Spring Is In The Air

Or at least it was this morning. It was so beautiful out this morning, even with the really high humidity. It seems weird to notice humidity in February, however I (a.k.a. my hair) definitely noticed the extra moisture in the air.

And when it's super nice out, that means a run, right? Yes! But I had to get out early as rain/ice was on it's way around 1. So I headed out into the wind, no iPod, no Charles (he did is run in the morning), no Jess (another case of a bad foot) - just me. And it was great. Well, maybe not great, just nice. It was a decent 40 minute run, a tad further than I went 1 or 2 weeks ago, I needed fewer walk breaks, and only had to stop at 1 stop light. The wind seemed to be a cross wind or at my back the majority of the time. The sun came out at the end and was on my back in that really nice, warming way. I really can't complain.

Not much else has been going on this week. Wednesday was another good weights and abs class. Thursday was a good yoga class - and I didn't get dizzy this time! YAY, progress! I have been getting a lot of cramps in my calves, inner quads, and feet - not sure what's up with that.

Unfortunately, all this outdoors-ie-ness won't last. They are talking about ice/snow/wintry mix on Sunday/Monday and the temp will drop back down to the 20's and 30's.

But today, this morning, it was nice and I know spring is right around the corner.

You Can Accomplish A Lot When You Get Up Early

It's about 8:15 am. So far I have done the following:

• Swam 2600M with Karen
• Made googly eyes at Rahm
• Dropped off my dry cleaning
• Picked up a dozen bagels for a work breakfast meeting/birthday
• Grabbed a skinny vanilla latte from Sbucks
  
• Showered and got dressed for work
• Did my dishes
• Packed my lunch

Not bad considering 24 hours ago, I was still in bed.

The swim was good. On my way to the pool, TLC's Waterfalls, circa 1995, was on the radio. What a song... But it helped as Karen made me do sprints - 10*50, hard, with :10 rest. It was good to try and move quickly, but really, sprints are never fun.

Okay, enough procrastination. Off to work. And wish me luck as I didn't get my normal nap after my swim.

rude, Rude, RUDE

Let me set the scene.

Work gym, 1:20 pm. All 4 treadmills are full and 3 of the 4 are 7-10 minutes in, 1 with 3 minutes left on the 30 minute time limit.
I put my name on the whiteboard. I head to the stair master to warm up and notice a woman sign up after me. A few MOMENTS later, I notice SHE is on a treadmill. I look at the whiteboard and MY NAME WAS CROSSED OFF!!! I huffed on over there and ask if she crossed my name off and she said "Yes". Just like that. "Yes".
And followed it up with, "Well, no one was around." I checked the time. It was 3 minutes after I signed up, where could I have gone?!?!

Luckily the guy next to her got off so I didn't have to throw down to get my run in - but I was tempted.

About 5 minutes into my run, I had to blow my nose. Instead of getting of to grab a tissue, I just blew my nose in the sleeve of my shirt, in her direction. Her disgusted face was priceless. I just smiled and continued to sing in my head, happily trotting away on the the treadmill.

Wii Fit...

My new obsession. It was cold and raining/icing/snowing this morning so I decided to spend the time on the Wii Fit instead of going for a run. A smart choice if I do say so my self.

I have been looking forever and I finally have one. Woot! But like most things in life, there are positives and negatives. Here is the big negative to the WiiFit. I don't like how my Mii character looks. See, there is a scale on the balance board and they calculate your BMI. I am not happy with the results. The 'game' told me I should exercise more... Humph.

But, the games are AWESOME!! Yoga, strength training, aerobics, balance games... I am very excited to unlock more poses, exercise, games, etc. What fun!

And yes, I did work up a tad bit of sweat. Not as much as I would have running, but way more than just sitting on my couch.

Weekend Update

I don't know what happened to the weekend. 3 days would always be nice.

I took Friday off from working out. I just needed the rest. And it was restaurant week and had reservations at Equinox - very tasty. Which basically means I should have worked out... Anyhoo...

Saturday started with pain - lots of pain, and all in the good way. I went to another indoor spin class which was lead by a guy I know. Here's the thing when you take a class and know the instructor. He comes up to your face and yells things like "FASTER! I WANT YOUR CADENCE AT 80, NOT 77. GO HARDER". It's good times. My legs are still feeling it...

And what bike did I take to this one... I took BLAIN!! Blain is back! Okay, he never went away, just needed a lot of rest after the 112 miles back in September. I was looking at my wireless bike computer and it still had my stats from Sept 7. 112.13 miles, Avg speed 14.7, Max speed 39.1 (I can't believe I went that fast...). I cleared it out, it was bittersweet. Time to move on, but so proud of what I accomplished.

After a painful hour and a half, I headed to a meeting. Once that was over, I called my bro Arin to see what he was up to. He was on his way for a swim at the Y, so I tagged along. It started out great (even though Arin is faster than I am...) and about 1800M in, CRAMP!! Not a tiny little crap, HUGE CRAMP in my right foot.
Oh. My. Goodness.
I struggled through another 200M, but I was done. Stupid cramp.

We celebrated our swim with lunch and my favorite cupcake.

Thursday's Post

Time. Where does it go? This is Thursday's post

I got up and swam. The only reason was to see if Rahm swims on Thursday's. And because I told Karen I would be there. You can tell it's becoming tri season because the pool was super crowded at 5:45 in the morning.

I picked a lane, got in, Karen joined me - but no Rahm :-( So I don't know if had something better to do - like doing chief of staff work; or just doesn't swim Thursday mornings.

In the afternoon, I was still tight from spin the day before and just tired. Really tired. I had the deepest sleep in between swimming and heading to work. Charles stopped in to see if I was running (no) and we decided to try the yoga class. After we made sure our outfits weren't too matchie match, we headed to class.

It felt really good! Hips need a lot of work, but the hamstrings felt better. And overall did wake me up. Janel was in class as well - and she was right, the classes are pretty good. I am really hoping I can keep it up.

Should I Shower???

Today I felt a bit back on track. My eating was still a bit off (I have a slight obsession with Reese's puffs cereal) but my workouts were good. And yes, I said workoutS.

At lunch I went to weights class again. Really good, full body workout in 30 minutes. Followed by a 15 minute abs class. Charles hopped in and sat next to me. There was one move where we were on our backs moving our legs up and down (working the lower abs) with a weight in between the feet. I was a bit worried Charles was going to drop the weight on my head, we started giggling, and that just makes doing abs even harder.

And tonight I went back to spin class. Last time was good, but time was even better. I felt stronger on the bike, even doing 1 legged drills. I remember my first experience with 1 legged drills with Coach... ahhh, those were the days. Anyway, it was a really good 1 hour butt kicking workout. (WARNING DAD!!) And, my lady parts - not nearly as bad as last time :-)

So, back to the title of this post. Should I shower?? Here's the thing, I showered when I got up and after my weights/abs class. That's already 2 today. Tomorrow morning I am getting up at 5:15 to go meet up with Karen at the pool, swim, and will shower AGAIN in about 11 hours. So, that would be 4 showers in about 24 hours....

But I smell, so I am off, and off to bed.

Ummm... Cortisone Shot

Okay, so I guess I didn't express how much my foot really hurt after Saturday's run. It hurt, bad. And with yesterday being President's Day, I had the day off. Did I rest, no!! Adam and I were tourists in DC! So, even though 4-5 hours of walking The Mall and Museums was a lot of fun (except for the stupid real tourists), my foot was killing me by the end of the afternoon.

Luckily, today was my follow up appointment with my foot doctor to see how the inserts were doing. I thought I would have good news - and would have up to this past Saturday. I explained how I broke them in, slowly increased mileage (weekend runs of 4, 5, 6.5, 8 respectively) with 1-2 week day runs of 2-3.5 miles each, I should have been fine. But when he pushed on the bone spur, I almost kicked him in the face, again. So, he gave me another cortisone shot and prescribed PT. 2 times a week for the next 4 weeks. He said I could keep running, just scale back the mileage a bit, and I have plenty of time before the Cherry blossom 10 miler.

So, after all of that, I decided to talk today off. Plus, I have a Tri Club board meeting tonight and 2+ hours of talking about triathlon and triathlon related topics can be as exhausting as a 30 minute workout :-)

Yup, I Need to Swim More

Today was the DC Tri Club swim meet. I have not had a 'swim meet' since senior year of high school, but it was really fun. Here is the downside - only swimmers go to swim meets!! So, there were people there who are all "hey, swimming is your best, you will do great" which I have to correct with "swimming is my most comfortable event". This does not mean fast.

Besides, it's all relative. In the grand population of the world, yes, I am probably pretty fast. In the grand world of triathlon, I hold my own. In the world of swimming, I am at the back of the pac. All relative.

Anyway, it was a great time. After some warming up on how to dive in and keep my goggles on, I did the 50 free (just wanted to see my time, I never was a sprinter), 400 free (totally did well on that one, for me - being a former distance swimmer and all...), 100 IM (first time I did fly in a long time, but was fun) and a few relays. I did the back in a medley relay and S stood at the edge (no blocks) and let me use his legs to pull up and get a good start. It was awesome. I love doing the backstroke start and doing the dolphin kick, on my back, underwater.

The rest the day I am preparing for the "Meatloaf Off" for The Meddlers birthday. I did not submit a meatloaf for judging, but did do a dessert. Not bad if I do say so my self...

UPDATE - I won the dessert competition!! Woo-Hoo And it was renamed from the "Fruit Pizza" (because it was too boring) to the "Milwaukee Tart". Ha!!

Happy Heart Day

I guess. Some people enjoy this holiday, okay - one person I know does. So Kristen, Happy Valentines Day!!

Otherwise, I started today as I would any other Saturday, running. A good 8 miles at around Great Falls. Sherry and Rose met up with me at the start. Sherry stuck with me for awhile, she was only doing 5 miles. I have to say, she has short little fast legs.

Anyway, the first half was good. Held a 9:1 pretty easily. On the way back, not so great. Miles 4-6 were okay. After I hit Great Falls again, it was downhill from there. Both figuratively and literally. I tried to keep running, as it was downhill, but I just couldn't. I made it back, running as much as I could, but it wasn't great.

The good news, I did 8 miles. The bad news, my right hip and left ankle really REALLY hurt. Especially my right hip. Very VERY painful.

Rose and I celebrated our run at my favorite bagel shop for hummus veggie sandwiches. Good times.

I Guess It's That Time of Year

Where I really need to think about my 2009 schedule. There are no major goals this year, no Ironman, not even a half Ironman. But, I don't want to not have goals and races to train for. Apart of me wants to sleep in on Saturday's and Sunday's, but I also want to enjoy races when I do them. It's a hard balance. But I do feel if I have a set goal, workouts will become easier and have a bit more meaning.

Right now, this is what I am signed up for
Cherry Blossom 10 miler - April 5
Rocketts Landing Oly Tri in Richmond - May 17
Chesapeak Bay 4.4 Mile Swim - June 14
SheROX Sprint Tri in Philadelphia - Aug 2

What else do I want to add? Do I want to add anything? There is the NJ State triathlon that a group of the tri club does. There is also going to be the Club Championships somewhere. I should probably add those to volunteer, support the club, or participate.

I am just not sure. Anyone have any ideas???

Weights Again

I just finished another great weights and abs class. It was the same instructor as last week and I really do like her classes. When she first started, not so good. Now, much MUCH better. I will be feeling it tomorrow.

During the class, I did get a case of the giggles when we were doing bicep curls. The class is all ladies and one guy and she says "Come on ladies, lets work on our guns!!" The poor guy just put his head down and continued and I just laughed. I don't know why, it just made me giggle. A lot.

However it was not as bad as Thursday and Friday nights when I was reminded how much I love the Pets dot com sock puppet. I spent way too long on youtube watching videos Thursday night and reliving those videos to Adam and Drew on Friday in between bouts massive laughter. I woke up Saturday morning with sore abs and cheek bones.

Not sure what it is about that sock puppet... I am laughing now.

I Wanted to Swim...

But when Karen e-mailed to say she couldn't make it, Brooke didn't say anything, the motivation just wasn't there. Not even to see Rahm.

It was also because my stomach was so full of yummy yummy cheese from my cheese tasting class.

What is this you ask???

Yes, cheese tasting class. Jess took me to cheese tasting class for my birthday. So nice. And SOOOO GOOOODDD!!!

I did manage to sit on a stationary bike for a 30 minutes and got some good stretching in at lunch. It's no Rahm sighting, but it will do.

Just Keep Running

Yesterday was beautiful with an okay run. I know to get faster, I have to run before and that was today's plan. Except I wanted to do intervals on the treadmill, so I could gauge my speed and where I was. Unfortunately, others had the same idea and there were no treadmills open (again).

Charles was with me, again, and talked me into going outside. I wasn't dressed properly - a bit chilly for what I had on, and I would have preferred a different outfit for the public. Charles did make a good point that I would only see (overweight) tourists who couldn't run anyway. He always knows how to make me feel better. Ha!

Anyway, it started with a 10 minute warm up to the mall, Charles took off and I started some intervals. 3 minutes hard, 2 minutes easy, 3 times. It was tough but good. Charles met up with me to tackle Capital Hill. He is just so motivating to help me up the hill.

Slow and steady. And no matching outfits ;-)

Yesterday

Yesterday was one of those days that reminds me why I love living in DC. Slept in a tad and got up to go for a run. I knew to keep my eyes out for Sean and Adam, but started before them because they are way faster. It was perfect (long) shorts, t-shirt with a long sleeve, weather. About 10 minutes in Adam met up with me and 2 minutes later, Sean was there (he went the wrong way but found us). Adam and Sean took off and I went back in my own lovely world.

I tried something different with this run. The first half was a 9:1, keeping my heart rate down. I felt slow, sluggish and was not having a good time. On the way back I decided to forgo watching my heart rate and ran how the song made me feel, walked right before the end of the song until my heart rate dropped to a certain level, than ran again. It felt good, really good. And my pace was a lot faster.

Don't get me wrong, I am still slow. Really slow. So slow I am very worried about the 14 minutes time cut off at the 10 mile "race" I have coming up in April. But, I am working on it - that's all I can do.

But the best part was walking back from brunch. The water on the Potomac was so shinny, so beautiful and sparkly. Just a beautiful day. And the fact I called Mom and Dad after to brag that it was 67 degrees (and 30 in G-dale).

I Like Volunteering

I meant to write this yesterday, but I was very busy sitting on the couch watching Season 2 disk 2 of The Tudors.

Last year, I was really good at setting up and organizing group runs. This year, not so much - but I am trying to change that. Usually the runs were on Saturdays, however things keep coming up. Yesterday I was back at KEEN and was totally worth putting off the run until Sunday (today). My first two experiences were really great and I was excited to get back. Yesterday was no different.

I was with 2 new kids and it was great. My first one started off by saying "I hate girls". But by the end of the hour, she told me all about her 2 boyfriends, prom dates, and wanting an engagement ring for Valentines day - as well as swimming around, doing flips and handstands. The second athlete was non verbal and wiped away the first few drops of water that hit him. Again, buy the end he was happy kicking along in an inter tube as we played catch with a beach ball. Watching them progress, in just 45 minutes, is so great.

I spent the rest of the day shopping with Jess. Totally cardio.

La-Ti-Da

Umm...

Not too much exciting is going on - which I am okay with, but makes for a boring blog.

Yesterday I had a really good weights and abs class. I have been a bit disappointed in the ones at the gym, but this one was pretty good. And instead of going to spin class last night, ME and I went for drinks and a quick dinner to celebrate vindication in the private sector. People who don't do their jobs get let go. Not that you ever want to see someone lose their jobs, especially in this economy - however when they don't do what they are paid to do... karma will bite ya in the you know where

I woke up this morning feeling something I haven't felt in a long time - soreness. Yay!

However, I still needed to get a run in, and it being 20 degrees outside, treadmill it was. And who better to spend quality time on a treadmill with... Charles! As we headed to the gym, we discussed our outfits to make sure we weren't too matchie match again - even though I think he really wanted to match again so I would blog about him - and make one of my famous "paint" drawings of us matching...

Unfortunately, everyone decided to hit the gym at the same time. After 12 minuets on a stationary bike, then a treadmill opened up. Finally, the one next to me opened and Charles hopped on. He made a miserable run soooo much better. I was having a tough time, but when he was running twice as fast as I was, said 2 more minutes, I went 2 more minutes. And those 2 minutes were pretty easy. Walked a bit, and started up again. It turned out to be a pretty good run.

Another Swim... Another Nap...

I curse Brooke and Karen every Tuesday morning when my alarm goes off at 5:10. I roll out of bed, throw on my suit (which is way to tight right now), put on clothes, hop in my car and head to the pool. This morning was no different, except as I was making a right hand turn, and came very close to hitting Karen. I don't know if she knew it was me - but I figured this would not be a good way to start the morning.

Anyway, I get to the pool, look around, and my man Rahm was not around! Boo!!! I figured he was probably done swimming with more important things going on. I grabbed a lane and started my warm up waiting for Karen and Brooke. Ad I was practicing my alternating breathing, I saw Rahm and knew it would be a good day. FYI - his workout was a bit shorter than normal.

Our workout - kicked butt!! We cranked out our 2100(+) in about 45 minutes!! Not sure why/how we were moving much better today (there was chatting as well) but we were all happy.

As much as I am close to bailing each and every morning, I am always so glad I go. And take a nap before I start my work day.

That's about it. I went to a weights class at lunch which was okay. I really do want to build in some weights and am thinking of hiring a personal trainer for a session or two. I am so worried about poor form and re-injuring myself.

Anyway, I am rambling. It's what happens when I am tired.

Often, Okay Always, Friends are More Important

Today was a day I would have liked to have started over. Many, many times. Most of it was really stupid things that just didn't go my way, I got frustrated and very upset. Nothing was the end of the world but I was still very angry. Then I got some bad news and put a few things in perspective.

Work got in the way of lunch, and a workout. It happens.

Tonight it was more important to take a friend to dinner, who just had a heart attack and I needed to see him, then going for a run. Luckily he looked great and even at half his pork chop!! A very good sign.

This was just a little reminder that life is short, you often get second chances but can't always rely on them.

Take care of your hearts!!

Congrats Pitt!!

Happy Superbowl Day!!

Yesterday was wine day so my plans didn't go as scheduled. I missed the DC tri club fun run to sleep. I guess that's what happens when you have wine day, starting in a kick butt limo at 11, with mimosas - getting up at 7 to run isn't the best idea. Oops, sorry.

Anyway, I did make it out around 12:30. It was a beautiful day and I have a 10 mile run coming up, I had to do something. Compared to Friday's run - complete opposite. Slow, high heart rate, knee/foot pain. But considering I was dehydrated and didn't have the best nutrition for a 5 mile run - I will take it.

After a nap, I headed over to Kristin's for Superbowl party #1. Later to Diane's for Superbowl party #2 - both highlighted the important moments with the people around me. Bruce with Kristin, S, and Lauren. The win with Diane and M.E. Good times.

It's a new week - hopefully I can keep up a good diet and workout schedule.

Winery Day!!!

Okay, so this was actually yesterday, but because it was wine day, and I don't know how to blog from my phone, I am writing this now.

But I am really tired so this will be quick.

My friends (on the left) are awesome. We celebrated my 30th birthday by going on a Northern Virginia winery tour. The ride (to the right) kicked butt.

And yes, that is a hot pink fuzzy hat with a "Birthday Girl" button.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.