Support Crews and Birthdays

I haven't gotten a lot of workouts in the last week or so, but I've been distracted with birthday celebrations and trying to be an awesome support crew.

This weekend featured E's first "big day," the first of two practice event days for Rev3 Cedar Point.  It was a heck of a big day - you can read about it at his blog here.  I was official support-crew-lap-counter-bike-hydration-run-hydration-nutritionist.  We spent a lot of Friday gearing up for this and Saturday was the day itself - Sunday we got a much-deserved rest day!

My birthday was last Thursday, and it was filled with great new gear.  E got me a new tri kit, one I tried on several weeks ago that I absolutely fell in love with.  I have a Zoot kit currently, but I've never been thrilled with the way it fit.  Then I tried on the Louis Garneau Pro Top and Pro Shorts.  I felt fast and skinny and ready to kick some triathlon butt!  Amazing how clothes can make you feel!  I can't wait to wear them in the HammerHead Hot Olympic.  Also - I totally love the pinstripe accents.

Sunday I went birthday shopping and decided to treat myself to something I've wanted for a long time:  Lululemon running shorts.  I've always heard great things about their run shorts, and after trying on several pairs, I settled on the Speed Short. They felt awesome and I can't wait to take them on their first run tonight! Look for a review coming soon!

So that's just a little catch up on where I'm at.  I'm close to settling on a marathon training plan - I'm thinking Hal Higdon, one of his intermediate plans.  Hopefully this week I can settle back into a regular training routine!

Happy training!

Wednesday Random

- E and I went for a swim at the UNF pool last night.  Got in 20 laps straight (ok, it's only 1000 meters, but yay!) and a couple laps with my super awesome new paddles (more on those later).  We were however, rudely interrupted by the pool being evacuated due to *ahem* a "floater."  Reasons not to train when there are a lot of little kid swim lessons going on.  We made up for it by finishing the evening out with a couple of miles on the track.

- Last week, I decided on compression recovery tights (these longer rides really encouraged me to move that process along.  I chose the Skins RY400 Women's Recovery Long Tight.  E was smart and recommended we look on Ebay, and sure enough we found them new for $40 less than list price!  I can't wait for them to come in!

- On an entirely un-training related note, I'm obsessed with the VW Darkside contest.  I'll do anything for a free tshirt.

- I'm digging in for marathon training.  Yesterday, I made a free Runner's World SmartCoach plan, just to see what it looked like.  A friend of mine used it to run the Buffalo Marathon earlier this year, and I"m intrigued.  My goal for this marathon is to break five hours (hopefully lower than that but I'm starting my goals low) and this plan has me finishing in 4:28, which I would be pretty stoked about.  It would also start next week, easy, which would allow me to focus on tri training through September, and then really focus on marathon training. Last year was sort of a last minute decision to do the full marathon rather than the half, so I'm digging the idea of being able to focus on the training for the next 27 weeks.

- Additionally, turns out one of our local bike shops has the Cannondale Slice that I'm so enamored with.  It's a ways out before I have enough saved up for a bike, but man it was pretty to ogle it.

That's all for now!  Hope everyone is having a fabulous week!

Finding Crow

Clearly, this is not me.  Source

Isn't it interesting how a group of crows is called a "murder"?  I've always found animal group names interesting.    My topic however,  has nothing to do with the bird and everything to do with the yoga pose. You see, I discovered crow at a local studio that I attend now and again about a year ago.  I was utterly mystified the first time I saw it.  The coordination and logistics that were required to achieve this pose were beyond me.  I just stared, trying to work out how to make it work.  Needless to say, I didn't even approach this pose that day.  It bugged me though.  I just couldn't figure out how to do it.  I asked a yoga teacher friend to demonstrate, and she did, and I still couldn't quite manage it.

Six months ago or so, while doing a class on YogaGlo, the instructor flowed into crow, and suddenly, I got it!  I even managed to get myself there for a couple of seconds.  Success!  I still couldn't articulate what I was doing should I have to explain it, but I was stoked.  Since my yoga practice ebbs and flows, I didn't get to practice it nearly as much as I should have to be able to achieve, though every time it gets a little easier.  Especially if I have a block to catch my forehead, just in case.  Last night, trying out a new at-home yoga DVD, I revisited crow in a way I haven't in a long time, and it reminded me how much I long to fly.  And also, how helpful a block would have been so I didn't bite it when I leaned too far forward.

All of this is a really long way to say that crow is a bit of a metaphor for me in all areas of my life, but especially when it comes to triathlon and running.  That attempt, over and over, to find that sweet spot.  Even though a yoga pose might be "achieved" when you finally reach it, you've never really conquered it - there is always room to improve.  My second year in triathlon has driven that point home to me, that for every milestone I hit, there is another yet ahead, even sweeter to achieve than the last.  Triathlon and fitness is a journey that I am really loving.  I look forward to getting better, stronger, faster.

And oh yeah....I SIGNED UP FOR THE DISNEY MARATHON.  Disney World, here I come!  

Jax Sprint Series #1 Race Recap

Saturday was my first full (read: non-relay) tri of the season and I was absolutely dreading it.  That damn ocean swim was just psyching me out, despite knowing that my swim is so much stronger this year, and that in general I am a more well-rounded athlete.  So Saturday morning, bright and early, we packed up the car and headed north to the event.

They made some changes to the course  layout this year, and they were all phenomenal.  One change was moving the transition area out of a grassy field to a parking lot, which was so much nicer.  Last year you'd run from the beach with all the sand on your wet feet into this grassy field, making your feet a gross combination of grass clippings, sand and salt water while you tried to get your bike shoes on.  Ugh.

We got there, got bodymarked and set up transition.  Doing this for the second year, and having more friends who have gotten into the sport, we did see some friendly faces, which was nice.  The race almost sold out, so it was pretty packed.  The weather was nice and overcast too, which was awesome.

Overall Time: 1:35:46

Swim
Distance: 500 Meters
Time: 9:51

This. Was. Awesome.  Last year, the swim for me was characterized by hyperventilating, back stroking, doggy paddling misery.  This year...cool as a cucumber.  I started on the inside in the thick of the pack, whereas my strategy in past years was to start on the outside right, so I would have fewer people around me. Worked out great.  All the swimming has been paying off.  I'm so much more confident in my stroke and my breathing that I was able to just go out and do it.  In fact when I passed buoy 3 of 4, I couldn't believe I was that far - it felt so short!  It helped that the ocean was really glassy.  I shaved 3 minutes off my time from last year, and I probably could have pushed even harder.  

T1
Time: 3:08

WTF, was I eating a sandwich?  Taking a leisurely stroll?  I ran into transition, but once there, not practicing transition since last year was evident.  I had an added step of putting my bondi band on, but in general, I just moved really slow.  A lot of "Oh yeah, I need my gels" and "oh, gotta put my sunglasses on."  Clearly, T1 needs some work.  I really could have gotten this down and reduced my overall time.


Bike
Distance: 16 miles
Time: 50:46
Avg. Speed: 18.9 mph

I can't begin to say how good this felt.  Since I didn't blow up on the swim like I have in the past, I was actually in good shape going into the bike.  It felt so easy, like I was trying to figure out where the wind was coming from because I just felt like I was sailing along.  They bumped the course up to 16 miles this year, from 10 miles the previous year, which I think worked in my favor.  I like the longer Olympic distance because I can settle into each leg a bit, and the longer bike allowed me to do that.  Stoked about my speed.  I pushed it, but it didn't feel brutal it just felt like - wait for it - I was moving like a well oiled machine.

T2
Time: 1:53


Better than T1 obviously, but still a bit slow.  I don't have Yankz or anything on my Newtons, and they have longish laces, so it took me a hot minute to get them tied.  I was able to run in from the bike dismount; my legs felt really fresh.

Run
Distance: 3.1 miles
Time: 29.48
Pace: 9:56


I did this race without my Garmin, using just my sport wristwatch so I had a basic grasp of total time.  I felt like I was moving really slow.  They changed the run course this year, thank god.  Last year, it was hot hot hot.  No shade and this course that felt like forever, even though it was only 3.1 miles.  Lots of turns that you thought would be the final one.  This year, they re-engineered it a bit, so it went by much more quickly.  As a fun gesture, since it's typically so warm, they went door to door prior to the race and asked the people who lived along the course to set up sprinklers so there was a nice shower.  Really though, with the cloud cover, the day remained blessedly cool.

So there you have it, folks.  I'll post pics when I get them.  I'm no reinvigorated for racing and for triathlon!  In the meantime, I've been oggling this:

 
and this:

Both are way out of my price range, but now I know what to save for!

And one last note - I have compression socks, but I want to go full bore and get compression tights.  I'm split between Skins and 2XU, but am open to suggestion.  Any thoughts?

Happy training!

*Cough* *Hack* Sick of this Smoke!

If you haven't heard, large portions of Florida and Georgia are on fire.  To date, we have something like 400 wildfires burning in the area, meaning that everyday we are enveloped in thick smoke and the news is full of air advisory warnings.  This is really throwing a wrench in outdoor training, though we've been lucky enough to start early in the day when the smoke is least bad.  It seems to really come in later in the morning.  It's getting to the point where Downtown (I work for our Downtown association) looks like a zombie movie in the making.  As I look out my office window everyday, I can see the streets becoming smokier and smokier - and on days when it's really bad, like today, it seeps into the office, causing watery eyes, runny noses and a general feeling of sensory irritation.  Walking outside in the morning, there is always a fine layer of ash covering cars.

The road where we do our Sunday long rides also experienced quite a bad fire, which is thankfully out now.  Riding along the road, which is a coast road, is sobering though, with the ocean on one side and the other side a charred wasteland that stretches on for a few miles.  You can taste the flavor of acrid, burning wood as you pass it.  I've resisted the urge the last few weeks to stop during my ride to take pictures.  I'm moved to both document it but also just to mourn it.  I know that wildfires are a cycle, but it makes me sad to think that places like Okefenokee Swamp are in danger of burning completely.

Living in Florida, you can pretty much train year round outside.  This time of year, when it's 100F out during the day, and still 80F before the sun comes up, the heat is something to deal with.  But this is new, this inability to go outside really.  It's weird to not be sure if you can run outside because the smoke might not dissipate by the evening.

I wanted to post pictures, but Blogger is being stubborn.  I've never quite seen anything like this.

Dream a little dream...

Blogging has been...tough lately.  I feel like I've lacked the mental energy to compose, or think about my workouts  in a linear enough fashion to blog them.  That said, I've had some really great training lately and some not-so-great training.  But I suppose through the long rides on the bike, the miles on the run and the laps in the pool, I've really been thinking about what I want to accomplish.

I think of all the things that once seemed impossible to me or inconceivable.  Making any money from writing was one of those things, and that's changed entirely.  Getting yoga teacher certification seemed a million light years from anything I could do, yet now I know I just have to settle on a home studio and make the commitment, whether that is now or a year from now.  I would never have thought I could run a marathon, but I did, and am seriously considering signing up for the next one.

So, things I want to do - maybe these are more of a bucket list?

- Become a certified yoga instructor.  I don't know that I necessarily would want to teach on a regular basis, but who knows?
- Make the lion's share of my income from my writing.
- Maybe BQ?  That one still seems a little out of reach :)
- Train, train, train.  I've really enjoyed devoting a significant portion of my life to fitness, and to making healthy living a lifestyle, so it's something that I look forward to incorporating even more of over the years.

In other news, I have a new favorite shirt:

Sometimes I can feel the nerdiness seeping right out of my pores

Also, my porch herb garden is coming along fabulously.  I made lasagna the other night and added fresh basil and tarragon from little porch garden and it really brightened up the sauce.

And lastly...I went on my longest ride ever weekend before last and it was EPIC.  Training overall has really been great.  This weekend is my first tri of the season.  Hoping my swim has improved!  

My Newest Obsession and Deciding on Races

This is going to sound a bit sad, but my newest obsession - my herb garden.  I suppose I should clarify that by saying it's more of what is evidently called a "container garden."  We live in a condo, on the third floor, so our outdoor space is limited to a screened-in  porch, which is a decent size.  Late last year, I started growing basil, to supplement the amount we were buying since we both have a fondness for pesto.  I also started some oregano and cilantro from seeds.  However, winter came, we traveled, and my poor little plants died.

Now, I've started again.  My boss brought in some basil seedlings from her garden, grown in composted soil with seeds dried from a previous year's crop.  So I planted them and they took off!  They are huge!  This reinvigorated my desire to be some sort of earth mother type with an extensive collection of home dried herbs and fresh plants to cook with.

Today I realized it was an obsession when I took inventory of what I have (and what I have coming, because I may have ordered this kit of seeds from Amazon): Basil, sage and lavender, plus oregano, chamomile and cilantro seedlings sprouting.  Oh yes, and I also have a creeping fig that I thought was pretty when I was at the local garden store last weekend.
So anyways, that's my little rant on my growing container garden.

In other news, I'm looking forward to doing a sprint tri relay this weekend!  My dad is swimming, E is biking and I am running.  I've never done this series, the BFAST, but I'm looking forward to it.  Amazing how much more excited I am when I know there is no ocean swim involved!

Also, while I haven't officially signed up, I'm thinking I'm going to do the Disney marathon in January.  Which means if I've chosen my marathon, what tri do I want to do?  There is one semi-local, called the Amelia Man, which is a possibility, and that takes place October 16.  For that, I'm just a little sketchy about that long of an ocean swim when I'm still freaked out by sprint ocean swims.  So, I don't know.  I should probably have all these things decided by now!