Crescent Moon Sprint Tri (and potentially my parents in town)

September 24-25: OPEN WEEKEND! (I think…)

October 1-2: Cousin’s wedding in Minnesota (flying back this time! will miss church)

October 8-9: Denver Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon Relay (will miss church)

October 15-16: Travis’ family in town for elk season (will miss church)

October 27-28: OPEN WEEKEND!

Before we know it, it’ll be November! I am seriously putting my foot down on doing anything in November. I will make absolutely no plans for anything (unless it’s for my mom coming out to visit). I don’t want to go anywhere for Thanksgiving. Heck, I don’t even care if we celebrate. I am SO DONE with being busy, it’s ridiculous.

There are some people who wouldn’t bat an eye at this kind of schedule. And I have to admit that most of this was my own doing (see how many races I have on the calendar – the most I’ve done in a year ever!!) and all of it is fun stuff. But even when we only have something going on one day out of the weekend, the other day is spent catching up on laundry, dishes, cleaning, grocery shopping, fitting in workouts, and diminishing all the piles of crap that seem to magically accumulate during the week.

I have amazingly not had a meltdown through all of this (I am not a person who has historically handled busyness very well) but I can tell that I’m on the precipice because I keep daydreaming and fantasizing about laying on the couch, pretending to be sick so I don’t have to go to work, cancelling plans with friends, rejecting party invitations, having no social life, and sleeping beautiful 70 degree days away in my swamp-cooled house. The simple truth:

I need a break!!

I am counting down the days (22!!) to my open weekend on September 10-11. It will seriously be awesome.

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Weekly Recap: 8/08 – 8/14

15 Aug

Somehow, even with the impressive workout shuffling I did last week, I managed to log 5 hours and 45 minutes of training, burning 2,825 calories. Not too shabby.

Obstacles to Sleep #1 and #2

Monday: 19.8 mile bike (1:12:24)

Tuesday: 3.91 mile run (47:45), abs + upper body

I took the dogs on a 1.5 mile run, then went to the Rec and did a treadmill workout for the rest, which involved alternating a fast walk (4.5 mph) on an incline (4.5) with a run (6.0) on less of an incline (2.0). It’s a good workout! I ended with a 1-minute sprint at 7.5 mph – an 8:00 min mile pace! Fast for me! AND I finished it all off with 30 man push-ups (3 sets of 10). I was a good sore the next day.

Wednesday: 2 mile walk with pooches

Thursday: 13.5 mile bike (58:20)

This was my bike home from work and I finally didn’t take any wrong turns! I did, however, have a close encounter with the bike police. (Eep.) This was also my fastest pace on my bike to/from work route: 13.9 mph. Hey, there’s a LOT of hills. I think my getting up to 40 mph down Simms helped my overall speed a bit.

Friday: 14.4 mile bike (1:15:13)

This was more on par with my normal speed (11.5) going to/from work – distance was longer because I missed my turn (again!) and speed was slower because of those blasted hills! But the hills are precisely why this route is good preparation for the Steamboat Springs Oly Tri. I fear the bike course is going to be all downhill on the way out and all uphill on the way back.

Saturday: 7 hours of moving, 2 mile walk with pooches

We helped our friends, James and Cathy, move from their 3rd floor apartment to a house. I was exhausted by the end of the day (and sweating like a man-beast) and ran out of time for any workout because I went to church for a ladies’ night of Bunko!

Sunday: 1,750 yd open water swim (47:52), 4 mile run (45:33)

I was very sore from moving on Saturday – specifically my quads (from making 40 trips up and down those stairs!) and my biceps (from all that man-handling). I had pushed this open water swim from Thursday to Friday to Saturday to Sunday. And I still debated skipping it. But I’m glad I went.

I discovered the real reason why I don’t like doing the breaststroke in a full-body wetsuit: it’s hard to bend my knees. As the knees are crucial in forward propulsion, it’s no wonder why I always felt like I was flailing like I did in the Boulder Sunrise. Even though I still don’t like swimming the breaststroke in a wetsuit, I think it’s a better option than braving water with temperatures in the upper 60s sans-wetsuit. (I am hoping to get up to Steamboat in time to do a test run on Saturday without a wetsuit, to see if I can handle it. Then I’ll make a game time.)

The 4 mile run afterward was done at a comfortable pace. I think my goal pace for the Oly run will be 11:00 min/mile (though really, I’ll be shooting for 10:00s).

Weekly Total:

Swim: 1,750 yards

Bike: 49.7 miles (woot!)

Run: 7.91 miles

Walk: 4 miles

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My decision to train at night and get in the Word in the morning has, so far, worked out very well for me. I keep telling myself, Only 2 more weeks! Then I can drop down to 3-4 workouts a week. Even though I have been training since the end of March, it wasn’t until the week before I went to Minnesota (4 weeks ago now!) that I started feeling very drained emotionally/mentally. I am actually impressed that I made it this long without feeling burnt out. But now, I just want some time to relax already!

Anyway, I’ve been doing good about spending time with God during the week and yesterday, I was looking forward to getting in the Word and reading a lot. Twenty minutes in, though, I knew it was useless and took a nap instead. That is going to be one of my main focuses (foci? 🙂 ) for this week and especially next week (taper time!): SLEEP. I’m hoping to go to bed at 8 and get up at 6. Mmmm… sleep. I’m going to need to do something about our dogs – they like to wake up at 4 am to pee and then again at 5:30  to eat everyday. Maybe I should tranquilize them? (Just kidding.) But seriously, I will have no qualms about locking them in the laundry room so that I can sleep more next week. It’s just for a week. And they’re really annoying.

But oh, so adorable.

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Weekly Recap: 7/18 – 7/31

3 Aug

The Jungle That Was Our Lawn

With everything unpacked; laundry washed, folded and put away; our garden harvested (lots of spinach, sage, snap peas and a 16-inch zucchini!); and the dishes done, I feel like have a handle on getting back into the swing of things. I even did a brick last night but it was cut short by acid reflux from eating pasta with spaghetti sauce (a notorious offender).

I don’t know how I manage to do it but I always come back exhausted from vacation (this time, I think the culprit was the short night after a wedding followed by 14 hour car ride.) So catching up on sleep is going to take a little bit longer, since I am staying up later than I would normally to get all the aforementioned tasks accomplished after work.

With that, here is my training recap for the past two weeks:

Monday 7/18: 15.35 mile bike (59:52), 3 mile run (28:38)

I did this brick with Travis at the Rec in the evening and totally rocked the run again! (It’s so much easier to run inside on a flat surface!)

Tuesday: Lower body weights, 2000 yd swim

Another evening workout. Did 2 x 15 of squats, lunges and calf raises, then went to the pool. Did 1 x 200 (fs), 1 x 400 (fs), 1 x 800 (bs), 1 x 400 (fs), 1 x 200 (bs). Right foot started cramping up during 2nd 400.

Wednesday: 6.05 mile run (1:10:29 in 85 degree heat!)

I took my Camelbak and went easy because of the heat. It was cloudy for the first half of the run and rained a bit, which helped a lot. This run was actually mostly pleasant, despite the heat.

Thursday: 14.25 mile bike (1:05:40)

Bike home from work – even though it’s slightly easier than the way there, there are still plenty of hills on the way home. My average heart rate was 152.

Friday: 14.6 mile bike (1:14:42)

Bike back to work – because the afternoon weather has been iffy in Colorado for the past several weeks due to monsoon season but the morning weather is almost 100% nice and sunny, I decided that it was safer to bike home one day and then bike back the next morning, instead of trying to do both in one day. That way, if there was an afternoon storm, I could just drive home instead of biking or having Travis come pick me up.  My average heart rate during this ride was 147. The mileage is a little longer than the ride home because I took a wrong turn. Whoops.

Saturday: Rest day

Sunday: 2.19 mile run (23:14)

I did this run on the county roads near Nevis, MN. While my legs felt great and I was optimistic for something more like 5-6 miles, the deer and horse flies were horrible. I turned around after a mile to see if they would get better the other way but they didn’t, so I called it quits. Boo.

Monday 7/25: Rest day

Tuesday: 10 minutes of waterskiing (arms and upper back!), 500-600 yd swim

My upper back was so sore from waterskiing. Waterskiing has to be one of the best workouts around because it saps your energy in about 15 minutes.

Wednesday: Paddle boating (legs), Canoeing (arms and core)

I noticed that I had more strength for these activities than I have had in the past, so that was exciting.

Yes, that is 4 dogs on a paddle boat…

…and 2 dogs in a canoe. They are seriously attached to us. (More on that in another post.)

Thursday: 15-20 minutes of tubing (arms!)

I told my dad that he had to treat me like a 5-year-old because I didn’t want to get flung off the tube going 25 mph. (You may say that’s part of the fun but after taking a really bad spill a few years ago, I’m so over them.) We found a happy medium going somewhat fast around the turns, but then slowing down for the waves. It’s the combination of going fast and going over waves that’s the doozy (and has the most potential for making you fly off).

Friday: Rest day

Saturday: Rest day

Sunday: Rest day

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

While I enjoyed my week-long break from training, I am excited to get back into it. Last night, I was actually looking forward to a bike ride but then we got ready later than we should have, and the sky was really dark. So we ended up going to the Rec (after I threw a frustration party for 1). I just feel better when I am active.

Something that I’ve been thinking about for several weeks now and has come to a head with returning from vacation is that my time with God has really been taking back seat to training. I’ve thought about switching to night workouts but the weather here is so unreliable and warm at night (whereas it’s pretty dependable and cool in the morning) and the swim team takes up almost the entire pool at night. Plus, I really just enjoy morning workouts more.

But it’s the same thing with time with God — I’ve tried to do it during lunch but can’t concentrate sufficiently. I’ve thought about doing it at night before I go to bed but I have very little motivation and would rather just read an entertaining book instead of think deep thoughts.

These are the options I have:

1)      Get in the Word in the morning and train at night. (lunch doesn’t work because of the heat)

2)      Train in the morning and get in the Word during lunch or at night.

3)      Get in the Word in the morning and break training up into 2-a-days, morning and night.

4)      Get up early to get in the Word and train in the morning before leaving at 8:30 for work.

I am leaning toward getting up earlier to do both in the morning. My wakeup call would be at 4:30. Even as I type this, though, I’m debating. It’s so hard to stick to a bedtime like 8:30 when you have a husband and church activities during the week.

What I would really like is a 5th option: Get in the Word and train in the morning, go into work at 10:30. 🙂

How do you fit your training in among your other priorities?

Which option would you choose, if you were me?

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Back from Eating…er, Vacation

1 Aug

Travis and I got back last night at 11:30 from our week-long extravaganza in Minnesota. We are exhausted and stuffed.

I will give a full update, complete with photos, later this week when I have rested up and am thinking clearly again. Right now, I’d like to talk about the thing that I always do way too much of on vacation: eating.

If you look back on my post about healthy eating, you can see that I like to eat a little bit all day long. I don’t do big meals.

Well unfortunately for me, both Travis’ and my families do.

Here’s the typical rundown for meals:

Breakfast: french toast, sausage, fruit, coffee, milk

Lunch: sandwiches, fruit, lettuce salad, chips

Dinner: pork chops, beans, fruit, cooked veggies, chips

I’ve read that you eat more when you have more options. That’s why you can’t walk out of a buffet without feeling like you’re going to puke (that, and perhaps some health code violations). I am the poster eater of this fact. Seriously, lunch time would roll around and even though I was just barely hungry, or not hungry at all, I’d still eat. What if I get hungry later when no one else is eating? What will I do then? were the thoughts running through my head. Then there were the copious amounts of mini candy bars, licorice, and pop I consumed just because I was on vacation. Calories don’t count then, right?

Another kicker was that while I had the ambition and desire to workout on vacation, there were 2 hiccups: 1) I felt guilty spending time working out instead of being with Travis’ or my family. and 2) The deer flies were horrible. I did 2 miles on our first morning there and got 10-12 bites on my back, which turned into lovely red bumps. It was a good look for a strapless dress at a wedding.

All that to say, it’s no surprise that I have returned to my “normal” life feeling the Goodyear blimp. I am SO ready to be back to healthy eating, normal portions, and consistent exercise. The only thing I had energy for last night when we got home was to carry all our stuff in the house, drop it and go to bed. So tonight will be spent unpacking, doing laundry and going grocery shopping and then tomorrow, I’ll get back on the workout wagon. The Steamboat Oly Tri is less than a month away!

Stay tuned for a guest post from Lisa of Cow Spots and Tales tomorrow!

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