Marching on!

I might be the corniest person ever.

March has been REALLY hard for me!  I had a mini burn out on my workouts and then just personal stuff that made me want to do something hilarious and irresponsible like drop pumpkins off a tall roof.  (ok, most random person?!?) to relieve the stress.  

I only worked out 3 days last week.  Like whaaaat?  When was the last time that happened?  No clue.  Sadly, I didn't feel more refreshed, but achy and stiff.  Having more time to pour over my personal problems didn't help either.  I feel better when working out consistently - got it!

I want to be running more.  I was really getting into pretty good shape when I was running 3 times a week earlier this year.  But I don't love running.  When I have a run scheduled during the week, it is likely by myself, so I would stay at work waaaay to long and then either skip the run because i felt pressed for time or I would cut the run short.   

This week has been a little chilly but full of sunshine, so here is what I have been up to:

Last week:

Monday: rest

Tuesday: 1 hr yoga, 1 hr swimming

Wednesday: Rest

Thursday:  6am swim. W/frenemy Will.  "If i touch your feel while swimming, it just means you should go faster" uh, no.  also we were supposed to do a really tough set on a certain interval for us (6 x 150 yds (50 build, 50 easy, 50 hard) on 2:30).  I made the first one with a few seconds to spare.  Made the second one right on the money.  And my last one slid all the way to 2:40 or 2:45.  Will has an injury, so he stopped after 2 of those 6, but I had kept on going.  I get out of the pool after practice and he goes "We really should have been making those on 2:30".  WE?!?  I  did the whole set!  haha what a snot nosed punk!

Friday:  Rest

Saturday:  5 miles with the tri group from church.  I was the only girl again.  And the slowest.  And I got lost because we had talked about going down a certain trail, but I didn't get the memo that we everyone else didn't go down that trail for a little out and back.  I met back up with them in the parking lot.  They said they had been worried.  LOL they must not know I get lost easily!  

Then I picked up SwimKid and we went on a "nature walk".  3 miles split in between pea gravel paths, raised platform paths, plain old dirt paths, and concrete.  She wanted to run and race me a couple of times.  The last time we "raced" was about 0.2 miles and she was faster than me and giggling the whole way.  She was shouting "you're so slow!  you're as slow as a snail!".  She stopped at a bench to rest and I sat down with her.  A few seconds later I asked if she was ready to go and she was not.  Glad I still have the distance over her speed, but her sass is unmatched! 

Sunday:  Rest.

Monday:  46 min walk in the sunshine.  Sooo good!  PS. I hate invisible fences.  I think your dog is running straight for me and then it stops 2 feet from me on the sidewalk.  Ugh.  

Tuesday: Yoga @ work.  Skipped swimming because I jacked up my neck (that bilateral breathing and flip turns don't compliment that injury well!).  Survived 35 mins on the bike trainer after that.

Wednesday: SwimSis' birthday!  I ate desserts and decorated the house with streamers with my trusty sidekick SwimKid (She's been upgraded from SwimTot). 

Thursday:  6am swim.  I was early!  LOL  I'm usually 10 mins late and today I was only 5 mins late!  Still stayed an hour.  My neck issues are still there, but we did a lot of backstroke, which is PERFECT for a neck issue.  I did 2 flip turns the whole practice.  I tried one at the beginning and decided to do touch turns.  Later, I was trying to beat the person swimming next to me (Tri Coach Jeff!) and forgot I wasn't supposed to do a flip turn b/c of my neck...whoops!

Friday: ??? Maybe yoga at a new place, maybe running, but hopefully something in the morning!  I've got dinner plans with a friend and no desire to squeeze in a quick workout before or after that.  

To wrap up my first real post in the longest, here is a weigh in:

204.8

So close to onederland!!!

And of course a million pictures from my phone:

Excited about this workout tank fitting...after having it for 4 years!

After a 6 mile run with friends from church tri group

TeenSwimSis came to visit!

Fruit punch spark

Ooh, sassy face!

Breakfast one day last week...delicious!

Beautiful sunrise after a terribly boring morning run

Hummus chicken and green beans, yum!

I tried this shirt on because it was funny...French bulldog pattern! Was so surprised that it actually fit! Shopped in a "normal"store!

A lazy pizza...leftover taco fillings + veggies and cheese!

Love this building!

New swim suit top!

Second runner up

J

Slippers compliment every dress...no?

So excited to finally fit I this dress!

Nails of the month...pink when warm...

Purple when cold

Hummus chicken (again) and zucchini and basil soup!

People don't know how to park if there are no lines to be seen...see them 3 deep in the back?!?

There was a whole lot of this in the past couple of months!

The best Valentine's Present I saw :)

Borrowing a kitchen while house sitting

Of course I made hummus chicken!

After my first 6 mile run.  That is 6 in sign language...had to have a free hand to take the selfie!

My blues were matching

Sassy,  again

Oops it's upside down! Got an amazingly cute hat from Nanny Jenny! 
It is cheap and adorable...go buy one from her!

Worked out after the babysitting kids went to bed...God bless monitors!

Wasa crackers, tuna, shredded radishes, lettuce = nom nom nom

My blog is 2!

2 year blogiversay was last week.  So much i want to say, but a picture is worth a thousand words :)

Weird/Awkward Encounters in the Life of Melissa

This post was inspired by this post courtesy of the awkward happenings of Ty @ TyRunMan
-At YMCA C, I always use a half locker. When I was there for the indoor tri the other week, I had more stuff than normal. After the 10 minute swim, we had a 10 minute transition time to change out of our swimsuits. 10 minutes is a good chunk of time, but its not enough to lollygag in the locker room. I didn’t want my wet swimsuits to get the rest of my stuff wet, so I found a top half locker open close to mine and threw them in there and went to the spin studio. When my ½ hour on the bike, and 20 mins on the treadmill was done, I made my way back to the locker room to collect my things. When I got to my spot, there was an employee mopping the area and muttering about people leaving their wet swim suits in the lockers and that they drip water all over the floor. I open my locker and act nonchalant about it, nodding at the end of every sentence or so that she’s going on. But then she starts opening lockers to see where the water is coming from and finds my swimsuits. She makes a comment “and they’ll probably never comes back for these either!”. Now, I have a REALLY bad poker face, so any normal person would be able to tell that those were mine, but she just kept on rolling. She put them on the bench and I knew she was going to walk out with them after she was done mopping, which was imminent, so I said “uh, actually….those are mine”.

And I told her the reason I had put them in there, etc. So she sits down on the bench, next to my wet swimsuits, and has a full 5 minute conversation with me about the triathlon and triathlons in general. I had everything packed up and was walking out the door of the locker room when she calls out to me – HEY! GREAT WORKOUT TODAY!!! Haha, uh, thanks lady that I just met who wanted to strangle me 5 minutes before!

 -I give blood about every 8 weeks or so. I think its really important because if I were to need blood in an emergency situation, I would definitely want it! Luckily, the “bloodmobile” shows up at our workplace once every 8 weeks so I can give blood, have cookies for breakfast, then saunter in to work a little bit late. My iron levels are usually my only issue and as long as I eat spinach and some red meat in the days before I give blood, I usually have a flawless experience. Until Tuesday. I filled out the survey and sat down to do my little iron level finger prick, blood pressure, and temperature. My iron level was 12.8! (has to be 12.5) and the lady put the blood pressure cuff on my and started that machine going and went to put the thermometer in my mouth. She did, but it just hit me in the back of the mouth really funny and I fought the urge to cough so hard, but I did end up taking it out of my mouth and coughing. Then she was all up in my grill and asked me at least 5 times “Are you SURE you don’t have a cold?!?”. Yeah, lady, I’m sure you just jammed that in the back of my mouth weird! But this whole time I’m coughing and responding to her, the blood pressure machine is still going! Then I start laughing because that has to be such a crazy blood pressure reading. She had me do my temperature again – I got to hold the thermometer this time! And I asked if I could do the blood pressure again because I KNEW it said something crazy. She said I didn’t have to do the blood pressure part again, that it was fine. Well, I looked at what she wrote on the paper – 166/93!!!!! Then I was sort of mad because when I log on to the website next and it shows your blood pressure stats from the past year of giving blood, it’s going to show my blood pressure going down every time – and spiking up this time.

 I should have taken that as a sign that today was not my day to give blood! So the phlebotomist was a younger than the rest and I did my usual, stare off into space while she's doing the thing w/her needle. And this time, it hurt while going in, never a good sign! So I’m sitting there, squeezing the little thing and the machine starts beeping a few minutes later. I’m usually fast at filling the bag, so I thought I was done. Nope, whatever she did, my blood was starting to clot and I wasn’t filling the bag. So that scenario happened about 3 times and 3 different people came over to “help” reposition the needle/my arm/whatever they could do. I don’t think they even got a pint out of me. At least I got cookies after that! And an ice pack. And now a nice bruise…

-I was really happy that they changed one of our swim practices for our tri group to 6am instead of 7am (I have to be at work at 8). That means I get 2 swim practices a week! Yay! So I go this morning (about 5 minutes late…) and I get to the front door, which is an automatic opening door. But it doesn’t open. So I do my best not to run into it and see a little sign that basically says “sorry our door is broken, we have called someone about it”. But it doesn’t say what to do/where to go. When they were re-doing the from doors over the summer they had us go in the gym door, but that didn’t look promising either/no sign. So I walk back over the front door and stare at it for a second and then this guy (thankfully!) comes out and pries the doors apart, we trade places and then he closes them. I said “soooo…you just have to ‘superman’ it?!?” and he gave a chuckle at my socially awkward comment. Then there was no one at the front desk, so I swiped my own card and walked in the “out” door. I was so weirded out by that experience that I forgot a towel and later had to walk back into the hallway to get one in my wet swimsuit. What a morning!

All in all...still not as crazy as Ty having a human obstacle in the pool the other week!

February Update

Hello my blog friends! I have been having a ton of fun in real life, but have not had the time/energy to blog about it!  Without further ado, let's cut to the chase:

Running:  In my last post, I said I had started half marathon training.  This is still ongoing, but I'm not following the training plan to a "t".  The first 4 weeks was on one physical page (and I was doing the modified plan) and then the one the second page, apparently the modified plan merges with the full plan.  This meant jumping straight from 6 mile long run to 8, then to 10 with midweek tempo and even speed runs being at least/around 5 miles.  I'm a slow runner - my speed runs are at 4.5 on the treadmill!  Those take me over an hour. 

Even Tri Coach Jeff said he thought the plan was "aggressive" and that if I feel like doing my long run at 7 miles instead of 8, then to go for it.  Duh, I want to do less mileage!  The training plan has us running 3 times a week (speedwork, tempo, and long run) and then cross training 3 days.  I've been running my required 3 and, depending on the week, cross training 2 or 3 days, whichever I feel like. 

I've kept the long run and the speedwork mostly according to the plan, but tempo I have had to make my own and I use it as a time to run a certain distance/time frame without stopping.  I still haven't done a 5k without walking, so I'm working up to that and I think I'm pretty close.  Last week I ran 1/2 hour without stopping TWICE.  Once on the treadmill and once on the indoor track, the latter was 2.75 miles w/o stopping. Math is a lot harder when you are exercising (my excuse!) and I would have done 3 more laps (1/8 mile track) to get a 5k in if I had realized I had been so close. 

Basically, my legs are tired most of the time.

Swimming:  Ah, my love!  I had only been able to go to one of the two practices that my tri team has each week because of work, but they move the second one to 6am on thursdays, so I will be able to go.  It is early, but misery loves company, especially in the pool :)  On my birthday swim that I did, I did a timed set where I did some 200s on 3:30.  I didn't make a single one.  Last week we got snow in the evening, so I did my swimming in the morning and was making the 200s on 3:20 and getting plenty of rest.  Was it a fluke or did I get faster?  I don't know, but I like the trend.  I talked to Tri Coach Ellen (swim coach) and she said she would be interested in doing open water races this summer too.  She's faster than me at the point, but we are in different age groups.  It would be a nice friendly competition!

Biking:  They say biking muscles are complementary to to running muscles.  Which means I should do more biking.  I really don't have an excuse.  My bike/trainer is in my room.  If i look up from my computer, I see it!  I finally was able to make it to a Sunday afternoon bike trainer group ride and when I walked in (late) I was met with cheers.  That's embarrassing to know that you haven't been there in so long that everyone cheers when they see you.  ha.  Of course I set everything up and get riding and they are like "uh, what's wrong with your bike..it shouldn't be making that noise".  My bike trainer is apparently not supposed to make that noise, but I had only ever ridden it alone, so I didn't know the difference.  Good thing it has a lifetime warranty!  Tri Coach Jeff is awesome, so he put my bike on his trainer and he grabbed a spin bike from the adjacent room.  I only got in like a half hour ride, but my hammies are so sore!  Should have stretched....bad Melissa!

Triathlon:  We did our indoor tri on Feb 1.  I was tired from my long run 2 days before!  And running late.  I jumped in the pool, got my cap/goggles on and then they said go!  This triathlon is for time, not distance.  I did 625 yards in 10 minutes.  Slower than I wanted to go, but I was tired by 150 yards!  Basically, we did that in practice in December and i got the same distance.  Oops!  We did a half hour on the spin bikes and I think I got around 13...they said it was miles but personally I think its kilometers.  That would make more sense.  Then for 20 minutes on the treadmill I got 1.48 miles.  I think I was too conservative for the first 15 minutes! haha  I never really push it going fast on the treadmill and got up to 5.7, which was doable for a short while, but very fast for me.  The good news is that I saw improvements in all areas versus my distances last year.  A quarter mile farther on the treadmill alone!

Food:  I need to write up my review of Diet to Go that I did in January!  I won 5 days of food from Double Chin Diary and the results were great! 

I'm currently doing Advo*care's 24 dayy challenge, which is okay.  I learned a lot in the first 10 days (cleanse) about my food portions and my food urges (wanting rewards).  Now I'm just kind of bored, but will stick it out till the end.  But seeing the scale go down is a nice effect as well.

PS I'm cheap and would probably never do these two things on my own.  I won the first thing (as stated) and then a friend bought my the second as a birthday present. 

2014 is great so far...minus the 2 times I've had to get my car repaired :) haha