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?
Do NOT get me started on The Affair. Ron and I watch it too and it drives me nuts. Sadly, there are no walkers that get them. Yet. And hooray for ski season! Yesterday was our first time this season. We froze our asses off but had so much fun. Can’t wait for next weekend!
We are seriously like the same person!!! The Affair is my nemesis right now and, the snow day we had on Saturday only made matters worse because we watched about 4 episodes…and that was my husband’s breaking point 🙂
We also went skiing for the first time on Sunday and completely froze our asses off…I kept saying “but the sun is out!” It didn’t really help.
Yesssssss to the shoulder workouts questions, I’m surprised it doesn’t happen more often with you!! I don’t watch the affair but the bestie dialed and she can’t stop rambling about it so I guess it’s good.
I’m very curious about the Elmo.
So disassembling you our bike means that you will have to carry the wheels with you as a carry on? Whatever it takes!!
I haven’t been skiing since high school. I need to take the kids!
OMG that question was so random and from someone so drunk, I just laughed!!
Your bestie knows the struggle!!!
Oh poor Elmo has just been bopping around our basement since the boys lost interest about 3 years ago. He just tends to be thrown around now and sometimes lands face down. Poor Elmo! I should donate him to a loving toddler.
Um, nope – the wheels also go in the bag. It’s genius!
You should totally take the kids skiing now, before they become afraid of the mountain!
You are really selling the whole baby thing.
Grand.
I better not have freaking twins.
LOL! They are truly the best thing EVER EVER EVER and honestly? Twins are fantastic for so many reasons but one pregnancy and two kids pretty much tops the list 🙂
If you have twins, I will come help. The first 2 years are the hardest…but you are strong like bull.
I make some pretty creative smoothies for my son. Ever since he broke his leg, we’ve been on a smoothie kick. Green blender got me started. Now I include his smoothies in my weekly meal prep list. I need to drink them too. It’s just another thing I need to do…
What a great idea (or not) to prop the front wheel of your bike like that–I’m going to try that. I need to get back on my bike–it misses me.
Your WR article is exactly what I’m going to do for my marathon training this year. In fact, I have a blog post in the works talking about this very thing. If you have any words of wisdom I can share in the post, please PM me… Full credit of course, and I’ll look so amazing if I quote you…
You are too creative for me in the smoothie department. I need someone else to make them for me!!
And totally try the wheel propping thing but get ready to make adjustments in your saddle 🙂
I will PM you on the blog post!!! Good stuff!!
Giddyup!! Won’t Hoo Hah cream erase all that uncomfortableness?
It helps for sure but I need more padding! I usually ride in triathlon shorts which have a lot less padding than cycling shorts 🙂 I need to do some cycling short shopping…
That womens running article is really interesting. Honestly, I haven’t thought about it like that but maybe I should. It sounds like a good week of training and I couldn’t be happier for you.
I’m terrible at skiing (it’s a shame because my husband was all american in college…but I balance us out with the pathetic I am.) I’m glad you enjoyed it!
It really is a great way of looking at running, especially when you can’t run a ton of miles in training. My inspiration came from Mountain Running World Champion Kim Nedeau (who I mention in the article) who was injured in college and now does just as much cycling and cardio intervals as running to keep volume high…and she is the WORLD champion mountain racer.
My husband is also terrible at snowboarding but somehow it works 🙂
I’m really into smoothie bowls lately-something about eating a smoothie out of a bowl with a spoon makes it more filling-I know it’s all mental, but whatever works, right?
Totally!!! Whatever your brain thinks is more satiating – go for it!
So many good nuggets in here! If I ever get to the travel on a plane with my bike stage I will definitely need to look into that travel bag. Who knew that propping your bike up on the trainer would work. That looks torturous. Cheers to a great week!
I’m sorry I waited so long to buy the bag! I could have saved a lot of money and trouble.
Def try the front wheel propping thing – it works!!
Weird thing about me – I really hate smoothies. Like, literally have never consumed one I liked. I think it’s the texture and like you said, I like to chew my food.
If it were me that had to disassemble my bike…it would be AJ diassembling my bike. The horror!!
I hate them too…usually, but maybe it’s because these are pre-made and really thick that makes me love them? Not sure but it’s SO easy.
Once, at a very big race, Mike was “helping me” reassemble my bike and accidentally cut the cord to my Garmin trainer that had my time, distance, pace, etc. My coach (rocket scientist) was able to patch it for the race but let’s just say Mike is no longer allowed to touch my bike!!! 🙂
I love the visualization introduction for this post. It’s such a powerful tool and I even like to do that on a microlevel for each training week.
I love your snowboard and bindings – so bright and pretty! We went for the third time this season yesterday and I am so achy from falling today. Vermont will be such a fun ski trip! Those hills!
I’m not much of a smoothie drinker, especially in winter when I want warm food all of the time.
I’m so glad you appreciated that part Laura! As you know, visualization can be extremely helpful and powerful.
My husband was super sore yesterday too from all his falls. I think he likened it to “hitting cement.” Ouch.
I’m waiting for someone to come out with warm smoothies that are not disgusting. Maybe you??
Well how about that. I am totally drinking a smoothie right now!!!
We’re so connected.
I don’t totally understand all the swimming lingo but I do know that you’d be a sight to behold at the pool! It would be like Kara Goucher doing mile repeats around a senior’s walking track.
LOL – not quite but I get a lot of looks and “what are you doing?” It’s adorable.
Wow, those are killer workouts. I will have to look into those smoothies. I always get myself into a food rut and this would really add some badly needed variety. Thanks!
I really love the “start here” mentality… anything can happen if we put the work in! Thanks for inspiring me!
It’s so great to have a starting point and see how far you can go! After 2016 I’m not sure how much better you can get but, I’m sure you will come up with something 🙂
I have a love-hate relationship with smoothies. On one hand, they are a good way for me to get in leafy greens. On the other hand, I like to eat my food, so I make my smoothies super thick. This can be a pain in the arse for my blender because I will not drink a half blended smoothie. So smoothies and I are working on our relationship in counseling 😉
OMG totally!! I love a very thick smoothie and often have to stop the blender to stir everything up. I prefer eating my smoothies with a spoon 🙂 and you can totally do that with these…
I watched most of the first season of The Affair but couldn’t decide if I loved or hated it! But I’m in need of some trashy TV so maybe I’ll start watching season two. Congrats on breaking 19 seconds! That’s awesome and so much good stuff in store for you with your swim. And I too love the idea of Start Here. That’s such a great way of thinking about it.
The struggle is real!! Season 2 is good, in the way that watching people destroy their lives and the lives of their children is good…:-) Thanks so much Christine. You get me when it comes to swimming!
You are killin’ 2017 withthe workouts!!! You love Barre…hiatus?!?! Ain’t nobody got time for a hiatus! Hope she isnt taking a long one! Haha! Cheers to 2017, Allie! Love tour blog.
LOL, I know!! But it IS her birthday and she is taking a family vacation so I guess I can cut her some slack 🙂 It won’t be long now…
Thanks so much for reading and commenting!
A phone book. Hilarious. I must find one to show my daughter how hard our lives were when we actually had hardships like flipping through phone books. Great substitute!!
I love your workouts, they get me all excited to train myself and others. Who wants to suffer alone? Not I.
This week it’s back to training techniques and focusing on form. I’m ok with that. I tested my functional threshold and am up by 40 points so I’m pretty stoked with my watt increase. Somehow being a mom has made my body a little stronger. Must have been the breastfeeding lol.
I have swam in the pool 500 meters thanks to you. But I didn’t take a pic so does it even count??!!!
I’m totally watching Gilmore Girls. Not even sorry. I’m trying to balance my estrogen levels by adding more in.
I know, right? Phone book…pffff.
I feel like I’m always suffering alone. I need a training buddy!
So great about +40 points – wow! You have been working so hard – keep it up.
Pool work def does not count without a pic and a post so get back in there and do it the right way 🙂
I’m avoiding Gilmore Girls with everything in my being… #resistanceishard
I’m jealous of the snow run! And the drunk girls shoulders compliments. You know when drunk people say something it’s total honesty!!!
There is always truth in drunkess!! I will drink to that 🙂
Similar to you, i like running in the winter, especially, running hill. The feel is great though it is very cold. ^^
Exactly! You have to suffer a little but the reward can be totally worth it.
I have never heard of those smoothies! They sound amazing though. Love the snowboard, super cute!! And I probably would have come up to you and asked about your shoulders also, your shoulders are pretty amazing 🙂