Chicago bound

So we escaped anything major from Tropical Storm Fay. We just got a TON of rain and a little bit of wind. All the schools were shut but reopened today. We are leaving for Chicago tomorrow! Gotta pack tonight & I won't be able to sleep because I am just toooooo excited! I swam in my wetsuit at the gym's pool last night. Its not the most comfortable experience, but it definitely kept me cozy and it definitely has positive buoyancy! I think I was actually a bit quicker in the water too. I just did a short swim as I am trying to keep things low key this week so I know my body will be 100% on Sunday, I was also roasting in the wetsuit!
Tomorrow will be a fun flight as we get to fly through our friend Fay. She plans on hanging around Florida for a bit, she'll probably still be here when we come back too. I like to fly, but I hate bumpy flights!
Well it's time to get packing. I am hoping I have time to sneak in a short run tonight, so we'll see.

Fell off the horse

Well today was not such a great day. I fell off the healthy eating/good calorie control bandwagon and then got run over by a mack truck, ugh! It was ugly today. Let's have a recap, shall we? Maybe writing it down will help me to avoid this in the future! Had my usual wheat free cereal for breakfast (not too bad). Had half a turkey sub for lunch (still not too bad). Also had honey mustard pretzels, a cherry turnover, more pretzels, a few tortilla chips, a bite of peanut butter, some orange milano cookies (yum) and some other stuff that is eluding me at the moment. For dinner I had my low fat version of mexican pizza, so that wasn't too bad. So the weather was super crappy today and I felt super crappy because of it. I had a splitting headache the entire day and just felt lousy, I'd like to think it was all the junk I ate making me feel bad, but I am guessing it was the weather. Why do I think that eating will make me feel any better???
So tonight I decided to go to the gym and work some of this crap off me, because I was doing pretty good and the scale was headed in the right direction for a while. So I spent 35 min on the dreadmill. For the first time in my life (ever) when I ran at 5 mph and it actually felt kind of slow. What???? Yes I actually wasn't dying at 5 mph and thought if I wasn't doing speed intervals tonight, I could have stayed there for a while. So I managed to interval my way from 5.0, 5.2, 5.4, ... up to 6.6! I told myself that I would do a 1 min sprint and then 2 min recovery. If I hit a HR of 175 I could stop before the 1 min was up. So I did pretty good. I didn't start to get close to 175 until I was up over 6.0. My knee felt pretty good, but just for good measure it will be ice and advil before bed :)
So after my running, I decided on doing some weight training. My main focus tonight was my upper body, because my legs got a good beating while running. So I eeked out several assisted pull-ups and dips, I did 60# on the chest press & lat pull down. Curled 65# on the bicep curl, 50# on the tricep extension, 50# on the seated row, 70# on the hip adduction/abduction, 55# on the fly/reverse fly and 110# on the seated leg press. I don't think there was anything else. So overall I had a calorie burn of 620 in 1:15. Not bad for it being a crappy day overall.
So tomorrow is more of the same crap. My workers are off tomorrow because the weather is supposed to be quite nasty. All of the schools are closed from 2 counties south to 3+ counties north of us. They don't like the buses running in that stuff. So no pre-school for my little one tomorrow. Today was her first day and she says she has a good time. About 16 kids in her class, mostly boys. She'll feel right at home bossing them around, lol. Most of her little friends are boys anyways. Her teacher said she did fine, so that was reassuring to hear. You can't help worry a little bit about how they will act/fit in with others. She has never really been around that many kids at once, and the few times she was, she was totally shy.
So today was laundry day around here. Worried that the power is gonna fail tomorrow, as it always does when we get just a little bit of wind. Every time we have a tropical storm or hurricane, it seems to be out for anywhere from a few hours up to a week! Yes a week without any power is a loooooong time. So we brought the generator home and fired it up so we are ready to roll if it happens. I had to make sure all of my stuff was washed and ready for packing, I can't believe that the Chicago Triathlon is here already! The weather forecast is calling for partly cloudy skies, a high of 80 and a low of 60. So the low of 60 will suck if I am in an early wave, but the high of 80 will be a nice change from the 90+ weather that I have been training in.
OK I'm off to bed now, feeling pretty beat and headache is coming back.

Final prep

Well today was our last official day of team training with "Team In Training". I borrowed my best friend's road bike and cranked out 25 miles, even had to borrow her shoes. Luckily we were close in size, but they were a bit small! It was a good ride, felt okay. It was nice to finish training in under 2 hours and get home as everyone was getting up. Kind of sad that this was our last session together. Maybe next year I will join up with them again, but next time I will be much quicker :) One can only hope that I can get quicker, hehe.
So Tropical Storm Fay is lumbering in this general direction. The computer models that forcast its track are literally all over the place. They show the thing striking anywhere from Naples to New Orleans. Who knows. I haven't done anything to prepare for it. We don't need shutters, we have a generator, so I guess all I need to do is bring the stuff in from outside, strap down the boat & fill up all the gas tanks. And that is if it only shifts its course towards us tonight, but as of now we are outside "the cone".
Little one starts pre-school tomorrow. That is a happy/sad day for mommy as my baby is growing up! I am hoping I can get into the habit of dropping her off and then hitting the gym right afterwards. Hopefully that plan will come to fruition. My knee is still hurting a little bit so I will probably go see the doc this week and have him take a look. I really don't want to do any damage running 6 miles next week, so it may revert to a walk. Yesterdays run did feel really good, but I am not digging the pain afterwards...
Week 2 pushup challenge got off to a slow start. I did Day 1 today with no problem. I maxed out at 20 on the last set :) I think after I get thru it, I will repeat the program, but doing "proper" pushups instead of on the knees ;)
This will be a busy week. Trying to get work tied up, dealing with tropical systems and getting all my crap packed and ready for Chicago. Can't wait!

No time for hurricanes!

So today was our last swim training before our big event next weekend. We swam 1500 yds non-stop and then hopped out of the pool and ran 3 miles. I must say it was a very good session. I think the time off this week has helped alot. At first my legs felt like lead, but after 5 min or so my legs felt fresh and ready to rock. I pretty much kept on a 3:1 ratio (3 min run, 1 min walk) and it felt really good. I forgot my Garmin today so I have no idea what my pace was, but it was quicker than usual. The swim was really good, it felt like I had a couple of those Ah-hah moments in the pool where you catch the water just right or have a couple of really good lengths and then the moment is gone :( Water temps in chicago are looking promising for next weekend: upper 60's to low 70's. I will be wearing a sleeveless wetsuit, but at least I won't be freezing in it!
I was really bummed out today to learn that the Miami Man Triathlon registration is full :( Really wanted to do that race but dilly-dally'd to long I guess. Oh well it's in November and that is the start of run season anyways. I really want to focus on improving my swim technique and running better this winter. I also plan on weight training 4x a week. The pushup challenge and doing assisted pull-ups at the gym has really improved my upper body strength. I can feel a difference swimming anyways!
So tonight we had dinner at a Brazilian steakhouse. It was awesome. If you have never been, it is quite different. You have something on your table to signal the waiters "bring on the food!". The "waiters" walk around with skewers of meat and cut it at your table for you. They have all different types of stuff: pork, chicken, beef (sirloin, filet, flank, etc), alligator, ribs, etc. You keep eating and they keep coming.
Tomorrow is our last biking practice. I borrowed my best friend's Jamis road bike and will be riding that at practice. Also we have a Tropical Storm (potential hurricane) headed in this general direction, so it will be breezy winds out of the Northeast tomorrow. Hopefully the storm will head elsewhere, but we will still get rain and wind from it! Luckily rain not coming til later on Monday, only isolated showers tomorrow!
Our daughter was supposed to be having a sleepover with grandma today, but now she got tired and had a mommy meltdown. DH is on his way to get her, ughhh, will she ever get over this?
So I am off to bed before they get back home cause I've got an early day tomorrow.

Happy B-Day

So today was my DH's b-day. Baddddd calorie day as we had Cheesecake Factory for dinner. I think typing that cost me another 100 calories! Oh it was good too :) I'm sure it will get worked off over the next couple of days. Our coach warned us to expect a rough workout this weekend, so I am thinking.... great.... just what I need. Funny we have having bike training on Sunday too yet hardly any of us have bikes! Everyone just dropped them off yesterday for shipping. We have been told to beg or borrow a bike for Sunday. Personally I don't think its a good idea because we have not been properly fit to that bike and could risk an injury training on a bike that is not properly set up. So needless to say I fear our coach and have borrowed my best friend's bike. Who am I to argue with success right? I can't imagine we will be having a long ride, but it is our last team training day together.
So my knee is feeling much better! Kudos to Dr. Fox for keeping me up & running. He told me to just keep it on ice and wait a couple days. Feeling back to normal today so I am excited that I will be able to run a little tomorrow (did I actually just say that, "I am excited to run", wow!). But yes I am. Allergies have been driving me crazy this past month!!!! I feel like I am literally going to sneeze my head off! I have been totally lax this week and done 0 training. Yeah 0, nada. Ouch.
Okay we are having a sleepover at our house tonight and the kiddo's are driving me crazy so I gotta cut it short.

Oh my aching knee :(

So this past weekend I had a sprint tri on Saturday and then Sunday our coach had us do a 35 mile bike ride. That bike ride sucked soooooo bad and I normally love being out on my bike. We did this same route last weekend too. The last 10 miles were shear hell. I actually stopped after 29 miles and just pulled over to the sidewalk for a bit to stretch my legs and have a little break. Ughh, I didn't want to forge ahead, but I was already behind my group because I was just out for an endurance ride, not a speedy ride. Avg speed was around 15.5 mph
So monday morning I get up and my left knee is just aching. I don't normally have knee trouble, but it was really bothering me to bend it. I just get all kind of foot issues (orthotics did wonders for my feet). So yesterday was a bit depressing because I was hoping to get a run in. Today is just as depressing because it is still aching :( I called my sports med dr and he told me to just ice it for a couple days and come on in if it is still misbehaving after that.
So I think tonight my plan will be a nice swim in the super chlorinated gym pool and some upper body weights. I start week 2 of the one-hundred push-ups tonight. I still do them girly style, but I can manage about 5 "real" ones.
My diet has been okay for the past few days. My calories have pretty much been in range, but the quality of food, not as good as I'd like.
Tomorrow my precious little road bike gets dropped off to get shipped to Chicago for my upcoming race. Very excited, but mildly concerned because of my knee. This was to be my last real training week before I cut back for the race. Oh well, time will tell I guess.
Rough a$$ day at work today, just too many things too deal with and it makes putting myself first very difficult. Also tomorrow is my daughters orientation for school, I will probably be in tears! My baby is starting pre-school. We got all her school supplies and uniforms and she is ready to go. Every day she asks if she is going to school, how long is that gonna last, hehe!

Loggerhead Race Report

Ok the down & dirty first:
3/8 mi swim: 12:20 (raging fast current out there!)
T1: 3:22
13 mi bike: 48:13 (bike felt horrible today)
T2: 1:24
3.1 mi "run": 50:22
Total: 1:55
Temperature was 87 degrees, felt like 120 degrees in the sun!
Alright so I got there an hour early and could not find a parking spot! Ughh. After 15 minutes of driving around, I finally parked illegally at the end of row, but I figured people were filling in every free patch of grass so what the heck.
Made the short stroll to transition, cause hey if I'm gonna park illegally I might as well park close :) Got my body marked, picked up my chip and set up my stuff. Met up with some fellow TNTers and chatted briefly. By now, its like 20 minutes before race start and I'm not even to the beach yet to warm up. Great start already I know. So of course, nature calls and I really need to use the potty, but of course the line is reallllllly long and there is no way I will make it. Yeah so that made for a really long race.
So there were 600 people signed up and I was wave 3 of 5. Our wave was pretty small: women 19 & under, 45 & over and my category: athena (short for slow (but fit), slightly overweight (but fit), very determined chics). So I managed to get in about a 10 minute warmup, because the start was gonna be a little late. The swim started out good, until i got hung up trying to get around the first buoy. Remember that ripping current I mentioned. Yeah well the thrash-fest was all pushed into the buoy and of course i get hung up on the line cause I can't even swim, I've got to tread water and eek my way out of this mess. So I am sure that hurt my time a bit. After I was free, we had a nice long straight run with the current. I was rocking it out and passing people, it was great :) And for once, they put the transition mats at the swim exit! But of course its only a short jog to the bikes, so go figure. I wore my new heart rate monitor (since its water resistant to 50m) and my heart rate was 175 at the swim exit! So coach can't say I wasn't pushing hard enough!
So I got to transition and was happy to see some of my fellow faster teammates getting their bikes ready. Wow I must of been right behind them, turns out I was only 30 sec behind getting out of the water! Yeah I was happy with that :) I think coach was happy too, because I got a slightly surprised "good job jen!".
So I got my shoes on and ran out of transition. Now the bike is my favorite and I do ok for someone over 200#. My average speed usually works out to 16.5-17 mph. Well I don't know what my body was doing, but my avg speed was closer to 16. There wasn't really any wind to blame, and figuring out my speed, I sure didn't feel that quick. I just felt like I really struggled. I managed to keep my heart rate hovering in the 160's.
So I get back for the run and make a really quick transition (for me anyways) and off to the run. So I started out quicker than usual, a good sign for coming off a sucky bike. Lots of water on the course too - thank you race director! By the way the race director is in China for the Olympics cause I think he is one of the docs for the tri team. He was trying to setup a link so the USA tri team could start the race remotely, but unfortunately it didn't work out. Our local guy that wins all the races around here, his sister is on the women's tri team for the usa. Her name is Laura Bennett. She comes from the Reback family that seems to just have athletics in their blood! Congrats to John Reback for an outstanding race today with #1 overall and a time of 56:54. Phenomenal! So anyway, I digress. So I finish the run in about 50 min. My run felt better than normal, I did more running than usual too. Singer Island a few weeks ago, I walked almost the entire course (and it wasn't a full 5k)!
So some guy yelled at me to stay to the right, but I was to the right of the traffic lane, just not all the way over into the crappy bike lane. The bike lane was full of gravel, bits of cars, etc. Of course he passes me and goes over into the bike lane and drafts behind someone for as long as I can see. There was alot of drafting going on, I'm not sure what the refs were looking at, but it wasn't people drafting.
So what had to be the highlight of the race was being passed about 200 yards from the finish by a 7 year old... yes I make no mistake here, a 7 year old. Did I mention that, I am assuming her dad, was running next to her... pushing a 4 seat stroller, yes 4 seats and they were all full! So I looked up the results and (wait for it) she comes from the family of athletes! Yes she is a Reback, destined for athletic fame and Olympic glory. So now I feel much better, haha. I saw the dad at last years Run for Pies 4 miler on Turkey Day. He also passed me then pushing the monster stroller, only the kids were much smaller then, hehe.
All for now, gotta shower and go eat pancakes. HRM says I burned over 1,600 calories and I am gonna get some back at IHOP :)
Oh yeah my workout summary says I hit a max HR of 206! I am pretty sure this was at the finish when I started to really book it! Its uploading into Motionbased now, so I'll know my speed very shortly. My average pace was 16:27, which is my best yet after a bike and swim. My speed at the finish was 7 mph so I am sure that is when my HR went thru the roof! Overall though my HR was around 86-90% of Max, so I was certainly pushing myself.
Well nerves are starting up already for this Chicago race. Ughh. We got one more day of bike training with coach and i am certain he will make it memorable and painful! After that I will have to start going back to spin to keep those legs moving!
Ok reallllly hungry now. Will post pics when they come up.

Gettin ready to race

So tomorrow I've got the Loggerhead Sprint Tri in Jupiter. I've gotta go for packet pickup this afternoon. Luckily I got this to coincide with a job I need to check out, so that works well. So tonight I will gather my gear, have a good dinner and get to bed early. Shouldn't be a problem cause I had to get up early to wait in line at the building department (before they opened). You'd think they were handing out free money or something?!?!
The guys are still working away on my pool & deck. It's almost demo'd, yeah! I gotta post a pic of the guys working, cause they are just too funny! Our bikes get shipped out to Chicago next week :( Guess I'll be breaking out my hardtail to ride.
Oh yeah down another pound today, oh happy day :))))))

Well the Loggerhead Triathlon is upon us. Saturday morning is the day, Jupiter is the place :) Our coach is using this as a tune-up for our bigger event, The Chicago Triathlon, in 3 weeks! Excited to say that we now have our plane tickets for Chicago, we just need to sort out some lodging details and we'll be good to go. My daughter is so excited about going on another trip!
So I had good intentions of working out today, but my day has just completely slipped by me. I did however treat myself to a new toy, you know how us triathletes (don't you just love that) love our little gadgets! Well I got a Polar F6 heart rate monitor. It's pink :) Its also water resistant to 50m, not waterproof though. I can use it for pool swimming, but should avoid snorkeling with it, go figure. Anyways it's pretty cool because I can program in my height, weight, age & gender, so it will actually calculate my calorie burn for me. I put it on just over 2 hours ago and I have just been puttering around the house and ran a couple errands and I have burned a whopping 291 calories. I just love working out. As I sit here and type this, my heart rate is only 63, awesome :) Of course not to awesome a calorie burn, but thats ok. I want to find my resting heart rate for when I am sleeping, so it should be quite interesting sleeping with that band around me. yeah...
So tomorrow afternoon we have packet pickup and the expo for saturday's race. I can't wait to see my cool shirts, as I have never done loggerhead before and I know they always have great shirts. Why else would I race right? We do it for the swag, I know. So triathlon season is sadly coming to an end in about 6 weeks and we will soon be into running season.

My remaining race wish list for the year:
8/17 - Singer Island Sprint Tri (this is a maybe, might do fat-tire since I won't have my bike, its being shipped out next week to chicago)
8/24 - Accenture Chicago International Distance Tri
9/7 - Tropical Tri (Sprint)
9/21 - Miami SS Triathlon
10/12 - Wellington Horse Country 10 miler or Disney's Race for the Taste 10k, hmmm
10/19 - Race the Troops Sprint Tri @ Tradewinds
10/26 - Either Space Coast Century Ride
11/9 - Miami Man International Tri
11/16 - 13.1 Fort Lauderdale ??
11/27 - Run for the Pies 4 miler
12/7 - Marathon of the Palm Beaches 1/2 Marathon
12/7 - Kids In Distress Inlet Challenge Cycle Ride - Metric Century


Ok off to crash now, can hear the thunder rolling in outside :(

Busy Weekend!

Today's workout:
35 mile bike ride: 2:20 min
3 mile run: 45 min

So today was awesome, I blasted 3,100 calories this morning! This was our last big training weekend before our upcoming triathlon in Chicago. Next week we have a tune-up sprint tri and then we will start to "taper".

So today we did a 35 mile bike ride (2,800 calories!) followed up with a 45 minute run (300 or so calories). All of this was followed up by a nice plate of blueberry pancakes and syrup, which probably negated my great calorie burn :)

The morning wasn't looking too good though. When I got up it was thundering and by the time I had to load my bike it was pouring down rain. I looked at the radar and it looked like it was headed right where I was going. But I was already up and I just can't get back to sleep once I'm upright, so I figured this is our last tough weekend and maybe the weather will cooperate. Worst case, we would all end up at Starbucks or breakfast if we didn't ride.

So I made the 30 min drive up there and when I arrived, everyone was sort of sitting around waiting on the coach to arrive and no one had unloaded their bikes yet. So coach rolls in a little late and says we're going and we'll probably get wet on the ride back. So low and behold, the weather stays really nice and overcast for most of our ride. Our ride started out with the normal 16-18 mph warmup for 5 miles, then they love to kick it into gear. If they do 20 mph I can hang, but past that I just can't handle. Well today they decided that 22-23 mph would be a good pace (and no there was NO wind). Well I managed to hang for about 2-1/2 miles before my heart wanted to beat out of my chest. So I ever so casually swung out to the left and dropped off the line :)

Of course we get back for the run and sun has come out and is heating everything up. A couple people on our team totally ran out of steam. One girl had to be picked up she was so beat. I think alot of them hadn't ridden that long a distance in a while (or ever) and hadn't fueled properly while we were out. It feels kinda "easy" riding the bike (as compared to running) and it is harder to fuel up, cause you sorta need to stop to suck down a gu or pack some stuff in your back pockets, but I don't think anyone but a couple of us bothered to keep gel'ing. I had one powergel and a 1/2 pack of sports beans. I got back from the bike and had a great slow run. The heat was killer, but I usually double-suck at running coming off the bike after a ride that long, but I was happy. I think 6 miles would have been doable today, but we were only doing 45 minutes.
All in all, it was a good training weekend.

Oh yeah I forgot to mention yesterday that it was the first time ever that I was I able to do pull-ups on the assisted pull-up machine! Yeah I did about 5. I also did the assisted tricep dip, but I can manage to always get a couple on that. Of course I had the weight offset on the machine set to the maximum :) Still I have NEVER been able to do a pull-up on this machine, I was so excited :)

Today's AM Swim workout:
4 x 100 yd warm-up
600 yd race pace (13:35)
3 x 200 yd
2 x 400 yd

Was really tired today, was a rough week of work, but got thru the swim okay.

Also did
30 min on elliptical
Ran 1 mile in 13:35
45 min of weight training

Was trying to make up for some of the bad crap that I ate towards the end of the week. Back up with my good eating habits now. Only 3 weeks to the Chicago Tri, I am nervous but excited.

My pool demo project is going okay. There is only a little more left to fill in, but now I have to work on busting off the top edge of the pool and the remaining deck. It's just been so hot! Can't believe how much sweat you can produce in 15 minutes slinging a shovel. After 3 hours of it, it gets pretty old and your hands hurt, hehe.

All for now, I'm beat and I have an early brick tomorrow. Coach is threatening extra cycling miles tomorrow :( We are already doing 30 miles and then running 4 miles afterwards, ughh.