A Few Firsts

Last week for our Wednesday tri group workout, we were biking.  Hills, to be more specific.

Now, these hills weren't new.  I had been up one many times and the other just once (and that was after a 45 min swim and 2 loops on a third hill).  I knew they would be hard, but could be conquered.
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We started at B.S. Hill (haha, love the initials).  It was slow going.  As I was halfway up, I noticed that my gears were funny.  I never touch my gears for the front, just out of habit, but the bike shop had left it differently than they found it.  I changed gears...in the middle of a hill.  Yeah, I can be an idiot sometimes.  I was huffing and puffing, but did not fall over :)  The ride back down got me a sweet 30mph.  Love that!

We rode from that end of the park to the middle, where the other big hill is located.  I did this hill on July 4th.  I didn't remember it being that bad, but I knew it would still be hard.  I followed my group up the hill...slowly, very slowly, I made it to the top. Ugh, ouch, argh.  Breathing really hard.  "Crap!", I told myself, "I thought the first hill was always the worst!" The ride back down was a breezy 28mph, not too shabby.

I did not want to do the hill a second time, but I told myself not to be a weenie.  Hills are good for you and this one isn't insurmountable.  I started out again.  I was cranking my legs as hard as I could and in my easiest gear.  Only looking about 10 feet ahead of me, so as not to psych myself out by looking at the top.  It was hard.  REALLY hard.  I was passed by a group of riders that was all matchy matchy and envied them going by so quickly.  I finally made it to the top and took a short ride around to catch my breath.

On the descent, I could tell my bike felt weird.  Like shaky.  28mph isn't the best time to think "gee, I hope I don't have a flat", but yeah, it was.  I made it to the bottom, found my group, and confirmed that I had my first flat.  Tri Coach Jeff put some CO2 in my tube and he followed me the mile or two back to the YMCA.  He checked out my tire and didn't find any glass in the tire, replaced my tube, and got the wheels back to their normal again.

Then he put on my new pedals!!!  I was VERY nervous to go clipless, but Tri Coach Jeff and teammate Karen were both very encouraging (and thank goodness my coach is a former bike tech!).  My right shoe was decently hard to clip in, but it wasn't bad.  I got going a little bit and got my right to clip in pretty easily.  When it came time to try to stop, the action of twisting my foot to unclip was easy.  I think that having toe clips as pedals for the first 5 months was to my advantage.  Whenever I needed to stop with the toe clips, I had to wiggle my foot out, which is the same premise as the clipless.  I rode around the YMCA parking lot with Tri Coach Jeff and teammate Karen until the street lights came on.  After riding hills with a flat tire, riding in a flat parking lot with sufficient tires and clipless pedals felt amazing!

That night I woke up to pee and thought "wow!  I'm pretty hungry!", but was able to go back to sleep.  The next night, I had my Run for God group (31 min run) and then did another 7.7 miles on my bike with my clipless pedals.  I had some snacks at R4G (cheese, crackers, orange slices, a few chocolate covered pretzels, etc).  At home, I had 3 eggs and 1/2 a taquito.   It sounded like enough food to me, and I wasn't hungry at the time.  I knew I could have eaten more, but the scale had been dropping all week and I really wanted a good weigh in on Friday.

I woke up at 2am and thought I just had to pee.  Nope, laid there and tossed and turned and kept thinking how hungry I was until 2:40.  I got up, went downstairs and had the other half of that taquito.  My kindle battery was nearly dead, so I couldn't entertain myself that way.  I don't have a TV in my room either.  The TV in the living room is too far away to see w/o glasses.  So I ended up sitting my bed, eating Aldi brand cheetos, in the dark, at 3am.  Not my finest moment!

First time waking up b/c I was hungry.  Pretty lame!  I had that "do xyz to lose weight" mentality and let me tell you, it was stupid!  I would much rather get a full night's sleep on a full belly and be up a few tenths of a pound rather than go through that again!  In the morning, I weighed in at 219.2, which officially marks 70 pounds lost from my highest weight and 60 pounds lost since the beginning of 2012!  How awesome is that?  On one hand, the changes I've made make me totally believe it and on the other hand I'm like "have I really lost that much?!?".  Yep!


BTW, TeenSwimSis turned 15 this weekend!

Birthday Cake Pancakes (and bacon)

Some pretty lil roses I picked up for her.

PS - FORECAST FOR MY TRI THIS WEEKEND (AND A FEW DAYS LEADING UP TO IT)...

Um, in a word: No.

A New Weekly Schedule

I've had my Monday-Wednesdays booked each week for quite a while now and it wasn't until recently that I got to add something consistent on Thursdays!

Monday: Tri Group workout - mostly swimming
Tuesday: Yoga
Wednesday:  Tri Group workout - biking, occasionally running.
Thursday: Run for God small group
Friday: Rest
Saturday:  Varies, hopefully Pilates + 1 other workout once life slows down
Sunday:  Rest (and work at the church)

I'm so excited about my small group!  I have been working at this church for over a year and have been attending services occasionally for about 6 months.  I know some people, but no one really well.  I really wanted to fit running in somewhere on my schedule, and I am glad that this fits the bill!  It is 1/2 bible study, 1/2 running, though not at the same time :)

I have been paying for Pilates on Saturdays, but since August, I've been busy with other stuff!!!  Yes, my first time back I know I will be sore for 5 days afterward!  I've been busy with things like:  2 tris, 1 - 3k swim, 39 mile bike ride, 20 mile bike ride (with SwimSis - it went EXACTLY how you would imagine 2 sisters riding 20 miles together would...terrible and hilarious all at the same time!), working a convention, and even a 6.8mi run last weekend (4 min run, 1 min walk).  The run was promptly followed by a bourbon themed bar crawl with bourbon samples at each (9!) bar.  It was delicious.  And yes, intoxicating :)

First time running with a hat...I liked it a lot!

I also have been reading a bit of my blog from last year, just to see where I was at, what I was going through.  I love this blog for that.  Otherwise I would forget.  I do this blog for no one but myself.  That's why the design is so crappy :)  One week, I switched around my rest days so I could go order a bridesmaid's dress for a wedding I will be in.  Easiest dress fitting ever - in and out in about 15 minutes!  When asking for what size they should bring, they asked "what pant size do you wear?".  Well, I knew they could care less if I squeeze myself into size 18 skinny jeans.  I know my body and I know my main concern is my bust!  I told them I'd like to start with a 22.  And it was perfect.  Any smaller and it would have been too restricting.  Very glad that it is 2 sizes smaller than the last bridesmaid dress I wore!!!

Aaaanyway, back to the point, I was reading this post about how I swam a 400 IM.  I was like "what?!? I haven't done that since!  Can't let my last year self beat this new and improved me!".  So I set out to my favorite pool to get a workout in.  I knew 400 IM would be no piece of cake - heck, anything that starts out with 100 butterfly is not a joke!  However, the joy I get from pitting me against myself is pretty great.  Last year I said my time was just a smidge under 8 minutes, which probably means it was like 7:58.  My strategy was to swim the 100 fly slow and steady.  Well after 50 yards, it sucked.  It was really hard still!  Well, that's butterfly for you!  I cruised for the rest of the 400 looked at my watch - I made it in 7:37!  If it wasn't easier, at least I cut off 21 seconds...made me happy!

How have you improved in the last year?  New PR? Small size?

Losing 5 Pounds Every Week

Unfortunately, it has been the same 5 pounds every week this past month or so.  So bad!  I will be up 4-5 pounds on a Monday and be back down to 222 by Friday.  Then the weekend hits and a few bad choices each day really add up.  Luckily, this was not the case last weekend as I weighed the same on Monday as I did the Friday before!  Hoping for a little loss this week too :)

As I've mentioned before, my quest is to get healthier and the scale is one reflection of many aspects of health.  It does affect my mood to a degree whenever I weigh in the mornings, so during the weeks I had tris or the like, I didn't weigh myself because I wanted to focus on what would make me physically and mentally sound.  And yes, I indulged waaaay to much a time or two (I'm looking at you, comedy show where 1 order of nachos could have been for 4 people and my 2 margaritas had very little mixer!).

I've been in more of a routine this past week or two and I've loved it and it has been exhausting all at the same time.  I have workouts and people to be accountable to Monday-Thursday with Saturday being my wild card.  I have been getting home between 7:45-8:15 most nights this week and I had to do midweek cooking on a couple of nights because I neglected to do it over the weekend.  Whew, I've been so rundown during the day, but after I exercise, I feel great!  (and please do not suggest morning workouts :) hehe)  I got asked to work a catering job tomorrow (Friday) night but I said no, because I need Friday to just be Friday! 

I have a dilemma regarding another tri this next month.  It is an open water swim, but I don't have a wetsuit.  A local place has them for rent and I went in to see if they had one in my size.  Apparently its by height and weight.  I gave him my height and the salesman found the right row and he asked my weight and his finger just scanned to the right across the columns.  Kept going, and got to the end and I heard "Well, doesn't look like we have anything that will be a perfect fit". I was 80% sure that was going to be the response when I went looking anyway.  He said there were a few I could try and he would gladly help me out (he emphasized that several times - weirdo), but I didn't feel like shoving myself into a wetsuit that day!  Their rentals are $65 and can be applied toward the purchase of a wetsuit, but when it comes down to it here are the facts.

That swim, the first time, took me 6 mins 13 seconds.  Meaning as far as swim time goes, the rental would be costing me $10 a minute.  No bueno.  I don't want to buy a wetsuit now because I'm hoping to be a smaller size eventually!  But what will the water temperature be on Oct 5?!?  :)  haha could be terrible!  I could drop down to the duathlon, but the only thing worse than a freezing swim is running twice!!!

Any input would be appreciated!

For now, here are some pics of my life from the past few weeks!

Ah!  Spoiled myself!  New Saucony running shoes and Shimano bike shoes!

I will probably make this again this weekend.  Spinach, chicken, blueberries, mandarin oranges, walnuts, raspberry vinaigrette - YUM!

Weird but tasty mash up meal.  Veggies, Italian sausage and salsa over spaghetti squash.  Taste buds love it!

Had a man/pedi this weekend.  Went with blue/purple for the toes (not gel/shellac).

And breast cancer pink (it really was!) in gel for my nails.  Still miss my red!

Needed some compression after a trail run.  I believe this is what Honey Boo Boo's family would call "smexy".

Your Words Have Power

I'm not a super negative person who puts themselves down.  I don't call myself names, I usually don't think the worst of myself.  But that does not mean that I am out of harm's way.

I didn't notice that in my attempts to be modest, I was putting myself down.  When I was a nanny, I would say things like "Oh, I'm JUST their nanny".  Or "I'm not their mom, I'm ONLY their nanny".  Then a time or two I had a couple of women say to me "No sweetie, you aren't just or only their nanny, you ARE their nanny.  You are raising them in the hours that their parents can't.  That is a meaningful job and should not be overlooked in its importance".

That got me thinking about the rest of my life and I noticed this pattern in my everyday speech.  I wasn't being overtly negative, but I wasn't being positive either.  In the past month or two I've readopted this awareness.  I noticed I was saying JUST or ONLY when I was asked if I was a lawyer (I'm a paralegal).  Not being the at the top doesn't make my job less important.  It doesn't make me less important.

I knew I had that 3K swim coming up, which I was swimming with triathletes who were swimming 3K, then going on to bike 60K and run 15K.  Just because I was going to be done after the swim portion didn't make my race any less important.  It was something I had to be very intentional about because I did have to convey that I was stopping after the swim portion.  I chose to word it as "I'm doing the 3k swim only", so as to not make it a pre-qualifier (don't know if that is a real term or if I made that up).  I stuck to my guns and felt really good about that and was able to talk to several other athletes about the lack of long open water swims in the state (another post for another day!).

As far as a race report goes...I did it!  Factoring in sighting and wind/waves, it was more like 2 miles.  I had not swam in that choppy of water ever, so it made it interesting, to say the least!  My two wonderful friends (and one of their babies!) surprised me and came to see me compete.  I'm glad I got the notion to look at my phone when I went back to my car after checking in.  I normally don't look at it, but they had called me to tell me they were on their way!  

The Olympic distance was set off just after 8am.  And there was a ton of them!  200 people did the Olympic distance, which was 1 loop of the swim course (horseshoe shape - 1500 yards/meters).  They had allowed 20 minutes for them to go off before my group was supposed to go, but it was much longer that with the time trial start!  My friends arrived, I got them settled on the beach and everyone in my wave, the special distance that I mentioned above, was already in line.  I just hopped in the back of the line and was the last person off from my wave at almost 9am.  We were to do 2 loops.  After the first loop, we had to run along the beach from the swim finish back to the swim start and get back in there.  The sprint wave (400 yard swim) started after my wave.

It was windy, which made it feel cold on the beach, so I did not "warm up" due to the fact that I would have been cold very soon after!  And with that long of a swim, your warm up is built in!  I spent quite a while trying to get in a groove and not have the waves hit me in the face while trying to breath. The first buoy felt like it took forever to get to.  I was working against the waves at that point.  Swimming the 200 or so yards to the next buoy was relatively easy and then I turned the corner and was ready for loooong home stretch for the first loop.  But I was pretty confused as to what I was supposed to swim towards.  The kayakers weren't being very helpful.  "ORANGE BUOY - LEFT" was what one kayaker kept yelling.  Soooo...am I supposed to go to the left of the buoy or is it supposed to be on my left?  I was just cruising along and finally figured it out (buoy was supposed to  be on my left).  I caught up to one or two people from the Olympic wave as well as the end of the sprint wave.

I swam close to the buoy that was near the shore.  I stood up and went to walk beside it, except the cement block that was keeping it anchored down got in my way and I nearly tripped!  I have some nice scratches on my toes thanks to that.  My friends met me as I got out of the water and jogged with me back to the start of the second loop.  they're too precious.  I think I'll keep them around!  They asked if I had another lap in me and I said "Definitely!".  Probably a sign that I took it too easy on the first lap. 

I was back in the water and pretty much stroke for stroke with another swimmer for a while.  Then my cap popped over my left ear.  I could also feel it creeping up the back of my head too.  I told myself not to worry or stop and fix it.  I could do that when I got to the buoy to turn.  However, that was at least 600 yards away!  It took my cap nearly falling off to get me to stop.  Grrr...new caps and big heads.  Don't really mix!  I maintained a good pace and a good ratio of strokes to sighting.

I rounded the last corner and knew it was my time.  I was stopping after this last 500 or so yards and I needed to give it my all!  I kicked it in to gear and was picking people off one by one!  With less than 200 yards left, a swimmer got in front of me and I either had to pick up the pace to pass him or keep behind him.  As much as I enjoy drafting off another swimmer, I totally needed him to get out of my way!  Sooner than I knew it, I was back at the beach and out of the water and crossed the timing mats.  I looked behind me and I was happy that there were 10-15 people still in the water (I had started last).  I knew I didn't break any speed records, but I was happy with my performance.

I had no idea what my time was as I did not bring my watch.  I asked one of the guys who worked for the race company and he said there would probably not be immediate splits and there would be no awards for the three of us who did the swim.  Booo....  Oh well, I found an unopened Vega gel on the ground, which I totally took.  Those things can get expensive!  I also got a tri hat.  I told you about the weird trivia to win the door prizes before...well this time his question was "Do you want this hat?".  And I ran up and said "yes, I want that hat".  And it was mine.  Haven't worn it yet.  Still a little more excited about the gel, to be honest. :)

I am learning little by little to be proud of my accomplishments instead of downplaying them in front of others.  Just recently, when someone asked at work how I am losing weight, I said "I'm training for triathlons" instead of "eatting a little better and moving more".  Definitely a difference, and it is the truth!  I will use my words to empower myself and not tear down any of the work - both emotional and physical - that I have put in this past year and a half.  Just trying to be the best version of me!