Getting ready for a New Year and Gear

What are you doing for New Years?!  I'm doing something that I haven't been able to do in quite a while...NOTHING.  I've been running non-stop for holidays, family shenanigans, working like a crazy woman, and making a sad attempt to make the house look orderly.  So my treat for tonight is to do nothing, I'm sitting in my sweats watching Bowl Games and pestering Red.

I'm also figuring out how to better organize my life, organize my house, and trying a few new ways to make fun workouts more visible. :)  As promised in my last post, here are a few things that I am either recently obsessed with, or have been for a while.  

Clothing:

Betty Designs pretty much everything :)  I have a pair of her bike shorts and they're probably the best cycle shorts I've owned.  I just received the Mosaic Tri Kit for Christmas, being January it hasn't been tested but I'm certain it'll hold up just as well.

Zoot tri tops have served me well.  I'm a tiny person and for some reason a lot of people make tri tops that flare out at the bottom.  I don't want to swim with a cape, and Zoot fits me well.  They tri shorts are ok, but I have found the most comfort in K-Swiss tri shorts.

I've only ever been able to find K-Swiss shorts that I like at the Ironman Muncie expo.  I bought my first pair the night before my first race there in 2011, wore them brand new (typically a big race day no-no) but they worked perfectly.  I loved them!  Then, after 2 years of training and racing it was time to replace my K-Swiss shorts.  I found another pair at my 2013 Ironman Muncie expo and loved them just as much.

Training Fuel:

After a lot of experiments (some good, some bad, some just meh), I've found what works for me.

Bonk Break bars sit very well while on the bike and last through the run.  I like to actually chew my food while I bike and train, but not everything sits well.  These all taste good, are easy to handle on the bike, and don't cause issues.  Plus, you're not a sticky mess after eating them.

Clif shots (gels) have been my go to for easy fast fuel on the bike and run.  I like them most on the run because I can just suck on them and keep moving.  I started using them in running when I first did any endurance racing, and they've worked beautifully.  I started using too many during races, which caused problems, but now I know how many I need depending on my distance.

Skratch Labs is my hydration favorite.  Tastes great, sits well, and even after being in a bottle all day it doesn't taste chalky or settle out.

Those are a lot of my go to things for most of my training and such.  I love Yurbuds for my music, I got a new ipod for Christmas (my last one died after 5 years of abuse, I mean use), and I fly through shoes.  I love Mizuno and Asics.  I also love my Oakley sunglasses, but I seem to lose them every other year or so :(

Back to organizing or attempting to be a slug :)  

Until next year!

Killer New Year's Workout or the "I Hate You" workout

So this is a new workout that I've been having my clients do the past couple of days.  I figure with everyone doing their New Years Resolutions, why not have a new workout for it?  It's easy to modify, can require very little equipment, and goes quickly.  This series you will do 30 seconds of each exercise before getting a 2 minute rest, then you start that group of exercises again until you get all the rounds in.  An easy way to progress this is each time you repeat the workout you try to beat your number of reps of each exercise, or you increase your weights.  Or do both.  Here's the "I Hate You Workout"

Warm up (4 rounds of each)
High kicks
High skips
Grape vine
Squat walk KB swing

(4 rounds)
Bicep curls
Overhead triceps extensions
Push ups
Dead lifts
Sumo Squats

(4 rounds)
Crunches
Mt Climbers
Jump squats
KB swings
KB squat and pull

Gearing up for 2014

It's that time of year again!  I've had a very run intense "off season".  I use quotes with off season because I've been doing speed work every Tuesday, relaxing runs every Thursday, then long runs of form on Saturdays and Sunday.  This was all in preparation for a 50K that I had intended on doing in February.  That may be taking a backseat.  Why may you ask?  Because I hate being cold.  That's what it pretty much boils down to really.  I can not stand being cold.  Ali and I were supposed to run 10 miles when it was 22 degrees out and I had enough when we got to 8 miles, it was time to go be warm.  When you take off your tights and your legs are redder than a stop sign, it's time to stay inside.

Meanwhile.  Back to that time of year.  It's time to make up the race calendar, figure out what gear I'll need, and essentially start becoming Type A again and get things organized.  I'm not going to over organize though because it seems that every time I don't leave a little wiggle room then the world falls apart.  I would rather leave the world intact, thank you very much.  Anyway, I started going through my dream list of races last night and wanted to see what would work best with my ultimate goal of qualifying for Kona at Wisconsin.  So far my race list is looking a little bit like this:


April 6th: Ohio River Road Runners Half Marathon

May 4th: Flying Pig Half Marathon

May 18th: Rev3 Knoxville 70.3

July 12th (option 1): Half Ironman Muncie

August 10th (option 2): Half Ironman Steelhead

Then the Grand Finale!  SEPTEMBER 7TH! IRONMAN WISCONSIN!!!!

I have a lot of work to do, but I think it's all going to be worth it!  I found out today that a friend will be doing Rev3 Knoxville as well this year.  I'm also stoked that one of my really good friends lives in Knoxville, so I'm hoping to visit a couple of times so I can check what is listed as a "challenging" bike course.  It says it has twisting and steep descents, so this will be a good practice course for Wisconsin.  I'm labeling Steelhead and Muncie as optional races because I don't know which one I want to do.  Steelhead may be too close to Wisconsin, but I've already done Muncie twice and was less than impressed with the bike course.  Seriously, who has a "no passing zone" for two miles during a race?  If I do Muncie again though, I'm definitely shooting for a podium spot.  

Time to start making training blocks, getting my butt back in the pool, and breaking out the trainer!  My next post may be my list of Ironman Wish List for training for this coming season :)  

Reaching your goals

So this morning I woke up to a 5 page novel of a text message from a client visiting family out of state. Due to weather and travel schedules we will be going 2 weeks without a formal training session. I've had some clients go "Oh well, I'll pick back up after the holidays". Or "that's why people make new year's resolutions!  To deal with all the weight they put on during the holidays". I'm not a fan of these excuses, so I try to give my people some motivation or reasons to not fall off the wagon over the holidays. The text I received this morning was the complete opposite. She said "I'm trying to keep up with my workouts while I'm out here, but I want to include family. I don't want to offend you by asking, but would you mind making a few workouts for me to do with my mom and husband? ". Sure!  I proceeded to give her two butt kicking workouts where they would be easily adjusted for the less experienced and still give a workout for everyone. See, that's what people need to do. Go ahead and enjoy family time, indulge a little bit with the traditional foods, spend more time doing nothing but talking. It is the holidays, I get it,  but still take advantage of your resources and ask for workouts, assistance with foods,  whatever you need. Include friends and family and don't wait until January 1st to kick off their healthy 2014. There's a way to get everything that everyone wants and still be fun. You don't have to say "I'm eating healthy this year" or "I'm trying to lose weight so I won't eat any blah". Use your brain and eat in moderation. If you indulge a little bit then go for a workout. Instead of eating, unwrapping presents, and napping,  go play with the kids or go for a walk and enjoy quality time with a relative you only see once in a while!  Have fun and Merry Christmas!

Functional

The time has come, the time is now, annoying breast cancer, will you please go now?

Emotional blows are the single hardest thing to process.  There are waves of uncertainty, anger, sadness, obnoxious hyper-ness (not a word, get over it), irritability, and confusion.  There is also numbness where everything hits at once and you don't know which emotion to feel, so you don't feel anything.  That's when you are just "functional".  Last night my mom and Grandma called to inform me that the time has come for major decision making.  Grandma has been fighting her evil cellular parasite (breast cancer) since January and has been doing a stellar job.  She hasn't complained, she just says "what's next?".  Well after 2 rounds of chemo, 7 weeks of radiation, and a laundry list of drugs, the cellular parasite will simply not go away.  Complications, rebounds, ups, downs, and everything in between have come to this woman and she hasn't flinched.  So yesterday they decided do we keep fighting with medicine and not guarantee anything other than a slew of doctors appointments, medications, bills, and treatments?  Or do we decide to let her do whatever the world she wants and progress from there?  It was decided that medical intervention would no longer be a thing.  She's tired of constantly planning her life around doctor appointments and treatments.  She wants to do everything on her "own".  I put own in quotations because regardless of her thought of doing things by herself, we're all still 100% behind, beside, and in front of her.  Surrounding her with love and support.  The term that the doctors and others have use to label this decision is "hospice".

Hospice has so many negative connotations that it borders suicidal in thought processes.  She's the exact same woman, her body is the exact same, her mind is the exact same, her heart and love are the exact same.  The only difference is now there will be nurses to help with her current medications, and she won't be going through any treatments.  It is an assistance in this case because the Hospice company now takes care of her bills, covers medications, and ensures that she is able to get whatever care she needs to make life easy.  She won't have to be labeled as a Home Health case to get nurses, and Home Health is where the patient is "home bound" in order to get nursing assistance.  Grandma HATES the prospect of anyone labeling her as "home bound".  Yeah right.  Not a thing.  With "Hospice" she is allowed to do whatever she feels like and not have to worry about it being "too much" for whatever coverage she has for bills and medications and assistance.  This is an organization that assists those that have a terminal diagnosis and they want to make life a little bit easier.  You can be on hospice for years.  It does not have to be a short term schedule.

I understand this, I know what it all means, but the emotions that are attached to the word "hospice" are still just as strong.  This is why I label myself as "functional".  I've run through the entire list of emotions and my body can't decide which one it wants to deal with first.  Despair?  Fear?  Sadness?  Anger?  Hope?  Stubbornness?  Hatred towards God?  Insanity?  Love?  Confusion?  Numbness?  If you see me running around like a complete crack head, doing sprints, monkey-ing on pull up bars, or just looking like a lunatic, that's because that is just about the only defense I have left.  There is nothing that I can do to stop this cellular parasite from continuing it's war against my Grandma.  There wasn't anything I could do when she was going through treatments either, but the constant treatments and doctors visits brought about the illusion of treatment.  The odds really are about the same with or without treatment.  If the tumors were able to grow during treatment, or immediately after treatment stopped, then they are just as stubborn as she is.  So there's no stopping them.  There's no stopping her either.

Yes, my family is heart broken.  Yes, our last line of hope with treatments has been cut and we're left hanging there with the cut end watching hope fly away from us.  But that doesn't change who she is.  It just takes away the mirage, illusion, figment of our imagination, whatever you want to call it, from us so we no longer know where to ground ourselves.  Before it was, "what's the next treatment?", "What't the next step?".  Now we don't know.  Do we ground ourselves in faith?  Hope?  Love?  Aliens?  Voodoo?  What?  I don't know anyone who has the answers, because there isn't one.

Do what you need to cope and deal with everything, but remember that Grandma isn't giving up and she is proud of all of us because we don't know how to give up.  We have all overcome something in our lives and have all become successful in our own rights.  She loves us and loves the fact that we are all strong.  Temporary weakness is normal, but don't let it become the overwhelming norm.  Until I figure out however I'm dealing, I will continue to just be functional.  Functional is what will get us through the day, because time will pass no matter how we feel.  Happiness is a stretch, functional is now.

A runner on the hunt for jeans

I think that Red hit the nail on the head today during our search for my newest pair of jeans.  America is getting fat and the jean design choices are proving it left right and center.  I should say that it's the lack of jean choices that are making this painfully obvious.  I realize that I am much smaller than the average bear, but the proportions on these jeans just do not make sense!  I used to swear by American Eagle jeans because I could find the perfect size every time.  Their size 2 short hit the right length, fit my legs, and my waist, and they were reasonably priced!  My most expensive pair was about $49 but I usually had a coupon or went when there was a sale, so they weren't that bad.  Then America Eagle decided to go with that stretch denim nonsense which made the fabric feel weird, not last as long, and didn't fit the same.  Red then turned me to Express jeans for 3 years.  I didn't have a huge problem with Express before trying them out, it was just that they were too expensive.  I mean, upwards of $90 per pair of jeans was just ridiculous to me.  Well he bought me a pair of jeans from there for Christmas what will be 4 Christmases ago now and they still look brand new.  They fit really well, fitting short people without having to hem them, and just felt good.  He also knew about their coupons of $25 off a purchase of $75 or more plus their Black Friday deal of about 50% off of everything.  So he was on top of the deals and could usually buy each of us two pairs of jeans for the price of one pair of jeans when it was all said and done.  Well this Black Friday was no different, and Red headed out to grab our jeans from Express, but they were made differently this year.  I tried on the jeans he grabbed and they were WEIRD.  They were a "slim boot", so virtually no flare at the end and they were the strangest cut up top  that I have ever encountered.  The legs were kind of tight, not too much, and were made out of a weird stretchy material that I wasn't much of a fan of. The kicker was the waist.  Good grief, who designed these things?!  The legs were fine, even in a zero, but the waist was so wide and ridiculous that I am positive I could have snuck a small child in the top part of my pants.  I felt like a freaking marsupial!  I know that I do squats, lunges, run, and bike which makes my legs muscular, but let's think about this shape.  The legs are tight but the waist is abnormally large.  You would have to have a beer gut to fill these jeans out.  Not even remotely attractive to think about that proportion.  Yeesh!  After the debacle in Express we ventured to the Buckle.

First off, I have found a less expensive pair of jeans in there.  They're the "Leo" or whatever, but they're about half the price of the BKE and Rock jeans and a third the price of the "vintage" jeans.  I like the fact that the majority of the jeans are sized not by 0, 1, 2, 3, etc, but more by actual measurements of 25x29 or 26x31, makes my life infinitely easier.  So about 50 pairs of jeans later I finally found a pair that I'm happy in, but the problem is that they are too long.  Not all of their cuts in the Buckle come in their short cut, which is disappointing.  The big bonus to this store though is that they offer free alterations.  We're talking hemming, not full blown dress fixing.  But still, it's quite nice!  My issue with altering the jeans is that they are so long that the amount I have to have hemmed completely ruins the cut of the jeans. So my BKE Stella Bootcuts turn more into a skinny or straight leg.  If I liked the straight leg jeans or skinny jeans then I would be in heaven.  They fit me, but I'm not a huge straight leg fan.  I've been looking on their website though and I've found a few more designs and styles that I would like to try out.  I don't necessarily need jeans, I just like to get a new pair of jeans every year.  The upside to me not growing is the fact that I don't have to buy jeans until they actually wear out, which takes a really really long time.  The downside to me never growing is that I have the same jeans today as I did when I graduated high school.  I do still have one pair of jeans that are still hanging on by a thread since my senior year in high school.  Meh, I'll find another pair of jeans eventually.  I'll just stay the same size and in a couple of years my style of jeans will come back into style.  I would say that my training and lifting is why I can't find a new pair of jeans, but jeans that I've had for years fit almost the exact same as they have since I got them.  So I'm thinking that's not the issue.  I think Red was right and America is fat and designers are taking that into consideration so now they are more concerned with people having spare tires around their middles than trying to fit short skinny people. Meh.

Snow Day!

Snowmaggedon.  Snowphoon.  Snowpocolypse.  Whatever snow terror you wish to call this, is now upon us!  Last night it was raining and just flat out cold.  Red and I went to the UC v. Louisville game and what we got to see was a really good game.  Cincinnati really needs to work on actually catching the ball, that was our GIANT problem.  I mean we had people wide open, they would touch the ball, then let it go all the way through their hands.  Gah!  We lost in overtime so it was at least a fight the whole way.

Now, when I got up to go to work this morning all that rain was on its way to becoming freezing rain.  My car was encased in a sheet of ice, but thankfully it wasn't too thick and was really easy to get off.  My 5am, 7am, and 9am clients all came in fine, must have been an odd hour happy day.  My 6, 8, and 10ams didn't want to come in because of the weather.  Meh, 50/50 for the day.  Being in a 100% commissioned position has its ups and downs and today turned out to be an up.  We are fortunate to have a 24 hour cancellation policy, so I was able to still get paid, but it was nice to see my clients who came in are the ones really dedicated.  I did have a 12p client who didn't come in, but that wasn't because of fear for the weather, it was more because every school in Cincinnati closed before a single flake hit the ground which meant that kids were home that are normally in school.  So they couldn't leave.  But that was all before the snow ever hit the ground.  Last night I was super happy to go to the UC game and knew that I was going to have very little sleep.  So when I got home early from work I decided to take a quick nap.  You know how that goes, a quick nap turns into a couple of hours.  I laid down and it was still kind of freezing rain, but there wasn't an ounce of snow anywhere.  My mom called and woke me up 2 hours later....and there was snow everywhere.  To me it wasn't enough to warrant all the chaos, worry, and cancellations that had been going on for the past week, but it was a significant amount.  I mean, considering about a half inch had coated the ground in two hours, but it's not that bad.  Right now I'm waiting for Red to get home from work and hoping that the terrible Cincinnati drivers stay out of his way.  It snows a decent amount every single year in Cincinnati, but every year they act as if it has never snowed here.

Tomorrow is going to be very very interesting.  Hopefully the crews can get around to the streets early on because I have to work from 7a-2p tomorrow.  It should be fine though because there usually aren't many people on the roads early in the morning.  After work I'm really hoping to hit Harbin Park again and get in a nice 5-6 mile trail run in.  It should be really pretty in all of the snow.  I'll be busting out my super thick winter running tights, and probably a couple of layers on top, along with my wool socks for my run tomorrow.  The high is only supposed to be about 23 degrees :/  The upside to all of this snow is that it will insulate everything a bit, so the trails will be slippery, but hopefully not horrifically cold.  I will be layered to the max though because I don't want to be cold, but I still want to train in anything that isn't a treadmill!

I don't like to be cold

So Red and I have a constant debate about how warm or cold to keep the house.  I'm am perpetually cold and couldn't be happier to be nice and toasty warm all day, every day.  Red is the complete and total opposite and would be just as happy to be cold and doesn't care if there is a chill in the room.  If I had things my way the house would be 75 degrees year round.  We "agreed" to try to decrease the energy bill by having it only at 70 for this winter, it's not working on saving energy and I'm still constantly frozen.  I am always in sweats, shorts, hoodie, t-shirt, AND socks just trying to stay warm.  Nine times out of ten I'm still covered in a blanket because I can't get warm.  When I'm cozy and warm, Red is sweating and uncomfortable.  

I partially blame this on running.  I went for a run earlier today, and it was fairly nice out, about 45 degrees when Ali and I started out.  When we were on our way home the wind had picked up and the temperature dropped significantly.  My thumbs always get cold for some reason, no matter how much I tuck them into my hands or wear gloves, but here lately they are reaching a new level of cold.  I couldn't feel my right thumb because it was so stinking cold.  I took an incredibly hot shower once I got home and finally started to get some feeling in my hands.  We only went 14 miles and were outside for about 2:15, so my hands shouldn't have been that bad.  I now stand corrected.  Poor Ali has to deal with my whining while we're outside, then Red has to deal with me once I come inside.  Last week it was 25 degrees when we took off for our 10 mile run.  About 8 miles in I still had not warmed up and was decidedly over the cold and wind and Ali ended up driving my wimpy butt home.  She fortunately lives 2 miles from me and we passed her apartment on our way to my house to finish the run, so when she offered to drive me home I was not going to turn her down.  I was wearing plenty of layers, but I forgot a hat and I wore my thinner tights instead of my thickest.  Oops.  But that didn't matter too much because I couldn't feel most of my body but when I went to get in the shower to warm up, I realized that my legs were so cold that they had turned red.  My nose was red for 2 days, my friend Miller was making fun of me because my nose was still so red.  Hmph.  

I better get used to the cold and learn to dress in different layers if I think that this 50K in February is going to happen.  I'm hoping that the really cold days are few and far between.  I should be able to tolerate 30's, but the 20's will most likely not be a thing.  Here's to a lot of hot showers and getting my layers right!

Thanksgiving, most thankful and emotional Thanksgiving to date

Ok, I realize that the majority of the world posts their "I'm thankful for" list before or during Thanksgiving.  I'm a little behind.  I'm behind because I was a bit busy.  This Thanksgiving struck a new chord of thankfulness for the Davie-Chaney-Bremner-Whitson family.  It is painfully obvious that the center of our family is my ridiculously strong Grandma.  None of us know what we would do without her, and that thought has begun to enter my mind more frequently than I ever wanted to admit.  Every day she is more and more impressive as she continues to fight with Breast Cancer and shows no signs of quitting.  We've been having our ups and downs here lately, thankfully the ups have out-numbered the downs, but the downs are always heart wrenching.  My Grandma went through her radiation treatment like a champ and didn't complain once.  She had 7 straight weeks of 5 days a week treatment and she found the best way to look on the positive side.  She never needed to worry about having a shortage of drivers to take her to and from treatments.  The downside/upside to her treatments were they were about 30-45 minutes away from her house and the appointment was around lunch time.  The giant benefit of this timing is that the drive meant we had good solid one-on-one conversations with Grandma to and from her treatments, plus most all of us would stop on the way home and have lunch of form.  This meant that we would get a good few hours of just Grandma time and could learn something new, re-live old stories, or just hang out and catch up on things going around us.  This was definitely a blessing in disguise!  She finished her treatments about 3 weeks ago, perfect timing for the holidays, but this lead to a new obstacle.  Grandma was put on a blood thinner to prevent clotting, well.....it didn't work.  Tuesday of Thanksgiving week she had an ultrasound on her leg because it had swelled and was getting painful and it turned out that she had an extensive DVT.  This is frightening on many levels because a DVT can break off and throw mini clots to your heart, brain, or lungs and cause all kinds of problems, the main fear would be death.  This scared us like no other.  She got to stay in the hospital for a couple of nights but then was released just in time to come home for Thanksgiving dinner/lunch.

My sister and I had come down on Wednesday night so we could start some of the food prep.  Grandma had her watchful eye on us all the way from the hospital by her calling us, and us calling her, about 10 times lol.  She would call to make sure we didn't forget something, then we would call her to clarify something we thought we remembered but turned out she always made and we were really clueless.  We did make her a little sad one time because mom called her to have her listen to Sam and I make the turkey sing and dance.  Yes, we are 28 and 23 years old and we act like 5 year olds, deal with it.  The story behind this is that last year Sam and I were put in charge of prepping the turkey and some how, SOME WAY, we managed to de-spine the turkey.  We THOUGHT we were taking out the neck, but when we finally tore it out an hour later we realized there were vertebrae and it wasn't nearly as pliable as it should have been.  Then we laughed so hard we almost cried.  Well this year we were trying to include Grandma in our shenanigans and it really just turned out to make her miss being part of the festivities in person.  The positive side is that we didn't burn the house down, and we didn't have Thanksgiving without Grandma.  Sam stayed the night at Grandma's house so she could start the turkey and other cooking in the morning.  I went back to mom's house for the night to help her with things.  In the morning when mom went into town to help Sam, I was supposed to be driving right behind her, but I decided to go to the hospital and I was not leaving until Grandma was coming home with me.  Well, about 2 hours after I got to the hospital Grandma was free to go.  We had a few hoops to jump through because of her meds, but she came home!  That afternoon when we were all finally gathered around for food we had the most emotional start to Thanksgiving ever.  We had twenty-one people gathered in our living room.  That's right, TWENTY-ONE.  Grandma stood at the top of the circle wanting everyone to hold hands and said she wanted to thank everyone for everything they did, the cooking, driving, visiting, and such.  But not much more got out beyond thanking us for everything and that we mean so much to her.  Then she cried, and we all cried.  My cousin Shawn said grace right away and all you heard were sniffles as he was thanking God for our blessings of having a great family, bringing Grandma home for Thanksgiving, and allowing us to all be together and enjoy this food.  There wasn't a dry eye in the house after that.

My family is special.  A few people have told me that my family is weird, I'm down with that.  I am a firm believer that if the way my family works is weird, then I certainly do not want to be normal.  I love that we can all hang out randomly, we don't need an excuse.  I love that we've grown up together and fight and love more like siblings than a giant group of cousins.  We have a stronger bond than most families and I love every bit of it.  A few people (outside the family) have made the comment that after Grandma passes that our family will probably drift apart, just like normal families, and we won't see each other nearly as much.  Grandma is our rock, and we are her rock, but we also have grown up together in such a way that we have the strongest foundation that I have ever seen.  There will unfortunately be a time when we will not physically have Grandma with us, but that won't change us getting together for holidays as a giant family, and it won't change the fact that she'll still be with us.  Right now our main family gatherings are; Summer Birthdays Party, Pumpkin Carving, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.  Those are the ones that happen every year and are gatherings that I look forward to.  I know these will continue, but we will just be gathering at a different house.  But we will all still be together.

A small side-step.  My family is weird.  Shawn asked if I would run with my younger cousin, Titus, on Friday for a 5k.  Sure!  I text Red, who was still in West Chester because he had to work later, and asked him to grab my winter running gear.  Friday evening Titus, who is 10 years old, and myself ran our first 5k together.  He had ran a practice 5k on Monday in 27 minutes and wanted to beat that, so we ran a 26:28.  He had way more left than I anticipated, so we sprinted out the finish.  Next 5k we do I'm definitely pushing him more.  I didn't want to kill him, and figured that as long as he was running behind me that was all the faster he wanted to go, next time will be much faster.  I know he has a 24 in him!! :D

For all my family who read this, I LOVE EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU!

Take care!

Mental and Emotional Energy

So it's not a secret that I seem to get my energy from the sun.  Summer is my single most favorite season, I'm ridiculously energized and happy on sunny days regardless of season, and when it's cloudy and crap-tastic it takes me a little bit more effort to be my hyper self.  Some people say that "it's all in your head" on how energized you feel, and in part this can be very true, but there is also some truth to the fact that natural light and vitamin D can directly effect your mood, which can help with your energy level.  You'll be hard pressed to find someone who is in a foul or depressed mood but wants to get a lot accomplished and is successful at finishing anything they start with any amount of quality.  The opposite works too, if you're energized and feeling great then you are most likely to finish anything you start and end up having energy left over to tackle another task.  I'm trying to teach my clients some time management, because that could definitely help, but I feel like all the time management in the world won't help them accomplish everything they think they have to do.

This is where a fun conversation between Adam and myself drops in perfectly.  We joke that I'm constantly trying to organize my client's lives and all the junk that they have to do in order for them to make it to the gym.  I was also listing my "to do" list for the day and it was epic.  We started laughing because we looked at the list and I was like "yep, today is a day that I have so much to do that all I'm going to do is take a nap".  My list was overwhelmingly long, it was cloudy and crappy outside, and people were being incredibly draining that day.  For as hyper and happy as I am, I really don't like being around a lot of people.  There are a select few people that I can be around all day every day and still be just as peachy as before.  But when I have to be a super hyper/happy midget all the time and attempt to encourage people who genuinely don't want to be in the gym all day, it gets draining.  I go in to work at 5am and typically get home between 1:30 and 3:30 depending on the day.  Most days I immediately take a nap simply because I feel exhausted.  I could probably run or lift or do whatever physically, but emotionally and mentally I'm shot.  After my nap, in the quiet of my nook, I'm quite happy.  Adam and I were also discussing the benefits of vitamin D and how living in Ohio sucks for people who are so kryptonian like myself. (My friend Phil dubbed me Kryptonian after spending a day with me at Kings Island.  It was a partly cloudy day and he started cracking up because I didn't notice that when the clouds were gone I was smiley, hyper, and happy.  Then when the clouds covered the sun I was just meh, still happy, but sat still and not as active.)  Well I started experimenting with different doses of vitamin D, something that we get from the sun, and I don't know if it really is in my head or not, but I feel worlds better when I started taking it.  I'm currently on vacation in California, and not taking the vitamin D, but I am much happier hanging out in the sun and regardless of my surroundings, I don't feel nearly as drained.  Granted, I've escaped to San Diego to be with one of my mellow friends, Danielle, and I'm pretty sure there isn't a draining thing in this apartment, area, or person, so it's incredibly nice to get away.

Speaking of getting away, I'm going to go run in my most favorite place on earth simply because I can. There's a lagoon that I love to visit every time I come here, and I think I've found a great trail to get in 6 miles for the day.  This brings me back to my previous point about how people are draining.  Yesterday morning I was in LA from Friday night until Saturday morning, and regardless of the fact that we were supposed to be running on the beach, I wanted nothing to do with running or being around anyone.  I just woke up and I was drained, which points out how not being left alone can be quite draining.

Check out my friend's page where he talks about energy management.  He wants people to figure out their highs and lows of energy so they can figure out when they would be the most productive.  I want people to figure out their source of energy, mine is the sun, or vitamin D.  What's yours?  When do you feel better?  Do workouts give you energy, or do you need to get more energy before working out?  Do people leave you feeling drained but usually happy (introverts), or does being around people boost your mood and you'd rather never spend any time alone (extroverts)?

Toodles, here's Adam's page about managing your energy once you figure out where you get your energy! 

Shenanigans and mini vent

So this is how you know you have a good running buddy. I was driving to work on Thursday morning and heard about a half marathon that was going to be in Mason on Sunday (today).  What do I do?  I don't ignore or just go "that's neat".  No, I text my running buddy and ask her if she had heard of it.  She takes a whopping 10 minutes to look up the race, what it supports, the course, entry fees, and weather, then signs up.  Her next text is "oh!  Sounds good hold on" "Ok, I'm signed up".  I didn't even say I was doing it yet!  Well, I naturally ended up doing it because I couldn't let her do it on her own!  So mmmyeeess Ali and I signed up on Thursday for a race that was Sunday and didn't really even bat an eye.

Well race day came this morning and we trotted out freezing our butts off for the first mile.  It was about 38 degrees when we started, but we dressed appropriately so we weren't super cold.  We were both warm by mile 1.  So I had to remind super long legs here that we were supposed to be doing a training run.  Something relaxing and fun, not out to win.  Constantly having to remind her to slow her 6 foot tall frame to slow it down was actually entertaining because I always had a smart alack way to say something to her about slowing down.  Around mile 5 though I almost screamed at her because we were running a decent pace, and it didn't feel horrendous but I figured we would pay for it later.  Yeah, that pace was 7:20.  Crack-head.  I told her to slow her psycho butt down or else I was going to throw my shoe at her, tell her to pick it up, then bring it back to me.  Like I said, it was entertaining.  We also came up for a headline for the Cincinnati Enquirer during one of the water stops.  I was slowing down a touch to drink some water because the last time I tried to keep up with her I choked on the water and thought I would drown.  She laughed at me since I was slowing down and I said "wouldn't that be a sight.  "Master swim team coach drowns during half marathon.""  The lady running behind us was cracking up because we were ridiculous.  Oh, and fyi, it's really hard to laugh hysterically and run hard at the same time.  Your body really appreciates it when you breath normal when you're running.  Meanwhile, Ali ended up having to drag my untrained butt the last mile and a half because my legs were shot!  I felt like my legs were going to fall off or just completely quit very very soon.  We finished in 1:53 and some change, pretty good for an impromptu half marathon that we didn't train for.  We realized about 50 yards into the race that our longest run since August was a 9 mile run that we did 3 weeks ago.  Oops.  Oh well, it turned out just fine!

Ok, on to my mini vent.  I have a tiny pet peeve with people.  Mostly people who are supposedly desperate to lose weight, really want help, and beg for training.  If you know you're in bad shape and you know that you don't know what you're doing, why on God's green earth would you decide to quit training?!  That's akin to wanting to become Yanni and hiring all the best teachers but only wanting to practice once per week then decide that you're going to try it on your own, and oh yeah, take up ping pong and see how your piano skills come along while playing ping pong.  :/ This doesn't make any sense!  I have had people tell me to my face "I know I need to lose at least 150lbs and I know what to do and what I should eat.  I just don't want to do any cardio because I hate treadmills, and I don't want to lift heavy weights because I don't want to look bulky." For those of you who know me quite well, it is taking every single solitary ounce of strength and will to not make my famous "you're a freaking idiot" face.  I still slip up and show that face sometimes, but it's far less frequently than it really could be.  If you want to see change then you have to make changes yourself.  Having someone who is already where you want to be in front of you does not mean you changed.  If you don't know what you're doing, that's fine.  You want to learn, that's great!  You know you need someone to help you so you hire someone to teach you.  This is also a great plan because it's a way to have your own personal tutor for a language you don't understand.

Mini-rant over for now.  Ok, well I'm going to go back to my meal plan because it's Sunday, which means tomorrow is Monday (grocery day).

Happy Training

Frustrated

So I just had my eyes opened at work today.  I am apparently a phenomenal trainer, great with people, and do a wonderful job at helping people reach their goals/feel better about themselves.  But I guess I'm terrible at my job because I don't sell things.  I just got out of a 30 minute meeting where the take away was I service too many sessions and don't make opportunities to sell stuff.  If I wanted to sell things then I would have taken a job in sales, not personal training.  Everyone would like to have a lot more money, a lot more things, and a lot more of just more.  Cue the girl from the weird kid commercial "I want more, we want more, we just want more".  I apparently have my priorities backwards because I don't want more money.  I mean I do, don't get me wrong, but right now it is the least of my worries.  I am currently making the most money I have ever made in my life, and I'm happy with it.  I am quite happy where I am and how I'm doing.  I'm able to workout and better myself as an athlete (little secret life ambition of mine to be a professional athlete of form), I am able to set my own schedule for the most part and do what I want.  I can finally pay for my bills without constantly having to reach into my savings and pray that I can pick up extra hours from a second job.  I don't want a lot and I don't want to be greedy, but the constant nudge that I shouldn't be happy until I'm making some imaginary number is driving me crazy.

I have been told that I have the best retention rate of clients for new trainers.  I am a firm believer that if it isn't broken then don't fix it.  I tell my clients what to do and let them learn from their mistakes.  If I say to not drink yourself silly over the weekend and to not eat a bunch of crap then it's probably because those things won't help you lose weight and look and feel the way you want to.  Then when you do what I tell you not to and gain weight it isn't my problem and I will say "ok, you did it your way, let's do it mine."  They do it my way and lose weight, shocker.  These are the same people that if I pushed them to buy supplement after supplement or test after test that they would just walk away and I would be without a client.  Apparently I'm supposed to push sales and let people walk away so that I can replace them with people who will buy whatever I want them to.  I don't want retards that just parrot what I say, take everything I tell them as gospel truth, and refuse to think for themselves.  I like people who have something a little bit wrong with them, or just simply don't want to do what I say just because I said so.  "Because I said so" isn't science, it isn't training, it's just telling you what to do and hoping that you'll spend enough money to pad my paycheck and let me play with your wallet until you lose the weight that you want to lose.  I don't want a brainless idiot that will buy whatever I want them to, I want them to buy what I want them to because they see the value in it and understand it will help them.  If they don't want to buy something I want them to understand what they're doing and why they're doing it.  If they don't understand then I want them to be willing to learn.  People will only see sustainable results when they're willing to learn and understand they why and how.  If not then they will just repeat whatever the fad is and see quick results but then yo-yo back to their previous position and go "I don't understand, I ate what you said but then you stopped thinking for me so I gained everything back".  I don't want to think for you, I want to teach you.  I guess this is wrong way to go about things.  I'm a great trainer because I have people that will stay with me forever because they like what I do and how I treat them.  I'm apparently a terrible trainer because I'm not saying "wow, this combined home income is $300,000!  I should make them buy testing, the most expensive heart rate monitor, supplements out the wazoo, and training until the cows come home!".  I apparently missed a memo somewhere that said "thou shalt not be happy until thou makes x amount of money".  Did anyone else get it because I certainly didn't.

What I should really do is just open my own gym.  You know the movie Patch Adams with Robin Williams?  My all time most favorite movie in the world.  He wants to have a free hospital where people can go for treatment and not have to worry about the cost of the medical bills but just focus on getting better.  I want to open a gym version of that.  Make it Biggest Loser style where people come to workout, learn how to eat healthy and train healthy, and actually see results.  Instead of being voted or kicked out each week by being under the line or whatever, they only get kicked out for being unwilling to try.  There are some contestants that you can clearly see that they used their sob story to get on the show in hopes that they can just get by and not make any real changes just so they can get the money at the end.  There would be no money to be had at my gym, just hard work and results.  None of this "I'll only train you if you're willing to take 4 supplements (which based on our portion size equates to 12 pills per day), train 3 days per week, have heart rate monitors out the butt, and do 4 different types of stress tests".  When I'm talking stress tests I'm not talking the cardiological medical useful stress tests to determine if you have an issue with your heart.  I'm talking spit in a vial 3 times a day to figure out that you have high coritsol.  I have a stressful job and life I don't need to spend $200 and spit into something for 3 days to figure out my stress hormones are high.  Waste of money.

This rant is getting a wee bit winded.  I'm going to call it and go back to things that I like to do, like train people.  If it's not good enough for you then fire me.  I'm a trainer, not a sales person, I'm sorry that my life goals don't match up to yours.

Planning

So I'm officially training for a 50K this week. It's going to be the Rocks and Roots 50K trail run at Alum Creek February 9th.  I was starting to miss structured training and meal planning.  I haven't done trail running in forever, so I'm looking forward to running around in the mud, dirt, and jumping in water :)  I'm going to start taking my Zo pup with me on some of the shorter runs because she loved running the trails when we would go to Red River Gorge.  To help me organize my life I've tweaked my meal planning spread sheet a little bit to include a workout column.  This has helped keep grocery bills down, my week a little less hectic, and stop any arguing about what's for dinner.  What do you want for dinner?  Check the fridge, what does the sheet say?  Problem solved.  This has also helped when we are going to be using the Crock Pot because I make sure everything is set up/out to just toss in the Crock Pot, plug it in, and head out the door.

I know a lot of people have hectic schedules and need some help figuring out their lives.  Everyone has the same problem of figuring out what to have for dinner, where does anyone need to be, what time does x, y, and z need to happen, and what all needs to get done today.  I've started keeping a small notebook in my bags to use as my brains annex.  I have so much going on between family, training, work, trying to start a new program, and life in general that I simply don't have space for it all in my brain.  I just write the date at the top of the page and write everything that I need to accomplish between dusting, laundry, to emails that I need to send to my manager, or anyone I need to reach out to.  It helps me see what my day could look like and prioritize things as I go.  If I see my list takes up an entire page then I start weeding it out on things that are only absolutely necessary.  I know a lot of people have trouble figuring out what they should do and end up sitting around doing nothing because they don't think they'll get through the list anyway, so why begin?  Nothing will happen if you don't start it, so you may as well start and get through the best you can.

This is roughly what my life looks like sometimes, it's not all in these boxes, but it's a start.  I also haven't put in my mileage for the week because I'm still working that part out with my coach.  But it will let me see what days will suck for training and what days I should be able to be the most productive and accomplish the most.  This will also be useful for when I start making my Christmas presents.  I love making my presents, but they just take a while to get through.  I just need to plan better so I don't end up doing a sewing marathon like I do every year and I basically don't move from my sewing machine for hours at a time.                                                                                  

I'll add the agenda to a tab up top so people can access it better and make it their own.  I encourage my clients to use a style similar to this because it helps them see their weeks a little bit better than just hoping to remember things from day to day.  Planning out your week makes life easier when it comes to food because really all you have to do is plan a little bit and you can cook the food you want, and eat healthier simply by planning.  It usually takes pizza about 30-45 minutes to be delivered to your door.  If you planned accordingly you can thaw frozen chicken, chop up potatoes, and have everything cooked in the time it would take you to order a pizza and wait for it to be delivered.  Just a thought.  When I point that out to some of my people they have an "ah ha" moment and realize that they let life happen to them instead of trying to control what goes on.  Planning accordingly and trying to control what you can makes life a lot easier.  Food is fairly easy to control, you don't have to let it control you, it's not going to jump into your mouth on its own.

Back to planning and training!  Still loving my new computer!

New Computer!

So my computer for the last 4 years is finally on its way out.  It's been a long, slow, painful process, but it has finally happened.  It works well enough to turn on and do minimal functions as long as you have the patience for it to potentially restart, take a small life time to open whatever you're looking for, and also take FOREVER to start.  I've never been an apple fan, but I've decided to go by way of the MacBook Air for this computer because I've played the PC game and remained unimpressed.  I had the iphone for a while and while it was a good phone, it was also unimpressive.  Though it was about the only phone that I managed to not completely destroy, fry, or drown.  I think that was due to the fact that I was terrified of crushing it so I kept it in a full case the entire time.  I destroyed a Lifeproof case, otter box, and another off brand version of the otter box.  Red ended up giving me the Otterbox for his work phone because I had successfully destroyed everything else and didn't want to buy yet another case.  When it was time to upgrade though I switched back to the world of Android and got the Samsung Galaxy S4.  I love the screen size, how easy it is to use, how I can customize nearly everything, and just the way the phone works in general.  The one thing I miss about the iphone was the way the voicemail worked.  Now when I have a voicemail I have to wait until it is done having me re-save old messages before I can listen to my newest message.  Quite annoying.  But that's the end of the list of things I miss really.

Now as for the computer switch.  I have never had a mac of any form but I have always heard good things about them and thus far they seem to be indestructible.  I know some of my friends that have had them for 5 years with zero problems.  I have been incredibly hard pressed to find a friend with a PC that went longer than 2 years without a problem.  My last computer, the one that I just replaced, lasted 4 years but the last few months have been very irritating.  It would restart multiple times in a row, decide that it would want to update every time I would put it to sleep, and then take a small lifetime to start back up.  In the last 3 weeks the HP updated 3 different times.  The first week it had 27 updates and took 4 hours to sleep/update.  Second week it had 59 updates and took over 5 hours to sleep/shut down.  This last time it had 63 updates and FINALLY shut down sometime after I went to bed 6 hours later.  It was also getting hotter than sin and I was pretty sure that I was going to catch something on fire just setting it on there.  I've had the Macbook Air for a whopping 4 hours now and it is definitely going to require a huge learning curve.  Once I get used to it I'll be fine, but the getting used to it thing will take a bit.  One thing I've officially decided is that I strongly prefer the Microsoft office set up, so that will be my next purchase for this.  I've been messing with the Numbers app deal that's on here, and even though it's fairly easy to use, I still would rather spend my life working on excel for stuff than this thing.  Numbers has a lot of cool things that I can use, but I move so much faster on Excel and can just shuffle something off to my manager in about 30 seconds that seems to take forever on here.  It'll get better though.  The really cool part about all of this?  Outside of a truly functional computer??  The fact that now when Red is traveling for work that we can Facetime!!!  We used Skype last week when he was in South Carolina, but most places he doesn't have decent enough internet for his computer to allow him to use Skype.  Now with Facetime he can use his phone or ipad while on his trips and we can chat on here!!

Ok, well now that I have a functional computer hopefully I'll actually blog more.  I have most of my 2014 race season planned out and I'll have A LOT of training to do, but it'll be fun.  Quick run down:
January: Disney Mickey Marathon (pacing Red for the Marathon portion of the "Dopey" Challenge he's doing)
February: 50k Rocks to Roots trail run
March: nothing, maybe Xenia half marathon
April: Xenia half marathon if it's not in march
May: Rev 3 Knoxville 70.3 and Triple T
June:
July:
August:
September: Ironman Wisconsin
I'll probably have something in the summer months, I just don't know what yet, we'll see!!!

Rev 3 Cedar Point Race Report

Ok, so I'm a little late on my race report, but it's better late than never!  I was slightly skeptic about how Rev3 was going to turn out because I have been spoiled by the Ironman brand.  Turns out that Rev3 put on an event just as stellar as the Ironman brand.  There was a little less hype, but the fact that the half racers were allowed to "sleep in" and do their transition set up later than the full racers, which was AWESOME!

Getting to Cedar Point was the easy part, then signing in, getting the goodie bag, and turning in Felix (my bike) for the night was a little bit tougher. At M-dot events there is a clear line and set up that everyone follows so everything goes smoothly. For Rev 3 things went smoothly once you figured out where the starting point was, meh, still a nice race. I loved the fact that the Full Rev started an hour or so before the Half Rev but I didn't have to be up or anything. That was glorious!

Swim:

So my friend didn't tell me that the water was going to be FREEZING. I don't do well in cold water, but I survived. I was incredibly grateful that I was wearing a wetsuit because I could float and "swim" while my lungs adjusted to the cold. This was all peachy but then somehow the waves started coming from the left which made no sense. Turned out the wind had picked up something fierce and was causing quite a bit of chop. The race  coordinator actually changed the swim to the bay because the actual Lake was ridiculous and had a huge undertow.  I thought the swim was never going to end and I kept taking in water and feeling blarg. My arms were cold, shoulders weren't too bad, but I was over choking on Lake water.  I finally finished the swim and the wet suit strippers had me out of my suit in no time! I ran to transition and hurried onto Felix.

Bike:

Remember that wind I talked about? Yeah, we were originally told the wind would be a random 8 to 10 mph. Turned out it was a steady 15 mph with gusts up to 20+. Awesome. The bike was fairly uneventful but I felt good which was the important part. Red had been awesome and bought me a speedfill A2 water bottle for between my Aero bars and it worked like a charm. I was happy and hydrated and overall just felt fine. I was kind of over the whole wind nonsense, but I just kept saying "think small" and I tucked into Aero and caught and passed people bigger than me. An awesome power to weight ratio seriously comes in handy. The only problem I had was trying to eat on the bike. Since the wind would randomly toss you around like a kite it made letting go with one hand difficult. I was still able to get my calories in so it was fine.

Run:

This is where things were interesting. I came off the bike thankful we changed the swim because when we passed the lake and I saw the waves it was terrifying. The waves were worse than the ocean waves Florida and the gusts coming off the bike made me seriously fear crashing. The run was getting much better. I had to pee!!! I never have to pee off the bike so needing to was good! Red caught me coming out of transition after I went pee and told me I was in 11th. I asked how far ahead the other girls were and he didn't know yet. I was all kinds of happy and then my head went "that means almost top 10, those top 10 girls are fast, can I get there?". Well I took off feeling really good and stuck to my nutrition. I don't know if I could have gone faster but I know I was pushing. I kept looking for girls who looked my age and only found 2 people in my age group on the run. One girl passed me but then I passed someone else so I ended up even.

I stayed in 11th but it was ok. I was a little disappointed in my time because it was slower than Muncie, but the course was harder because of a couple of hills and the annoying wind. If I could change anything I may have tried more on the bike, but the most annoying thing was the finish line. I think there were 6 turns in this shoot and I never thought it was going to end.

I ended up placing better so now I'm pushing for a top 10 finish for next year! Right now I'm debating about a 50k in February but I'm making my race schedule for 2014. Pictures later :)

Randomness and being thankful

So today has been quite a decent day.  Work started a little rough with a 6am client on a Saturday, but it worked out well. I was done with everyone by 10am and ready to go to the UC v Purdue game by 10:15.  This was a great way to start off the season! We crushed Purdue :) That makes for a happy midget :) Now, trying to be a good triathlete I was downing water because I was SUPPOSED to do a 90 min bike and 20 min run today.  It was 96 degrees out and said it felt at least like 102. When we got to the car my thermometer thing said 109. Awesome.  Well, after the game we grabbed a Powerade from BP to get done electrolytes in because our clothes were  absolutely drenched in sweat, and I was still intending to bike and run. We get home finally and grab some food and the sky starts to look pretty ugly.  According to the radar we weren't supposed to get hit and everything was supposed to go north. The weatherman was wrong. I know, such a shocker. It started storming and absolutely pouring. Lightening was going crazy, and poor Zo was scared of the thunder. She decided to burrow under the pillow Red was using.  Red was just heading downstairs to switch laundry over when our power went out. Meh, well that was nearly 3 hours ago.

So 3 hours without power actually isn't that bad. Red's company just allowed their employees to enable the mobile hotspot function for their phones on the company's dime :) Yeah! Also, Red has been traveling a lot so he decided that having a better way to charge his phone and tablet would be a Powergen battery pack instead of fighting for an outlet at airports. We are currently testing it out as we still don't have power but have fully charged phones. Yep, no power doesn't mean no entertainment. Another thing we have to be thankful for is the fact that we have gas for our stove and water heater.  This means we were still able to have a delicious meal (prepared by Red), and take comfy hot showers. Possibly one of the best things we have is the ability to put screens in our windows. It was really warm, but that storm blew through and it dropped about 15 degrees. We opened the windows and put the screens in so we can have a decent breeze in the house.  All of these things combined to have quite a comfortable evening playing on our phones, watching football on the ipad, shower, and not feel like we're in a sweat box.  I'm very ok with all of this.

Now tomorrow I need to go back to being a good triathlete and get my swim and run in.  I may do the bike I was supposed to do today after my run, but we'll see what all happens!  Hopefully the power comes on soon, or I may just go to bed when the ipad dies and take advantage of sine much needed sleep.  One more week until Rev3 Cedar Point 70.3!! It's almost go time!

Control what you can

So I've been trying to figure out a way to deal with everything that life has thrown at me this year, and I've decided that the only thing I can do is to control what I can.  I can't control other people, I can't control jobs, I can't control the weather, and I can't control illness.  All of these things have decided to wreak havoc on me this year, and I'm fairly certain that I'm going insane, but I'm taking everyone with me.  I have wanted to break down and just straight cry more often than I care to admit, but crying doesn't fix anything.  Giving up on things or just quitting isn't what I'm all about, I really really wish I was sometimes, but I'm too stubborn.  Plus?  Minus?  Meh.  I've discovered that nearly every time I think I have something figured out then life decides to go "Ha!  Good one!", well eff.  Each week, sometimes each day, I have to pause and not let myself day dream too far into something that isn't really a thing yet but weighs heavily on my mind.  I realize I'm being very vague, but that happens.  My coping mechanism?  Training.  Sometimes it's quite helpful and sometimes it takes me momentarily closer to curling up in a ball and crying like a baby.  More times than not it actually makes me reflect on the paces I'm keeping, the weights I'm lifting, and the speeds I'm maintaining instead of going "well that sucks, better not do that again".  I actually go "well that sucks" a lot, then I typically turn around and say "what's next" instead of I'm done.  I've decided that with everything that I can't control, and I love control, then I need to focus on what I can actually change or make happen.  I can control my workouts by pushing myself harder, and enjoy the fact that if something says it weighs 200lbs, then guess what?  It weighs 200lbs.

Sometimes we all need to find something that is stable in our lives in order to make life make sense.  Some find stability in God, some find it in training, some find it in reading, writing, cooking, running, sleeping, singing, what-have-you-ness.  I've spent a lot of time praying, cursing, and training.  I've leaned on Red a lot too and am glad that he knows the best way to make me feel better is to simply be quiet, listen, and do what I say.  I don't mean it in a mean way, but if a hug will make things better then he immediately gives me a giant hug, if leaving me alone for a bit will do it, then he waits until I want to talk, if biking next to me while I run is what will work then he is right beside me.  I hear a lot of people talk about what's going wrong in their lives and a lot of things don't sound too bad if you simply try to compare life to life, but then I look at what's outside of that person's life versus my own.  I know that working out makes me feel better.  I have an awesome family that I could randomly drop in on at any given moment and they would be cool with it.  I have an awesome goober (Red) who listens to me whine until I feel better then picks me up and sends me on my way to whatever adventure, or disaster, I may run to.  There are some people I want smack upside the head repeatedly because they're completely retarded and refuse to take care of themselves or get their heads out of their butts to see reality, but then I realize that what they claim is impossible is all they know.  They don't have a support system of any form, it's quite possibly because their parents sucked or because they are so dag-on annoying that no one wants to be around them, but  being stupid is all they know because they lack a substantial support system.  Mine is brutally honest but very loving at the same time, which is precisely what I need.  My friends sit and listen to what I have to say, but then aren't afraid to tell me I'm being stupid and help me see what I'm too blind to see.  Like with Grandma I sometimes sit and want to pout about her being "sick", but then my friends are quite quick to point out that at this current moment she is fine and strong.  They remind me that she's a fighter and that the reason I'm so feisty and stubborn comes directly from her.  I usually then laugh and realize that I would love to be half as strong as she is because I would really be invincible.  A lot of people apparently don't have people like this, that or the people they're around suck and are too afraid to deal with the bad nonsense to get to the good parts in life, thereby allowing people to continue to be stupid and mopey.  I really think that people need more friends like mine and I'm always VERY quick to "adopt" anyone I want to be friends with because I think my family is awesome (weird as sin, but still awesome) and I know my family would support anyone with anything.

So I guess that I'm adding one more thing to my list of things that I can control.  I can control my workouts, weights, speeds, and how hard I push, but I can also control how I try to help people.  Not everyone wants help and I honestly don't want to help everyone because as nice as I want to be I still think the best thing for some people is to get their butt kicked a few times, but such is life.  So this is a whole lot of freaking randomness but I think it made things a little more clear for me.  You may think they're clear as mud, but it works for me.  Now back to training.  What's next?

Try harder

Two posts in two days?!  Preposterous!  This post was actually spurred on after tonight's speed workout and reading my friend's blog post.  His is titled "Break Your Kettles and Burn Your Boats" and it's all about fully committing yourself to whatever business or life endeavor that you deem important. (You should read it here) I love this because it definitely hits home.  I've been running into some challenges at work with clients and trainers.  Some people look at an outcome that they wish to obtain, but they don't want to do anything to get the results they're hoping to get.  All they are doing is hoping, wishing, praying, and thinking about something.  Occasionally, there is some action, but typically people just go through the motions of acting like they are trying hard, when really it's just a ruse.  I even had a fellow trainer tell me to my face today that he "didn't want to put in 5 to 10 hours of work on programs" because all he wants to do is "build his business and make a lot of money".  I'm sorry, last I checked you had to actually do work to get money, which would be how you make a lot of money.  The same thing applies to clients who think the mere action of paying for a trainer and signing into the club will magically make them lose weight, gain speed, or increase any kind of physical endurance.  The problem is that these people are not committed.  They either don't want to try, or they don't want to tell anyone they're trying in case they fail.

Earlier this year I confessed that I wanted to qualify for Worlds at Muncie.  Yeah it was scary because then it was out there and there was no turning back.  Some people don't want to commit to a task because if they fail then they think people will think less of them for not succeeding.  If your entire self worth is based solely on what people think of you, then your life must be beyond stressful and not remotely fulfilling.  The best option is to not give yourself anyway out.  With the idea of "break your kettles and burn your boats" the idea was that the army had two options when they went to their battle (seriously, read the link).  They could either fight and win quickly, or fight and die.  There was no true middle ground because they didn't have an escape route.  I know a lot of clients who have "excuses", which I call "back up plans" or "reasons why it's ok to fail".  They half ass their workouts, or training programs, then complain because they don't see results.  They are too afraid to actually hurt and move forward, or to see what would happen if they did.  Trainers work the same way.  They don't want to put themselves too far out there just in case all of their hard effort gave them zero yield.  It would still yield something, results to say "yep, that didn't work".  Then you figure out the why.  Once you know why something doesn't work you are one step closer to figure out what you need to do to make it work for the next time.  Sitting back and letting someone else figure it out or push harder in a workout doesn't make you better.  It makes them better because they put in the effort and weren't afraid to push themselves a bit harder than the average bear so that they see the results that they want to see instead of dreaming of results they are making unobtainable.

I'm going to break my kettles and burn my boats as I go into Rev3 Cedar Point September 7th.  I won't get to qualify for their championship because you have to come in top 3 in 2 of their races instead of just one, but I can still set my own goal of 5:30 and not back off just because the workouts look like they suck.  What would you push yourself to do if you knew you had to succeed, no other option?

(Again, go to Adam and Caroline's site)

You might be a triathlete if....

Ok, this post won't consist entirely of "You might be a triathlete if...", but it's still fun!

You might be a triathlete if you spend more time of your day being wet from sweat, chlorine/pool water, or a shower than you do dry.

You might be a triathlete if you own and wear more spandex than a bad 80's exercise video.

You might be a triathlete if quite a few of your cookbooks entail how to eat an entire meal on a bike.

You might be a triathlete if having 8 different sets of tan lines seems completely normal.

You might be a triathlete if you take your bike trainer with you to use in your mom's living room just in case it gets too dark to ride before you're done with her "to do " list.

And lastly for today,

You might be a triathlete if you buy an awesome 2013 Chevy Sonic LT Turbo but then exchange it two days later for a 2013 Chevy Cruze because your bike rack and tri gear don't fit.

That last one, yep, that happened to me this past week.  I was driving on borrowed time with my 2004 Honda Civic for about a year and a half before I finally called it quits.  The Civic had treated me fairly well, ran like a champ while leaking oil like crazy, didn't balk at any kind of snowy terrain I drug her through, and just in general dealt with mine and my husband's driving.  Red and I had been talking about getting a new car for quite a few months now, but the money just simply wasn't there yet.  Well, on my most recent trip to and from Bellefontaine the Civic decided that it was going to learn and show me some new tricks.  My personal favorites were when it would feel like I was driving over a rumble strip while sitting still, and trying to stall out while going 65mph down 75 South.  When the car began to get dangerous to drive down the highway, which we do a lot, it didn't matter what our projected timeline was to get a car, it was now officially time to get a car.  I called Red and told him to pick his favorite place and that we were going car shopping the next day and the Civic wasn't coming home with us.  

We get to the car dealership and everything is peachy.  Well I get sidetracked easily, and I saw a black Chevy Sonic Turbo.  I sat in it and a salesman asked if I wanted to take it out for a test drive.  OF COURSE I DID!  Woot!  So we head out for a 20 minute ride, and I'm in love.  Forget the fact that we came to the dealership to specifically look for a Cruze, I was now in love with a Sonic.  Great handling, great pick up, smooth shifting (manual), phenomenal response to any task I threw at it.  Yep, I was a happy camper.  We came back from our ride and I announced that the car was going to become mine!  Small problem, the one I test drove was $23,000.  Nope, not happening.  We were then shown a step down model, which was the exact same thing but didn't have heated leather seats, or other random nonsense that I didn't really need.  It still drove like a champ and was a blast to drive.  Fine, so we took THAT Sonic.  Red and I are happy as can be, enjoying our new little car, and watching the MPG increase regardless of how hard I pushed  her.  This was all fine and dandy until we decided to put the bike rack on the back and load up the car for our weekend trip.  Virtually none of our stuff would fit.  We could put my bike in the back seat if we put the seats down, Red's bike had no hope of fitting.  We couldn't fit Zo's cage, golf clubs, suit cases, or much else than people and back packs in the car.  Fooey.  So Red called the dealership to see if we can exchange the car or if we were stuck.  Thankfully the salesman was able to stop the paperwork in time so we could exchange the Sonic for the Chevy.  Yeah, that was pretty much an impulse buy that went south.  I still love the way the Sonic drove and handled, but we definitely needed something that could carry all of our nonsense for triathlon training.  This was quite evident when we ended up going to Bellefontaine after the exchange and we had the bike trainer, mat, stand, my bike, both our backpacks, plus my triathlon bag, all in the trunk with room to spare.  

We definitely could have made the Sonic work if we weren't triathletes.  But, Red and I are very much on the go triathletes who virtually live out of our cars, so the Sonic was not going to work.  So yes, you may be a triathlete if you exchange a phenomenal car for a bigger car simply because your tri gear doesn't fit.  

 

Ironman Muncie Race Report

Ok, well first off, I have the best cheering section/supporter ever!  Yep, Red came, he saw, he cheered, and he got a stinky, sweaty hug in return.  Gave me something to look forward to on the run though!

So in the past couple of years Muncie has been unbearably hot!  When I did it in 2011 it was 103 by the time we got off the bike and onto the run.  I was miserable and finished in 6:45 dehydrated, unhappy, and feeling nauseous.  My friend did Muncie last year, 2012, and Ironman actually shortened the course to an Olympic distance because the temperature was 105 with a heat index over 110.  This year the temperature was nearly perfect.  It was about 68 degrees when I headed out in the morning, the water temperature was 76 even, which made it wetsuit legal.  I was super excited about the prospect of wearing my wetsuit!  It makes swimming virtually effortless which makes me a happy midget.  By the time I was done for the day it was about 85 degrees.  There had been a slight breeze all day, and a few clouds, which meant that even in the 80's everything was completely bearable.  On to the race!

The Swim:  38:48

Like I said, the swim was wetsuit legal, which made me very happy.  I think nearly everyone brought their suit just in case the weather played in our favor, but there were still a few that didn't have them.  I like my wetsuit now because it makes my swim super easy.  I still have the issue of the collar part eating my neck, but I'm hoping to figure it out soon.  Red was laughing at me because I was trying to put my suit on in the chute while waiting for my wave to go off.  They were spacing us about 5 minutes or so apart, so I had PLENTY of time because there was a wave of red caps waiting to take off, then a sea of orange caps, then my wave of purple caps.  When I was finally situated in my suit I placed myself closer to the start of the group than I have in years past, and I think it paid off.  I normally don't feel like I'm super fast, but I usually have to swim around a lot of other people to get to clear water, so I thought I would give the front a go, and it was ok.  I ended up sprinting about the first 500 yards because the girls in front are super fast.  Once we all settled out I spent most of my time realizing how much I suck at sighting, swimming straight, and staying on feet.  I would find a set of feet and draft like crazy but then lose them almost as quickly as I found them.  At one point I popped my head up to see where I was going and realized I was about 30 yards inside the buoys, doh!  I corrected and decided to pop up a little bit more frequently.  I caught a large portion of the orange wave that was in front of me, tried to keep my eye on the fast purple caps, and ended up even catching some of the red caps.  There was a group of blue caps, pretty sure men 30-35, who ended up catching some of us, because they're freakishly fast!  They weren't the nicest either because they didn't care if they swam over you or not, but it wasn't too terrible.  In high school we would play sharks and minnows where you could drag people under and over the water, so fighting in water was normal to me.  I was able to hop on one guys feet for a bit but then ditched him because he was following the buoys in and it was a much faster straighter line if I just went to the finish chute.  I finally got up to the finish chute and wasn't dizzy for a change!  Woot for seeing straight!

Transition One: 4:06

I took off my suit, threw on my sunglasses, helmet, and shoved my nutrition in my kit and was off.  I ran the whole way up to transition and was so quick that Red actually didn't even get to see me because I ran faster than he did.

Bike: 2:56:02

I broke three hours!!! Woot!! The bike is by far my least favorite part.  I've been working really hard trying to get faster and stronger and it is finally paying off!  I typically come out in the top 1/3 of my age group on the swim, then I usually drop to the bottom 1/3 on the bike and have to run my way back up through people on the run.  This time I only lost 1 spot on the bike!  Wooty woot!  I set an alarm on my watch to remind me to drink every 15 minutes.  This isn't a normal problem for most people, but I get side tracked and worry so much about trying to keep moving that I forget to drink or eat.  I solved that problem and it made a huge difference!  I could have asked for a much better course though.  The roads were horrible.  Within 5 miles my front water bottle cage broke from all the bouncing and BMX looking moves, and I didn't even wreck!  We headed out to a main road for about 15 miles, then hit a road that was so small and so pot hole covered that they dubbed it a no pass zone for a mile.  Yep, in the middle of a race you couldn't pass.  Ugh.  We then turned on to "Bob's road".  It was beyond bumpy, tiny, pot hole filled, gravel covered, and ridiculous than 95% of the roads I have ever encountered.  We had to go out 8 miles, and back 8 miles on this nonsense, and no one was happy.  I jokingly asked someone what they thought and they launched a slur of expletives that made it PAINFULLY clear that they were far less than pleased.  One guy saw me trying to not die on an especially bumpy part and decided to take his time passing me to tell me "good job", and be nice.  Well some other girl decided that she wanted more room on the road and didn't wait to see if she cleared him before passing back into my lane and clipped his front tire with her back tire.  This sent him flying across the road into the cornfield on the other side.  The people in the front are mean!  There were quite a few people who were just trying to get in front and didn't care if they took you out in the process.  I'm used to being farther in the back where everyone is nice and encouraging because they know you're hating life because you're slow.  I now know that I need to get even faster so I can be farther in the front where there aren't nearly as many people!

Now thanks to the way the course was made, there weren't too many places for drafting, which is good and bad.  It's good because then we were all equally screwed, it was bad because then we would get penalties if we were caught drafting and also had to work super hard.  There was one part during the last 5 miles of the race where drafting was a strong possibility. This is the only place that I saw a Draft Marshall.  They weren't messing around either.  There was a group of us of about 6 or 7 people, all trying to figure out who was passing who when the motorcycle showed up.  The person on the back literally took out a stop watch and slowed down to monitor a girl as she passed a guy who was refusing to be passed.  I ended up saying screw it and just slowed down instead of fighting a head wind and a stubborn mule just to potentially get a penalty in the last 5 miles of a bike.  I was very happy to get off my bike and even happier when I looked down and realized I had a strong potential to get under three hours!  I came into transition and Red let me know that I was in fact under three hours and told me I looked great!

Transition Two: 3:14

I hung my bike back up.  Chucked my helmet and bike shoes, hooked on my bib number/spi belt and headed out of transition.  I was actually feeling really good and I remembered what Miller told me about the beginning and decided to try it out.


The Run: 2:04:21

Miller wanted me to stay around Zone 2 during the first part of the run then hit Zone 3 and stay there for the second half because he thinks that I have the fitness to hold Zone 3 for extended periods of time.  Well, it was pretty warm, and I was pretty tired, but I was also quite determined. I refused to let myself walk at any point.  I learned during the Flying Pig that I feel better when I just take water and such on the go and don't walk aid stations.  I was able to watch the very front people come in instead of the middle people slog along.  I didn't know where I stood anymore for the race, but I kept checking calves trying to see ages.  I realized that the look of the people around me was very different than what I was used to.  All of the people around me were fast looking guys, not many people walking, and very fit looking girls.  Turned out that I was closer to the front than usual.  I don't know what people will look like if I ever get to the real front!  The aid station volunteers were wonderful!  One girl had a cup of water and a cup of ice and I asked for ice water, she handed me the ice and said it would melt.  Not the sharpest knife in the drawer.  It was fine though because the ice felt good.  I figured out the easiest way to feel good was to drink a cup of water, then dump a cup of water and ice in my top and shorts.  Best. Plan. Ever.  I asked another volunteer for ice water and she dumped the two cups together so I didn't have to juggle a million cups.  It's the little things during the run that make life SO much easier.  I knew I was slowing down, but I was trying to keep my heart rate up and according to my watch I was only in Zone 1.9 while running 9 minute miles at mile 8?  Yeah, remember all that water I said I was wearing?  Apparently it doesn't ruin my heart rate strap, but it does stop it from registering my heart rate to my watch.  Oh well.  In my head I thought I could push faster, and probably seeing that Zone 1.9 on my watch rather than Zone 4 kept me pushing harder the last 5 miles.  I was 2 miles from the finish before I needed some real self talk and not let myself walk, which was totally worth it.

In the end I finished in 5:46:31, which was nearly an hour faster than 2011.  I was very tired but I felt better after sitting.  I came out of the water in 23rd place in my age group, I came off the bike in 24th place in my age group, and by the time I finished my run I had ran myself up to 17th place in my age group.  Now I just need to increase a bit of my speed and potentially find a way to take in more actual nutrition during the run, and hopefully that will let me get under 5:30 like I wanted to.   Will I run Muncie again?  Not unless I absolutely have to.  I raced well, but the logistics, the course, and only seeing spectators at transition makes this a course I would rather never do again.  There are a ton of other half ironman distances that offer much better things than this one does, it's just the closest M-Dot race, but I'm thinking the others will be worth the travel.

What's next?  Hopefully learning to blog more often, but definitely Rev 3 Cedar Point!  September 7th is my next big race!  Yeah!!

3 days..

I only have three days and 3 workouts before Muncie! I'm actually pretty nervous and excited at the same time. Part of me is nervous because I said I want to qualify and now I find 52+ fast girls in my age group. That's almost double what was there in 2011 when I first did Muncie. I'm really excited though because I know I'm much faster and much stronger than I was 2 years ago.  If I can focus and keep my head on straight then I should be good to go. I'm forming my nutrition plan, I have people strategically placed on the course for cheering, and my workouts are all coming together. This looks to turn out well, now I just pray and see what happens! It's all going to be ok.

Blog from my phone?

What?! Testing...I can now blog from my phone.  Hmmm maybe I won't go almost a month between posts anymore :)

Wanting v Needing to Qualify

I want to qualify for 70.3 Ironman World Championship at Muncie in July.  There, I said it.  I want to qualify because it would be amazing.  I need to qualify mostly to prove myself to some people and to show that yes my program is working.  No, you don't need to throw tons of money at millions of high name coaches just to get better.  You just have to push yourself and actually do the work yourself.  Have you added any speed work to your workout?  No?  Ok, well then yes, you are going to be slow.  Have you been eating right and not eating crap?  No?  Then yes, you are going to feel like crap and not lose weight.  Have you been doing your long runs/bikes/swims they way you're supposed to?  No?  Then they will suck.  Do you lift heavier weights and make progress in your strength training?  If not, how do you expect to get better and stronger?  I currently have someone who I've discovered really doesn't want to try that hard at anything they do, but they want to throw a lot of money and fancy words and names around to make it appear as if they are trying hard.  Getting them to be out of breath and sweating during a workout is nearly impossible.  The workout suddenly becomes too hard.  Getting them to do speed work is impossible because they point blank refuse.  My program isn't from a high dollar coach, it's from a fellow trainer who is bad ass and willing to train me for triathlons for free.  Yes my training program is high intensity and high volume, the last I checked a half or full Ironman wasn't exactly a walk in the park.  You need to work your butt off just to finish the bloody race, let alone be good at it.  So that's what I'm going to do.  I wanted to qualify before simply because it was cool and could be fun.  I feel like I need to qualify now because then just MAYBE certain people will start to believe that I may be young and small, but I surprisingly do know what I'm doing.  Rant done.

In other news.  My Grandma is doing AMAZING and still continues to impress me on a daily basis.  My mom and Grandma are going through a lot right now, but instead of freaking out or worrying themselves sick they are simply staying optimistic and moving forward.  Things are still going to happen regardless if you worry about them or if you buckle down and deal with them.  Giving up on your situation doesn't make your situation go away, it just means you gave up on it and now you get to sit and think about how badly it sucks while it sucks the life out of you.  You can either fight harder to get through the situation, or you can give up and stay in it.  Grandm is driving the doctors crazy because she tells them that she's still mowing her yard, still cleaning her house, still moving furniture, and still not sitting still.  Seriously, at 84 she has beyond earned the ability to just hang out and relax, but nope, that would drive her crazy.  So now is she not only my role model, but she has become a story that other techs, nurses, and doctors tell other patients about because there is no reason anyone should give up on anything when she's acting like nothing is wrong what-so-ever.  She is still receiving weekly chemo treatments and has fortunately not had any issues really.  Yeah she gets tired easier than she used to but that is even getting better. She's one of the few people who I bet could ever actually get stronger while going through chemo.  She is why I set the bar so high for the rest of the world to do a simple thing called TRY and WORK and GET THINGS DONE.  She is impressive, inspiring, and amazing.  I sincerely wish that everyone could be at least just a little bit like her.