This is where it all begins. We all start here and then decide where we will end up this time next year. Every night for the past week I go to bed thinking about every detail of the USATriathlon Nationals in Omaha. I work though each and every moment of the race in my mind before drifting off to sleep. Sometimes I don’t make it past the mile swim, other times, I visualize myself triumphantly spent, crossing the finish line. No matter how far my visualization takes me, I wake up here, at the start.

 

WEEK OF JANUARY 2, 2017

RUNNING

Running has been hard but amazing. I had some ridiculous workouts this past week and one glorious run though snow covered trails. It’s great to get outside in the winter and smile though 9 miles of a snow covered wonderland, especially when you think you’re coach is secretly trying to kill you on the treadmill.

Tuesday: 30 minutes steady, post bike ride | 3.7 miles

Wednesday: “my coach is trying to kill me” incline repeats on the treadmill | 45 minutes | 5.63 miles of hell before swimming

Friday: snow-covered trail running happiness | 8.45 miles | 1:10:10

Total = 17.78 (felt like 117.8)

Happiness is…

CYCLING

Unfortunately my days of riding outside have ceased to exist for the foreseeable future. However, my coach has come up with new and exciting things for me to do inside. One workout called for “hill” training (apparently with using more than just big gears) and she suggested I prop my front wheel up on an old phone book. Seriously? Who the hell has an old phone book? So I used this instead…

That would be the boys’ xbox Minecraft edition box and possibly a face down Elmo in the background. You do not want to see this Elmo!

Who knew propping your wheel up would be so difficult, both for my legs and…ahem, my lady parts – yikes! I adjusted and did one hell of a workout. Naturally, I loved it, as I did both of my rides this past week.

Tuesday: Triple 3’s with propped front wheel | 1 hour 15 minutes | 20.2 miles before run

Thursday: Base build | 1 hour 10 minutes | 17.9 miles before strength workout

Total = 38.1 miles

SWIMMING

I freakin’ did it! I beat 19 seconds for 25 meters! Granted I did it in 18.9 but I DID IT!

This was the workout and you can see my post-activity bragging…

I also love how my coach calls out “talkers, players, etc. She is hilarious. Everyone in the pool at the Y is over 70 and they all think I’m insane.

Monday: 25 challenge | 1,422 yards

Wednesday: 200/2×100/4×50 descends after run | 2,800 yards

Total = 4,222 yards

STRENGTH TRAINING

Since my Barre teach is on a little hiatus, I had to substitute my strength training these past few weeks. I continue to do the Crowie ab routine (killer!) and started back up with my old friend Dr. Jordan Metzl and his soul crushing IronStrength workouts. My legs and ass were crying the next day, but it’s exactly what I need to stay powerful and injury-free.

I also did a “land swim” that involved a ton of shoulder and back work, as one might imagine. It was amplified in difficulty since I did it for the first time on January 1.

Lots of small weights and big balls for the land swim.

GEAR

So far, planning the trip to Cuba has been full of surprises. The latest was when my travel agent, who is handling all of the athlete travel arrangements, told me my bike would need to be checked as luggage on the plane. Say what now?

The itinerary for the travel package listed “bike shipment” as one of the included perks. Bike shipment usually means by a third party whose job is to transport bikes overseas. I’ve done it many times now and was prepared to be without my bike for several weeks leading up to the race. Wrong.

Since I travel so much with my bike, I decided to just bite the bullet and get a travel bag that had the least disassembly and assembly required since I don’t know anything about either when it comes to my bike. Sad, I know.

This thing is amazing and I wish I bought it two years ago…

FUEL

I think I mentioned Daily Harvest smoothies before I took off on a break? Well, let me tell you, they are fantastic! I’m very hard to please when it comes to smoothies because I like to chew my food, but these? These are easy, delicious and (best of all) keep me full for hours! Get them. Now.

Pictured below is my favorite one. It takes like a chocolate milkshake. You simply add milk (there are mixer suggestions on each cup) fill it up, dump it all in the blender, blend, then pour back into the original cup and enjoy the hell out of it.

In case you can’t read the side of the cup, this is the Cacao + Avocado blend with zucchini, raw pumpkin seeds, dates, cacao, coconut oil, pea protein, vanilla bean and pink Himalayan sea salt.

THINGS I LOVE

Ski season! It’s been snowing a lot lately in the Northeast and we were finally able to take advantage of it. We took the boys to a local mountain over the weekend and everyone had a great time. We’re looking forward to a lot more in Vermont for MLK weekend!

 

THINGS I DON’T LOVE AS MUCH

Bad television I can’t stop watching.

So my husband and I just started watching The Affair. We’re only halfway into season two and, I have to say, I pretty much hate everyone on the show but I still feel compelled to watch! Why? It’s at the point where my husband is getting annoyed with me because I’m yelling at all the characters while we’re watching it. Out loud. It’s bananas…but the drama! Clearly, I need help. I’m not even sure if I should suggest watching this or not…

You are all horrible people…but I can’t stop watching you make asses out of yourselves and everyone around you. #shame

When does The Walking Dead resume? At least people get what they deserve on that show. I secretly hope Alison and Noah get eaten by zombies.

READING

So much goodness out there lately. Let’s hope this is a sign of things to come in 2017!

First up, one that I wrote, because self-promotion:

Increase Your Running Volume Without Increasing Your Mileage | Women’s Running — especially great if you are injured or simply cannot handle high mileage training like say for a marathon or ultra. Find out how to increase your endurance, power and speed without all the pounding on your legs.

Ruby Tandoh Just Wants You To Eat What You Love | The New York Times | by Tejal Rao — I love this so much because Tandoh has a massive following and she is delivering the correct message. She doesn’t believe in “clean” eating or any other trendy foodie BS but simply in eating what you love. How great is that? How rare! It’s a quick and lovely read, especially if you need to repair your relationship with food.

Which Is Harder? Labor or A Marathon? | Salty Running – – if you don’t know the answer, “Parsley” tells it the way it is and I couldn’t agree more. In fact, my comment was something like “I would rather run 100 consecutive marathons then deliver the twins again.”

RANDOM QUOTE OF THE WEEK

Last time I was at Mohegan Sun casino, my husband and I were in the night club/bar/gambling area. It was late. I can see this girl staring at me and slightly swaying the way one does when it’s past midnight and you’re holding the drink you will refer to later as “I shouldn’t have had that last one.”

She sauntered up to me and asked:

“What kind of shoulder workouts do you do?”

[Tweet “Start Here with the rundown! We have #fuel, #sweat, #snow and bad TV #train4life”]

Where are you starting from and where do you want to finish?

Do you love or hate smoothies?

What TV do you love to hate?

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