Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Sick AGAIN!

Last year I was sidelined for nearly a month by a sinus infection.

This year, I got one again. :-(

Hopefully, with proper rest, I can shake it.

Monday, February 20, 2012

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

I say this cautiously, but training has been going pretty well. Not everything (obviously), but the perception is good.

So, since I'm not in a writing mood, I'll list it:

The Good:
- BRC-DTC's Saturday morning group runs
- a new dedication to lifting
- being known as the strong chick at work
- a newfound pool motivation
- bringing my gym bag to work to stop at the gym on my way home

The Bad:
- cold weather preventing bike time
- lack of desire to get on the trainer
- not enough yoga/stretching
- solely tri training - no variation

The Ugly:
- ... not much, actually. Pretty happy with training for the most part.

Chilly Cheeks #3 on Saturday ... so as much as this cold has sucked with the bike, gotta get out there anyway!

Monday, February 13, 2012

Power of Positive Thinking

You always hear about positive thinking. How it benefits you, it benefits your mindset, and makes you a healthier person.

Yet most of us live in Real World U.S.A., where we're faced with constant money woes, unstable job markets, people who are very negative, terrorism, a President and Congress that refuses to try to cut debt, constant pressure from the media to look skinny, and the list goes on and on.

It's very easy to be negative. You can rag on anything you want to and people will generally agree with you. And the funny thing that I notice about negativity, when people hear it, they don't push back. Someone will say "we're in a crisis" and everyone will nod their heads and murmur agreements. Occasionally you have people push back, like Coach Rick Pitino did in 2000, when his Boston Celtics were getting pounded in the press. He said at a press conference "all the negativity in this town sucks". He's right. Negativity bombards us from all sides.

I'm guilty of it too.

Yet something snapped inside of my brain on Saturday when I was in Charlotte. I don't know what it was, or why it happened, but I finally decided to cut the pity party crap, listen to Dr. J and find ways to work out when there's only a few minutes in the day, stop reading the newspaper for actual news, quit worrying about what will happen at my company, be nicer to people, enjoy music more, etc. My life is pretty damn good. Why should I be negative?

The other day, we had a woman come to our house to do some blood and urine analysis for my life insurance policy. My numbers were outstanding. (120/77, 60 resting heart rate). My weight was up a little bit (about 8 pounds since my 1/2 Ironman) but realistically, that's not bad. I've always had slightly high blood pressure, so the fact I'm hovering at what is "normal" makes me happy.

Realistically, it's time to be positive. Because let's face it; on the Ironman course, negative thoughts are going to be coming at me from all directions. I'm going to need as much good juju as possible!

Sunday, February 12, 2012

January Round-Up

As I posted earlier this year, I have lofty goals for 2012. Lofty goals, that I know I will still achieve.

I say "will still achieve," because January, by the numbers, wasn't a great month. It was good in some respects, but I'll get to that later. First off, numbers!

Running: 13.17 mi
Swimming: 1.37 mi
Cycling: 39.35 mi
Lifting: three sessions
Other: three yoga sessions, one snowshoeing.

I haven't done even close to the weekly mileage that I wrote down for my goal executions, but there were still a lot of positives from January, even with the low mileage.

- I got sick. Instead of working out while ill (even with low intensity), I decided to just take time off instead. While that put me out of commission, my sickness didn't get delayed into weeks on end ... like last year. Was I overly cautious? Perhaps ... but I don't want a repeat from last year. So far, so good.
- A mild January meant a lot of outside miles. All of my rides that month were outside.
- I also was on the bike at least once a week - one of my goals for the offseason.
- Plus, the time on the bike made me actually hit one of my cycling goals - average (at least) 16.5mph at every in-season race. While not in-season, my averages for the two (short) bike legs were 17.54 and 17.05 mph. I'll take that.
- It took a little while to get motivated, but I've finally started getting in some pool time.
- A good chunk of my runs have been with the Saturday morning group at Boulder Running Company-DTC - something I've enjoyed a lot.
- My lifts have been very core-intensive, which is something I wanted to do in the offseason.

In conclusion, I think that my distance goals of 500mi running, 800mi cycling and 60mi swimming are still very attainable ... especially because my training will get amped up once I've actually, you know, registered for races.

Not a crazy month, but a decent month for the offseason.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

January Recap

January. The month of resolutions, the month of new beginnings, and the month that I finally decided enough was enough and it was time to get back into shape.

I started January with some ridiculous ambition. I vowed it was going to be different. I was going to work hard. Ride my bike a lot. Lift more. And for a bit, it looked like I was going to have an immensely successful month.

Then reality hit. Reality as in I'm a human being. Reality as in life will get in the way of the most detailed plans. Reality as in...it's January?

There are some positives to take away from the month, there are some negatives.

The positives:
- I rode my bike. A lot. Outside. Which is even better. My cycling is very strong right now
- I rose up a few times.
- I started working on my diet, and it's going very well

The negatives:
- I didn't run nearly as much as I should have
- Lifting was weak and barely made a blip on the radar

Regardless, here's the totals:
Running - 16.81 miles
Swimming - 1257 yards
Cycling - 62.03 miles
Strength training twice
Yoga twice

Like I said, some positives, some negatives, but you know what? Overall, not the worst month out there.