Back to the gym!

Spent a week recuperating from being sick and finally got back to the gym today. Although, I did do a couple of mountain bike rides with Chris since the weather has been nice. We rode Red Rocks the other day and the last part was a bit muddy. I asked Chris why a few grams of weight matter on a crank or rims when you've got 2 lbs of mud on your tires clogging up the narrow passageway forcing you to stop and clean it off!?? He didn't respond. Nikki girl didn't mind the mud though. She took our little tire cleaning break as a sign to lay down in it as she was pooped! I wish I had a helmet cam sometimes when I'm behind her and Chris -- she is just sprinting all out to catch up to him - it's hilarious! She's such a good bikin' dog!

Anyway, been looking at another type of workout plan thanks to a friend passing along the website. It's called Crossfit and it's amazing. It is a combination of gymnastics and weight training and the practice advocates "garage" gyms that have equipment you don't normally find in a gym like Bally's. I've enjoyed watching some of the videos and the encouraging thing is that all of the people in them are extremely fit! There's also a graphic of someone puking their guts out after doing some of the workouts and a warning about Rhabdo, which doesn't seem too encouraging, but it looks like people are getting results. After belonging to a gym for over 18 years and working out and not seeing great results, it's worth trying. Check out the "crossfit housewives" video under the video link -- something to aspire to for sure! I can't even do 1 pullup, let alone as many as these women do!

Found a local crossfit group and I'm going to a free workout on April 21st to check it out. (Click on the colorado springs link on the right.) Did one of the workouts tonight (with the assisted pull up machine!) and swam afterwards. Can definitely feel the quads burning from all of the squats, but it's nice getting a great workout in less than half an hour and I'm looking forward to the day when I can do pull ups w/no assist!!

Happy training all!

1st 5K of the year complete!

on St. Patty's Day and me, I forget to wear anything green. Thought about buying some cute shamrock head boppers, but thought it would get annoying while running. Should have just dyed my hair green like about 100 other people did! Was a fun race, but man, can some people run fast!! I definitely need to work on my run because I did get beat by a 72-yr old man, but hey, the first placer finished in 14:45 - amazing! There was also an 83-yr old woman and a guy on crutches. Amazing what some people will do for fun. Me, I was just trying not to walk. Great job to my running buddies Tamera and Glen. OK, I only saw them at the start, but that's okay :-)


Have not trained since then as I came down with a horrible ear infection that went into my tonsils and gave me aches and chills all over. Luckily, it started Sunday night so I was able to use a sick day finally :-) Feel like I never get to take advantage of those, so I finally did and after going to the doctor and determining that I don't have strep throat, I laid in bed and read all day - yay!

Have been reading about sprint tri's and open water swims and found a great video that will hopefully prepare me for the open water swim. Check it out here.

That's it for now - back to my book :-)

First tri complete!

Woohoo! Had the first "mini" sprint tri event today up in Longmont. Long drive and the cops were everywhere! Unfortunately they saw us before we saw them :-( Sorry, Tamera! Luckily, the cop was so efficient at giving out tickets that we were on our way within 5 minutes! Looked like they were getting a lot of experience handing out tickets. Anyway, made it to the YMCA and got checked in. The organizer messed up our registrations and did not put us all together in the last wave, but we survived. It was a very low-key event and unlike the mountain bike races I've done, I didn't feel like I was going to throw up or pee my pants right before the race started! Decided just to work on my form during the swim and not go all out. Was doing great until I looked up at the clock to catch my breath and realized that only 5 minutes had gone by! WHAT? Are you serious! I'm dying out here and I've only been swimming for 5 minutes!! Crazy...

Also decided to try and get that last lap in before the whistle blew and got 1 length in and the time was up, so had to swim the whole length back while everyone else was already getting out of the pool! Shared a lane with Melissa, and we did alright. I was a little nervous sharing, but I think it works out better when you just split the lane instead of trying to trail each other counter-clockwise. I only felt Mel's hand once, but Tamera said she thinks she kicked her lane partner! Luckily they had lap counters for each swimmer because I lost count after only a couple of laps. We had 10 minutes to transition and I think I'm the only one who actually grabbed my conditioner and rinsed out my hair! That will be one advantage of an open water swim - no chlorine!

Next, on to the bike portion. They had spin bikes with a preset tension and speedometers, so you could tell how fast/how many miles you were doing. They took mileage at every 5 minutes. It was hard to know how much to push yourself on the bike so I stayed on the conservative side and tried to just keep a decent pace. I didn't want to get done and have wet noodles for legs as the run is not a strong suit of mine.

We had 5 minutes to transition to the run, so it was a nice break to hydrate and grab a couple of grapes and some gatorade. I thought for sure I was going to get a cramp from drinking so much while riding, but I only got a small one and managed to run the whole time. There were only 8 people to a wave, so the groups were relatively small and a little encouraging. I think the volunteers could have done a better job encouraging people. They pretty much just sat upstairs at 1 turn of the indoor track and counted your laps for you. No words of encouragement except for the few people running past - yes, I got lapped a few times, but I was just happy to still be running after all of that and I felt so good I managed to sprint the last lap! Again, glad someone was counting because I lost track after 13. It always amazes me how the mind seems to wander to different thoughts when doing a sport. You couldn't wear headphones on the run, so I had no music to listen to and you'd think you'd be able to concentrate enough to count laps, but so many things go thru your head. "Should I pass this guy? No, then I'll have to go faster." "Ooh, starting to get a cramp. Should I walk? No, push through it." "Wow, running around this tiny track is kinda boring and so many right turns are making my right shin hurt!" "Will someone please rescue that screaming baby in the nursery!" "Wonder if these people are sick of counting everytime I run by?" "I wonder how much these girls train that have lapped me 4 times?" "Wow, my left heel is not hurting - this is great!!" "Wow, only 3 more minutes, let's see how many laps I can do!" Time!! "Wow, that's it - that was fun!!"


And after a nice lunch a nap would have been very welcome if it weren't for the hour and a half long drive home! All in all, a great day and a good pre-season warm up. We have decided that we'd like to do our own 1 hr tri's each month until our next event because it was such good practice. That gives us one in April and one in May. Next event is in June. Can't wait!!

Thanks to Tamera for remembering her camera! Pic is : Melissa, Erica, Tamera.

Slacker

Haven't posted in over a week - feel like a slacker! Or maybe I just feel like no one's reading anyway, so why bother? :-) Maybe I'll have a following one day. For now, I'll just muse about my latest training efforts. It's going well except that when I swam last night and tonight I feel so out of shape! I can't believe swimming is so hard. Those that do it well make it look so easy, but I guess that's true of any sport. I see great snow boarders going down the mountain while riding on the lift and think, "Wow, that looks so easy!" I think I'm just way too impatient - I want to be great at everything NOW! I want to lose weight NOW! I want to swim fast NOW! I keep having to remind myself that things worth achieving take time and as Lance Armstrong said, "It doesn't get any easier, you just go faster!" So true - if it were easy, everyone would be doing it and we wouldn't have an obesity epidemic on our hands.

I have XM radio and I have to admit I'm starting to get addicted to the "Oprah & Friends" channel. I've never really watched Oprah since I rarely find myself in front of the TV, but I do like talk radio as long as people are not arguing. What's weird is that the times I listen, I've never actually heard any of Oprah's shows on this channel! I've listened to Dr. Oz, Bob Greene, Dr. Robin Smith, and Gayle King. I think Gayle sounds a lot like Oprah. The shows are really good except for one by Jean Chatzky - she just speaks too slow for me and talks to you like you're in Kindergarten, but does have some good financial advice.

Anyway, I really like the Bob Greene show because he's doing some weight loss challenge and interviewing people. He's really up-front in his speaking style and forces people to get honest with themselves and while he does provide great practical eating and workout advice, he really helps people work thru the emotional side of why they got overweight, which I think is missed in so many diet books out there today. There are literally thousands of diet plans, but to find what works for you for good, ah, that's the hard part!! And he talked tonight about how you really have to own learning about what overeating is for you and to make a commitment to getting it right. Many people go on a diet, start an exercise plan, lose some weight and then fall off the wagon and end up exactly where they were or worse - heavier. It's hard. I think that's why I just never try to diet! Seems like you're doomed to fail and you'll just end up putting more weight on, so just keep the status quo and be satisfied. OK, that's a cop-out, I know. Anyway, another thing I liked that I heard today was from Dr. Robin Smith about having too many priorities and feeling stressed out - right up my alley :-) Check it out here.

Happy training all, or whatever you enjoy doing :-)