The countdown to my triathlon is on like Donkey Kong. I’m four weeks out from race day and I seriously cannot believe it. Anyone who has ever trained for a race will understand the feeling of thinking you have so much time, until you have none, and race day is upon you. I’ve been doing this for so many years and I’m still surprised at how quickly a training cycle can pass! Can someone please figure out how to slow this whole thing down? Well, except on snow days, we can fast forward over those.

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WEEK OF APRIL 12, 2016

RUNNING

Running has been going so well, although I always feel like I never get enough. It’s such an easy place of calm for me (most of the time) as opposed to swimming and biking when I’m constantly thinking of the race and how I will perform. On the run, all I think is “once I get to this point in the race, I’m golden!”

My first run in my updated Adidas Boost!

My first run in my updated Adidas Boost!

Tuesday: Hill drills 5 x 2 minutes @6:50 pace and 4% incline – overall 45 minute run after swim

Thursday: Rolling hills and gradual pick up over 6 miles/7:30 pace, after swim

Saturday: 30 minutes easy after cycle

Total: 18 miles

CYCLING

Finally the weather is cooperating! I was able to get outside for a glorious windy and hilly 37 mile ride on Friday where I took the wrong way home and paid for it dearly in hill after hill after hill. I had a few other rides on the trainer but I’m feeling very strong and confident that I will have a decent ride in the race. I say “decent” because I still have a long way to go toward being a powerful, fast rider. I’m creeping toward my full potential but I’m not there yet…

I'm smiling because the wind finally died down and I was about .75 miles from home.

I’m smiling because the wind finally died down and I was about .75 miles from home.

Monday: Hill climbs on the trainer – 1 hour 15 min/18 miles

Wednesday: High cadence on the trainer – 46 minutes/13.4 miles

Friday: Outdoor ride – 2 hours 20 minutes/37 miles

Saturday: one hour easy recovering prior to 30 min run

Total mileage = 84.4

SWIMMING

I had to meet my coach for a swim form check-in last Tuesday. Dun dun dun! Moment of truth, nowhere to hide. CRS is a swimmer by nature. She has a swimmer’s body and mind and I think some of my form suckage leaves her feeling frustrated, although she desperately tries not to show it.

There was A LOT of clean up work to be done but she assured me she was “nit picking” and my overall form was very good. This of course was a total lie but I think she saw the panic on my face when she basically “picked” apart my stroke, form and kick. #PickedClean

Reflecting on all the hard work from the pool, after I did my run. Sweat is everywhere.

Reflecting on all the hard work from the pool, after I did my run. Smiling because I freakin’ did it and I’m going to get coffee.

But, the end result was me cutting 30 seconds off my 500 time and being able to do 2 x (10 x 50) on 1:00. Even if you have no clue what that means, trust me, it was HARD and pretty much the running equivalent of doing 8 x 400s at the track at 5k pace.

Tuesday: Meet with CRS and get humbled beyond belief, also manage to swim for 1 hour and then run

Thursday: Reaping the rewards of Tuesday with 3,000 yards of hard but rewarding swim, followed by run

Total = 5,600 yards or so…

FUEL

I have one word – muffin. Have I told you all how much I love muffins? Well, I love the idea of them and yes they are absolutely delicious when I’m eating them but then I’m starving 10 minutes later. Can you say zero nutritional value?

While Vaughn and I were grocery shopping last week he sprinted over to the bakery section and begged me for the most chocolately chocolate muffin you can imagine. I let him have it (and eat it while we shopped) and I chose one for myself knowing I had a 2+ hour bike ride the next day and needed the food motivation.

Post ride, I split it, toasted it, buttered it up and ate it in all of 30 seconds. With coffee of course.

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By the way – those are not raisins or quinoa balls, chia seeds or any other kind of healthy add-in, they are chocolate chips and they were delicious.

GEAR

I feel like I have a never ending battle with hydration. I need constant motivation to drink more H2O and usually a nice, shiny new water bottle does the trick. Also, I have about 30,000 plastic ones for training and I need a more classy water carrier when I’m traipsing around my cow town, so I can impress the farmers.

Enter S’well!

Swell-Stainless-Steel-Water-Bottle

I first saw them on Danielle aka T-Rex Runner’s blog. If you don’t know Danielle, I feel sorry for you. She is one of the hippest chicks I know, is fearless in the most honest way possible, is a runner (of course!) and travels all over the world both solo and with an entourage. Look what happened when she went to some God forsaken place called Muscat, Oman:

That's her on the left, just hanging out with Dave Matthews at a mosque. What? Also, no touching at the mosque which Dave actually apologized for saying "sorry I can't put my arms around you." How many people can say they had that conversation with Dave? #coolestchickeva

That’s her on the left, just hanging out with Dave Matthews at a mosque. What? Also, no touching at the mosque which Dave actually apologized for saying “sorry I can’t put my arms around you.” How many people can say they had that conversation with Dave? #coolestchickeva

So let the shock wear off and then we’ll get back to the bottles…

My S’well is amazing because it keeps water cold and (they claim) hot stuff hot but I have yet to test it. It looks cool. It has a screw top so you can throw it into a bag or purse without fear of spillage. Win!

Also, I ordered mine (and a brush to clean it with) online and then the very same day, I saw them in Target.

Because Target has everything...and if not, Amazon does.

Because Target has everything…and if not, Amazon does.

THINGS I LOVE

New York City on a perfect spring weekend!

Carmin'es for lunch prior to seeing The Lion King! Portions bigger than my body - holy food!

Carmin’es for lunch prior to seeing The Lion King! Portions bigger than my body – holy food!

Backstage at The Lion King! Amazing, amazing and more amazing. I would see it 100 more times.

Backstage at The Lion King! Amazing, amazing and more amazing. I would see it 100 more times.

Face painting at the Central Park Zoo. The boys love being in their natural environment.

Face painting at the Central Park Zoo. The boys love being in their natural environment.

And, of course, a trip to Nike because I just cannot resist.

And, of course, a trip to Nike because I just cannot resist.

THINGS I DON’T LOVE AS MUCH

This thing:

It doesn't look like much but it could kill you.

It doesn’t look like much but it could kill you.

I honestly think my coach wants to take me to the brink of drowning so I know what it feels like and won’t panic if it happens during the race. I say that because wrapping this thing (it’s actually an old bike tire inner tube) around your ankles and then trying to swim is basically like wearing cement shoes. I shit you not. In fact, I should take a video of me attempting to “swim” with this thing on because it would go viral on the sheer stupidity factor.

It’s supposed to make my core and upper body stronger in the water. This is how it “works” – –  wrap it around your ankles then, completely and totally lock down every core fiber of your being, while simultaneously and furiously pumping your arms and not coming up for air unless you absolutely have to. It is the only way you are making it to the other side of the pool where you can then cling to the edge and gasp for air. I was supposed to do 8 x 25.

I am not a Navy seal.

Send help.

READING

So, I was really getting into What She Knew by Gilly Macmillan when it suddenly took a turn into ridiculousness. The writing and plot are so great…to a point. I’m sticking with it in hopes that it takes a violent turn back into greatness.

I supposed to be reading A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman but, this is an excerpt:

“Ove glares out of the window. The poser is jogging. Not that Ove is provoked by jogging. Not at all. Ove couldn’t give a damn about people jogging. What he can’t understand is why they have to make such a big thing of it. With those smug smiles on their faces, as if they were out there curing pulmonary emphysema. Either they walk fast or they run slowly, that’s what joggers do. It’s a forty-year-old man’s way of telling the world that he can’t do anything right. Is it really necessary to dress up as a fourteen-year-old Romanian gymnast in order to be able to do it? Or the Olympic tobogganing team? Just because one shuffles aimlessly around the block for three quarters of an hour?”

If you use the word “poser” at all, and “jogging” or “jogger” over and over, I just can’t continue. It’s not that this passage’s content bothered me, in fact, I wish it had because at least that would have been creating an emotion. So far, this whole book is fantastically boring.

It’s basically a book about the mundane and petty little nothingness moments that make up everyday life, and not in a Seinfeld way. Not at all like that. Let’s just say I’m skipping over huge chunks with the knowledge that I am missing out on nothing. What I don’t want to miss out on is book club on Cinco de Mayo, for obvious reasons.

RANDOM QUOTE OF THE WEEK

Just after the closing curtain of The Lion King, during which I cried, laughed and just watched both of my boys faces change 1,000 times over as they took in their first Broadway show:

Me: So…what did you think?

Vaughn: I give it 1,000 smile emojis.

How was your week?

What would you give 1,000 smile emojis too?

How much would someone have to pay you to wear the death strap into the pool?

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