Secret Santa, and how it goes south.

When you're trying to save money around the holidays you can often get stuck in a pickle.  I like the majority of the people that I work with, but there are always those few that I really don't care for.  When it came to draw names out of the box, I ended up with the 1 name that was seriously put back in the box 3 times by people before me.  I looked at it, wanted to put it back, but I didn't because 1) I was the last person to draw, and 2) I didn't want to be a complete jerk.  So this left me in a tight spot.  This is not a person that I wanted to buy a gift for to begin with, this is not even a person that I like.  What I should have done was not participate and discuss with my friends about what the gift giving plans were before joining the rest of the staff.  The problem with not participating though is the fact that then I look like a Scrooge.  I want to look like a team player, because a $20 gift isn't that bad really, but a lot of my actual friends are getting much cheaper and smaller gifts, because we talked about it.  But here we are, Secret Santa time, and we have to keep up appearances of being a cohesive team, care about everyone, and want to spend a lot of money on people we may or may not like.  

What were my odds of getting the person I ended up with?  One out of twenty-six. That meant that I had a 3.8% chance of drawing his name. Seriously.  How did I manage that?  Next time I think that I'm going to bow out and not participate and just look like Scrooge McDuck and just get presents for people I wanted to.  This added an extra gift to my already overly long list, because given the chance, I wouldn't have ever bought this person a gift. Yet here I am, making/buying my friends gifts and now another gift for someone that I don't even like.  

Next year, or even the next chance to participate in one of these, I am not doing it. The down side here is that I look like a jerk if I don't play well with others and I feel obligated to buy a decent gift, even though this gift is not nice.  It's just a $10 gift card inside of a Christmas card. It's kind of lame and almost a waste of money.  Actually, it is a waste of money because he wouldn't have cared if he got a gift from me if we weren't doing this Secret Santa.  Ugh.  The other bad thing about this is that I feel guilty now for not getting him a better gift, but I really don't want to buy him anything else because he isn't that nice of a person.  There's a reason his name was put back in the box 3 times.  Grrrr....

Ok, that's a lot of ranting.  I could do the right and good thing, give him his gift with a smile, be nice, and show him a little kindness since clearly no one else likes him either.  That's a sad testament to how he portrays himself and comes off to others, but it's the truth.  I even talked to my manager earlier this year about getting this guy fired because he was such a jerk to members and fellow trainers.  My manager said he has a bad attitude because who would like to come to work every day with a group of people who hate him?  I've tried being nice after that conversation, and he received it well, but then he turned right around and tried to steal one of my clients (he didn't succeed and was actually told off by my client), but seriously.  Why would I try to befriend this person who doesn't know how to help anyone or be a good person himself?  Be nice, be nice, be nice, be nice.  Just be nice.  That's what I have to do.  Just be nice.  And bite my tongue and make it bleed.  But still be nice.  Everyone needs some kindness.  He needs a lot of kindness.  Ugh.

The easiest Teriyaki chicken and rice meal ever!

Ok, so I'm all about efficiency and multi-tasking.  I also actually really love to cook, and I'm getting a lot better at it!  So the fact that I've successfully made a recipe multiple times in a row all with positive results is awesome!  I love chicken, rice, and teriyaki sauce, so it made sense to put them all together for a change.

I use the Lawry's Teriyaki marinade, white rice, a whole chicken breast, and kroger brand teriyaki sauce.  I follow the instructions on my rice and this time cut it in half:

3/4 C rice + 1 C water, bring the water and rice to a boil, cover your pot and let it simmer for 10-15 minutes depending on how big your pot is.  After the water is absorbed then take it off the heat and let it sit.

While the rice is cooking I am marinading the chicken, in this case I cut it up into chunks before marinading, it saves me time after it's done cooking.  When my rice is setting up I start cooking the chicken until it's done all the way.  Add the rice to the chicken, add the thinner teriyaki sauce, mix together, and enjoy.

Another super easy thing that I've been enjoying is my egg muffins.  Mix up 6 eggs, add in bacon, cheese, or whatever you want with your eggs.  Pour into a sprayed muffin pan (1 egg per muffin spot for an easy measurement), bake at 350 for 20 minutes, and voila!  You have breakfast.  I eat two of my muffins each morning.  They're super easy to handle and they keep for 5-6 days.  I normally just make out however many I need to get through my super early mornings at work.  When I have to get up and around and be at work by 5, the fewer things that need done in the morning, the better.  When I don't have to go in until 6:30 or 7, I'm much more functional, so cooking a little or organizing in the morning isn't too bad.

Enjoy!

The beauty of having more time on my hands

So, now that Ironman is over I have a lot more time on my hands.  I also have a lot more energy!  This means that when I'm left unsupervised that I get bored and decide to make things!  I made a really nice flower bed around the tree in the front yard a couple weeks ago because I felt like it, had the time, the materials, and the energy.  I was sitting in my office, looking out to the yard and realized it was a beautiful day and I needed to be outside.  So I went to the back porch where we had extra boards laying around (this really is a thing), started measuring, figuring out how much I'll need, and migrated to the basement to start cutting.

My husband has nearly every saw imaginable for wood working, I know he'll probably say "No, I don't have x, y, or z and I need all of them!".  Goober.  But anyway, I know how to use the chop saw relatively easily, so that's the saw I chose.  The problem was that Red had locked the arm part that goes up and down from going in and out.  This meant that I now had to ask Red how to use the blessed thing, and I was hoping to have the whole thing done before Red got home and surprise him.  Weeeellll...now he gets a text that says "how do I get the arm on the chop saw to move".  I pictured him immediately thinking "oh God, what the world is she doing now?"and I was right.  His response wasn't instructions, it was "why are you using the saw".  I still had my plan in place, but he was insistent on not telling me until he got home from work.  So now I had to wait.  But it was worth it because I now have an awesome flower box in my yard!

The flower box is definitely something my Grandma would have done.  My Grandma once bought 3 TONS of dirt and had it dumped in her side yard so she could move it herself one little wheelbarrow at a time into the back yard so she could make her own bigger flower beds.  I just made an octagon and migrated 400lbs of dirt into it :)  I now have bulbs of a large variety in there waiting patiently until spring.  I know that some are lilies, but some may be dahlias, gladiolus, and something else.  My Grandma's neighbor gave them to me last weekend while we were helping my mom deal with the house.

I can't wait until Spring to see how everything turns out!

All of this time also comes at a great time of year!  My family does a lot of handmade/home made gifts, and it turns out that this year Red's family is also doing handmade gifts for Christmas!  Now that I'm not training 20 hours each week, I can take that time to get my gifts made.  I have a long list of things that I want to make, and I'm hoping that I can get through all of them this year and not have to rush like crazy the day before Christmas to get them all done.  I'm going to knock a few more things off of my "to do" list!  Oh, I've also started carrying a mini notebook around with me everywhere.  Now that I have a lot more time on my hands, I've noticed that it's really easy to get side tracked and accomplish absolutely nothing for the day.  That was fine for a few days.  My body demanded it, my mind needed it, and it was just a nice change of pace.  But now it's back to being Type A and get organized!

Now it's time to figure out my training schedule for Dopey Disney Race that's in January, only 76 days left!

Ironman Wisconsin 2014 Race Report: Also known as "Well, that sucked"

Ok, so about a month before my race I was seriously starting to doubt whether I would make it to the starting line.  I was tired, I was cranky, I was ALWAYS hungry, and I was exhausted.  I really wanted to do nothing more than take the days off from work and have a stay-cation, but I'm also very glad that I actually did my race.

Here's the short version:
Swim: 1:22:09

This was 12 minutes shorter than what I planned and anticipated, but I also did not swim in a straight line, and I hated everything.  My watch measured 2.74 miles of swimming instead of 2.4 like it was supposed to be.  I came out of the water angry and mad as a hornet because people suck.

Bike: OUCH 7:12:04

I was shooting to average 17mph for the bike, but I wrecked at mile 40 and that seriously dampened my already cranky spirits.  I was hitting 17mph perfectly, but after I crashed I dropped down significantly. :( Grouchy Midget

Run: Also, OUCH 5:53:24

I was banged, bruised, tired, and grumpy.  At this point in the race I was already out there an hour longer than I intended, and I was very sore and everything stung.  Grrr

Overall: 14:44:20, a 30 minute PR over Florida 2012 on a much hillier course and after wrecking, so not terrible.

Long version (get comfy):

We decided to drive all the way from Cincinnati to Madison in one day.  There were three of us that could drive, and Miller's truck is huge and very comfy, so it worked out really well.  It took about 8 or 9 hours to get there, so in reality it was a really good drive.  We were entertained by each other, and we didn't really get stuck in any traffic, so we were always moving which made it nice.

Once we got checked into our hotel I quickly realized that getting ready for an Ironman with Miller was not going to be the vacation I envisioned.  We immediately changed into workout clothes and went on a 45 minute run.  It wasn't too bad, kind of humid and hot, but overall a decent run. I need to run with him more often though because his loping pace was a 7:45, and I didn't feel like I was pushing to keep up with him, which was a nice little confidence booster.  On Friday we checked into the race, checked out the expo, and headed out for a 45 minute bike and a 30 minute run.  At this point I realized I was going to need more workout clothes, but decided to just wear stinky clothes twice instead of buying new stuff.  On Saturday we were able to check in our bikes and did a 30 minute OWS to get used to our suits and just get in the water.  When we dropped off our bikes the mechanics told us to let air out of our tires because the heat and the asphalt where our bikes were was heating up and was already causing tires to blow at 11:00am, and it was only going to get worse as the day went on.  So we almost emptied our tires so there would be more than enough room for them to expand, and just planned on getting a tire pump in the morning to fill everything up.  Yeah, on the list of things we forgot, all 3 of us forgot to grab a pump.  Oops.  Oh well, there were plenty to go around on race morning, and triathletes are notoriously helpful, at least the ones I've dealt with have been.

Race day morning:  Wake up around 5:00am, breakfast, wander over to the race time.  We dropped off our special needs bags for the bike and run.  I added a honey stick to each of my bags and sadly forgot about the on each of them during both the bike and run. Miller and I went into transition, set up the water bottles on our bikes, I needed to hurry up and find a bike pump, and the guy across from my bike had a pump.  So I decided that being adorable would be the fastest and best way to borrow it, so I looked adorable and helpless and stole it.  It worked, I win.  After I was done in transition I migrated over to Miller and we couldn't get his powermeter to work, that stinks, but then we migrated for body marking, gave our clothes to Red, and threw on our suits and glide.

The swim: Grrrr!!!  So I was really thinking that I would hit closer to 1:10 for a 2.4 mile swim, I was at 1:22, BUT my garmin was reading 2.74 mile swim.  I lined up far right from the jump and buoys because I knew I would be heading in at an angle and didn't want to get hit and punched for the first quarter mile.  Well I didn't get any of that right.  I lined up in some open water, and after the first 30 seconds I started getting punched, kicked, bit, hit, smacked, and pulled under for the remainder of the swim.  I have never been so annoyed for that long in a swim EVER.  I was hit, and smacked, and pulled on for the entire hour and twenty-two minutes.  I actually tried to swim as far right for as long as possible, I was almost swimming with the guards and boats because I was so wide, but as soon as I migrated inward I was being pummeled.  I didn't realize how much I was adding to it until I got out.  At that point I was mad as a wet hen because I was so sick of being hit, I looked at my watch and saw the 1:20 time, and I was just beyond angry with the whole thing.  The volunteers were great at getting the wetsuit off in a hurry.  The volunteer in the changing area was a little less than useful, but meh, what can you do.  Afterwards I got my bike and headed out.  My favorite part though was running up the helix with all of the people lining it.  I was super unhappy, but it was really hard to be unhappy while running up around all of those people.

The bike: Ow.  After I got out of transition we migrated to the bike.  It was a little hard getting out into the main part of the bike because the first few miles were constant turning, a no passing zone, and really bumpy areas.  I ejected my aero bottle within the first 5 miles.  I immediately went back for it because I knew I needed it, and 5 miles in was way too early to lose it.  If I was losing it 5 miles before the end of the bike and I had a good bike, then I may or may not go back for it.  But 5 miles in for the bike, I needed it.  There was a biker who had a bad accident 5 miles in, and he was being treated by the EMTs, in a neck brace, and his day was over.  He was talking though and the volunteers were good at getting us around him safely.  After that we were able to head into the main stretch where we would do the loop portion.  I was feeling really good and hitting the times and speeds that I wanted.  I wanted to hit 17mph as my average for the bike because that would have placed me at around 6.5 hour bike, and I knew the hills would play in my favor because I can climb well, and I was getting a lot better at the descents because they weren't nearly as technical as I had been told.  Here comes mile 40ish and happiness came to an end.  I had spent the last couple of hours talking myself into a good mood, then I went through an aid station and my good feeling was gone.  I grabbed a bottle from a volunteer, did what I needed to with it, chucked it, then I think I hit something.  Next thing I knew, I was on the ground sliding towards the curb on my side.  I was fortunate to fall so quickly that I didn't know I was falling until I was down, which meant I didn't try to reach out and catch myself.  Since I didn't try to catch myself I just ended up with A LOT of cuts/scrapes, and some pretty nice bruises.  The bruise is pretty hard to see in the picture, but the cuts show through just fine.  I ruined my favorite Betty Designs race kit because I put a giant hole in the hip when I fell.

I unclipped from the bike.  Stood it up and tried to calm the woman down who was freaking out because she saw me crash.  Her husband was far more useful and asked if I was ok, looked me over for a sec, held my bike while I checked it over really quickly, then I headed on my less-than-merry way.  At this point I wasn't hurting too terribly because I was more in shock that I fell and that it didn't really hurt.  I was very ok with it, but less than happy about getting on the bike for another 70+ miles.  There was one kid who was cheering and went "yay! Go bikers!  Goo!! Oh! Mom, look at her!", yep, that was my awesomely bloody leg.  Ugh.  I talked myself into going to at least the special needs and see how I felt.  I got to the the "big" hills, was VERY unimpressed with the "Tour De France" style cheering on these hills, but they were still entertaining.  I felt like there were at least 5 other hills that were harder than these 3, but it's all good.  There was one Jamaican dude who was hilarious the first time through and called me the little engine that could, it made me chuckle and got me mentally over a hill.  I came through special needs, swapped out my water bottles for fresh ones, and headed back out.  It didn't really occur to me that Special needs would have been a good time to stop.  I just kept thinking that I couldn't let Miller see me quit.  So I carried on.  We went through the second loop of the course, the Jamaican guy wasn't on the hill anymore which made me sad, then I migrated to the run.

When I came into transition one of the volunteers caught my bike and asked if I needed medical.  I said no, and he asked if I was sure because I was bleeding.  I told him that I was aware and that it happened a long time ago and everything was fine.  Each person I came in contact with decided to remind me that I was banged up as if I wasn't aware already.  I know I wrecked, I was there.

The run: Coming out of transition I seriously debated about even starting the run, but then I saw my watch said "Total time 8:44", I mentally went "Oh! I haven't been out here all day, I can still do this!" Yay!

I kept telling myself on the bike that I was looking forward to the run, because I can always run.  That was my mini-mantra for a while, "I can always run".  I got to the run and I reminded myself that I was looking forward to the run.  I needed that reminder after the first 14 miles.  When I came out of transition it was the first time that Red saw my battle wounds and he asked how I was doing.  When I said I have been better he annoyingly responded with "but you're doing ok, so you can run, right?". Ugh.  I wanted to slug him.  A little bit later I ran into Miller, the run was a two loop course, I was starting loop 1 and he was about to the turn around to do loop 2.  So for my entire first loop Miller was technically behind me and I kept waiting for him to pass me.  As I passed each mile marker I made mental notes of things for the next loop.  When there was a little hill I essentially gave myself permission to walk up the small hills, then I convinced myself to run down the hills even though it really hurt my leg to go downhill.  Then I would do a lot of mental positive talk as I counted down the miles.  I would hit mile 12 and go "good work! You're already to mile 12, let's at least run to 13", I would rinse and repeat this until about mile 17, then my body went "F you".  Yep, I was done.  I didn't want to run anymore.  I was mentally and physically tired, I was hurting, I was kind of hungry, I was grumpy, and I wanted to be finished, and I didn't care if finished meant right there at mile 17 or if it meant crossing the actual finish line.

Thank God for Red.  Madison has this awesome bike share program where you can essentially rent a bike and tool around town for as long as you want so long as you return the bike to a rack every 30 minutes.  This is how Red was able to keep tabs on both me and Miller even though we were hours apart during the race.  Miller did an awesome job and finished in 11:37, which was a 9 minute PR for him!  He looked good when I saw him on the run, and it looks like he felt good too.  Red gave Miller his phone back so he could talk to his wife and let her know how he was doing, while Red came around and found me.  That's when he found out that I really wanted nothing to do with the race anymore and was taking a lot of convincing to keep going.  I was hurting and I hated EVERYTHING.  Not just a couple of things, I hated everything.  Red then informed Miller that I was thinking about quitting and suddenly Red's phone was blowing up with texts from Miller and other friends of words of encouragement for me.  I was being told I was loved, that I'm the strongest person they know (seriously wasn't feeling like it), that I'm stubborn and don't know how to quit (Kind of right because I was trying to figure out the logistics of if I just told a volunteer that I'm done and if they went and got someone, or what), and all other kinds of encouraging words.  It helped more than I could explain.  My friend, Ashley, wrote inspirational sayings on slips of paper for me to remember during the race.  Those definitely came in handy.  Finally, one foot in front of the other, I was able to finally finish that blasted race.  When there was only about a mile left I was able to see Red again and I looked at him and went "I love you, but if you're here and I'm heading towards the finish, how will you see me finish?".  He asked if I wanted him to hang out with me for the next half mile or so where he couldn't really go much farther, or if I wanted him to see me at the line. I said of course the line!  So he took off sprinting, and I honestly thought for a second that I would beat him to the finish, but that was just me being delusional.

When I finally made the final turn towards the finish chute, which by the way, making the second loop go within 100 yds of the chute is just rude, I finally felt like I could actually run again.  Before I was slogging away between walking 15-18 min/miles and a very lame attempt at a jog around 12-13 min/miles.  I ran towards the music because that works as more motivation than any positive talk I could come up with, and suddenly I see some wack-a-doo frantically leaning over the barriers and waving his arms like a psycho.  I started cracking up because it was Miller.  I needed to smile as I crossed the finish line, and that's what did it!  Yeah!  I ended up finishing 14:44 on a very hilly course, ejecting my aero bottle twice (I did it again after special needs while hitting a big bump, ugh), and wrecking.  But I did it. I went through Ironman Florida in 15:15 with no actual issues, so I know that if I hadn't screwed up with the bottles and had my mid race nap, that I would have gone so much faster!

Afterwards I went to the food for the athletes and thoroughly enjoyed stuffing my face with pizza. It wasn't even that good, but it tasted delicious at the time.  Miller found me and was super energetic about me finishing...then he saw my awesome right side that was banged up.  He immediately jumped all over taking care of me, getting me more food (yeah!), and grabbing my bike from transition when I was ready to head out.  Red let me lean on him even though I was a sweaty, stinky, wet, and bloody mess.  I have some pretty awesome friends/family!  The volunteers were awesome and were more than ready to help me around the finish area.  The two girls who were my catchers when I crossed the line actually picked me up on accident because they were taller than me.  They asked how I was doing and I joked by telling them that I could walk better if I was touching the ground.  They set me down and laughed.  When I was ready to get out of the finish area (when I was stuffed :D and happy :D) another volunteer helped me out of my chair and accidentally grabbed my right arm to help me up.  He felt so bad when he realized why I yelled out.  I felt bad for making noise, but they were so awesome!

Now I'm sitting here talking with my buddy Cathy and she almost has me convinced to do another Ironman next year.  I'm torn because training sucked this year, but part of me wants to know how I would do if I hadn't crashed, because I was feeling really good before then, and I was right on pace.  So we'll see what this next year brings.  Since races aren't selling out within minutes of registration opening, that gives me a little bit of time to think about it and recover.  Right now I'm enjoying my off season and just lifting and running whenever I feel like it instead of having a schedule.  Next up, Dopey Marathon weekend with Red and his family!

Iron Melt Down Plus Birthday Shenanigans

It is officially that time of the season where you want nothing more than to curl up in a ball and sleep for about 7 days.  Training for an Ironman is incredibly taxing enough, with all the 100 mile bike rides, 4 hour runs, and hours in the pool.  Don't forget the lifting sessions, meal prep, and extra laundry.  My poor washer and dryer.  I was training with some friends on Sunday, and I wanted to do just about anything else in the entire world other than be there, but I showed up.  I was supposed to do 100 miles, and I ended up with 46.  About 20 of those miles I was nearly solo and just trying to figure out how to keep my legs moving.  We did 2 loops up at Caesar's Creek, and I was dead set on quitting after the first loop.  My legs hated me, my head hated me, I hated my bike, I hated the wind, I hated absolutely everything.  I was finally suckered/talked/forced into a second loop, which is when I had my mini meltdown.  My friend was asking me why I was so tired, and if I was really that tired or if something was wrong.  That's when I ended up half yelling/screaming at him that I was exhausted!  Yep, enter very pathetic attempt to not cry here.  I was tired, I was angry, and I didn't want anything to do with biking at that moment.  We talked for a little while, he gave me a pep talk and reminded me that I've been training hard for a LONG time now, and that it's all going to be ok.  We decided that stopping after that lap was the best idea (duh), and not training today was an even better idea.  I couldn't agree more.

As Red and I were driving home we were discussing why I'm so tired (other than the obvious).  When I got my paycheck this past week it said that I had worked 92 hours, so about 46 hours per week.  Ok, well my day starts at 5:00am 4 days out of the week, and that makes me less than thrilled.  So add about 15 to 20 hours of training to that week, and we're to 66 hours for the week.  I've also been dabbling around with the idea of attempting to go back to school for Physical Therapy.  I don't know if it'll work, but I'm at least doing my part to meet the observation requirements, plus it's good for me to watch what my next career could potentially be.  I've been observing about 15 hours each week, so now we're up around 80 hours of stuff that I'm doing every week.  Yep, I would say that would start to weigh on someone physically.  To add insult to injury I've been thinking about Grandma A LOT.  I miss her like crazy, and with my birthday being Saturday (the day before we rode) it hit me that this was the first time I wouldn't hear her call me to tell me happy birthday.  That sucked.  On top of it, Red was gone for the week before because he unfortunately also had a death in his family.  His Uncle Al, which was one of my absolute favorite people in his family, died unexpectedly the weekend before.  I was stuck here in Ohio, while Red went to California to be with family. So missing someone, mourning someone, and being exhausted just kind of all set in at once and I was done.

Yesterday, after the ride.  I showered, ate like a fiend, and took a 2 hour nap.  I felt worlds better and just tried to relax for a change.

My birthday was actually quite awesome!  I only had to work for 3.5 hours due to cancellations, I potentially acquired a new client, and I was able to leave early!  Red and I then went to the West Chester Farmer's Market where I bought apple doughnuts, a fresh cup of coffee, and some sunflowers.  Then we went to Morgan's Canoe Livery and went canoeing for 6 miles :)  On the way there we saw a giant bird that Red was told was a giant Osprey, it turns out that it's a bald eagle!  When we got to the canoe rental place, they were talking about the eagle.  When we were all done with the canoe trip, we came home and checked on my garden.  It is officially out of hand, but incredibly productive!  I've picked 24 cucumbers out of it so far, and I think there are about 8 more left.  Then I picked a butternut squash, just because I could, but I have about 10 more in there still.  We also picked a big pot of green beans!  I ended up making pickles out of some of the cucumbers, and canned the beans.  The squash still needs to be dealt with, but we'll get to that eventually.  To round out the night, we went to PF Chang's for dinner before coming home to go to sleep.

Now I have a rest day, I train tomorrow, then this weekend we're going to the National Tractor Pull on Friday and Saturday.  Then we're going to Cedar Point on Sunday!  I don't know how to sit still :)  Oh well!

Toodles

Ironman Muncie 70.3

Okie dokie, the short version:

I came in worried how I would do here because I've just been feeling blah, that and the fact that Muncie's bike is "flat and fast" meant that I could potentially end up screwed on the bike portion.  Anyway:

Swim info: very slow, 38:38, 17th/58 in my age group out of the water

Bike info: 2:54:57, average speed 19.2mph, moved up to 11th in my age group off the bike (that's new)

Run info: 2:02:18, 9:20/mile, finished 13th in my age group

Overall time: 5:42:07, T1: 3:30, T2: 2:44

Longer version:

Pre-race shenanigans

The swim:

I've been working on siting while swimming, and I think I've got it figured out, but what I haven't figured out is how to get around people in the water.  I also need to figure out how to get my wetsuit to stop eating my neck.  I positioned myself closer to the front of the swim start (good move) because I figured out that leaves me with fewer people I need to fight with during the swim.  The first few hundred yards were a bit on the ridiculous side, this is where sighting could be useful.  We were sprinting and running into each other like crazy.  I had to tell myself to calm down because there was one girl who was insistent on trying to swim on top of me instead of beside me.  After a while everything started to calm down, and we started closing in on the orange caps (Men age groups 18-24 and 25-29).  They started 5 minutes before we did and we had caught a good number of them before the first turn.  By the time we were done with the swim, there was a good number of us that had also caught the first age group wave which was men over 55 and women over 50.  I need to figure out how to swim when I can't see.  I keep dropping time in the pool like crazy, but when I get into open water I may as well just float because I'm not dropping time there at all.  I'm not tired after the swim either because I feel like I'm resting by swimming breaststroke in an attempt to go around people that I catch and also keep checking to make sure I'm swimming in a straight-ish line.

I'm the wee one in the sleeveless next to the full wetsuit girl

The crazy swim start, I'm close to the front

Coming out of the water, hoping I'm not dizzy, and locating the wetsuit strippers.

T1:

I ran up the beach just fine, there were a lot of guys ahead of me but Red let me know that I was about the 50th purple cap out of the water, my wave had women ages 18-34 (3 age groups), so the number didn't sound that promising, but it wasn't terrible either.  I hurried up and migrated out onto the bike.

Bike:

I normally suck at the bike, there's no other way around it.  I've been working on it, but I think I need to work quite a bit more.  I don't know if I've been lazy, not pushing enough, skipping workouts, or what, but I still suck at the bike.  I felt better coming off the bike this year than I did last, but I was only .2mph faster this year than last year.  This year they changed the bike course because it was so rough last year.  Now we migrated through a couple of neighborhoods with really bumpy roads to get to a high way.  It was a two loop out and back and was fairly flat.  There were a couple of places that people tried to say there were "hills", they were just mild inclines, not really enough to say it was a hill.  On the way out though the road did seem to be a false flat and be inclined, and it had a headwind, but on the way back all of that was reversed so it worked out well.  I was able to average about 17-18mph on the way out, and then 22ish on the way back.  The clouds kept us covered and fairly cool until the last 15 miles.  By this point I ran into a guy who also had a Felt like mine and we started to literally play tag.  I would pass him on those "inclines"/"hills", then he would pass me on the flats and downhills.  He first passed me and said "Leap Frog!", then I said "Tag, you're it", we ended up going back and forth like that for the last 15-20 miles and we got to where we were actually smacking each other as we passed.  We were bored and tired and found a way to entertain ourselves when most people were starting to struggle before the run.  Right before the last aid station I noticed I was starting to get a little warm (the sun finally came out and immediately started baking us), so I grabbed a water bottle and doused myself with the majority of it and drank the rest, probably one of the best decisions ever!

Getting off my bike at the dismount line.

T2:

I hurried up and jogged/ran into transition, it's hard to run in bike shoes, and as I was putting my bike up Red came over and told me to hurry it up because I was 10th.  I double checked that he said 10th and tried to hurry it up a bit.  Turns out that I was 11th, but that's ok.  My legs were a bit cranky, but I thought they were ready to go.

I'm behind the dude as I drop my helmet and grab my run shoes and visor.

Run:

Red had been texting Miller and apparently they concocted this idea that I could run 10.5 miles "all out" and give myself the first 2.5 miles to "calm down and settle into a pace", yeah, ok.  Well I didn't feel horrible on the way out for the run, but it quickly became apparent that "all out" was going to be between an 8:30-9:00 minute pace, so much for the 7:30 pace I had imagined.  I knew right away that I was going to need to cool down so I immediately started drinking water and pouring ice down my shirt and shorts.  Since I had a rough idea as to where I was in the girls, I made a note to check out their calves so I could figure out how many girls I passed or who passed me.  There was one girl who looked way to peppy and dry who passed me within the first 3 miles, that was annoying.  After her though there were a couple that I kind of played leap frog with all the way to the finish. They would pass me until aid stations, then they would walk and I would take whatever I wanted while running and keep running.  Then they would pass me again, rinse and repeat for the entire run.  Finally, there were a couple that stayed in front of me, but there was one girl who was particularly annoying because she did the annoying "hurry to get in front of you, then walk" nonsense.  I guess she finally got tired because the last time I passed her she decided to stay behind me.  There was another girl who was in my age group that I didn't realize was in my age group until later.  She was coming up behind me in the last couple of miles but she was making dying cow noises like I did, so I kind of decided to cheer/yell at her.  There were a couple of hills towards the end of the run that I beat her up, but I kept telling her to get back up next to me.  Yelling at her to keep going and move worked for me as well, it was kind of like I was yelling at myself as well as at her.  Either way, I still beat her.  The finish line felt like it took FOREVER to get to once I got to the top of the hill.  Yeesh.

Coming into the finish!

Feeling like absolute death

After everything:

Happy that I now have food in front of me again :)

I was hungry, sore, and tired.  My legs were shaking for a little bit and I really just wanted to eat/drink and sit down.  I was able to do all three!  This is also when I realized how many places were chafed, or so I thought.  I some how magically have straight lines the entire way around my legs from some unknown thing in my tri short legs.  I have never had that happen before and I've worn them all season. They're my Betty Designs tri shorts, which I just wore to the Mason Sprint tri a couple of weeks ago without an issue.  Hmm...meh.  It wasn't until I got into the shower that afternoon that I truly understood how badly my body was going to hate me.  My neck, thighs, bikini line, ankle from the time chip, somehow my shoulder blades, spots on my ribs from my hear rate strap, then a few random spots on my back that I think can only be from my bars that I had in my pockets.  Either way, when I took my shower I was making some awful noises as the water first hit places that I was only semi prepared for, then hit places I wasn't prepared to hurt.  Then the soap didn't help the pain either. OUCH.

Today I'm hanging out, catching up on the tour, wearing compression socks, and doing some laundry.  Dear sweet Lord do my clothes stink from yesterday, blech.

Ok, well after that PR and better finish from last year it is now time to officially switch gears and get ready for Ironman Wisconsin.  I have about 8 weeks until my race, and between now and then I have A LOT of training to get in.  I have multiple rides that are over 90 miles, lots of running miles to get in, swimming, and strength training.  I want to feel better during Wisconsin than I did yesterday during Muncie.  By the time I was done yesterday I felt like it was a true struggle just to maintain anything close to 9:00 minute miles, gah.

Toodles!

Rev3 Knoxville 70.3 (a couple months late)

**I kind of started this months ago and completely forgot to post it, oops**

I could also name this post "So much biking I wanted to break up with Triathlon", or "Ever Changing Terrain, Tennessee must hate its roads because they're terrible".  With the road conditions aside, this course was rough.  There was a lot of climbing, which was fine, but there were a lot more flats and twisty-turny shenanigans than I remembered driving when we checked out the course.  So let's get this started:

Packet Pick-up/Expo:

Rev3 has a lot of cool things to look at, but they are way over priced and not that spectacular in the long run.  I did almost buy a pair of bike shoes but they only had 4 pairs there and they were all too big for me, sooo no bike shoes.  The goodie bag left much to be desired, and it's kind of disappointing since they're trying to compete with the Ironman brand and cost the same.  They are a lot more efficient in getting you your items and making the pick up process nice and smooth.  The volunteers are all really awesome and nice as well, that's a big bonus.

Race Day:

Nice pre race photo

Swim:

Hopping like penguins into the river.

We had to swim upstream in the Tennessee River for about a quarter to a third of a mile, I didn't really notice a current so it wasn't that bad.  Then we turned down stream for the rest of our swim and had to jump like penguins onto a low dock and attempt to run up the ramp.  The swim was uneventful outside of I thought a guy died about 500 yards into the race.  I saw him floating as I was swimming past and I actually stopped to check on him because his face was barely above water, but when I checked on him he was fine just a really bad swimmer and decided to float/swim on his back the whole way.  Awkward.  It was kind of hard to sight since there were no real landmarks to go off of, but the water wasn't freezing and my new full wetsuit kept me nice and toasty!  The whole jumping onto the low dock was mildly entertaining.  I fell back into the water twice before the volunteers realized they needed to help push us forward after we jumped up.  Oh!  And our swim time didn't stop until we were off the dock and almost all the way back to transition, so I was grumpy my swim time said 39 minutes, which is stupid slow, considering I forever trying to get out of the water and head up the transition ramp.  Meh.

Post penguin hop onto the dock

Bike:

Finally over the "mount here" line

The temperature was quite chilly, I think mid 50s, by the time we got onto our bikes.  I brought arm warmers and debated about putting them on, but I wasn't so cold that I was going to miserable without them.  I decided to save time and just go without them and after the first 5 miles of the bike I was plenty warm and didn't need them.  My hands were really cold, but the rest of me was fine.  Now, holy climbing.  I can climb really well, I like climbing, and I kind of wish the entire thing was climbing because I would win :P.  There were a lot of rough roads getting us to the first climb, and those were less than stellar to navigate when you're still getting feeling in your body.  There was one unfortunate soul who decided to start walking her bike up the hills about a quarter mile up the first hill.  I was joking with a guy who was also riding a Felt B16 (my bike), about how if we combined our powers we would be completely unstoppable.  I zoomed past him going up hills, but he decimated me going down hill and on flats.  That's pretty much how the entire race went for all 56 miles.  People would fly past me on downhills and flats, then come to almost a complete stop on hills which is where I would catch them and pass them again.  Rinse and repeat the whole bike portion of the race.  There was one hill at the very end of the bike (incredibly rude) that was more like a wall than a hill.  It was only about 20-30 yards long but it felt as if it was straight up.  The Police officer who was directing traffic for us was doing her best to coax and cheer us up this hill because we were all dying.  There were a lot of weird sounds coming from people as we grunted and groaned heading back into T2.

Showing Red my timing chip because he couldn't find me on the course at all, so he thought I lost it.

Run:

Coming into the finish!

Umm...death.  That's pretty much how I felt for the first 4 miles of the run.  I knew I was mildly dehydrated from the bike because even though I drank 2 bottles of my water/skratch mix, the roads were hard to navigate and drink properly so I was in a mini-hole.  I was also in a nutritional hole because the hills required a lot more energy than I originally planned for, so I ate all of my nutrition, including my back up, and was still out.  But it was ok.  I plodded along the first few miles and as the water, ice, gels, and coke migrated into my system to cool me down and fuel me I started to feel much better.  My shins still did this weird crampy thing where they didn't want to cooperate and my feet were slapping the pavement something fierce, but after walking the first aid station they started to get better.  My legs felt a lot better when I would walk each aid station instead of try to push through each one.  The run course was really pretty, we ran through their green way system of bike paths and into a neighborhood for Sequoyah park (sp) where there are some very fancy houses and beautiful cottage looking houses.  The volunteers were all really nice in the run, but they were a little confused.  They had loads of ice bags just hanging out at their stations, so I assumed I could ask for some ice and they would be like "oh sure! We already have a few cups of ice waiting", that wasn't the case but they were quick to fill a cup for me so it worked out in the end.  One poor guy didn't realize that I didn't want to eat the ice and about had a heart attack when I started pouring it down my shirt and down my shorts.  That is the fastest and most effective way to cool off when you're over heating.  I've done it for nearly every tri I've raced in the last 2 years and I am positive it is why my runs are stronger as I go instead of getting worse as I go.  By mile 5/6 I was feeling MUCH better and was more worried about getting the guy in front of me who CLEARLY didn't want to be chicked than I was in the beginning of the race.  In the beginning of the run I sincerely debated about stopping and go "nope, I quit", but my body was on autopilot and I'm stubborn, so I kept going.  I started chasing this guy who didn't mind if other guys passed him, but whenever I would catch up to him he would start going faster only to have to walk after a little ways.  Fortunately for me I was feeling better as the run went on and I eventually passed him and he couldn't keep up.

I ended up 4th in my age group with a 6:31 for a 70.3.  To put this into perspective, in Muncie last year I ended up 17th with a 5:45 for the same distance but a flat course.  I need to work on my flat speed and cornering, but I'm getting there.  It was quite annoying to look down and see that I was going 23mph on a flat road and not gain on ANYONE.  It's only May and my main half is in July (Muncie) and my BIG race is in September.  We'll see how everything goes!

Back to my rest day then I get going again tomorrow! :D

Post Pig/Pre Rev3 Knoxville

My first tri of the season is coming up in less than ten days.  That is slightly frightening but mostly exciting!  Ohio is not known for its fantastic weather, and is certainly not conducive to training for an early May triathlon.  But for some reason I decided that May was a good time to go out and start my race season.

I got my new wetsuit last week and already tried it out.  The really good part is that every part of me that was covered by cap, goggles, or wetsuit was perfectly warm and happy.  It was the other 3% of my body that was uncovered that was FREEZING.  Caesar Creek isn't exactly warm in the summer, but early to late spring meant absolutely frigid water.  The air temp was decent, but that water made my feet hurt since it was so cold.  I ended up swimming about a half mile in an attempt to get used to my new suit.  I decided that yep, it works just like my sleeveless but covers my arms, it didn't seem to kill my neck, and my feet were super cold, therefore I'm getting out.  That was good enough for me!  I'm hoping to get back up to Caesars this weekend and make another attempt to swim on Sunday.  I think the weatherman is tired of being wrong by attempting to guess correctly anymore, so he's just saying it's supposed to storm from now until July.  The 10-Day forecast shows storms every day from today until next Saturday, but if you look at the percentages, some of them are as low as 10% chance of rain/storms.  Whatever floats his boat.  I'm just hoping to get some more open water swim practice because I sincerely miss having my lane lines, black line on the bottom, walls for flip turns, and big plus signs at the ends to keep myself going straight and not have to worry about wandering around like a snake.

My Zo pup waiting for me to throw her ball.

Wandering into the effing cold water to start my swim.  

I wanted to make the table festive, so I decided to buy flowers for the table :)

Outside of that I've just been working and training.  Ali and I finished in 1:55:18 for the Half Marathon this past weekend.  Our half way point pace was 9:09/mile, we finished with an 8:49/mile pace overall.  The weather was quite nice, not too hot, not too cold, and the sun wasn't trying to bake us this year like it has in years before.  

Training this week: 

Sunday: Flying Pig Half Marathon, Caesar Creek swim

Monday: 43 mile bike ride

Tuesday: Lifting, 6 mile run (really only ran 5 miles and I walked the 6th mile)

Wednesday: 2000m swim

Thursday: heading out for a 5.5 mile run

Planned for Friday: 75 min bike and a 2200 swim

Planned for Saturday: Rest

Planned for Sunday: 1 hr run + open water swim (weather permitting)  Happy Mother's Day!  Mom is coming down to visit that afternoon, so I'll be up early getting everything else in :)

Update with pictures and some words

So I just realized that I haven't blogged in over a month.  I've been pretty preoccupied and also haven't had that much to actually blog about.  I've been training, working, training, working, and oh yeah...training.  I did get to hang out with my cousins for their birthdays.

Dave let it "slip" that it was Kiley's birthday when we went to the Dayton Dragon's game, so all the entertaining people and Gem gathered around Kiley and sang to her!

The birthday girl!

It's FINALLY getting nice enough to sit outside and relax, whenever I have time.

My new wetsuit came yesterday, so I'll be able to get some open water swimming in since it's all been inside lap swimming.

My beautiful puppy dog hanging out after playing some frisbee.

Red bought a Wahoo Fitness Trainer with his tax return.  It's quite useful.  This was my ride a while back, so I kind of wonder what I can do now :)

I used to love Asics shoes, but the last couple of years they have been changing their designs and they just aren't comfy any more.  I ran in Mizuno all last season and did great.  I changed back to Asics for a little while this year (you can see my Asic Noosa Tris in the bottom left of the pic) and ended up with foot pain and I couldn't get it to go away.  I switched back to Mizuno and my problems have gone away.  The pink ones are the Sayonaras and will be my race shoes, the green ones are the riders and will be my distance shoes.  

That's pretty much all I've been up to!  I have the Flying Pig Half Marathon tomorrow morning, high of 70, 40% chance of rain, and a morning low of 48 for the start.  It's kind of chilly but not terrible.  Two weeks after that I'll be down in Knoxville, TN for the first tri of the season.  Rev 3 Knoxville 70.3 is May 18th.  

Outside of that I've been dealing with not having my Grandma to talk to on a regular basis, seeing constant reminders of how much she cared about us, and loving that the hostas she gave me are growing just fine.  I had a bad day at work the other day and really wanted to talk to her.  I was less than happy but I could hear her clear as day say "I'm so proud of you sweetie, you're doing great and I'm glad you've found this job.  I'm very proud of you, I'm proud of all my grandkids, but you're doing great and it's all going to be ok".  That's it!  It's all going to be ok.  Tomorrow I'll run with a good friend, get to try out my new wetsuit after the race, and just enjoy some sunshine in general.

Go train happy!

Beulah M. Davie

Beulah M. Davie: Grandmother, Mother, Daughter, Aunt, Sister, Wife, care giver, warm lap, caring arms, soft words, encourager, strength, inspiration, supporter, believer, gathering point, fun creator, and confidant.  She will be gone in body, but will be with us forever watching over us.

As many of you now know, Grandma passed away last Tuesday evening.  She was surrounded by family nonstop for the previous few days before her passing.  I am upset that she is gone, but I am grateful that she did not have to suffer many of the things she hated in the last little bit.  The previous weekend I went up to visit Grandma and she was doing really well!  She was able to walk wherever she wanted to in the house, cheer for OSU Basketball, and carry on full conversations.  The next weekend my sister was up with her and said there was a noticeable decline.  Sam went home Sunday evening.  My mom called Monday morning because the decline was very severe.  Mom called and asked how quickly I could get up there, so I packed my bags and flew home to Bellefontaine.  I text Sam and she quickly packed and came back to Grandma's.  We had cousins helping, mom, each other, and neighbors helping out.

Monday morning Grandma was able to stand up and sort of walk.  Monday afternoon she could barely stand.  Monday night, standing wasn't a thing and sitting up was barely a thing.  Tuesday, no sitting up on her own.  It sounds terrible, and it was terrible, but I feel that being there with her the whole time has helped me understand that her being gone is a "good" thing.  It's not a good thing in the traditional sense, but it is a good thing in the face that she was completely miserable and never wanted to live like that for an extended period of time.  We all knew Grandma was an active person, a strong willed person, and a phenomenal person.  As much as we didn't want Grandma to go, we didn't want her to suffer either.  So she's gone, and we're all left with a gaping hole in our lives.  Mom pointed it out best as to how Grandma really was our guide for everything.  I would call Grandma if I was lost in a different city, I would even call her if I lost my keys.  I would call Grandma for everything.  Now I can't call.

This was a very hard realization to come to, but it has been made easier because I'm surrounded by people who care.  I am blessed to have family, friends, co-workers, a very understanding husband, and extended family who will all take care of each other.  I have some relief in knowing that if I needed to call and talk to someone that I have a long list of people that I can reach out to who would be willing to listen.  I am aware that not everyone has this luxury, and that is very unfortunate.  I am also comforted by something I read the day/morning after Grandma passed.

I get emails from Proverbs 31 Ministries, and the one I received on Wednesday morning was incredibly fitting.  It was "Jesus Mourns with You".   It was from John 11:35 talking about how Jesus wept and knows the pain that we're feeling.  I had argued with God the night of Grandma's passing, talking about how if He is such a God of compassion, why would He allow someone who has done no wrong to suffer so much.  Why would He have someone who has taken care of anyone who came to her, went to church her whole life, and gave no matter how much or little she had at the moment go through cancer/treatments/pain.  It was probably a discussion that most people wouldn't associate with "praying", but it was how I honestly felt.  That night when Grandma was feeling so miserable, couldn't talk, and was in incredible pain (she asked for morphine, which she didn't even like Tylenol before, so morphine was a HUGE deal) I was praying/arguing about her not making it through the night because she was so miserable.  We had probably 30 people in the house throughout Tuesday, after all the kids left, Phil left, and the house quieted down, she passed in peace.  She passed with Sam, Shawn, my mom, and myself by her side (Dave was on his way back).  We were all able to tell her how much we loved her, that she was our inspiration, and that we would all be ok, because she raised us to take care of each other.  That next morning I was reminded that Jesus wept and feels our pain.  I needed that reassurance, because everything leading up to that point was making it seem very much like we were fighting a battle that we would never win, all on our own.

Beulah M. Davie: Grandmother, Mother, Daughter, Aunt, Sister, Wife, care giver, warm lap, caring arms, soft words, encourager, strength, inspiration, supporter, believer, gathering point, fun creator, and confidant.  She will be gone in body, but will be with us forever watching over us.

Cells can be jerks

Sometimes you have to realize that there are things going on in your life that you simply just cannot fix. I've known this for a while but this really became true after talking to Grandma tonight.  I'm still processing a lot of things, like how she sounds so different sometimes on the phone, how she is almost always out of breath anymore, and how she has ever increasing difficulty just doing simple things that never used to phase her.  The voice I'm used to hearing on the phone and the voice actually on the other end of the line don't match up anymore. There were more days than not that she would sound more like herself, but those days are becoming increasingly fewer.  

How do I deal with it? Well, apparently I'm a great impersonator for grandma.  I can say things just like her and it cracks up my mom.  I run a lot. I am in the middle of Ironman training which helps keep me sane.  I work with a lot of really good people who know what's going on and have already told me that regardless of short notice or anything they can help me cover whatever I need with my clients.  I don't have to worry about gaining and "occurrence" like I have at other jobs for family emergencies.  If something happens I just have to say I need to go and it's all taken care of.  That is a huge stress relief.  Outside of that I pretty much just realize there are few things that I can control, so I control them the best I can. I can't control much else from that.  When I get to see my grandma I just appreciate the time I have, reminisce with her, and make new memories.  She loves making over my Zoey puppy, and Zoey loves grandma, so that's fun to watch.  There are a lot of times that I juts take in that weekend, dinner, moment, whatever and enjoy it.  That's about all that you can do.  All because one cell decided to be a little pain in the ass and get his receptors all out of joint and not recognize cell growth inhibitors.  Then he squished other cells, multiplied with a vengeance, and decided to not be receptive to any of the treatments that should have killed him and his million and one friends dead.  Humph. Little jerk.  (I realize this is a gross over simplification of cancer, but it gets the point across)

And We're Off!

The 2014 Race season is about to officially begin!  Felix (my bike) has been spending more time in the living room, enjoying some good quality TV time, a little more sweat than he's used to, and A LOT of post-it-notes stuck to him.  I feel a lot better when I can organize my training and racing life, and post-its certainly help on that end.  I have colors for different training days, my races are signed up for and posted, and my rest days are left noticeably blank.  Yesterday I officially registered for my two Half Marathons coming up this spring, I have a Half Ironman figured out, and IRONMAN WISCONSIN training is a full go.   I realize it's only March, but seriously, I'm going to go 140.6 miles in September, non-stop, as fast as I can...training now sounds really good.

My Calendar for March:

Blues are swims, Pinks are speed/track work, greens are bikes, red numbers are runs.  Wednesdays are blank but there is an "optional" 1000m swim each Wednesday just to get another swim on the board, but nothing ridiculous since it's supposed to be an active recovery day.

Half Marathon Xenia - April 6th

Flying Pig Half Marathon - May 4th

Rev3 Knoxville 70.3 - May 18th

Ironman Muncie 70.3 - July 12

Ironman Wisconsin 140.6 - September 7th

I'm looking to add a couple of either sprint or olympic distances in here because they'll help with building speed, plus they're fun!

Ok, off to swim again! :D

Eating Disorders, Athletes, and Gyms

So I guess that I missed the boat a tiny bit as last week was "Eating Disorder Awareness Week."  It's still important, and some how eating disorders became the topic of the day with my clients, completely unprovoked, they just all had something to say.  Some people think that eating disorders are things that only affects those who are trying to lose weight, look a certain way, or have an incredible urge to be "skinny".  There is truth behind this thought process, but at the same time this is a strong misconception.  Someone who is very overweight can have an eating disorder, just like someone who is severely underweight.  Athletes can even have an eating disorder.

I've noticed that some athletes become almost obsessed with how much they eat between workouts, on the bike, before lifting, on off days, after swims, the list goes on and on.  I was able to study a little bit about eating disorders in school, but it didn't hit home until I get to encounter it every day.  The worst part is that some "fitness professionals" encourage this behavior thinking that the athlete is being diligent.  There is a fine line between being well informed and keeping track of your food to take the best care of your body possible, and then there's obsessive and being dangerous.  I have discovered that a lot of women, and a surprising amount of men, will count their calories to oblivion and still wonder why they aren't making progress.  Your body requires good calories.  Strong calories.  Being "vegan" and only eating lettuce and berries will not give you the look of:

Now, you most certainly can be "Vegan" and still obtain this image, but you're going to have to be creative with your protein sources, calorie dense foods, and getting enough calories in the day on top of your working out.  I fortunately? unfortunately? get to talk to a lot of people every day, and they all want to talk about food at one point or another.  I had a very sweet gal talk to me about getting in shape.  She wanted to know how much she would need to work out, eat, lift, run, etc.  Her goal was to lose another 5lbs so that she could "look like me", I weighed her in and she was 100lbs, 5' 2", 17% Body Fat.  She was tiny.

The big misconception here was that she thought the way to get the lean and defined look was to keep losing weight.  She was well on her way to looking like a short runway model with absolutely no body fat or muscle tone.  I asked how many calories she ate per day and how often she worked out and we both about fell over with each others responses.  She worked out, doing cardio of form, for a minimum of 2 hours per day, she only ate between 1000-1200 calories per day.  This is the reason she's so tiny and has no muscle.  Strength training isn't in her repertoire and she's not eating enough for her body to repair itself even if she was lifting weights.  She would end up injured.

The biggest problem with Eating Disorders is that there isn't a lot of reasoning you can do with them because they are a mental disorder of form.  In her head she still had a mental image of someone who was overweight and wanted to get smaller.  The body image that she wanted to obtain, mentally, meant that she was going to have to lose weight.  Athletes do the same thing, they want to look a certain way, perform a certain way, and have a certain body image.  There is some truth in getting to "Race weight", but it's still a healthy weight.

When you're talking about getting to race weight, you want to be as light as you can be while still being as strong as you can be, you want a good power to weight ratio.  It does no good to be stick thin and look like an Ethiopian as a triathlete because then you don't have the arms to swim, or the legs to bike, you just have the tiny body to run.  That won't work out too well with anything longer than a sprint distance.

Just think about this, if you're not fueling your body correctly, or with enough calories, then your body is going to suffer.  Your mental health is going to suffer.  Your friends/family/supporters are going to suffer because you'll be miserable to be around.  There isn't a magic number that we can slap on someone and say "yes, this is exactly how much of x, y, and z that you need to eat and you'll be perfect", it doesn't work that way.  Very few people believe that in early training right now, I'm eating about 2200 calories a day.  That may not sound like a lot, but  I'm also 4' 11" and 103# training about 10 hours a week (give or take a couple of hours).  When Ironman season is in full swing later this summer, I bet I'll double that number and still weigh the same just because of the demand I'll put on my body.  If you're training hard and getting injured, not healing, and feel like you hate the world.  Look at how much you're putting your body through and how you're feeding it.  If you're dropping weight like crazy and are miserable, then it's time to reevaluate your nutrition and get on track to a stronger, healthier body.

Why Running is the Best Feeling Ever

As a Personal Trainer I get asked daily why I love doing what I do.  Why do I love to work out?  Why do I love to run?  Why do I want to help other people do those same things?  All of these things make me feel better and keep me sane.  I absolutely love the feeling of running.  I'm typically away from people, or only around people I really truly like to be around because we can talk about the same things or they know when to just be quiet and run.  When Red and I first started dating he would bike next to me while I ran and we would go all over down town Cincinnati.  We had some of the best conversations during those runs.  I think running together was the perfect way to get to know each other better.  We could just enjoy each others company, talk about whatever we wanted, and get to know how the other would react if something went wrong.  Be it a twisted ankle, needing water, bonking, or just needing to vent.  Running provided a great escape from the rest of the world.  

Today running is my therapy.  I can clear my head, empty my heart of my problems, and just run.  It helps to have great running buddies because they can help talk you through your problems, cheer you up, or just let you cry.  I enjoy working out, I really do, and I love swimming.  But there is something about running that makes me feel better.  After work I sometimes feel drained and just want to go away and not deal with anyone, sometimes you just need to be left alone.  Today during my run I was able to have company, but be alone at the same time.  I was able to vent, cry, laugh, and talk out a lot of things that bug me or just needed to be talked out and now I feel 100 times better.  I feel better now after running 6 miles than I did when I first woke up this morning.  I'm not a morning person, so that isn't saying much but you get my point.  After running you start to appreciate things a little bit more too.  Water tastes AMAZING.  After sprints you realize how much better air feels when you get to the end.  Running is freeing and refreshing.  If you say you hate running then you're clearly doing it for the wrong reasons.  For me running is one of the single best feelings in the world and I am positive that this winter is going to cause me to lose my mind if I can't get outside and run more often.  Do you hear that Winter?!  I need you to go away!!  We would all like it if you could go away, you've more than filled your quota for this year, please bugger off!

Let's brag about Red for a second :P

This story begins about 5 years ago, Red and I were just dating and he was already getting tired of doing all of the cooking.  As many people can attest to, I used to REALLY suck at cooking.  How my sister survived some of my attempts at "food", we will never know.  I was so bad that I screwed up Easy Mac on a regular basis, to the point where my roommates would just give up and make it for me. (Thank you!).  I either wound up with a strange soup, or a baked on gelatonous mess that had adhered to the sides of whatever bowl I was using.  With this kind of background I was not keen on attempting to cook for someone I actually wanted to keep around.

Enter Red, he has always been able to cook and was more than happy to cook...for a little while.  Then he started insisting that I make attempts to cook something other than plain chicken and spaghetti.  I kept telling Red that I wouldn't cook for him because he would always hover and "critique" anything that I was doing.  It made me nervous and even if I was doing something right I knew he would come behind me and fix something.  After many attempts at sharing the kitchen I just let him deal with it.  Finally he realized that I wasn't going to cook ever again if this kept up, so he devised a plan.  He promised to at least try anything that I made.

This plan worked out for quite a while because it turned out that real food was easier to cook than whatever is in Easy Mac.  There were still horrific moments, and he would quietly watch me eat, and as long as I kept eating whatever I had messed up then he would keep eating.  After we were through he would say that he was glad I tried something new, but let's keep our options open.  That or "that was good, but we don't need to try it ever again".  Yep.  He made the deal to try ANYTHING I cooked or made, and he has held to his promise to this day.  Well now he is starting to sorely regret that promise as I have gained more confidence in the kitchen and am branching out into the crazy healthy world where gluten free is everywhere, beets are a key ingredient, and protein powder is a fully acceptable substitute to flour.  Ok, maybe not that bad, ok yes it is.  Cue this week's newest "attempts".  For Sunday breakfast we always eat French toast, eggs, and bacon.  I decided that I wanted to try something a little bit different and was a bit healthier.  I attempted "cookie dough cereal".

1 scoop protein powder
1/2 C quick oats
1-2T nut butter
2 tsp vanilla
1tsp cinnamon
1tsp sweetener of choice (we just used sugar)
Enjoy with almond milk.

Red kept his promise, ate half of the bowl that I gave him then looked at me and asked if I was serious.  I continued to eat mine because I thought it was actually good, I also didn't put as much cinnamon in mine which apparently ruined his.  Ok, fine, that was a flop in his book.  I have since had it 3 times and still think it's delicious.

Attempt two:  a juicing/smoothie/drink/thing.  Basically I was bored and thought something would work out.  The jury is still out.  I have been hearing rave reviews about beets and their benefits to athletes, cancer fighting awesomeness, and their ability to balance your checkbook (I made the last one up).  So I figured it must be good!!   While at William Sonoma the other day they had samples of juice.  Instant creativity boost!  During my grocery shopping on Monday I decided to pick up some beets, carrots, grapefruits, and apples for my newest juicing epiphany.  Buoyed by the inspiration provided by William Sonoma I now had a plan.  Today I put my plan into action, and Red again regretted his 5 year promise :)

Juice from 1 Red Grapefruit
1/4 of a beet
1 carrot
2 apples
8 oz of water
I put everything in my Ninja blender and let her go.  When everything was blended I strained my juice, added some sugar, and enjoyed.  As I took my newest concoction to the living room I told Red to try it.  He immediately said no, but I just gave him "the look" and he gave up and tried it.  See, he's such a good sport.  Red has honestly never turned down anything that I have made without at first trying it.  He also is good enough to eat more of it if he knows it's something I really wanted to turn out and something I tried really hard, but yet still screwed up.  Now I'm not going to say that this drink was a fantastic idea, but I've certainly had worse, and this one I can at least get down.

I bring you!  Whatever the crap you want to call this:

What's your ideal????

It has been brought to my attention that people are waging war against each other for some of the dumbest things on the planet.  After I realized that people were being very passive aggressive about different ideals I started to noticed that there was a lot of hypocrisy going on with these wars.  Here are some of the topics that I've noticed have social acceptability to go one way but not the other:

Skinny v. "Curvy"

Degrees v. no degrees (or even multiple degrees v. 1 degree or less)

Working out v. not working out

Partying v. staying at home (I'm noticing this a lot between some of my friends who are all parents, I have friends on both sides of this argument)

Having kids v. not having kids

With a lot of these it seems that it is socially acceptable to pick on one side of the argument but not the other and that the arguments can be taken so far that relationships are ruined.  Let's look briefly at some of these and see if you can relate at all.

Skinny v. Curvy:

A fat person can defend themselves by calling themselves curvy, or blame it on "genetics".  These same people can tell someone else that they're too skinny, work out too much, have too much muscle, should eat a sandwich, or any other number of things.  BUT if the skinny person were to say the opposite things to the fat person then the skinny person clearly hates fat people and is a jerk.  The big person can say "you're a bag of bones, go eat something" and that's cool, but if you say "you're a fat ass, step away from the sandwich", you're an asshole.

Degrees v. no degrees:

Apparently you can rag on someone for getting a degree and trying to better themselves, but trust me, you are not allowed to tell the same person who lacks a degree that they are stupid for not going on in education.  I realize that some people are drawn to school and others have no desire to sit in a classroom, but unless you're wanting to be a doctor without going to school, why does it bother you who went to school and who didn't?  Congrats, you are picking on someone who has a degree to say they're smarter than you in "X" subject.  This one really irritates me.

Working out v. Not working out:

I find this one hilarious.  It's a personal favorite of mine when someone sits in front of me and says that that they want to lose 30+ pounds but they don't want to workout.  I also love it when people tell me that working out is bad for you.  Clearly.  I am a huge fan of the saying that 80% of the key to success in weight loss starts in the kitchen, but you're still missing 20%.  Also, if you're not willing to take care of that first 80% AND not do the other 20%, then you're probably screwed.

Partying v. staying in:

I get to watch this war on Facebook all the time, I feel like it's a little soap opera that I get to read every day.  I have zero stance on this, I'm just watching.  My two cents are that if you choose to have children and still go out to party that you take care of your kids first.  You can choose to not go out and party but still spend your money on other things and be a crappy parent.  I get to watch people talk about not affording clothes for their kids, but yet they can afford alcohol on the weekend.  OR they talk about not affording heat for their house, scream religion at those who drink and label them as bad parents, but yet their closet rivals that of an major department store.  

Finally, this one made a big splash just a couple weeks ago and it was 100% unintentional: *Disclaimer, this is my blog and unless you can behave don't comment*

Kids v. No Kids:

Holy Fancy Moses!  I had absolutely no idea that there was such a divide between these two camps!  Some people simply don't like kids (me and a lot of my friends), some people love being around kids (my sister teaches 3 year olds, some of my friends have multiple children, clearly for them).  I don't think there is something inherently wrong with either of these ideas.  I also realize that some people may end up with kids and still hate everyone else's kids.  It works the same way with animals.  I love my animals more than most people, but if your dog wants to hump my leg, pee on everything, or be smaller than my cat, then no.  I will not like your dog.  Does this make me anti-dog?  Heck no!  But yeesh!  I was sent messages telling me I would be a terrible parent and I should never have kids simply because I was complaining about getting on a plane to Orlando (Disney) with screaming children.  This is not my cup of tea.  I didn't say anything to the kids or their parents, but I guess I should keep my thoughts to myself about not liking little Johnny who is screaming at the top of his lungs because he can't see Goofy yet.  My bad.  (sarcasm)  

This entire rant brings me to my point.  Why is your view better than mine?  Why is my view better than yours?  Why does there have to only be one thing that's right?  And why are there so many socially acceptable one way streets on views?  There are a lot of big things that I think most people agree on, but these other issues really don't impact anyone else.  You think someone is too skinny?  Unless they're unhealthy or asking you how to gain weight then leave them alone.  What about too fat?  I'm a personal trainer and I'm still not going to bug you if I think you're too fat.  Now if you come up and directly ask me questions then I will give you brutal honest answers.  If you're 45% body fat and need to lose 50 pounds, I'm not going to think it's cute when you call yourself "fluffy".  Kids v. no kids?  I don't care how many kids you have so long as you don't expect me to take care of them.  Just don't turn around and tell me that I'm a terrible person because I don't like your kid.  There are so many other issues; guns v. no guns, abortion, drugs, trucks v. prius, mac v. pc, rich v. poor, the list is endless!

I'm not trying to tick anyone off, I have just been noticing a lot of these arguments springing up more frequently.  I find a lot of these things entertaining to hear the arguments, but then at the same time I get to see a lot of people get their feelings hurt or feel put down and there is no "socially acceptable" retaliation.  Knock it off.