Diana Tries-A-Tri!

A Confession

2011-11-14T20:58:00.001-08:00

Since I broke my hand, I've only worked out like twice. And I've really really enjoyed that. When I broke my hand (and then had surgery) I was about a week out from running my first Half Marathon. I was burning out so hard core on running, tri training, tacfit and fitting rugby in there too, I was already planning to take some time off from EVERYTHING and just be for a while. Well, my hand got forced (pun intended) a bit, and I decided to just ride out my time in the cast just being in the cast.

Like going to Washington DC and holding casts/hand with FDR!

Or chaperoning dances with some of my all time favorite (and most bad-ass) rugby pals.

Now I'm out of the cast, doing Physical Therapy twice a week and getting back into the swing of things. Things are looking pretty good:

You can see the scar up from my ring finger, as well as kinda see how my hand has a lump on it from scar tissue, and possibly from the bone growing back larger (yuuuuuck).

Here you can see the lump (and my bookcases) a little better.

And just for comparison, my left (non-lumpy) hand ... and the sing-off, I love that show.

There you have it. Part of me feels like a big fat lazy slob for not working out like crazy while broken. And part of me is feeling like I'm actually ready to start getting sweaty again ... and LIKING it! Eight weeks ago, I wasn't liking it as much anymore. A couple more weeks and I'm going to get the go-ahead to start doing weight-bearing exercise (push-ups, yoga, tacfit, etc) and I'm really excited.

And that my friends, is why I've been so absent. Do you really want to hear about the killer stew I made? Or how I've perfected keeping my cast from getting smelly? Probably not, this isn't exactly that kind of blog. Though, I could have one-handed typed some pretty entertaining stuff. Hopefully I'll be getting back at it, enjoying it, and finding that passion again in time for my next training cycle. I'm not exactly sure what I'll be training for (tris? rugby? another half?), but for sure I'll be back getting sweaty!

Bye Bye Cast!

2011-10-31T07:08:00.000-07:00

Today marks the first day of being cast-less! You have no idea how amazing it was to wake up this morning and take that thing off. My hand feels sensitive without it's little security blanket, and my typing skills are a little slower than normal since my tendons are rock solid and not overly pliable right now, but I'll take it! I can move the mouse on my computer back to the right side! I can type with two hands! I can WRITE WITH MY RIGHT HAND! Oh, it's such a lovely day.

My sexy scar. And yes, my hand is still a little swollen. Plus just under the incision point I have a lot of built up scar tissue.

My progress on making a fist. This is WAY better than when I first started. Apparently not letting your hand/tendons curl for six weeks makes it very difficult to make a fist ... who would have known?

And I can make my hand almost straight now. Again, massive progress from where it was. That fourth finger is still a tiny bit floppy, but doing well.

YAY! No cast! I know that work is going to be very excited too. Sadly, I still can't do anything weight bearing. I actually have a 1 lb limit on any sort of lifting or holding. When I go back to Tacfit this week I'll probably wear my cast just as a reminder not to get to crazy. The last thing I want is to re-break my hand and have to go through this again just because I wouldn't be patient enough to heal properly. I've still got more physical therapy to do, but just having that cast off is amazing.

It does get rid of my perfect conversation starter with cute boys ... especially cute rugby boys. Dang.

Reunited and it feels so good!

2011-10-25T20:16:00.000-07:00

Well I'm still in the lovely splint, but I get to take it off FOR GOOD next Saturday. That's 10 days ... not that I'm counting down. Also, so much has been up, I'm hitting you bullet style!

Hand is 75% healed, per Mike my hand guy. Hand therapist that is :)
I do physical therapy twice a week and exercises 4 times a day
I went to DC for a week! Pictures later ...
I went to Tacfit today for the first time in 6 weeks and it felt AMAZING!
Trainer Aaron left ....
BUT he's replaced by an attractive fireman, I'm sad TA is gone, but I'm happy with his replacement!
I need to buy a new car
I need to decide if I'll play rugby in the spring
I've become a pretty damn good left handed typer
And writer
And butt wiper

OK, that's all I got. I'll try not to disappear so much when the hand is better, and I'm actually working out!

I'm alive! Sort of ...

2011-10-05T17:40:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the absence but I hope you can understand that struggling all day at work to type one handed just makes me not even want to look at my computer at home! But here is the update. Surgery put two screws in my hand. I started physical therapy which is HARD. I am battling stinky splint syndrome with everything in me! OK that's enough, here are some pictures:

SCREWED!

Look how much the swelling has gone down. No longer fat handed.

How lovely. Yes that is a blue sock I'm wearing. It is supposed to keep the stink down haha

I'm headed to Canada this weekend for ~~their weirdly early Thanksgiving~~ a big rugby tournament and party. No worries, I'm just the water girl!

Not so bad?

2011-09-26T18:02:00.000-07:00

Cute checker at store: "Whoa what happened to your hand?!"
DTAT: "oh I broke it playing rugby"
CCAS: "I love rugby it's such a cool sport"
DTAT: "Yeah, surgery kinda sucks though"
CCAS: "Dang, pins? plate?"
DTAT: "Two screws"
CCAS: " wow, well that's pretty bad ass, you probably didn't even notice for a while huh?"
DTAT: "haha, yeah, didn't keep me from the post game drinks though!"
CCAS: (super cute smile) "right on, see you later!"

DTAT: (in head) "maybe this isn't a curse, just a pick up line ..."

Thsnks for your kind words everyone! It took me about 17 minutes to type this ... goodness.

Fixing this

2011-09-20T20:28:00.000-07:00

One handed typing is hard ...

I'm told your ring finger bone should be longer than that of the pinky ...

Broke.

Spiral fracture

Blerg. Gnarly.

I won't lie, I'm scared for surgery tomorrow. I'm also scared for no eating or drinking from midnight until 345 surgery. I am however looking forward to 'a valium and vicodin when you get here!' which is what the chipper nurse told me.

Send good vibes kids ...

Broken heart, Broken hand

2011-09-19T18:50:00.000-07:00

Alt titles:

"shortest rugby season ever"

"how will I wipe my ass?"

"my Mom was right"

"I'm too young not to have grandparents"

What a horrible weekend. I broke my hand on Saturday playing rugby. My RIGHT hand.

Then, right before heading to the doctor to get it diagnosed, I found out my Grandpa passed away.

Me perched on the couch next to him at Christmas. Now I have surgery Wednesday. Wake Saturday. Sadness everywhere in between.

And some pics to prove I played. Stripes suit me ...

Far left

Far right

Far left

She went down. OK I'm done one handed typing.

Pictures of pictures

2011-09-11T20:35:00.000-07:00

Today's workout:
Moving from bed, to the couch

I didn't do anything today but watch World Cup Rugby, football, and read my book. Like 300 pages of it. Then text my sister whenever something scandalous happened. I also drank approx 10 glasses of water. Those martinis last night might have dehydrated me ...

In true B-Ham race fashion, they had race times and pictures up yesterday. Sidebar: Chelan Man, from the middle of July still doesn't have race pictures up. AND they are ignoring my emails. After them losing my registration (but still charging my credit card) and causing me much pre-race anguish, not having race photos after TWO MONTHS and ignoring emails is really really pissing me off. Anyway, I like to take pictures of pictures and here are my mid-race shots. You can see my race-buddy making a horrid face in the background.

Sadly, I couldn't find my finish line photos. I don't know if they lost them or jus didn't take them, but I'll deal with ths one. I love it at races when they put up signs announcing the race photographer. I always look AWESOME in those pictures. Now if only I looked good coming out of the water in tris ...

Happy sweating weirdos!

Waterfront 15k - PERSONAL RECORD!

2011-09-10T12:42:00.000-07:00

Today's workout:
Waterfront 15k

Let's back up to earlier this week. My hips, arms, back, feet EVERYTHING hurt. My Wednesday run sucked. I felt like I was running through mud. I felt defeated. I felt so burnt out this week I didn't give this race much thought. It was just something to get through. That said, I made zero time goals. I figured I would need to walk some, and I resigned myself to the fact I would not PR, even though in theory I should be in way better shape than last year.

I felt mega-hagged out at my 6:30 wake-up. Just look at that face. Not feeling a 9.3 miler AT ALL. I did however, pull it together to update you guys on the status of my bruises. You're welcome.

Yep, that's a new one on my guns. My poor left arm is going to pot.

The big daddy is turning yellow and fading. Thank goodness. I won't be accused of having a new abusive boyfriend anymore. Yes, a co-worker asked me that the other day. I think she was only half kidding.

Anyway, the race. It started pretty slow, it takes a while to thin that many people. I ran into an old co-worker, holla Joelle! Unfortunately she's marathon training but having knee issues so she was run walking. Very smart that Joelle, way to read your body! Blah blah wacka wacka until mile 5, I met my running/pace soul mate. I would put him at about 50-55. We locked to each other's hip and cruised at about 9:30/miles for the next 4 miles. That man pushed me to my PR. We were not more than three feet away from each other for the rest of the race. Most the race we ran abreast each other. We didn't say a word either. Just a silent agreement to push one another. I felt like a real runner for those 4 miles.

Once the finish line was in sight I did what Trainer Aaron (man, I haven't seen him in a while ...) always tells us to do and I 'emptied the tank.' I sprinted, passed two people in the chute (one of the best feelings) and heard a couple people yell 'Nice sprint green!' or 'Nice finish Chelan Man!' That felt pretty good too!

After I shakily had the volunteer take off my timing chip, I found my buddy and we both gushed about how great the other person was for a couple minutes. I told him he was awesome (you're awesome, that was awesome, totally awesome - family joke) and we both PR'd which was very cool (or awesome).

I stood around for a little bit, but had to go get the pumpkin spice latte I promised myself on twitter (@dinadoogz), and facebook. I also had to wait a couple minutes to start taking weird car pictures because there was an Ironman next to me, and I'm not about to look like a tool (more than I usually do) in front of an Ironman.

Hello PR, you're so pretty!

Thank you running buddy, I owe 10 min/miles to you! Seriously. I never run that fast on long training runs! There is hope for a speedy half marathon yet!

That is not a reflection on my brow ... that is a lot of dried salt. Sweat/Salt is sexy.

It's funny how much different racing feels from training. Having so many people around you pushing you, and making you accountable makes all the difference. I wish all my training runs were races! Maybe I'll just start wearing old bib numbers to psych myself out ...

A great day so far! Very excited about how the race turned out. Plus my first pumpkin spice of the year, and I bought myself four books as an 'atta boy' to myself. Haha, money well spent.

Happy sweating/salting, and racing weirdos!

Cancer Sucks

2011-09-08T20:45:00.000-07:00

Ladies, can you do me a favor and touch your boobs? Get familiar with them. Check in on them often. Become best friends. And if your best friends start to feel different, please go to your doctor and be aggressive about your health.

Gentlemen, can you do me a favor and (with permission), touch your special gal's boobs. Get familiar with them. Check in on them often. Become best friends. And if your best friends start to feel different, please strongly encourage the lady attached to them to go to the doctor and be aggressive about her health.

Because, cancer sucks. And even though early detection doesn't mean that you'll be totally safe, it's the best we've got. Plus, they're there all the time, what's the harm in feeling yourself up?

Lets all show some love for boobies and send lots and lots of positive vibes (or prayers if that's your thing) out to the sick boobies in the world. There just might be some sick ones really close ...

PDR ... but barely

2011-09-05T11:29:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's workout:
10.5 grueling miles

Today's workout:
Lots of time on the couch reading, and later some frolicking in the lake with friends

Well, my epic 12 mile personal distance record, didn't quite happen. In fact, it was cut short, though still a distance record. I waited too long to get started and my body was peeved at what I was doing to it after rugby the day before. But at least I got my booty out there and did it right? Oh, and it was pretty nice to not be bumping this

for a while when I was running. Yeah, that jackass of a bruise is just growing. I keep bumping it on stuff around the house and then shrieking.

That my friends is the 'I'm stalling because I don't wanna get in the ice bath' face. You know, now looking at that, my arm looks MASSIVE! I assure you friends, it's just because of the proximity to the camera ... I think.

Alright, back I go to reading my crazy time travel-romantic-historical fiction series. I finished the first book in two days, then went out and bought the next two yesterday. I'm already 300 pages in. It's so addicting! I love a weird novel that's totally implausible and makes me stay up until 1:00 am reading it. Plus, SEVEN BOOKS. I love a book series (erm, Harry Potter).

Happy sweating weirdos!

Mom, avert your eyes

2011-09-03T20:44:00.000-07:00

Today's workout:
MY FIRST RUGBY MATCH!

I survived! I played the second half (that super competitive and 'always wanting to be the best' part of me wanted to start, but it actually really settled my nerves to watch for a while) and it was great. I won't lie, the fitness from triathlon and running doesn't really translate to rugby. I think cardio wise I was doing well, but it's hard to take a hit, then pop up and run around some more. Not to mention all the scrums. Holy scrums! I think it was pretty obvious we were getting tired in the second half and there were tons of penalties. Hence, the scrums. FYI, this is a scrum:

See the guy on the blue team with the number 8? I'm the guy who his right arm is around in the scrum. It's hard work pushing those burly girls around, but we did a great job, and it was great practice.

And just because I feel like I have to ... the VERY MINOR (see Mom, not dead!) carnage thus far:

Some bruises, but nothing too bad. My right knee finally closed up enough so that I wasn't a big bloody mess out there.

Yes, that would be my second elbow. All the part that looks mildly blue is in fact a huge bruise. It's quite swollen. I THINK I got this during tackling practice before the match today but honestly, it all starts to blur together.

Oh, and a pretty decent sunburn. I was so nervous this morning it didn't even cross my mind that I could get sunburned ... next time, sunscreen.

Now I know what miss Caratunk Girl was talking about with the songs ... uh you're right, I won't be posting those on here. They are straight filthy. Hilarious, but straight filthy.

It is really cool to think that I'm playing on a team that's never existed before! So no matter what, we're the best Chuckanut Bay Women's Rugby team that's ever existed. Oh and we shut them out ... like 30-0. No big deal.

Tomorrow I need to get my long run in for the week. 12 big miles! Let's hope I can get through all of them!

Happy sweating weirdos!

I. Love. Gear.

2011-08-30T20:53:00.000-07:00

Today's workout:
1.5 hours of passing, tackling, and rucking

It's really no secret how much I love getting new gear. Really any kind of gear. One really cool thing about this whole rugby thing (aside from my tackling partner today saying, 'so, you ready to get your shit kicked out?' yeah, that's not scary) is new gear. NEW GEAR! Like say this little number

Hmm mouth guard. It makes me think of having my retainer in High School. If I think about it too long I start to gag. It's not the most comfortable thing in the world, but it will save my ~~expensive~~ beautiful pearly whites if some chick pops me in the mouth. Oh and every girl's best friend

SHOES! Well technically they are called 'boots.' Well technically they are Men's soccer cleats, but I'm wearing them for rugby. I won't lie, if I'm not in grass with those suckers, I roll my ankles around and around because I'm so unsteady ... on 1/2 inch spikes. Good lord.

All in all, fun stuff out there. Don't get me wrong, I don't know my head from my butt, but I'm enjoying learning and I'm psyched for our game on Saturday so that things finally start to 'click.' Let's hope that's sooner than later!

Don't worry, I'm still running and training for my upcoming races. My 15k is on the 10th and half-mary on the 25th! Exciting stuff!

Happy sweating weirdos!

Long run on a Monday?

2011-08-29T20:18:00.000-07:00

Today's workout:
7.5 miles

I missed my long run this weekend because I was doing a ton of errands and then recovering from an epic rugby luau. So I postponed until today. It was tough. I was tired and dehydrated and (insert five more excuses here). Oh well, I also cut it short like three miles ... woops.

The luau highlights:
Samoan dancers ... and then Samoan dancers in bikini tops dancing to Katy Perry
My coach trying to set me up with his son
My hand-pies going for $30 and then me finding the plate empty at the end of the night ... those babies went fast!
Getting to see some friends for the first time in YEARS!
Watching the faces of the friends when I told them I was playing rugby

It was such a fun night! Lots of dancing, and chatting and schmoozing and uh ... maybe a couple beers. I also bought myself a pair of rugby boots, aka soccer cleats. My first game is on Saturday! Holy Moly! And my 15k is in two shorts weeks! Eeeeeeeek! Things are sneaking up everywhere! Before I know it, it's going to be Thanksgiving and then Christmas and then a whole new training cycle begins. Where does the time go!?

Hope everyone had an amazing weekend!

I'm a Forward, Lock and Jumper

2011-08-25T21:25:00.000-07:00

And just today I found out what all of those mean. Today was rugby practice #2 and it was SO MUCH FUN! It's been so freaking long since I've played team sports and I forgot how much fun it is to have a coach who yells at you and makes you do push-ups. Don't get me wrong, I love love love triathlons and running and all the crazy mental crap that comes with individual sports, but it's fun to do team sports again. Next week ... contact. EEEEP!

Today at practice they told me that I was tall, thin and athletic. Um, clearly I need to hang with these girls more! AND, I got to do this:

I got to be the one lifted up! Because, you know, I'm so tall and thin hahahaha. It was so much fun, and sorta terrifying to be completely reliant on two (very strong and confident) girls to lift me and then hold me up there for like 15 seconds. Holy moly. I also got to do this:

It's a scrum. And I'm a 'lock' in this mass of humanity. As demonstrated by these gents below, I'm the creepy one with my face poking through the middle. I literally get my head squished between two of my teammates thighs. You can't hear anything haha.

I mentioned again today about my races coming up and how they are top priority since they are paid for and I've been training yada yada. My coach and the captains were very impressed. Seriously, I need to hang out with these people more. They make me feel like such a rockstar!

Happy sweating and rugging weirdos!

Diana Tries a ... Rugby?

2011-08-22T21:09:00.000-07:00

Today's workout:
Schedule said 3 miles
Actually I went to Rugby practice.

The perfect Tri/Running cross training is Rugby, right!? Yeah. I was recruited by a friend of mine's boyfriend who plays for the men's club. Apparently because I'm in decent shape, and ya know ... not small, I'm perfect for rugby. Well me and miss Bustine Ballz (her roller derby name) were pretty damn nervous.

Man we're sexy. Yeah, we were about to poop ourselves. We got there and did some drills, threw the ball around some and generally made asses of ourselves. It was sorta fun, but it sounds like it's going to be sort of expensive too. I also told the coach straight up that I already registered for races and those come first. I'm not going to get myself all jacked up doing this and then not be able to run. In the three seconds after I gave them my name, they had a nickname for me (apparently everyone has nicknames). Mine is Dougie ... not that original. Which made me think of this

http://youtu.be/5XrRYP-D0PM

I couldn't get the link to work ... but I can teach you how to Dougie ...
I think they were more thinking of this though

I'm cool either way. I'm going to check it out again on Thursday and see how it goes. I'm not committed, but it was sorta fun.

Happy rugging weirdos!

Good meet-up, bad swim

2011-08-21T19:39:00.000-07:00

Today's workout:
750 (and that's generous) meter swim

Oy vey. You win some, you lose some eh? Megan and I had the best of intentions today. She's training for her first Olympic here next month (?), and I'm trying to get back into to tri cross-training. She wanted to meet for a 30 minute swim. I was fully committed to lagging behind her 20-30 meters and just doing my thing while spotting for her doing legit swimming. I wriggled into my wetsuit while Megan was pulling up, and I feasted my eyes on my lovely running shoe tan

I don't know if you can tell, but I have very white feet, and mildly tan lower legs. At least no one is going to wonder if I work out! ... or wear running shoes a lot. ANYWAY. The lake was not looking so awesome

You can't really tell from that pictures, but it was choppppppppy! The lake was angry that day my friends (name that tv show!). But Mego and I are nothing if not determined. It was a tough swim. You could really only breath on one side because of the white caps smacking you in the face on the other side. I had a horrible time finding a rhythm, and between being out of swimming shape, and the lake, I struggled. Megan did great however, but after about 13 minutes, we called it quits. It was just too rough. She headed to the pool to finish her workout, and I headed home to feel defeated. The swim sucked, but at least it was good to see Ms. Daily Sweat!

There is always next weekend! Tomorrow I'm embarking on a very interesting adventure ... I'll share later.

Happy sweating weirdos!

PERSONAL DISTANCE RECORD!

2011-08-20T14:48:00.000-07:00

Today's workout:
10 mile run

Ten miles. Ten Miles! I ran ten freaking miles.

OK, it was slower than I wanted. There were some walk breaks, and a break were I 'took' a GU that tasted HORRIBLE. I'm sticking with chomps. But I did it, I ran ten big miles and then came home and took a two bag of ice, ice bath. Delightful torture. On my run I saw:

1 deer
2 snakes
and one couple giving/receiving ... erm ... sexual delights from the largest orifice on her face. Do you see what's in the bush I'm beating around? It was in the car, parked right out on the MAIN STREET! I was so shocked that I just ran by, and didn't really process it for a minute.

The run was mostly uneventful except for an enormous charity walk that was taking place on the trail I run on. I don't wanna sound like a horrible person, but they were annoying the crap out of me. They took up the entire trail and every time I came up on another bunch I would yell, 'on your left!' and not a freaking one moved. I then had to shimmy around in the bushes to get past them. It was so unbelievably annoying. And I could see the annoyance on the other runners faces that were on the trail too. They were doing something good though and I can respect that. I just wish they would respect the other people on the trail too. But only 1/10th of my run was inconvenienced by that. So overall it was fabulous!

That's my, 'thank goodness that's over with/I'm so excited and proud of myself/I wonder if they will see the salt deposits on my face/oh crap a family going to the park just walked past me' face. I was definitely pooped afterwards. But I've eaten a salad the size of my head, took an hour nap, did some house work and I'm going out for errands! Pretty productive day.

Happy sweating weirdos!

Bloggy meet-up at the lake tomorrow!

Well that sucked ...

2011-08-17T19:08:00.000-07:00

Today's workout:
5 mile run (that sucked)

Holy moly, that was a tough run. I just felt like I was moving slower than molasses! I choose to blame it on the following:

I had to stay half an hour late at work because the boss had people waiting for him in the lobby, but he wasn't in the office yet. I literally opened them a bottle of wine and checked my email for half an hour in my running clothes killing time. Yeah, you WISH you came to my office after hours.
I pre-run snack was grapes. Awesome for the waistline. Not so awesome pre-run fuel.
I'm dehydrated. My lips were the chapped the second I started, and my mouth was parched. It was sort of all I could think about.
There was a nasty head wind the whole way out.
I ran five miles on Monday (against my plan's wishes), and umm I should have stuck to the schedule.

To console myself I'm slurping on this business

and cooling down with this business

Except on both knees. It's a busy night around here. I might even get crazy and roast some brussel sprouts after I take a shower! That and plan a pre-workout snack with some protein in it ... derp.

Happy sweating weirdos!

Crap, I did it again ...

2011-08-16T21:27:00.000-07:00

Today's (reluctant) workout:
2.5 mile walk

I forgot my stupid sport's bras again! Walked into the gym, got half dressed and realized there were no sport's bras in my bag. I had to hang my head in shame and walk out of the gym without getting my sweat on. Drat. Instead I came home, grocery shopped, cooked and decided to go on a digestion walk instead of my usual Tuesday thing. But, at least the scenery was good!

Oh well, at least I got my heart rate up and didn't sit on my duff. Had to work off the weird 'alfredo' that I cooked. Yeah, putting cornstarch into veggie stock doesn't really make it Alfredo ... it tasted OK, but not nearly as creamy as I was hoping! But it did have tons of veggies and was pretty low in the bad stuff.

Hope you all got your planned workouts in!

Happy sweating!

Wedding Weekend!

2011-08-15T20:01:00.000-07:00

Today's workout:
5 mile run

Turns out that running five miles after you had an entire weekend of GI distress and lots of drinking, dancing, coffee and eating like shit, you struggle. I struggled. It was slow and sloggy. Not poppy like running class taught me last year. Oh well.

I was MIA this weekend because I was watching two of my dear dear friends get married at quite possibly the most fun wedding I've ever attended.

They chose one of the most hideous places ever to get married. Clearly.

Good thing they are just cute as a button to make up for it! There were so many of my friends there either attending, in the wedding, or officiating the wedding that it was a party from Thursday night until Sunday afternoon. It was beautiful, I had so much fun and was so happy to get to see a couple friends from ACROSS THE COUNTRY who came to town for this.

I love those girls so much! After the beautiful ceremony that my long time fake boyfriend officiated, and then a great dinner (that I could actually eat most of!), it was time for dancing. The thing that we were known for as a friend group during college was dancing, so this was the most exciting part for me!

All in all it was a ton of fun. It was also a ton of drinking, not working out and eating terribly. I only felt bad about that when I went on my run today. You have to let loose and have fun, especially when you don't get to see your friends that often.

Looking forward to getting back to my schedule, but still reveling in the fun of the weekend. Hope everyone else had great ones too!

Happy sweating weirdos!

Pain in my ass ... literally

2011-08-10T19:34:00.000-07:00

Today's workout:
5 mile run
5 minutes of torture (aka, foam rolling)

I've got a pain. It's not here:

Or here so much:

But riiight here:

Name that movie! Also, please don't ask about the faces. It just felt right at the time. Oh my goodness though. right when I woke up it hurt. I even tweeted about it (@dinadoogz ... you know you want to). And it just continued allll day. It was excruciating to sit at my desk. Just sitting! I had pretty much given up on doing my run this afternoon, but I'm going to miss two training days already this week since I'm going to a wedding, so I really didn't want to miss today too. I made a deal with myself that I would run one mile, and if I was having ANY pain, I would go home. Well, I got through five and was totally fine! I immediately went to the gym and foam rolled while a meat head did two sets on the bench press. And if you frequent the gym, you know that it takes a meat head like five minutes to do two sets. They have a lot of show-boating to do in between. But I digress. I stretched the bejeeeeezus out of my hip, foam rolled and then came home and put some frozen peas on it. Showered, and rubbed a bunch of Tiger Balm (BOMB!) on it, but it still hurts! What even is that!? It feels like a tendon, or something, it's totally not muscle pain. Thoughts?

So, I got that going for me. A huge pain in my ass, but only when I'm sedentary. And advil won't touch it. It's just roses over at the DTAT house!

Happy (painless) sweating weirdos!

Never a dull moment!

2011-08-09T20:38:00.000-07:00

Today's workout:
15 mile spin
Tacfit:
50 ring pulls
40 medicine ball get ups
15/15 kettle bell get ups
20 pull ups

I got my form corrected again today by Trainer Aaron. Ugh, it's like he wants me to get stronger or something. Whatever.

My dear sweet little car is being naughty again. It's spending the night in the shop tonight so I had to ride the bus home. The bus came at 6:40, and Tacfit gets over at 6:30. That meant that as I was racing out the door I yelled thanks to TA and bolted the two blocks to the bus station. I barely made it there, I was still sweating and yet, I was still not the most disgusting person on the bus. Love that.

Here's to hoping that this fix doesn't cost me my first born!

Happy sweating weirdos!

Hedwig!

2011-08-08T19:50:00.000-07:00

Today's workout:
3 miles
20 min yoga for runners

I've decided to drink the Kool-aid and start doing yoga a couples a week during my CRAZY half marathon training. OK, it's not that crazy, my longest run has been six miles, but here in a couple weeks, I'm going to start hitting some personal distance records, so anticipate it being CRAZY! (Also here is how that title came about ... Pigeon > Bird > Just watched Harry Potter > HE had a bird > Pidwig (which I thought was HP's owl's name) > Hedwig (the owl's actual name) ... yeah).

OK, back to the yoga. I've been doing this fairly difficult (for me) yoga for runners practice the last week or so, about every other day. By far my favorite post is Pigeon:

Source

It is such a great stretch! We do this a lot in Tacfit too and holy mother does it feel good after some of THOSE crazy workouts. Also, maybe it's just the breathy voice of the instructor, but I feel so much more relaxed and calm after the practice is over. I was having a pretty awful day yesterday, the pity party I threw for myself was epic. We're talking like 3 kegs of tear beers, broke three sadness windows, and my very favorite depression vase. (That analogy went off track). But after doing just that 20 minutes in the dark in my living room with the window open and the breeze blowing on me, I felt great. Well, not great, but talked off the proverbial ledge.

So, I'm gonna go buy some Nikes, black sweat pants, and continue with my yoga Kool-Aid. I like it. And I think that my muscles are going to like it too. I'm also going to keep doing ice baths on long run days, be really good about stretching, cross-training and strength training with Tacfit. I don't wanna get hurt, and anytime that I've done run-only stuff, I hurt myself. So, I'm attempting to follow training advice to a T!

I hope everyone else had awesome sweaty days!

The things I've learned about bathing ...

2011-08-07T08:46:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's workout:
6 miles

OK, to be honest, I haven't learned much about conventional bathing in a long time. Shampoo, rinse, conditioner, rinse, body wash, rinse. Pretty easy. Now ice bathing on the other hand. That I've definitely gotten some insight on in the past year or so.

Yesterday was my long run of the week and the first day that I got to use my brand new toy!

Yay! OK, I don't know a whole lot about this bad boy yet, including how to get my mile breakdowns etc. But my overall pace was 10:00 miles. Over six miles I'm pretty impressed with that! And that included me stopping for crosswalks etc. Pretty much whenever I looked down at it I was doing 9:30-9:40, which made me happy every time! Again, I don't know how to use the auto-stop or whatever function yet, but I'll get there! Or you guys could give me some tips ... I'm shameless.

Anyway, I had a lovely run from my favorite park on one side of town, to another one of my favorite parks in another part of town, and then back. Part trails, part sidewalk. I passed the farmer's market which was hopping, tons of people out on the trails and one guy also rocking his Ragnar shirt today on his bike, who saw my shirt and then grabbed ahold of his and yelled "YEAH RAGNUTS!!!" about three times. I laughed pretty hard. After I finished I accidentally walked my very sweaty self into some wedding pictures at the park and bolted.

On my way home I stopped to buy a bag of ice for some ice bathing and some adorable U-19 rugby boys asked me to buy raffle tickets from them. Now, if you don't know me in 'real life' you may not know that I have an affinity for rugby boys. In college a couple of my best guy friends played and I went to all their matches. I was however forbidden to go to any rugby parties because many of those boys are nasty nasty humans, and according to my dear friend Tar Tar, "no female friend of mine will ever darken the door of a rugby party. I just care about you too much." Yeah. It did hurt my heart to think that these two adorable (braces-clad!) young men might turn out like that, but the raffle was for a massage ... I can't pass that up. I told them I would buy three tickets, but only if they never called me ma'am again. I'm too young to me a ma'am.

But back to ice bathing! Here is what I've learned. First step is to put on the free beanie that you got at a Mariner's game.

See Sugar Ts, I told you I needed that! Then, put on an old fleece, and tuck it into the top of your shorts so that it doesn't get into the water. Clip your ipod onto your hat, and wrap the cord around your neck a few times so that there is no chance it will get wet.

Next, drink a cup of coffee that you brewed while filling up the tub with ice cold water. If you can find a cup approximately the size of your face, it works better.

Above all else though, do not take your ice bath with no pants on. I did this the first couple times and it was no bueno. Keep your pants on (always sound advice), you'll be much happier. It also helps to take your mind off of your lower extremities slowly going numb if you take pictures of yourself! And yes, all these pictures were taken in the tub. Can't you see the towel hanging from the rack in the background there!? Some people like to keep boundaries on their blogs. No pictures in a bathing suit, no pictures in the tub ... I say that if I'm technically wearing MORE clothes while in the tub than I did while out in public running, seen by hundreds of people ... it's OK.

That's that my friends. My lowly advice on ... bathing.

Hope your weekends are lovely, races are victorious, and workouts are sweatastic!

Bloggy Exchange Guest Post!

2011-08-06T13:27:00.000-07:00

Hey-O friends! Miss P hosted a Bloggy Post Exchange and Miss Morgan over at The Hartastic Blog got assigned to me! She has such a cute family, I hate to put her post on here next to all my chaffing and fake pregnancy talk, but oh well, we needed a breath of fresh wholesome air around here right? Thanks Morgan for sending me such a great well written post (with really easy to follow instructions for posting, thus eliminating any DTAT error ... which we all know is pretty much inevitable). Enjoy, and make sure to go visit Morgan and check in on her shenanigans!

Keeping the Family Healthy
Where does the desire to stay physically fit come from? For me I think I owe it to my parents who spent countless hours, miles, and monies from my birth keeping me physically active. When I was just a tike my dad was really active and I remember following him around the grand ole state of Maine watching him play softball. Turns out I completely suck at softball…can you say softball right smack to the forehead during warm-ups of my first ever softball game? (Yeah, not so talented at the softball thing).
My mom was always biking with me strapped safely in the seat on the back and, in addition, we walked everywhere we could- for entertainment, shopping, etc. As I grew up they kept me involved and pushed me to try new activities. I found my passion and talent in dancing and gymnastics and ignored the school sports until I entered middle school. Gymnastics instilled in me a passion for working out, sweating and pushing myself beyond my comfort zone. This mentality has stuck with me and I continue to push myself and take pride in the fact that in a little less than a month, when I turn the big 3-0, I will in the best shape of my adult life. I owe my current health to the Beach Body programs. My husband and I have done the P90X program four times since the birth of my first child, Logan (now 4 years old) and recently we undertook the craziness known as Insanity. Seriously, its name is fitting. Hubby finds himself smoking (literally) within 20 minutes and I sweat like it's nobodies business.

So why do I still have the desire to stay active? Well, there are the selfish reasons of course. I want to look good, I want to always be proud of how I look when I post pictures on FB or meet someone from a previous life on the streets. I also want to feel good- I want my clothes to slide on, be confident when I'm standing in front of my classroom, be able to join in on a PE class and not look like I'm WAY older than my middle schoolers (WAY is the key word here). Heck, I want to be around for a long, long time and feel like I have control over my time here on this planet. All of these reasons add up to the most important motivator for me and that is my family. My blog, www.hartastic.com is mostly about my family, with a dash of physical fitness, a few recipes, some stories of teaching and learning; but mostly it is about being a part of the awesome Hart family. And so together, my family does a bunch of really cool stuff- most of which gets our hearts beating and blood pumpin'. For together, we will stay physically fit and I will *hopefully* plant the seed of lifelong health in my kiddos.

Here's a smorgasbord of healthy actives the family has enjoyed over this glorious Maine summer:

Sand Beach, Acadia National Park

My husband and son kayaking on Pleasant Pond, Island Falls, ME

Hiking at Camden Hills State Park for Mother's Day

Being active seems to come easy to kids!

Thanks to Diana for hosting me on her blog! I'm looking forward to keeping up on your progress!

-Morgan :)

Uhh she's doing P90X and Insanity with her husband and has an adorable family, color me impressed. OK, color me jealous! I love that she's instilling being active in her children like her parents did for her. I was also incredibly lucky to have parents who ~~forced~~ encouraged me to be a part of organized (and very very unorganized ... 3rd graders playing soccer? That's chaos) sports. I think it's part of what has kept me busy and active this far in life. Thank you Morgan for your post! Now everyone go over and check out her blog.

We'll be back to the regularly scheduled programming of me teaching you how to take a bath and sweaty pictures later :)

Happy sweating weirdos!

I have some big news ...

2011-08-04T20:17:00.000-07:00

Today's workout:
45 minute elliptical
Tacfit - 90/30 x2
Pullups
Shoulder squats
Piston squats
Ring Presses
Spinal Rocks

My workout sucked. Like suck sucked. I felt like my legs were going to just give out and I could not get my form right on the Piston Squats. Trainer Aaron had to help me and correct my form. I feel like I've been going for 10 months to freaking Tacfit I don't need anyone to correct my form! Ugh. That said, at least TA was there to help and I didn't end up hurting myself or something. Whatever. I was in a poor mood going in and it totally affected my workout.

My good news though:

Got my GARMIN in the mail! Very excited to charge it and get to playing with it! Oh and this:

I'm watching it right now! I love this show. It's crazy nuts, but fun to watch. And finally:

I wanted to share this with you all first ... I'm taking my vitamins again. I need to give that baby in my belly lots of nutrients. My food baby that is. And yes, I'm JUST taking my vitamins again. I could feel at least three hearts stop when seeing that. Don't worry you three, definitely NOT preggo. Sean Connery is the only baby in my life right now.

That said, I'm going to go dip some pickles in ice cream and watch Big Love.

Hope your sweating was better than mine!

Ice-P

2011-08-03T18:35:00.000-07:00

Today's workout:
4 miles getting sweaty on the trail

And thus the re-emergence of these bad boys:

Ice-Peas. It's like 80% preventative, 20% reactive, and 10% so warm today that it just feels good. Don't worry, I'm not an accountant, I just work for them! Having a little bit of knee pain, mostly when walking down hills, and not while running AT ALL, so I figured better safe than sorry.

So I'm just sitting on the floor, icing my knees and being surprised at how massive my calf looks from the above angle. Not so flattering. I'm am satisfied with my half mary training plan so far and feel like it's totally do-able. I might nix tomorrow's run though in favor of Tacfit and elliptical or spin bike though. I don't want to miss long runs and I definitely don't want to knock myself out for a week or so. That's no bueno.

I think the Garmin will be here tomorrow!

Happy sweating weirdos!

What do you do when you get a little twinge? Rest days? Ice? Ignore it and see what happens?

AH-Mazing Sweat Session

2011-08-02T20:16:00.000-07:00

Today's workout:
Plan said Cross/Rest
45 minute elliptical (the hard one where you create your stride)
Tacfit - AMRAP
21 kettle bell swings
13 paralette presses
8 gamma rows
5 quad presses
(This would be the workout made famous by my creepy video in my gym)

Ho-Lee-Mo-Lee. I got so freaking sweaty during Tacfit today. AND I did ten rounds today, the most of everyone in class and a personal record for that workout. It felt glorious. My arms were absolutely quaking when I got done, those paralette presses will kill you. That and Trainer Aaron leaning over me telling me to go deeper and deeper into the movement (uhh that's what she said!?).

I BOUGHT A GARMIN! I'm so excited for it to come in the mail. They are on sale on Amazon 57% off if you're in the market. I can't wait to strap that monstrous piece of equipment to my arm and see my pace etc. Not to mention that as of now I just assume I'm running 10 minute miles to estimate my distance. I mapped out my run yesterday on Google and my run was closer to 4 than 3. Nerds.

Ok, that's all I got. Happy sweating weirdos!

July In Numbers

2011-08-01T20:24:00.000-07:00

Bye Bye July, it's been real. I'm fairly sure that I say this every month, every Friday, all the freaking time, but seriously ... where in the world is this year going? It's August!?! Creeeeeepy. Here are my numbers for July:

Swim: 5100 meters
Bike: 67 miles
Run: 45.3 miles
Sports: 2 hours 15 minutes
Strength: 1 hour

Can you tell that I pretty much quit biking and swimming after ChelanMan? Yeah, I kinda got my running mojo going thinking about doing that 15k and half mary here in a couple months, and started going a little easy on the other stuff. I think that's the most run miles though that I've had ... ever? Ragnar certainly helped that and then starting training for the other run races.

As far as the sports, I think it was eliptical days or particularly long walks etc. I can't remember doing any real sports this month haha.

For August, I want to start biking and swimming again (two weeks break was enough) on my rest/cross training days in my current training plan. I also really want to get my eating and nutrition under control and really clean. I feel like the last month or so it hasn't been all that great and I start to really feel it. When I eat clean for just a couple days, I always feel way better. Why do I let myself forget that?

Oh and don't forget that I joined The Twitter. And I would lurve it if you followed me there as well!

@dinadoogz

Happy sweating weirdos!

Old Settler's 5k Race Report

2011-07-31T20:03:00.000-07:00

What a glorious way to start your Saturday! Just an impromptu 5k with good friends. JC, Logger Man and I headed a town over to do a 5k for their Old Settler's Days, which is like their Founder's Days type annual party. I forgot my camera because I'm a big dummy ... woops. JC has one of those new fangled iphone diddies, and my computer wouldn't recognize a couple of the pictures, but here is one it did:

That my friends, is what my face looks like when I'm laughing REALLY hard. I completely lose my eyes, and my face turns bright red. It's sort of a wonder I can't keep a man isn't it?

Anyway, the actually race wasn't a whole lot to report, it was fast as those 5ks tend to be! Both JC and Logger Man beat me (because I think in their house they only eat some sort of speed juice), and we were all very happy with our times. This is actually only my 2nd 5k, and I had almost a 4 minute PR! What!? Crazy talk.

After the race was over, they handed out tickets for a raffle and started giving out the age group prizes. Now, JC and I were in the same age group, she beat me by probably at least a minute, and I ran 9:12 min/miles. Clearly, lots of people beat me. Yet somehow they gave me this:

That would be a 3rd place ribbon that I in fact didn't earn. JC didn't get either 1st or 2nd, so I KNOW that I didn't deserve it. When they called my name I was so excited I just ran up and grabbed it, then thought about it for a second and realized it wasn't mine to have. I honestly don't know what to do with it. I didn't earn it. They admitted right after the race that they pretty much screwed up every one's times and places (it wasn't chip timed at all), so I guess it's any one's guess who really did earn it, but still. However, during the raffle afterward, I won this bad boy fair and square:

$25.00 gas card!? Yes please! That more than paid my entry fee and gas is fracking expensive, it was either this prize or the grocery store gift cards that I really wanted.

So there you have it. I 'won' 3rd place in a race, and now am racked with guilt because the poor ACTUAL 3rd place winner walked away empty handed. At least it was just 3rd, and it didn't come with a prize or anything. Still though ... maybe I'll mail it back to the race director.

What do I do!?

Loving that Ragnar Gear!

2011-07-30T13:11:00.000-07:00

I love me some gear. I love buying new gear, trying out new stuff and stocking my little gear organizer thing full to the brim. Seriously. Today I was rocking some serious gear. First, for my 5k (which I'll recap later, I forgot my camera like a dummy and now need to wait for JC to upload the pics she got so I can steal them) I wore my new Ragnar shirt:

Then yesterday, my favorite man in the world (the UPS man, AND it was the really cute young UPS man ... extra favorite) brought me a little treasure:

Thug life is hard. I know what you're thinking, 'umm Diana, it's nearly August, and 80+ degrees outside, do you really need a hoodie?!?' the answer is of course, YES! Who ever has enough hoodies? Especially badass race hoodies? No one!

Yeah, it's size enormous, but no one likes a small hoodie, it's gotta be HUGE and cozy. Now I just need to wait for it to cool down 30 degrees so I can wear it comfortably. I'm willing to wait.

Also on a side note, I had a 'I'm so kickass' moment this morning. I convinced my friend JC last night to come run the 5k with me this morning, and her husband Logger Man ended up not working so he came too. I had this moment when I thought about how I was just going to on a whim run a 5k. That's 3.1 miles! Without a thought I just signed up. No, it's not a marathon, or half, or even 10k, but how amazing that I could just BAM! run a 5k? I'm normally really good downplaying all my accomplishments and thinking well so and so did this, and so and so did that, but really when it comes down to it, spur of the moment running a 5k (with a four minute PR I just might add) is pretty cool! Two years ago I would have laughed at the prospect of running 3 miles, let alone PAYING to do so. Now, it's just a part of my life. And I freaking love that!

Happy sweating weirdos!

Welcome to 2006!

2011-07-29T18:40:00.000-07:00

I first wrote 'Welcome to 2008' then figured I should check my facts. Turns out, I'm five years behind, not three. Not surprising.

On that note, drumroll please!! I joined The Twitter, and I would really like it if you followed me.

@dinadoogz

Do you need enticing? These were my three tweets today:

To 5k tomorrow, or not to 5K. That is the question.

I could get used to this not working until 10:00am thing. I got so much done this morning!

Mini burgers and veggie pot stickers? The perfect pre-5k fuel! Also, how do I do the little @ thing and tag people?

Yes, I'm going to change the world with these tweets. That said ... FOLLOW ME!

Good Sh-tuff

2011-07-28T19:57:00.000-07:00

Today's workout:
3 mile run
Tacfit - minute on the minute
5 club bell extensions
4 ring tucks
3/3 plank rows

Well I know you all were just waiting with baited breath to know how my ('my' as in I planned it) retirement party was yesterday. And it was awesome. Everyone had a good time, I had three glasses of wine while being the bartender, so we know that I had a good time, and we had a bunch of food left over. So much in fact that I just snacked today for lunch at work. Oh and maybe had a slice of carrot cake for my afternoon snack/workout fuel. It was delicious!

My workout today was another lovely one. My legs felt a little fatigued, it was my first run since Ragnar and a couple little aches and pains had to work themselves out over the first half mile or so. Other than that, my run felt great! I showed up real nice and sweaty for Tacfit and thankfully there were actually three of us so we could have class. It was my absolute favorite minute on the minute workout. I picked heavier kettle bells than I normally do and holy moly I think that my shoulders are going to feel it tomorrow.

Also totally un-fitness related, I found the most baller Caesar salad dressing that doesn't have anchovies in it. VEGETARIAN Caesar dressing! Ahh the quest is over, and all along it was just staring at me from the shelves of Trader Joes. Also I got a bbq pulled 'chicken' thing and it was also delicious. Two points for vegetarianism today!

Negative one point for vegetarianism for not eating the incredible smelling smoked salmon at the party yesterday ... sad Diana

Happy sweating weirdos!

PS, should I do an impromptu 5k on Saturday? I'm torn ... I wish I could see the race shirt first :)

Back at Tacfit

2011-07-26T20:02:00.000-07:00

Today's workout:
TACFIT!
4 min on, 1 off
Paralette Elipses
Club Bell Cleans
Kettle Bell Jerks
Medicine Ball Throws

It's been over two weeks since I went to Tacfit and it felt durn good to get back into that little sweatbox. I learned my lesson about Tacfit during a race week. I won't make that mistake again. Since I had ChelanMan two weekends ago and Ragnar this last weekend I haven't been in forever. I forgot the high I feel when I walk out of that room! All my muscles are fatigued, I'm dripping sweat, and my endorphins are THROUGH THE ROOF! I love it!

Today there was a 60+ year old in class and she did so great! She just jumped right in, asked questions about form and killed it! And ooo gurl did she work up a sweat. It was cool having a new person in class. It's always nice to have some attention from Trainer Aaron taken off you. Oh and speaking of Trainer Aaron ... he shaved his head. He looks ... odd. Now don't get me wrong, I've dated two dudes with bald heads, but they were bald he whole time I knew them. TA though, he's always had long locks (and a butt that won't quit* ... I can say that, I'm single again!). It was a little weird to see him today looking all militaristic, buzzed head and burly. Normally he's just burly!

OK, enough of that. Hope everyone is having a lovely Tuesday! I'm getting very excited for the retirement party tomorrow that I've been planning for a month. Should be very exciting to see it all come together ... and I'm bartending, so that should be fun!

*Trainer Aaron if by some weird twist of fate you're reading this, I have nothing but respect for you and love your class. I utilize humor to keep these sweat mongers coming back to read ... and you didn't need me to tell you that you have a butt that won't quit, did you?

Run, Drive, Sleep? Repeat. Ragnar Relay 2011

2011-07-24T08:46:00.000-07:00

Holy Moly. I ran 15.5 miles between Friday at 4:00pm and Saturday at 11:40am. That's more than I've ever run in that short of period of time.

Friday afternoon my 'van' met to load up and meet at the first exchange. Our 'van' was actually this:

People kept telling us we were brave for using this bad boy for the trip. But actually, it worked out just fine to not have all our crap all around us the whole time. Especially because I packed like this:

We met our team at the first exchange and were on our way! My first leg was 6 miles which went pretty well. It actually followed a portion of my bike course from the Lake Padden triathlon a few weeks ago. I handed off and then we all hopped in the car to start leap frogging our runner for water stops. That was probably the weirdest part about being the 'on' van. You drop someone off to run, drive ahead a few miles, give them water, drive ahead to the next exchange and repeat six times until the next van takes over. There was a lot of down time out in the random streets they had us running on:

After our last runner ended, we had a few hours to kill until our next time up, so we went and chowed at Red Robin. Once we got to the next big exchange we slept about an hour before it was our turn again.

My next run started at 1:00am. I was pretty nervous for this one because part of it was on a trail (yeah, I didn't tell you that Mom because I knew you were worried enough and I didn't want to make it worse). However, it was really well lit and there were always runners around me. Not only that but because of the vans leap frogging their runners, there were always vans around us too. I felt totally safe. I did have to document the occasion though being that I rarely run in the middle of the night!

After our last runner was done (at about 3:00), we went straight to the next big exchange. All of us fell asleep in the car on the way (except our driver of course). We literally got out of the truck, walked 6 feet to first patch of grass at the high school we were at, put out our sleeping bags out and passed out for 3 hours. I have never been more grateful for 3 hours sleep in my life. I also never would have expected to be so rested after 3 hours.

It was FINALLY time for our last legs! We were having fun, but very very tired and hungry at this point! My final run was 6.8 miles classified as 'very hard' by the race. That would be because of the hills. Oh the hills.

I was a sweaty sweaty beast. Rocking my ChelanMan t-shirt from this year! This run was crazy. I lost something like 500 ft. elevation gain in less than a quarter mile. The hills were so steep I was pretty much walking down them and my knees were KILLING. They were insane. But I got to end at a very pretty little boat launch.

Then it was just a matter of cheering on the last few runners and then we were done. There was some carnage on our team. This poor guy was wearing cotton socks, old shoes, and no body glide on his feet at all. He had one of these bad boys on each foot:

Ugh, so nasty. Anyway ... we handed off to our final runner and went ahead to the finish. We met up with Van #1 and crossed the finish line all together. In Van #2 we dubbed ourselves the JV team because we were pretty sure that Van #1 was much more serious and fast than us. Then a while later we figured that we were actually running way more miles, on way less rest than Van #1. We promoted ourselves to Varsity. Here is my lovely van:

Fittingly we took our picture outside of the med tent where four of our team members were getting attention. We had knee and blister issues haha. And then there was the whole group:

Our team theme was 'Dream Team.' We were all supposed to wear NBA jerseys. Thankfully I wasn't the only one who couldn't find one. There were some other pretty funny teams. There was a Lord of the Rings team who wore cloaks and carried swords. There was a speedo team ... I think you can figure that one out. It was pretty hysterical. And we got finisher's medals! I didn't know that was coming! And yes, that is a bottle opener at the end of it:

It was a lot of fun, hopefully I can scrounge together another team next year! For the time though, I haven't taken off my compression socks and I'm sore! My abs are sore, my calves and my hamstrings. I tried to stretch when I could and not just sit in the truck the whole time, but I'm still pretty sore. All part of the fun!

Hope everyone had a great weekend racing and sweating!

3 Things Thursday ... Ragnar Edition

2011-07-21T19:54:00.000-07:00

It's Thursday which means it's MY FRIDAY! Booyah! Yes, tomorrow I will not be going to work. Instead I'll be running a 200 mile relay race with 11 total strangers. 24 hours in a mini-van with 5 complete strangers ... stinking ... sweating ... but not farting. I bought Imodium and gas relief tablets. If you think I'm kidding ... well keep on thinking. I don't care how prissy you are, when you're running that much, with weird food, weird hours and not a lot of sleep, thing might get a little wonky. And who knows about those two guys in the van, I'm not risking it. Onto the list:

It's Ragnar Eve! Have a mentioned that I'm doing the Ragnar relay yet? If you unfamiliar with Ragnar, maybe you've heard of a little something called Hood to Coast? Same concept. My first run is around 4:00 pm, then 1:45 am, then 11:30 am. Total 15.5 miles overall. Should be interesting!
The girl at Target gave me weird looks today. I bought the above mentioned Imodium and gas relief tablets, a rain jacket, goldfish crackers, about 3 different kinds of band aids and friction relief patches, fruit snacks etc. The best part about Target is that they never show judgement with your purchases. Literally I once bought cat litter, ice cream, and a box of wine. A box. The girl just scanned it and gave me my receipt. Thanks non-judgemental Bham Target!
Has anyone else done a race/relay like this? I'm sort of confused about the eating situation. My teammates have told me you just sort of snack and fuel the whole time, but seriously!? No real meals in 24 hours!? That seems like crazy talk, and frankly bonk city. A girl cannot survive on accelerade and chomps alone! Well throw in some Annie's bunny cookies and that's pretty much what I'm looking at. Seems unwise. Maybe pack a PB&J? Or four? Or some apples? I'm clueless.

Tonight I'm just doing laundry, washing watter bottles and packing. Oh and getting very excited and VERY nervous! Hope everyone else is getting excited for their races and workouts!

Happy sweating weirdos!

The Numbers!

2011-07-20T18:29:00.000-07:00

Today's workout:
4 mile run

You know what I like about big races? The odds of you being last go WAY down. For instance, at Lake Padden I got last in my age group (life fail), and I was like 9th from last overall (after-life fail). However, in Chelan, I was much more mid-to-end of the pack. Hey, at least I was OWNING in transition. Now THAT'S quite the change from last year.

Swim - 38:02 - 353 Rank

T1 - 2:44 - 221 Rank

Bike - 1:39:56 - 396 Rank

T2 - 1:29 - 171 Rank

Run - 1:07 - 397 Rank - 10:50 pace

Total 3:19:31

385/503 Overall

22/32 women in my age group

Damn near won the whole thing with that T2 time! Yowza 10:50 pace on the run. That is not what I wanted to see, but I'll still take it. It's really hard (being that I'm very competitive) to look at my numbers and not immediately compare myself to everyone else who raced, and all of you speed demons who I read everyday. It's really hard. In fact, I kinda hate that I do that. We all want to be good, and succeed and have amazing races. What I have to remind myself is that I DID HAVE AN AMAZING RACE! I was so proud of myself when I crossed that line! I was so proud that I put my body through that for three hours and twenty minutes and finished with only mild PRSS (post race stupidity syndrome). I guess the logical thing would be to train harder and smarter and get faster eh? We'll see about that.

Other notes:

Ragnar day after tomorrow! I had to buy a reflective vest. Apparently we all have to be wearing them at all times. Which frankly begs the question, why have I been going out of my mind trying to find a NBA jersey to fit with our 'team theme' if I'm just going to cover it up with a reflective vest!?! Hand, meet forehead!
I created and started a half marathon training schedule today. And by 'created' I mean took a plan from online and converted it onto a calendar in Publisher.
I have no motivation at all right now to do pretty much anything. I'm sorta hungry, but no part of me wants to get off the couch and make dinner. I want to see what's playing on the tube, but don't feel like finding the remote. I would take a shower, but that's a whole lot of undressing and stuff. I think that might be the ultimate in lazy ...

Happy sweating weirdos!

ChelanMan Race Report

2011-07-18T19:03:00.000-07:00

After leaving 'the villa' at 5:45 and saying goodbye to my roommate/bodyguard/designated face licker

I headed down to the park for the race. I was there obscenely early, as I tend to do, and after getting my transition set up, I just went and had some zen time down by the water.

A while later my parents/race photographers showed up and got to witness the ever-amusing act of putting on my wetsuit.

My Mother also really likes to take candid pictures of me when I'm looking my best. Also, just for the record, I wasn't stoned in either of these pictures, I think I was explaining the buoys in the lake.

Then there was the start. There were over 125 people in my wave which of course made for some lovely water rugby at the start. I had a little bit of water panic at the start and could not get my breath into a rhythm. I had to flip over and backstroke a view times for about 100 yards, after that I finally got into a rhythm and just went. My Dad said it looks like a fish hatchery when the waves start with all the splashing in a big lump

The swim was mostly uneventful. There was a guy right in front of me who I nicknamed Bob N' Weave because he was all over the place. It made it hard to stay in line, but it was fine. Also, the water was so shallow at the end that I was scooping sand with each stroke.

The swim was actually a little longer than I was hoping for, but that's OK. I headed out for the bike and got my butt handed to me. Seriously. It's a really flat and fast course and I was getting passed left and right. I just kept thinking to myself that I need to get my butt on that bike way more. I was getting completely owned out there. My average was 17 mph which is saying a lot for the course. My average in Lake Padden was 13 mph! It started to rain while we were out, and coming back in (and touching my breaks for the first time all day) I almost bit it when dis mounting and when a flagger jumped in front of me. Lovely.

That hill is a bitch to go up when you still have 'bike legs.' I also had no idea that man was right behind me until seeing this picture ...

Yelling at my Mom that my feet were numb

The run was the run. Nothing much to report. I just slugged along, ate my chomps, got passed a little, passed a little and just endured. Towards the end, you go up a big hill and once I was within eye sight of it, I just kept telling myself, 'it's just you, that hill and the finish.' I won't lie. I sorta kinda maybe started crying towards the end of the run. I just couldn't believe that I was doing this and I was DOING it! Yes, I was impressed with myself. So what. But right when I got done, I felt like this

I was glad to be done. I think I was vertical for about 2 minutes until I had to sit down. I don't even think my Mom had made it over to where she was watching from.

Had to take the obligatory medal pictures. Check out the form of that half-iron runner in the back! Sadly (well not for him), the first place half-iron finisher came in when I was toodling around eating post-race food still. He fast. He very fast.

If you look really closely you can see salt deposits on my neck and arms. Sexy.

I finished in about 3:20 by my watch. Not fast by any stretch, but I was really proud of myself for finishing an Olympic without dying. Yep, not writing from the grave right now! It was a great weekend, had a ton of fun (and some amazing naps), and I'm so thankful to our family friends (and Romeo) for letting me stay in their amazing house. Oh and thanks to my Mom and Dad for all the pictures. I always appreciate it after the fact!

Hope everyone else had killer weekends and races. I'm sad that I didn't get to do the Warrior Dash with my fellow Washingtonians, but can't wait to see some pictures!

Happy sweating weirdos!

ChelanMan Pre Race ... aka the race that almost didn't happen

2011-07-17T17:54:00.000-07:00

Friday I took off from Bellingham and endured the horrible scenery over to Eastern Washington

After messing around at home with my Mom and Dad for a while, I headed up to Chelan to go to the pre-race meeting and get settled into 'the villa.' I started getting amped seeing the buoys already in the water for the race:

After standing in line for 15 minutes I get up to check in, and the woman can't find my name on the registration list. Not under first name, not under last name, not under pseudo-name. No where. I went into panic mode. As you'll remember, I was a tad worried that they lost my registration, but then I got a confirmation email from the race, and felt better. Well, turns out, they really didn't have my registration. I had to get in the 'WTF!!? line' with some other people who were changing races, or also had their registration lost. After being a turd to the race director, then practically pleading, throwing the 'I just drove 4 hours!' card around, and verging on tears, they finally let me in. Thank goodness. The only issue? Most of my numbers were hand written, and I was on a weird rack in transition.

There is poor Papa Smurf with the hand written tag, all lonesome on the rack. I didn't care at that point. I knew I was going to look like a race crasher, but oh well. I toodled around and checked out some bike porn:

Hello lovelies! After wiping the drool off my face, I walked around transition and was amazed at the enormity of it. There were only two tris on Saturday. The Olympic and the Half-Iron. The Olympic had 625ish people, and the Half-Iron over 400. Transition was large:

If you can see those port-o-potties in the back, that's where papa smurf was. I was about 40 racks away at the swim entrance when I took this picture. Well I suffered through the pre-race meeting (and the wind) where they told us that they may cancel the swim the next morning since the weather called for thunderstorms ... excellent. After, I headed up to the hovel that I was staying in:

Yeah, I had to talk to the manager about my accommodations. He actually wasn't that helpful:

Since it was just me and Romeo in the house, and I had about two hours before bedtime, I got my self-centeredness on and took a lot of self portraits ... you're welcome. Yeah, the view sucks up here too:

Not too shabby. Spent the rest of the night getting nervous, prepping accelerade bottles and checked and re-checking my gear. Oh, and I might have watched some TLC before bed too. It was very relaxing!

Actual race report later!

I did it!

2011-07-16T20:20:00.000-07:00

Well I finished my first official Oly Tri! I'm happy with how I did and not too sore yet. Though my lower back has been killing me since the moment I crossed the finish line. Oh and there was some DRAMA when checking in. Ahh but all in good time for the recaps my friends. Gotta go watch Say Yes to the Dress with my Mom and Dad, they freaking love that show!

Recaps to come!

Hope everyone had great races that were racing this weekend!

Tomorrow morning ...

2011-07-15T15:24:00.000-07:00

Gahhh my race is tomorrow morning! It's a true Olympic which I'm pretty nervous for. As with the last race, I feel pretty unprepared. The good thing is though that it's just my race, I'm not there to shatter any course records. I'm just there to finish. Again, it is my only goal. Just like Lake Padden. And just as proof that I did finish that race ...

Yeah, I thought I was sprinting through the shoot. Not so much.

Happy racing weirdos!

Swim sobriety test ...

2011-07-12T19:04:00.000-07:00

Today's workout:
1200 meter swim in the lakey

My swim was weird today. No, I wasn't drunk, but I never would have passed a swim sobriety test. I couldn't swim a straight line to save my life! Or probably touch the tip of my nose with my finger either for that matter. I was spotting every ten strokes or so, and I kept drifting towards the West side of the lake. At first I just thought it was my massively strong left arm, but then I turned around and I was still drifting West. Wind? Current? Are there currents in lakes? Either way it was weird.

Here's a fun fact! I was once pulled over on suspicion of DUI when I was the DD for a group of friends. They gave me a field sobriety test which I failed (no seriously, I was sober, I'm just THAT clumsy), and then they gave me the breathalyzer. I blew 0.00 so clearly they thought the machine was broken. Bring on FOUR MORE POLICE cars, each one brandishing another breathalyzer for me to blow zeros into. Eventually they believed me and let me 'get these kids home safe.' Yowza.

Are these the kind of stories that have made 3 people stop following me in the last week!? :)

Also, because I can't disobey Patrick (and no one should ever try), I did some more research on the half marathon and I'm ---- this close to signing up!

I'm running a half marathon ... sort of

2011-07-11T19:58:00.000-07:00

Today's workout:
4 mile run

Today I was trying to explain how Ragnar is going to work to a co-worker. I told her my first leg was 6 miles, second was 2.7 and last was 6.8. She then says (a former marathoner, now avid yogi), 'holy crap you're running MORE than a half marathon!' And I sat there, did some mental (or on my 10-key) math and realized, HOLY CRAP, I'm doing more than a half marathon! 15.5 miles as a matter of fact. Umm, I know it's sad and a little pathetic, but I literally hadn't realized that before she mentioned it. I'm now even more nervous than before. It also made me think ... maybe I should just run a REAL half marathon! So maybe kinda sorta I looked up the Bellingham Half, and maybe kinda sorta I might register for it ... maybe.

On an unrelated note, I feel like I'm struggling with finding food that I actually want to eat lately. I have no desire to cook or be hot in the kitchen, and yet I want to eat REAL food, and not eat out all the time. I have this sesame noodle recipe that I make constantly and then eat for four days straight, but I'm burnt out on that. Enter ... cold summer pizza. My co-worker showed it to me and I knew what I was making for dinner!

First cook a Trader Joe's herb pizza and let cool. (Also maybe eat little parts of it while you're waiting for it to cool)

Then cut up a bunch of veggies. I had mushrooms, orange peppers, cucumbers and onions. I also had shredded carrots, but there was already something orange. Actually the lack of color made me a little sad, but it was still tasty!

Smear a little garden veggie cream cheese on your cool crust, smear some jalapeno on top of that (because I needed some spice), pile on some veggies and EAT! Oh man, it was tasty. I got the nice cool crunch of some veggies, a little creaminess in the cream cheese, and the delicious ~~carbs~~ herbs in the crust. Most of all it was essentially just chopping. I didn't get hot, and I would still consider it 'real' food.

Can we all just agree I'm not a food blogger. Also, I'm not a food blogger who maybe needs to clean my counters.

Happy sweating weirdos!

Pst, should I sign up for a half?!? I would need to start training like NOW, and I don't have any races after Ragnar (next week!!!!), so ... maybe?

Things are getting close!

2011-07-10T20:30:00.000-07:00

Friday's workout:
4 mile run

Saturday's workout:
22 mile bike

It's been a fabulous weekend! Friday night I didn't do a dang thing. Just hung at home, went to bed early and woke up early! It was another lovely day up here in the Ham. I headed out for a lovely bike ride in the sun followed by some quality lazy time at the park reading my book. This also of course meant that I burnt the back of my legs ... typical.

I then went out with HOVA (who is famous amongst my readers ... eh hem Mr. Rogue. You got a blog nickname!), and E Nys for E Nys' birthday. We got margaritas, had some serious girl talk and then headed out for some of the funniest bars in the Ham. Mr. Rogue met up with us and we all had drinks and went dancing. It was so much fun! I think it was the first time in probably a year since I've gone out dancing and staying out late. Normally when I 'go out' it's just for dinner and a couple drinks and then home pretty early. But this was like in college. It was so fun to just let loose, have fun, talk to strangers, and have a few drinks. And I paid for it today ...

I spent pretty much all day today napping. On and off napping. All. Day. Long. There was a brief moment of getting out of the house where I went on a 3 mile walk, but that was it. And you know, it was kinda great!

On the race front, I have received confirmation that I do have a place in the family friend villa. I also FINALLY received an email from ChelanMan about the race. I was a little worried there! On the Ragnar front, I still need to find a basketball jersey to wear. It's something to do with our team theme. I was just going to wear one my old high school summer league jerseys, but apparently they are supposed to be famous players ... Add that to the ever growing to-do list!

Hope everyone had a great weekend, and if you were out racing, CONGRATS!

Oh, yeah that's next weekend ...

2011-07-06T19:32:00.000-07:00

Today's workout:
2400 meter OW swim

I realized today that I have not received a single email from the race director of ChelanMan. I also realized that I haven't asked our family friends who live in Chelan if I can crash in their guest house (yeah, not room, HOUSE. Good thing they are very old family friends, or I might not be cool enough now!) again this year. When I finally emailed said friend, she asked me which month it was and I realized that it is NEXT WEEKEND! Uhhhh what!?!? And Ragnar is IN TWO WEEKS! For God's sake what have I gotten myself into. Well at the very least I know I have a place to stay in Chelan, and I was finally accepted by Ragnar as a late entry today, but I am a little worried that I haven't heard ANYTHING from ChelanMan. Last year they were updating us on the water temperature every two days ... and now nothing! Maybe it was because I was doing the Try-A-Tri, and now I'm semi-pro and doing the Olympic ... who knows.

Today's swim though was awesome. It was a really beautiful day today so of course the lake was packed. It was excellent practice in sighting. And I only had one awkward wetsuit conversation:

Guy on Bike: Is that a dry suit?
Diana: No, it's a wetsuit.
Guy on Bike: A wetsuit?
Diana: Yeah
Guy on Bike: What's the difference?
Diana: I still get wet
Guy on Bike: Hmm, OK, well have fun I guess.

I'm losing my touch.

Happy sweating weirdos!

Bricklette

2011-07-05T19:38:00.000-07:00

Today's training:
10 min bike
5 min run
x5

Only me and token other girl showed up for Tacfit tonight. I was only 3 sets into my little brick action and since Trainer Aaron was going to cancel class, I agreed and continued my workout. Sadly though that will mean no strength training this week as TA feels the need to go be in a wedding or something lame, so we don't have Tacfit on Thursday.

ANYWAY, I sorta love this workout. Since I have the attention span of a two year old, breaking everything up and compartmentalizing it really helps me get through it ... even though it was only 75 minutes long.

Oh well, I got super sweaty and actually had to go get another towel to deal with all the sweatiness. Then I had to speed home so I could shower and apply about 15 oz of aloe to my chest. Oh aloe, you're a sweet sweet mistress in my life. Don't ever leave me!

Happy sweating weirdos!

I make mistakes ...

2011-07-04T19:46:00.000-07:00

well, some are bigger than others ...

Today's workout:
3.5 mi run out on some local trails. It was so beautiful and peaceful on the trail. I only passed about five people (something about a holiday where people usually hang out with each other ...), so it was just me, my thoughts, and a Dan Savage podcast. Weird, yes I know.

Anywho, my weekend really didn't turn out how I planned AT ALL! No rodeo, which saddens me, a lot of just sitting around my friend HOVA's house, which frankly was really fun, and a lot of sitting on the porch chatting and drinking beers. Man do I love a cool drink and some hot gossip with my ladies! Sometimes though, time gets away from you and this happens (don't show my Mom):

Somehow that looks like 'tan,' but really it's BRIGHT red and burnt. So of course I had to go get some of this:

Sweet sweet aloe in the largest bottle they had. Don't mind that sexy hair, this was right after I got back from my run :) And can you see that sunglasses tan? That's form yesterday too. Oh and that lovely pirate shirt is the race shirt from my tri last weekend. I don't know how much I love the design, but the shirt itself I really like!

Today I'm not doing anything! I'm unsure if that's super patriotic because I'm a lazy American, or if it's not patriotic because I'm not drinking or trying to blow stuff up ... eh, I watched fireworks with a drink in my hand LAST night! So I'm good.

Hope everyone is having a safe and happy Fourth and is NOT blowing their hands off!

Happy sweating weirdos!

3 Things Thursday

2011-06-30T19:41:00.000-07:00

Hey hey hey it's Thursday which means it's almost FRIDAY! Holla! It's a three day weekend which makes it just that much sweeter. I'm pretty durn excited for my weekend plans. Rodeo on Saturday, fireworks at a friends house on Sunday, fun ALL days.

Tacfit today made me sweat and work, but it wasn't like 'cardio' work. It was like muscles giving out because they are so tired and sore, work. I always walk away from workouts like that satisfied, but not completely. There is just something about cardio that is always satisfying.

I finished my book today, Oh man it was funny. Another one of those books where you get bummed when you finish it because you don't want it to end. It's a light, funny memoir. Exactly my prime reading right now!
I want someone to explain to me how to watch The Tudors. I'm just so confused ...

Hope everyone has a great weekend! Be safe!

New Day Tuesday

2011-06-28T19:48:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's workout:
10 mile bike
15 minutes on the 'hard' elliptical (there are many different types at the gym)

Today's workout:
1 mi SPRINT!
Tacfit -
50 pull ups
50 box jumps
25/25 kettle bell press
50/50 club bell squats

I've learned something in the last couple days. It's not always worth complaining about your problems. Sometimes the person you're complaining to is having a MUCH harder time. I guess you could call that gaining perspective. That said, I firmly believe that you gotta get crap off your chest. I think holding it in is way worse. BUT, you gotta know that fine line. If you can't have a conversation without airing your dirty laundry, you're going to say goodbye to your friends pretty fast ... when you should be saying hello! to a therapist.

ANYWAY ... I finished Tacfit first today, I wanted to scream HUZZAH! when I did. But I decided not to. I was shortly followed by the other girl who always goes. The ladies were killing it today! That felt good. It also felt pretty good for everyone to ask me about my race and they told me they were thinking about me when they were sore from Tuesday's workout on Friday. Uh, yeah, maybe for my next race I'll skip the whole week of Tacfit. Being any more sore on race day than I already was, probably wouldn't be a good idea.

Have you guys ever made this mistake?

Hope your sweating it going awesome!

Physical and Emotional Challenges

2011-06-26T19:47:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking a lot today about the physical challenges and emotional challenges that we face. Well honestly I haven't been thinking about YOUR challenges, I've been thinking about mine :)

I put myself through physical challenges nearly daily. Whether it's hill repeats, swim drills, long bike rides up impossible hills, or any combination of the three. Or maybe it's that little mistress of mine Tacfit haha. I put myself through them, practice them, and conquer them (or at least learn to conquer them) through hard work. Hard work, but work that is completely of my own choosing. I can prepare for races testing every variable I can. Heat, cold, wind, rain (no shortage of that in PNW), fatigue, general bad spirits etc. Obviously you never know what you're going to get on race day, but you can practice the scenarios like crazy and be as prepared as possible. With each race, each swim, ride and run you get better and more comfortable with your challenge.

Then there are emotional challenges. You don't choose your emotional challenges, and that makes them that much harder to face. You can't prepare yourself for a emotional challenge. I'm notoriously negative when things get hard training wise. I'm working very hard on conquering my negative self-talk and just doing the best that I can. Yesterday I think I did a great job of overcoming negative self-talk and doing my best. But I can practice that. There are emotional challenges that you face everyday that no amount of practice makes easier. If you've been unfortunate enough to practice losing loved ones, you know that it never gets easier. No amount of broken hearts make the next less painful. No recurrence of pain or illness eases your next bout. More time away from your family, doesn't make it easier to not be close to one another.

I love sports and I love triathlon as a means of exercise, competition, escape, and control. I can control it (most the time), and I love that kind of challenge. I'm not a big fan of being out of control. One of my least favorite phrases in the world is 'let's play it by ear.' I like structure, I like knowing what to expect, and when things get hard, which they almost always do, I don't always handle it well. I, myself, and my family as a whole are handling some personal, emotional challenges right now, and it's very difficult. I was lucky enough today to have one of my favorite people in the world (HOVA), at one of my favorite parks in the world (Boulevard), drinking one of my favorite drinks in the world (iced, soy, hazelnut americano), and I just got to talk it all out. I got to work through some very trying emotional challenges, and I got to roll up my pant legs, and let the sun shine down on proof that I can conquer my physical challenges.

And that felt pretty damn good.

Lake Padden Tri Race Report ... and the BEST Finish Photo

2011-06-25T19:59:00.000-07:00

I lived! I ate a lot after, and I just woke up from a 3.5 hour nap. Good day so far!

Pre-Race:
Got to the lake 2 hours before start time because I was so worried about parking. Yeah, that was unnecessary! I did however get to get marked and get a primo rack spot super early! I waited around for a while and ran into MEGAN! We hung around, chatted, got set-up, made a bike rack friend etc. The weather was making me very worried. Overcast, windy, no sun breaks. Lovely. We headed down to get a ~~wetsuit pee~~ warm up in the lake and it felt awesome. Worries slipping away.

Swim:
They had us self-seed in waves of about 50. I wanted to get in the second wave, but it filled so fast! Then two, then three! I ended up in the last wave which bummed me out. I was not going to have many people behind me, which is hard mentally. The swim went great though! It's my strongest leg by far, and aside from a little water rugby, all was well. Except for the 3 foot step getting out of the water ... weird.

Bike:
I knew this leg was going to suck, so I just kept my head up and went. My self-talk was AWESOME! Then when I started blazing down the first hill I saw the beacon-red sweatshirt of Sugar Ts! It was great! I ended up seeing him two more times on the bike course, and it pepped me up each time! He took some video of me that I'll post later, well when he wakes up from his nap :). OK, I can't judge too much, I was napping too until about ten minutes ago. The killer hill did in fact kill me, I walked up part of it with another dude. THEN, some asshole motorcycle cop at the top of the hill, and I, had this conversation. Now to set the scene, it's a road that comes to a T, and the course turns left. I was in the right lane staying out of the studly people's way who didn't have to walk, and I was getting ready to re-mount.
Asshole Cop - 'You quitting 73?'
DTAT (#73) - 'WHAT!?!?!'
AC - 'Are you quitting the race?'
DTAT - 'Heck no!' - I had the radio edit on, otherwise it would have been more like 'F*ck no, you stupid a**hole, why don't YOU try!'
AC - 'Then you need to turn to the left'
DTAT - (said in a very snotty voice) 'yeah, I know the course'
I was pissed! Ef no I'm not quitting, I'm just trudging on! But I do look happy in the race photo (bringing back the pictures of pictures)

Run:
My feet were completely numb. Awesome! Saw Sugar Ts again who tried to feed me Turkey Jerky. No thanks! Headed out on my first loop. Nothing awesome to report. When I started my second loop, there were a ton of people finishing and cheering at the finish line. I wanted to be them, but just kept on going! I felt myself getting slower and slower but I DIDN'T WALK! And eventually my feet woke up a little. That was a long 5.2 miles after everything else, but I finished strong (for me), and beat the time limit! Sadly way less people were at the finish shoot, and I saw a bunch of people walking back to their cars already. I just wanted to ask the speedsters to cheer for me please! I need it! Oh but I rocked one of my best finish line photos:

If you can't tell, my tongue is hanging out of my mouth. Classy. I don't have my official times yet, I scooted pretty quick after the race, but my watch said about 2:46 and I'm happy with that. It does however make me nervous for ChelanMan which is a true Olympic. I need to make sure that course is NOT hilly! My only gripe about this course was that the volunteers and other racers were not super friendly. At ChelanMan they were screaming and yelling and pumping you up at every turn. I know it's not their job or anything, but man that feels good mid race when you're wondering why on earth you do this! Oh well, I did a pretty good job of being my own mental cheerleader, and Sugar Ts was a great cheerleader as well.

Go tell Megan how well she did! She beat her time goals, generally rocked it, and looked pretty damn studly in her new one piece tri-suit! :)

Hope everyone else is having a good sweaty weekend so far!

Pre-Race Ramblings, Goals, and My Craziness

2011-06-24T19:56:00.000-07:00

Oh man, the day before a race. It's stressful, it's exciting, it's time to dot every t and cross every i. It's also when I start to completely lose my mind. For instance, today I spent (an insane amount of time) a few moments created this:

A four page schedule for today, tonight, and tomorrow. It's scheduled for wake up, drive time, packing time, each leg of the race complete with goals, time guesstimates, and mental pick me ups. There is also a packing list for my gear bag, and for clothing to wear before, during and after the race, and including breakfast and all during race nutrition.

Fun thing I learned today ... I've been practicing the bike course wrong. Yep, I apparently cannot read arrows on a map indicating the direction that we will be riding around a lake on the course. I've been practicing clockwise, and the course follows the lake COUNTER clockwise. Lovely. I went and drove the course just to try and give myself some peace of mind. Not really reassuring that the leg of the course that I'm most nervous about, I've been practicing backwards. Oh well, too late to do anything now.

Since I've been home I've been packing:

And carbo-loading:

Now I'm doing laundry, willing the sun to go down soon so that when I go to bed at 8:30 (for my 5:15 wake up), I can actually fall asleep, and trying to un-nervous myself. We'll see how THAT goes.

I spoke briefly about my goals for the race, and I just sent Sugar Ts a 4 page text message with my expected times so that he can find me tomorrow, and here they are.

Swim: 16-17 minutes in the water. Hard to judge official time as I have no idea where the timing mats will be.
T1: HOPEFULLY 2-3 minutes. I'm notoriously slow in T1, but I'm hoping wearing my tri top/bottom under my wetsuit will help a lot.
Bike: 1:20-1:30. The course is hard. I just want to get through it with a positive head.
T2: Under 1 minute. All I have to do is rack my bike and take off my helmet, that best not take more than a minute!
Run: 52-58 minutes. I normally do the two laps in about 55, but I'm sure I'll be slower. Or rocking more adrenaline. Who knows really.

My only REAL time goal is to finish in the 3 hour time limit. And my personal goal is to race my own race, know that I'm racing against MYSELF and no one else. And just to keep my head in a positive place, not get down on myself if things go south, and focus on going hard and doing my best.

Here goes nothing!

3 Things Thursday

2011-06-23T19:52:00.000-07:00

Man it's been a while since my last 3 Things Thursday. It's also been a long time since I've posted with any sort of regularity. Four posts in a day, don't post for a week. Whatev. Tis the eb and flow of ole DTAT. So without further delay ...

Today I practiced (for the first time) wearing my tri top and bottoms under my wetsuit. Umm, why have I not been doing this all along!?! It was actually EASIER putting it on, and taking off I didn't feel embarrassed tootling around in my speedo! I'm glad I practiced for sure. Though, it just didn't feel right to pee in my wetsuit with all that business underneath. I'm either going to need to get over that real quick, or actually utilize the port-o-potties, which I hate doing.
True to form, I got chatted up at the lake today. I'm telling you, if you ever want to chat randomly with people (and all people, men, women, old, young ..) wiggle into a wetsuit and hang out at Lake Padden. Maybe I'll start a very specific kind of dating service where I force you to wear wetsuits and talk to strangers ...
I've started my packing list and time schedule for Saturday. So far it has me waking up at 5:15, I've scheduled two potty breaks, and it ends with 'beer, pizza, other such carbs and fattiness.' Don't worry, that's for lunch after the race is over!

The nerves are turning to excitement. Yep, four hour change of heart. I've also gotten a tentative invitation to run in the Ragnar Relay and I really hope it pans out! It's only five days after my next Oly Tri, but I just want to be a part of it. Good stuff is happening!

Positivity!

Excitement!

Exclamation points!

I'm Nervous

2011-06-23T13:02:00.000-07:00

My first race of the year is on Saturday and I'm battling some nerves. Mostly I'm scared of the bike section, the time limit and the fact that Trainer Aaron kicked but butt so hard that my butt is sore ... literally. Sitting down, any sort of squatting motion and going up (or down) stairs hurts right now. I think Sugar Ts is legit concerned that I'm going to die on Saturday the way that I've been talking up how un-prepared I am.

I legitimately believe that I'm not as trained as I should be for this race, and it's the farthest tri that I've done to date, but I have to keep reminding myself, I DO THIS FOR FUN! I AM NOT PROFESSIONAL! EVERYTHING WILL BE OK! It's not like I've been sitting on my duff for the last four months, I've been putting the work in. Yes I've skipped workouts and some of my distances might not be the best, but I've still been going at it. It's just always scary to put all those parts together for the first time. Last year I was convinced that I wasn't going to be trained enough in Chelan, and I did great!

Of course I will be super bummed if they kick me off the course because I take too long. Of course I will be pissed at myself if I have to walk up that asshole of a hill on the bike course (I've yet to make it up in training ... God help me). Of course I want to dominate and and win my age group.

BUT!

If I have to finish the race and not get an official time because I took too long ... at least I finished. If I have to hobble run up that asshole hill ... and least I got to the top. If I get last place in my age group ... at least I didn't give up. If I'm the last person in the whole freaking race ... at least I signed up and completed it.

The last person to cross the finish line ... FINISHED!

So, that's my goal for this race. A strong finish that I can be proud of. Even if it's dead last.

A stellar weekend

2011-06-19T15:13:00.000-07:00

Friday was my birthday which was lovely. I got out of work early, talked to several people on the phone with birthday wishes and then went down to Sugar Ts house. The city of Burlington was so happy that it was my birthday, that they had fireworks for me! How sweet of them! Of course this meant that me and Sugar Ts had to trespass on a high hill to watch them. We sat in the grass formulating our plan on what to say to the police when they found us, and waited for the fun to start. After about twenty minutes in the wind with no fireworks, we stood up to leave, immediately after we got out of prime viewing area, they started. Pretty typical! It was still nice and I'm glad that Sugar Ts forced me up there :)

Saturday we headed down to Seattle for the Mariner's game. Before hand we met up with my Mom and went to see my Grandfather in the hospital. It was very hard. Very very hard. I'm glad I went, and I'm glad that I saw them both though. I think after that, me and Sugar Ts were even more excited to go to the game. Here is one reason why I love going to events with Sugar Ts. He doesn't mess around. Case in point:

These were our tickets to a Playoff Seahawks game this winter. Holy moly. They were close. I felt like I could hear the players breathing we were so close. Last night we were so close to the field we had this warning on the backs of the seats in front of us:

Yeah, we were close again! Three rows back, just off the third base line. We got to see a couple catches by the left fielder right up close, and there were even a few foul balls that came our way!

King Felix was pitching, and sadly didn't have a very good game. They ended up losing ... but we still had fun!

Please ignore that wispy hair on my forehead, it's not bangs, it's really broken hair! The lady just over my shoulder there offered to buy Sugar Ts and I a beer later in the game. I was seated next to a CRAZY lady, who basically would point out every obvious thing that happened. "THAT WAS A STRIKE!" "THAT WAS A FOUL BALL" on and on and on during the whole game. I thought I was the only one noticing how obnoxious she was because I was right next to her, but apparently our entire section HATED her. She started cheering for the other team once they started winning, and kept making little comments the whole time. After she left the entire section cheered and then we all started talking about her. Seriously, three rows back and they were yelling down "that guy in the yellow and girl with him are saints!" "buy them a beer for putting up with that!" Now, I won't lie, I had several stadium beers so I just rolled with it, but the people behind us were not quite as accommodating! Oh well, didn't damper the fun for me! I had a great time watching the game, commenting on our respective 'baseball boyfriends' and walking around The Safe. It was a great way to keep the birthday weekend going!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend! I know I am! I'm also getting pretty dang nervous for my race next weekend ... yikes.

Happy sweating weirdos!

My 25th year ...

2011-06-17T11:20:00.000-07:00

Today is my birthday. I'm 'old' today. Last night I had this conversation:

Sugar Ts - 'Hey what are those ladies called that are old and single and don't have kids, but they have cats?'
DTAT - 'Spinsters?'
Sugar Ts - 'YEAH! Spinsters! In just a few hours you're going to be a Spinster!'

Thanks Sugar Ts, thank you very much! I'm fairly sure he was kidding, but you just never know! No, I'm not old, and I'm find with getting older, plus you get awesome birthday presents! Or at the very least tons of Happy Birthday comments on your facebook! My favorite was from my old band director (yes I was a band nerd, and yes I occasionally keep in touch with my old director, but he's a triathlete so we're not just talking scales and jazz combos and marching formations ... mostly), who told me that a triathletes birthday should be:

Your age x 100 = yards swimming
Your age = miles bikes
Your age = km running

That's a pretty run heavy triathlon! Good lord! I don't think I'll be doing that, but some things I will be doing in my 25th year (or so I hope):

More exploring my beautiful state

More letting loose and not caring how stupid (or awesome) I look

More 'Firsts'

More races

More Tacfit, and the lovely injuries that come with it

More time with friends

More time cherishing my family (you too Dad, you just didn't make the picture cut I guess :) )

Hopefully I'll learn to roll with the punches a little better. Some MAY call be a bit of a stresser ...

And DEFINITELY more time getting sweaty!

I think it's going to be a good year. I think I'm supposed to be grown up now. Maybe I will figure out what I want to be when I grow up, maybe I will miraculously stop being occasionally irresponsible, maybe I will get a dog! Most likely nothing really will change except I'll keep going to bed progressively earlier, keep expanding my book collection, and buy wrinkle cream. I have crow's feet, I actually might buy that cream today ... It's just because I smile so damn much, right!?

Any words of advice? I'll take any I can, I'm flying blind through life! At least it's a pretty darn fantastic life!

Triathletes are nice

2011-06-17T10:36:00.000-07:00

I know what you're thinking, 'thank you captain obvious, of course I know that triathletes are nice because you're really nice and I'm really nice, and all my team mates are really nice etc. Thank you for once again pointing out something that we already know.' Well yes, that's probably true, but now I have yet another story to explain.

(I also thought about titling this post 'how to make friends' or 'if you're single and a triathlete')

I headed to a lake yesterday for a little brick before my AWESOME upcoming weekend. I started working my way into my wetsuit and a lady chatted me up about swimming, wetsuits etc. Then I headed down to the water and a guy with his family told me that he would time me after commenting on how far I was going etc. Now I had forgotten my watch, so I was actually sorta glad he offered! Well, on the way back I didn't see him again, so I just guesstimated my time UNTIL, another wetsuit clad gentleman asked me if I wanted to know my time. Frankly I was a little skeezed out that he knew it, but he told me he was timing the lady right in front of me, so it was probably 15 sec off. Phew, not ~~another~~ a stalker! I of course then had to chat with him for ten minutes (delaying the second part of my brick) about our upcoming race, how it was his first, what we thought etc. It was great! And finally while I was heading up to transition (the hatch of my car) a lady started chatting with me about the lake temperature and how was my swim. I tell ya, if you wanna make friends (or meet a new mate *wink* *wink*) strap on a wetsuit and head to the lake! EVERYONE wants to talk to you then!

I then did my run in my full tri top and bottoms which I haven't actually worn before. But no one talked to me, because runners are mean. (Just kidding ... sorta :) )

Have a fabulous weekend getting sweaty weirdos!

Weekend Shenans and the Hill That Killed Me

2011-06-14T06:58:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's workout:
21 mi bike - upcoming tri bike route

It killed me. It's very hilly and I have apparently not been training on hills nearly as much as I should have! That's concerning. Oh boy, that race is in ten days ... little late now.

On to the weekend fun-times! I went to the Deming Log Show to watch my favorite logger get his climb on. My dear friend JC's husband ... 'Logger Man' works for a tree service clearing land and trees and climbing way up in the trees. It's very dangerous job! The great thing about the Log Show is that the proceeds go to a fund that helps loggers who are injured pay their medical bills and help their families. Not only do they get all the admission fees, but they auction goods and throughout the weekend people make donations. Oh and in case you were wondering I only got misty eyed once during a story they told ... ONCE!

Me and gorgeous JC. That pole coming out of her head is the 90 ft. climbing pole that Logger Man climbed, and that target is an ax throwing target. Serious. There were discussions of starting a 'shot league' for ax throwing. Throw an ax, take a shot ... repeat. Totally not dangerous.

Yes, his shirt is a lumberjack punching a bear. Topical.

Can't really tell, but there in the middle right is Logger Man with leg 'cans' which I called 'tin man legs' getting ready to chop a log in a relay. They also had an 'Ironman' relay where they did multiple events. I like that.

There he goes!

And there's Logger Man!

If you didn't know already, most Northwest towns are just logging towns that grew up, but it's still a large industry. This is just one of many Log Shows or Logging Rodeos in this area in the summer. Love it! Good job Logger Man, and thanks JC, I stole all these pictures from her :)

Hope everyone had great weekends.

Happy sweating weirdos!

My $44 run ...

2011-06-09T19:49:00.000-07:00

Today's workout:
5.2 mile run (upcoming tri run portion)

I'm a dummy. Many people figured this out a while ago, but here is some proof for you.

Today I went to the lake for a lovely run. I got all my ducks in a row, took my apartment key off the ring, put it in my pocket, locked the car, closed the door and exclaimed, "OH SH*T!!!" Yeah apartment keys don't open car doors. F-Bomb. Then I commenced walking around wondering what the hell to do. I had nothing on me. OK that's a lie, I had my apartment key (an apartment that in fact does NOT contain the spare key to my car), and my ipod. (Fun fact that will annoy my mother. I keep my spare apartment key on my key ring right next to other one, and I keep my spare car key in my purse. When I locked my keys AND purse in my car I screwed myself so royally!) I found a lady who looked like she wouldn't punch me in the throat for asking to use her cell phone and approached her in the most, 'oh please see your daughter in me and take pity on my stupidity' way and begged to use her phone. She replied sure and asked what number. I had no idea. I don't have locksmith phone numbers memorized, I don't have ANY ONE'S phone number memorized except my parent's house phone. I then begged to her to text google for locksmith phone numbers. This saintly woman sat there texting and calling three different locksmiths for 20 minutes. Bless her and her gorgeous golden retriever's hearts. I was mortified. After the locksmith said he would be there in 20 minutes (a far cry from the 2 hours the first guy said), the wonderful lady hugged me, wished me luck, and I sat listening to a podcast, in full-on spandex loitering my by car. Dum-my.

Aasics running shoes: $120.00
Target running tights: $19.99
Keywest locksmith service because you're a complete dummy:

Getting in your tri training miles after putting away the ole credit card: priceless

Happy Thursday! Hope your sweating is cheaper than mine today!

Listen ...

2011-06-08T19:43:00.000-07:00

Listen ...
The cats pissing ...
Where!?
Under the table

That is some sort of weird inside family joke that I can't even begin to explain. I want to say that it was something my Mom's Grandma said!? I don't even know, but my family blurts that out at random intervals for giggles.

Where am I going with this ... I peed myself today. It was more like,

Listen ...
Dianas pissing ...
Where!?!
In my WETSUIT, in LAKE PADDEN

Holla open water swim! It was a weird day today. It couldn't decide if it was going to be sunny, or overcast. I told myself several times that I would definitely do my open water swim today because even if conditions were not ideal, it might be the same on race day, so I better suck it up pancake and just do it! Well, I got to the lake and it looked awful, and there were no other ~~crazies~~ swimmers in the water, so I decided to drive the bike route of my upcoming race (MEGAN, I'm scared. Those are some HIIIIIIILLS!), and when I got back to the lake, BAM, it was sunny. And a tri club (why am I not a member!?!) was getting ready to do a brick. I trundled down to the water and once I dunked myself in and took a few cautious strokes to catch my breath, it felt awesome.

Today's workout:
2000 meters IN THE LAKE!

I even caught up to the tri club on one of their sets. I felt pretty smug about that :) Hopped in the car and now I'm making Indian food. Bet you can't guess what my swimsuit back looks like:

That is actually on my bathroom floor. That flash is serious! haha

Happy sweating (and peeing) weirdos!

Getting Owned

2011-06-07T20:59:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's workout:
21 miles biking

Today's workout:
2.75 mile run
Tacfit

Yesterday was a lesson in humility. I set out from my house taking a new route that included part of my old stand-by county route. I like this one because it has hills and flats, its out in the county so there isn't a ton of traffic, lots of beautiful sites, and it has a pretty nice out and back that makes 20 miles. Well I set out on my 'new route' and once I merged with the 'old route' I realized that once all was said and done I was only adding about a mile. Crap. Not only that, but I got owned THREE TIMES by gentlemen that I'm guessing were at least sixty, one was much older than that. They passed me like I was standing still. Then right after the last one passed me, my chain popped off. Lovely. Oh well, it was a beautiful day, the wind sucked, but the ride was overall good, and I cannot compare myself to these men who have probably been biking for 30+ years. They have experience and testosterone on their side. At least that's what I'm telling myself.

Hey, at least I got back out in the sun in hopes of getting my lovely leg tan from the weekend evened out.

Note to self: It is necessary to put sunscreen on your legs when kayaking if you intend to take your legs out of the kayak at all! That is literally the only place I'm burned from 9 hours out in the sun on Saturday. Just the inside of the front of my lower leg. What. A. Nerd.

Happy sweating weirdos!

Somewhat Wordless Weekend

2011-06-06T20:16:00.000-07:00

This weekend was glorious. Seriously seriously beautiful. It was 75+ on Saturday, and to celebrate. Sugar Ts and I got up mega-early and spent pretty much the entire day paddling, fishing, reading trashy magazines, and cooking up meals in a bag. It was pretty epic.

Self portraits at 10:00 am. I had already been up for FOUR HOURS at this point! Did I mention it was Saturday!? Totally worth it though!

Nothing beats that view. It was such a gorgeous day!

First stop of the day. He fished, I read him excerpts from my trashy magazines! Getting warm, had to ditch my long sleeves and pants at this point.

This was one of the most beautiful things I've seen. We paddled right up underneath this waterfall. The water was so fine it was like mist at the bottom, and created such a cold, strong wind. It was amazing to sit right under it and just stare right up.

Fishing success! That was I think the second or third catch, but Sugar Ts was so fast at putting them back I couldn't get a picture! I also learned how to cast, and reel back in. Sadly, the fish did not like me very much ... I was only fishing and not catching.

Sugar Ts cooked lunch! Tiny little stove and pot. Loved it!

Backpacker's Pantry vegetarian Pad Thai while I read my Vegetarian Times magazine. I was sooo freaking hungry. I don't know if it was just the fact that I was hungry, but that meal was pretty good! It did however contain something called "Vegetarian Chicken Stock Base." Something in that doesn't make sense ...

The Vibrams were perfect for the day. Even for the tiny amount of walking around we did on a rocky path. I could feel the rocks, that's for sure, but they were super comfortable to wear all day.

After we got out, we drove up to the lookout that looks over the lake. This is just the middle section. There was a long canyon arm that we spent most the day going up and exploring.

It was an awesome day! We got in the lake around 9:30, and got out around 6:00. Made for a long day, but it was so much fun. SOMEONE didn't want to wear sunscreen and got very very sun burnt, and someone else who is very pretty and writes this blog, put sunscreen on twice and maintained their lovely pale Irish skin with just a tinge of tan coloring. I'll let you guess who was who.

Hope you guys had wonderful adventure filled weekends too!

Me Time

2011-06-03T12:56:00.000-07:00

Yowza, I suck about posting lately. Just not enough hours in the day to cook, eat chocolate chips, pet the cat and watch pirated TV!

Wednesday:
2000 meter swim

Thursday:
5 mi run
NO TACIT - gasp! It was cancelled, it wasn't my choice!

I discovered on Wednesday an entirely new form of 'Me Time.'

Step 1: Hate having water in your ears
Step 2: Purchase enormous ear plugs that fill your entire outer ear to seal out water:

Step 3: Swim at the pool at bedtime (8:30pm) when no one else is there.
Step 4: Enjoy only the sound of the bubbles running over your ears.

It was so peaceful to have those suckers in! Oh my heavens. Not to mention that no water what-so-ever got into my ears! No violent head shaking and smacking the side of my head THAT evening. I felt slightly like I had a disability with the enormity of them (they looked like those massive, old school hearing aids, I estimate the size of them to be about like if you cut 1/2 inch off the top of a string cheese, made of soft plastic or rubber or something ...), and I don't think I would wear them in a race because you can't hear very well at all, but they were lovely for the pool. And let's face it, I get annoyed as shit at the pool, so being able to block a little bit of the crazy out, really helped!

I've noticed that I'm really loyal to brands of my workout gear. I wear almost completely Novara gear for biking (jerseys, shorts, water bottles, all accessories), and all TYR gear for swimming (multiple swim caps, suit, ear plugs) it could also help that those tend to be the cheapest, but quality products ... I'm not saying, I'm just saying. I've also totally learned my lesson on straying from Aasics. My feet have never been happier! The blood blister is almost completely gone, and the daily blisters NEVER happen anymore. Sugar Ts will contend that I still have the nastiest feet around. He shuddered when he saw me in sandals last weekend.

Speaking of weekends, it's supposed to be gorgeous this one and I'm so excited. Hello kayaking again, it's been too long!

May in numbers

2011-05-31T20:28:00.000-07:00

... and not very good numbers at that!

Swim: 4100 yds
Bike: 142 mi
Run: 39.05 mi
Strength: 3.5 hours

I'm fine with all of that actually except the swim. I just can't get my head into swimming. The scheduling at the gym sucks, the weather has been crap, so I haven't been able to get out into the lake etc. My head is just not in it. I'm honestly not all that confident in my training at all. I'm pretty sure that my upcoming race is going to be a big struggle. I know that I can individually do each of the legs, but put them together and I'm not sure if I have it in me. I'm still going to do it, and I'm still going to give it everything that I have, but I'm not feeling overly confident. Then I have another race about a month later that I'm even LESS confident in. It's a true Olympic, so slightly longer than Padden.

Overall I'm having a tough time with my training. I have a hard time staying motivated for longer than 2 or so hours a day and I have a hard time getting my long workouts in. I might just be in a weird spot in my training right now, maybe I'm having a little burnout, and maybe it's just nerves for the upcoming races, but man. I think Sprints might be my length of race. Enough to be a hobby without completely consuming my life, which is honestly how it feels sometimes. I have no idea how you amazing people with family and kids and jobs do it! It's like I read about a single Mom with 4 kids, a full time job and she's a 5 time Ironman and I look at my cat, tiny house and think, 'that is just a better person than me.' I guess we have our priorities. Mine are having some time to myself, to spend with friends, cooking, reading, and sleeping in until 6:00. This lady isn't getting up at 4:00 to do a 3 hour swim workout ... nope, nope, nope.

Oh, and because I'm seriously not so negative all the time, some positive notes!

Today's workout:
2.5 mile run (while I listened to a podcast about bras and menstruation haha)
Tacfit

AND it was payday!

AND tomorrow starts BIRTHDAY MONTH!

AND I beat a boy in Tacfit today!

AND I bought all the fixings for risotto ... yum!

She's a BRICK ...

2011-05-30T17:00:00.000-07:00

workout?

Today's workout:
12 mile bike
2.5 mile run

Yesterday me and Sugar Ts went and watched part of the epic Sea to Ski race in the Ham. I really wanted to go down to the finish line (which featured a beer garden), but it was so batty down there that I got frustrated and we left. Instead, we went to the park where the Mountain Bikers hand off to the Kayakers to start the final leg of the race. It was fun and sunny and we found a spot behind some rocks that blocked the ever present wind. It was really nice to get out in the sunshine and just sit and people watch and look at all the beautiful kayaks!

Today, I sat around on the couch watching Sex and the City and Project Runway marathons until 3:00. I kept hoping that it was going to get sunny and wonderful out to do the mini brick that I had planned for today, and it just didn't happen. So I just pulled up my big girl pants (and running pants, bike shorts and three layers on top) and got on my bike. Not before I made some big saddle adjustments though. After my ride last week I knew I had to tighten up the bolts on my saddle and tip it WAY forward. Let me tell you, thank goodness. It was like night and day today. Just tipping that saddle forward made my 'saddle area' issues way way less. Phew! After the bike portion of my brick where I toured some areas of my neighborhood I hadn't seen before, I was feeling good!

Look at those helmet marks! Might need to loosen that bad boy up a touch. Oh well, at least I know it's staying on if the strap fails.

Then I began the run. It went well ... until it really really didn't. I started having wicked wicked GI issues. Apparently my awesome pre-workout fueling of half a pint of ice cream (sorry Sugar Ts, I can't leave ice cream alone) didn't really agree with my belly. I cut off about a half mile from my loop and booked back home. Sometimes I'm just not all that smart!

Oh well, at least I got a good brick in for today! I guess I just need to accept the fact that it's probably going to be gross on race day and I might as well just train in it.

Happy sweating weirdos! Hope you had a great long weekend!

I brought my pants

2011-05-26T20:03:00.000-07:00

Today's workout:
2.5 mile run/sprint
Tacfit

Tuesday I did a silly thing. I went to the gym, started changing and realized that I didn't pack any sports bras. I hung my head, walked out to the front desk and told the desk girl that yes I would like my card back already, I forgot my ... pants. I couldn't tell her that I forgot bras, I don't know why.

Then yesterday I got my swim on. Ugh. Waiting until bed time for swimming, I hate the stupid pool schedule.

Today I walked into the gym and Trainer Aaron looked at me and said, "So you coming to class today ... with pants on?" That gossipy front desk girl! Oh well, I had actually packed both pants and sports bras, so I was good.

Now I'm on to cooking a bunch of appetizers for a parTAY tomorrow, then crashing for the night, I'm exhausted!

What are your big weekend plans? Races? Training? BBQs in the sun!?!? I wish I could have that last one ... stupid Washington.

So uhhh, that hurts

2011-05-23T20:26:00.000-07:00

Today's workout:
20 miles, OUTSIDE!

Today was lovely. They keep saying that we're going to have crap crap weather and then it turns into an OK day. Yesterday was no exception. Megan emailed to see if I wanted to reschedule our ride, but I had ... given myself saddle issues. Well, not saddle so much, as saddle AREA. Make sense? I told her about it (on facebook, which in hindsight might have been a little too much info for the ole FB) and we decided next time she was in town we would do it.

Well today was another sometimes overcast, sometimes sunny day and I decided to take advantage. I took my beloved Papa Smurf out for a spin! However, before I took off I massively lubed up with some random anti chafe junk that I won on a blog. It felt like I was sitting on pudding in my bike shorts. It felt sorta terrible, and sorta awesome, I won't lie.

I headed off into the county, wobbly and weaving as this was only the second time I've been out on the actual road! Once I finally got into the county roads I just cruised, hit a few NASTY hills and kicked their butts! (Sidebar: I looked up the course for my upcoming tri and got really freaked out by the hills, I need to start working some hills!) It felt great to be out and about.

The bad part was by mile 16 my 'saddle area' was in so much pain I started doing a little bit more standing than sitting. AND whenever I would plop down from standing my saddle would move. Note to self: tighten that crap up! The last 3 or so miles were rough, my back was starting to tighten up, this little part of my lower back/tailbone area was starting to get the pain I have sometimes.

The good part was that I KILLED those hills. OK, it was slow and my average pace was total junk, but I didn't walk up them, and last year I had to!

Now I'm just Tiger "Bomb"ing, watching Minute to Win It, and thinking that the ice cream in the freezer sounds kind of amazing!

Happy sweating weirdos!

Rain is such a turd

2011-05-21T17:45:00.000-07:00

Today's workout:
35 miles on the spin bike

Me and Megan over at The Daily Sweat had an awesome plan today to go do the swim and bike portion of our upcoming Tri. Alas, we live in Western Washington, and you cannot predict the weather two hours in advance let alone multiple days. In the end, we got rained out. Ugh. If it was beautiful and sunny and warm, and I would have been really excited (although nervous) to get out and work it with Megan since she's way faster than me and working out with someone else is always fun, especially since I'm pretty much a solo-er all the time. Damn you rain. So since I got totally ready (while refreshing my email non-stop half-hoping Megan would want to post-pone), I'm now cleaning, blogging, and cooking in my swimsuit! Totally normal.

Even though I'm pissed at the rain, it at least forced me to take my bike in for a tune up! After listening to the tech tell me everything he did, I felt like I had been riding a death trap! So, thanks Fanatik Bike for not letting me die. I also bought a new bike rack for my car, so I don't have to fill the entire back with it. I don't know about you guys, but I cannot resist those 20% off coupons from REI. It lets me justify in my mind buying things I wouldn't. Marketing works! I got it installed today, now I'm just hoping for some sun so I can actually put my bike on it!

Alright everyone, enjoy your weekends! Good luck if you're racing! I was a busy girl today filling my day with chores and some time at the gym while Sugar Ts went to hunter's safety training. Don't shoot at things wearing bright orange, bam, done. Why does this take 3 days!?!?

Happy sweating weirdos!

Hoooooly Moooooly!

2011-05-19T20:32:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's workout:
600 meter swim (let me explain)

Today's workout:
5.2 mile run - Run course of my upcoming tri

Yesterday I decided to take my first open water swim of the year. It's been so nice the last few days and sunshine means going outside, and warmness means going to the lake, and going to lake means SWIMMING! I wrastled myself into my wetsuit, (while Sugar Ts watched in amazement? Disgust? Ambivalence?) chatted with a couple people who thought I was nuts, then headed down to the water. Sugar Ts was ~~spotting for me~~ fishing while I went out on my little jaunt. And when I say little, I mean little. I got into the FREEEZING water and it sucked all my air away. I stood there waiting to dunk all the way for a few minutes until a couple canoers came by and counted down from three for me. It was hilarious, after I popped back up, they applauded! I knew I had to do something after that! I swam very tight little circles around a couple pylons in the lake. I'm estimating that I swam about 600 meters because I just could not get my breath, and I was scared to get too far from shore (I'm such a pansy). It was quite cold. It was definitely getting better the longer I was in, but I was way over it. Then when I went to get out, I had wicked vertigo. I had to stand and steady myself for a few seconds before I could even unzip my suit! I'm calling it a sorta fail of a swim. Hey, at least I got into the lake for the first time this year.

Today though I cruised around the SAME lake a couple times doing the run leg of the upcoming tri. It felt good, it was sunny, and it made me so happy that summer is coming slowly. I say as we're expecting like 5 straight days of rain next week. Oh and I saw swimmers at the lake today. I'm not as crazy as everyone thought.

And I can't find a pair of jeans that I've been looking for, for at least an hour.

And I'm currently baking granola and it smells incredible ...

Deal, or no Deal?

2011-05-17T19:45:00.000-07:00

It's pretending to be spring outside! Oh sweet loveliness! In honor of such a beautiful day, I went on a run down to the bay and back before Tacfit.
Today's workout:
4.25 mile run
Tacfit

It was plum lovely. The salty air blowing off the bay, across my face. My newest race shirt from the Apple Blossom 5k:

If you're thinking, "Hmm, that looks an awful lot like that one blogger background!" you would be right. I'm fairly certain that they stole it, straight up. I believe those were the first words out of my mouth when it was handed to me. But oh well, I like it as a background and I like it as a t-shirt.

The run today was mostly downhill on the way out, and mostly uphill on the way back. The exact opposite of what you want! I started playing Deal, or no deal with myself. For instance:

If you run to the next intersection, you can walk for 30 seconds. Deal, or no deal!!? NO DEAL! I jogged the whole way, then stopped only when I needed to, so as not to be hit by a car. But I still played the game with myself the whole way back. Just had to distract myself.

I got back with five minutes before Tacfit started. I SPRINTED into the gym, and back to the studio before I had a chance to wipe the sweat off my face and everyone looked at me like a loon coming INTO the gym all sweaty.

In any event. A great day, a great run, rolling with the endorphins right now! If it's another nice day tomorrow, I think I might head to the lake for my first open water swim! Hope that wetsuit still fits ...

Please ignore the crazy eyes.

Happy sweating weirdos!

First of the year!

2011-05-16T20:18:00.000-07:00

Today's workout:
25 miles on the spin bike

Well today I spent most of the day with a ~~tequilla~~ food poisoning induced tummy ache. It seriously sucked. It made work suck, it made me be a total crank to people that I like. It sucked. You know what else sucked!? My first total emotional breakdown of 2011. Hey, I made it 5.5 months, booyah!

Yesterday afternoon I bid adieu to a a nice, calm, pajama wearing, Jeopardy watching, Sugar Ts house and headed up to a Mexican restaurant for some margaritas, chimichangas and fun with some ladies from college that I only get to see about twice a year. Well after many hours and many many laughs, I took off with one of them to drive her to her Mom's house up road a bit. While we were driving we were chatting and I was not paying attention to where I was driving. After I dropped her off I realized I had no idea how to get back to the freeway. I thought I would figure out, but pretty soon, I knew I was very lost. I called her, no answer. I called another friend who grew up in that town, no answer. I called Sugar Ts, I think three times before I woke him up. He had to google map me out of there. After I got home and said toodles for the night, I sat down on the couch, opened up my computer and started sobbing. For no reason what-so-ever. Was I scared I had just gotten lost? Was I sad I had to leave my 'vacation house' early? I think a little of both, but neither are sob worthy events. It was odd. I cried and cried and cried, and texted Sugar Ts a bunch, then calmed down and fell asleep in about 10 minutes. It was bizarre. I do this about twice a year. So I guess I'll be back in November!

Other than that, not much going on. I hope hope hope that the weather starts getting better because I really need to start getting some OWSs in, and get some serious mileage in on Papa Smurf. Serious. For serious.

Happy sweating weirdos!

So Ronery

2011-05-13T12:51:00.000-07:00

Apparently Blogger was down for a while. Yeah, I didn't notice that. That shows you how up into blogging I've been in the last 24 hours ... oh well.

Thursday's workout:
3 mile speed work - Which included some walking when my calves started talking back a bit too much. Damn you new semi-minimalist shoes!
Ronery Tacfit.

My gym has a stupid rule that if there are fewer than 3 people, group classes are not held. Well at tacfit we average 3-4 per class, so we're always riding that line. Last night, only me and the token other girl showed up. Trainer Aaron looked us in the eyes and said, 'Well ladies, you're on your own.' Grr. It of course was some crazy workout that involved a ton of watching the clock and timing etc. After he left, we decided to do ten of each exercise, and go through the circuit 5 times, then call it good. I had a burrito to go eat with friends, and with no trainer it's hard to keep motivated. About half way through our circuit Trainer Aaron saunters through with a Jamba Juice, told us to 'work it out' and left for the day. What at turd.

The circuit:
10 lunges (on each leg)
10 paralette presses
10 spinal rocks
10 burpees
x5

We thought we were comprising between not doing anything, and going for the full 20 minutes. Turns out it took us 15 minutes to do that. Blerg. Oh well, at least we went home knowing that we didn't skip our workout.

I feel like Trainer Aaron owes me a Jamba Juice.

Happy sweating weirdos!

A weird swim

2011-05-11T21:37:00.000-07:00

I've been very very bad about my swimming lately. The fact that I have to go at 8:30pm makes it very difficult for me to gain any motivation. Today though I kept myself busy after work, running errands, cooking dinner, making white chocolate lime macaroons (yeah, yeah that happened), cleaning the kitchen, cleaning the bathroom etc.

Anyway, my weird day in the pool included:

Burping
Coughing
Swallowing pool water
My swim cap slipping off (still trying to figure that one out)
Hitting myself in the face so that my goggles came off
Pushing off the wall and slipping on the light
Coughing again

It was my punishment for not swimming in a while. Oh well.

Happy sweating weirdos!

Impromptu Race ... Report

2011-05-09T20:34:00.000-07:00

Today's workout:
25 miles spinning away while I read The Color Purple. I haven't read that since High School. I realized today that I look forward to my Monday workout. I get to read my book for an hour + and it makes me forget about hills and intervals and how much my butt hurts. I do really need the weather to perk up though because last time I checked you don't do the bike portion of a tri on a spin bike ...

This weekend was Mother's Day. Did you have any idea? Everyone (and their Mom) was blogging about it, that's for sure. I went over the mountains and through the woods to my parents house to see my Mom for Mother's Day and to partake in the Apple Blossom Festival. My sister decided that if I did, she would also run the Apple Blossom 5k, so I said what the heck, and did it!

I'm not so much of a 'serious runner' as more of a 'oh do you need me to run by again and again so you get a silly picture of me?' kinda runner. Sadly, during all my shenanigans, this was the only picture that made it onto my camera. I'm sure my Mom and Sister's though have some gems. There was jumping, butt slapping, slow-mo running, the works. Dang though, look at those quads. Quads of steel.

The race was a shorty (obviously), so nothing of too much excitement happened. I made it a goal of mine to hi-five at least 3 cops and as many volunteers as possible. I got two cops (who really really didn't want to hi-five me ... lame), and one fireman in a work truck. I'm counting that, he was happy, also he was on the phone. We had to stop and walk a few times because my sister's feet were starting to hurt, which was totally fine. I felt like we were cruising pretty good and I wasn't looking to BQ off this or anything. With about a quarter mile to go, she needed to stop again and I went ahead to give a good sprint finish. I finished in 31:00, so with the walk breaks I'm stoked that it was UNDER ten minute miles. Plus it was fun! It's always more fun to run with someone else!

Did anyone else run any races this weekend?

Naners

2011-05-04T19:57:00.000-07:00

I did some AWESOME errands today. Well errands, and made homemade salsa and cabbage salsa. Booyah work pot luck tomorrow, you're getting your socks knocked right off! I picked up a little of this:

Of course I liked this stuff the best, it was the most expensive in the store! And only 30 servings ... blerg.

So, let me tell you a little story. When I was in high school, I bought these shoes for basketball. They were bright orange, had no laces, and were awesome. They looked pretty much like this:

I loved them. They were obnoxious, and orange and AWESOME! I had to get special permission from the athletic director because they were not mostly white, which according to our very strict athletic code was forbidden. You also couldn't have 'un-natural' colored hair, or stay out past 10:00. Yeah, I grew up in a small town. Anyway, my family dubbed them the 'cheetos' and would pretty much mock me all the time for them. Well today, I would like to introduce you to:

They are yellow, and awesome and thank goodness have a bigger toebox than those dang adidas. They lace up funny on the side in a 'cool kid' way (don't worry, I know I'm not cool), are super light, and oh, did you notice they are yellow!? Love them. It was between these and some sauconys and I decided that I would stick with the asics and that I know and love. And if my blisters persist, I'm going back FAST before it's too late to return them!

Ahhh I love new gear!

Happy sweating weirdos!

Mission Accomplished

2011-05-03T19:10:00.000-07:00

Today's Workout:
4 mile run
Tacfit - AMRAP
21 Kettle bell swings
13 Paralette presses
8 Gamma rows
5 Quad presses
This is the workout made famous in the video I made. Yes, FAMOUS!

Today I found that Accelerade Fruit Punch will by my new substance:

It tastes good. I felt good while running and tacfitting with it, and it only gave me a slight phlemy feeling in my throat. Is it just me, or do you guys get that too!?

In other news tomorrow I will be buying new running shoes and trying to get the people at my favorite running store to give me a partial discount on these crap ones that have given me a two inch blood blister. I'll spare you the pictures (yes, I took some), but just ask Sugar Ts (I made him look at it). It. Is. Nasty. They have been nothing but trouble since the start, and I'm going back to my trusted Aasics. The wonderful shoe that I never had any problems with. Why oh why did I switch!?

Get on getting sweaty weirdos!

Heed my advice

2011-05-02T20:55:00.000-07:00

Today's workout:
75 minute spin while I read like a crazy on the spin bike. The library books are piling up and this is a great way to get those pages in ... I mean MILES. Get those MILES in on the bike ...

I've been on a mission for the last couple weeks to get a new kind of electrolyte drink that I like (and likes me ... no sharting for this girl in races), because the taste of my old Cytomax makes me want to vom, and it's all crystallized and gross. Though the container is almost empty which makes me glad that not a lot is going to waste! I've tried GU Brew in the lemon-lime which was pretty good. Today I was at REI and impulse bought Hammer Heed in strawberry, and another flavor that I can't quite remember, and is on the front seat of my car ...

I sipped on it while I ~~read my book~~ spun today. Well sipped on it until I felt like I was going to vomit everywhere because it tastes awful. That is the most pungent nasty fake strawberry flavor I have ever tried. Ugh it was terrible. The really bad part is that I only drank probably six ounces the whole ride because I just couldn't stomach it! The one thing I did like about it is that it's clear. I like the idea that there are not a ton of fake-o colors in there trying to give me the trots with all their fake-o-ness. I'm going to try the other packet I bought today, and if that's no good, I'm going to the GU Brew. It did not make me want to blow chunks, and I drank the whole dern thing during my ride last week.

Beware what comes next. Don't say I didn't warn you.

I want to touch briefly on the events of the last 48 hours. First and always foremost, I want to thank the thousands upon thousands of brave men and women who put on their uniform and defend this flawed, but amazing country of ours. I don't think that they hear it nearly enough, but we think of you, you're in our hearts and we cannot possibly re-pay you for the sacrifices that you and your families make. I applaud President Obama and his knowledgeable staff for making a risky and difficult decision, and even further for those amazing Navy SEALS who completed their mission without any American casualties. That is truly commendable. The thing that I feel very uncomfortable about are the people partying, cheering, singing, chanting etc. in the streets. I can understand being happy at the events, or feeling that there has been retribution, or justice done for us. I think that is true and to an extent I feel that way as well. I feel like it would be much more productive, and would honor the memory of the thousands of people who died at the hands of this tyrant, however, to remember THEIR beautiful and too-short lives instead of reveling in his death. I think it opens ourselves up to comparison to the very people who cheered when our towers came down. I don't want anyone to think that I disagree with the mission that was carried out in Pakistan, or that bin Laden should not have been killed, I believe he should have. I just think that we should take this time to stop and think about WHY we killed him. Because of the thousands of innocent people who are no longer here and all the lives that are affected by that, and reach out to each other in support, and gratefulness, and not in hate and drunken partying in the street.

I warned you ... :) Hate to get all political on you, but I just wanted to throw my 2 cents out there!

Happy sweating weirdos!

3 Things Thursday

2011-04-28T19:14:00.000-07:00

Today's workout:
3.5 miles of:
4 min jog
1 min hill
4 min jog
1 min sprint
repeat
I kinda love this little interval speed workout type thing. I have no idea if it's effective, but I like doing it and it makes the miles go by faster. So I'm in.
Tacfit - Minute on the minute
5 head casts
4 ring tucks
3/3 plank rows
Trainer Aaron FORCED me to use heavier weights today. I have never used that heavy of weights before on this workout and I have a feeling that my upper back is going to be screaming tomorrow morning.

It's Thursday which means it's almost Friday which means it's almost the weekend! Woop woop! Getting pretty excited about it too. No huge plans going on but a funsy dinner and hopefully dessert and drinks after.

The weather is finally starting to behave itself on a quasi-regular basis. Well aside from that snow that they had out in the county today ... that wasn't really behaving.
I need help! How do you put words on your beginner triathlete calendar. I saw that Steve in a Speedo does it, and I want to too! I don't like that it just says "sport" and not what it was. Was it Tacfit, or was it kayaking or extreme belly dancing ... a girl needs to be able to differentiate.
In college I had a little obsession ... it was with Law and Order: SVU. Because of it, I got my minor in criminology (because I loved the classes and before I knew it, I had enough credits) and subsequently read a lot of books, novels, textbooks etc. about prisons and crime. I was recently at the library and saw a book called Orange is the New Black, about a blonde white girl who goes to minimum security women's prison. I was HOOKED. I have only ever read about men's supermax where they shank each other at every turn, so it was cool to get a different perspective of our penal system. I recommend it. I read it in three days.

Anyway, I hope that you guys have an amazing weekend and you had a wonderful week of sweating!

Keep on sweating weirdos!

Hi Dad.

Ouchie

2011-04-26T20:27:00.000-07:00

Today's workout:
3.5 mile run
Tacfit - 4 min on, 1 off
Paralette presses
Club bell cleans
Kettle bell jerks
Medcine ball throws

I've been having an issue. It's an issue that I've been trying to ignore for a while, but now I'm wondering if it's time to try something new. I'm getting really wicked blisters. I use body glide on my feet, moisture wicking socks, the works, and still. Terrible blisters on the balls of my feet, on and around my big toes, and on the inner edge of my foot, below my big toe. Blisters that hurt to walk on after 3.5 miles? That's not good. I know that some blisters and general foot nastiness are to be expected, and with that in mind I've just been rolling with the nasty, but this just feels like it's getting to a bad place. I don't really want to go buy a brand new pair of shoes though ... what a situation. I think I'm over the Adidas. They have been nothing but problems from the beginning. I'm going back to the Aasics at the next purchase. Ugh.

On another unrelated note, my work forced me to take home some bananas that were getting a little mushy and now I have Peanut Butter Banana Bread baking in the oven. I think tomorrow I might make chocolate chunk banana muffins. They went nuts over my whole wheat lemon muffins last week, now I feel pressure to follow up with something good!

Do you guys ever ditch gear when it almost brand new? The thrifty part of me screams no! The one who walks around on my feet says YES! WWFTD? What would fellow triathletes do?

Happy sweating weirdos!

I didn't even die!

2011-04-25T21:01:00.000-07:00

Today's workout:
90 minute spin

This weekend's adventure was awesome! Sugar Ts and I kayaked down the Skagit River. It took about 4 hours, there were 2 scary parts, and one bright orange safety whistle. The only thing that we worked out with the whistle though was 3 short whistles mean I'm in trouble ... I guess if you can whistle though, you might not be in that bad of shape. Anyway ... here are some of my favorite shots from the trip:

This is right when we started, we had literally gone about 100 yards at this point. Needed a little break.

See that Mom, orange safety whistle! AND very bright life jackets! And Sunglasses! Alas, no sunscreen ...

Baker in the background ... I think

Just a couple of twino kayaks. It was such a gorgeous day!

Sugar Ts had a damp butt. We got a lot of water in the boats getting in and out.

Right before the scary corner

I think this is my favorite picture of the day. The bright trees against the dark hills was so pretty. It was such a beautiful trip!

I'm counting that four hours of kayaking as cross training, or strength training or something. My butt and shoulders were getting pretty tired towards the end. Just another gorgeous weekend in the sun!

3 Things Thursday

2011-04-21T19:39:00.000-07:00

It's Thursday which means it's almost Friday. The weather is supposed to be lovely, so I'm hoping that translates into some killer kayaking. We'll see! The list!

I've had a great week of workouts and my body and mind are totally feeling it! I love that feeling. Like I can feel every muscle of my abs/obliques/triceps. Holy moly.
My keyboard is being a real jerk right now. Let me demonstrate a sentence that I don't edit.
"This keyboard is driving e insane, I'm about to throw it out the window andstart with brand new one. WHy does it ignoermy commnds and then drop letters, miss spaces an be total bizzo all the time!!?!?" - OK, that wasn't nearly as bad as it has been. It's driving me crazy.
I'm so excited that it's beginning to be spring! I bought a new pump for my bike and started getting him ready for the upcoming spring rides! Ahhh excitement!

What are your big weekend plans!? Anything fantastic?

Happy sweating weirdos!

Back in Blue

2011-04-21T06:34:00.000-07:00

Blue swimsuit, blue swim cap, and if you use beginner triathlete to track your workouts, you know that blue means swimming. And it's been an obscene amount of weeks since my calendar has seen some blue!

Yesterday's workout:
2,000 meters in the pool.

It felt very good. The pool was empty and I just got to go. The only downside was that I had to go at 8:30 last night. That's late. I came home and went right to bed. So that sorta sucks, but at least I finally got back in the pool. Just in time for those pesky races coming up!

Oh goodness.

Happy sweating weirdos!

Back to routine

2011-04-19T20:45:00.000-07:00

Today's workout:
25 mile spin - Read A LOT of my book which is really good and easy. It's some sort of weird mystery thriller that my boss gave me. Really good summer/airplane/I don't really have to think while I read this, reading. Love it.
Tacfit - Centuries
100 burpees
100 medicine ball throws
100 swipes
Ugh, ugh, ugh. This is a very hard one. I finished with five seconds to spare. Yowza.

What a fabulous day off! Fabulous and productive. It included:

Laundry
Baking bread
Cleaning the bathroom
Sweeping the house
Nap - it was awesome
Vacuuming carpeted areas
Picking up a bunch of crap laying around
Taking bags back to the store
Taking 3 bags of clothes to Goodwill
Going to the gym (yay!)
Making dinner
Baking lemon cookies
Finishing laundry

It was productive. I love having days where you just get everything done. The only thing I didn't do was take a couple bags of dry foods to the food bank. I have a really hard time going there. I always try to time it when people are not picking food up, but they come early to line up and wait. I feel really uncomfortable when I donate food there. I know that is super lame and I need to take the stuff in, but it's awkward and I don't enjoy it. Weird, I know. Now I don't have to worry about any of this junk this weekend and I can go on more adventures without worrying about the mountain of laundry and dishes at home!

Sadly, it's back to work tomorrow, but I'm really really looking forward to getting back into my normal schedule. This girl loves her schedule.

Happy sweating weirdos!

This is your birthday song ...

2011-04-18T20:33:00.000-07:00

it isn't very long.

A big happy birthday today to this guy:

Man that last picture makes me giggle. He's kind of a dummy, but I like him anyway. Happy birthday Sugar Ts, you old weirdo!

Today's workout:
3 mile toodle around the neighborhood since I got off work EARLY! And I did it in 27:02. Uhh 9:00 miles!?!? Yes please! That was fun. Even though I felt like I was running slow and into the wind, it was a lovely surprise every time I looked at my mile splits. Gotta love that!

It was another lovely weekend up in DTAT world. I finally remembered to bring my camera, so I have evidence of the adventures that Sugar Ts takes me on.

One of the many scary roads he takes me on

Chevy commercial

Big foot walk

Little big horns

Hope everyone else had an awesome weekend too! I'm looking forward to my big day off tomorrow. Sweet, sweet day off tomorrow.

Happy sweating weirdos!

When life hands you lemons ...

2011-04-14T18:32:00.000-07:00

So what DO you do when life hands you lemons?

Well, obviously you ...

Slice them up and put them in your Corona Light. Duh. Sidebar: I bought the lemons to make muffins, not just to post a blog entry. Also my hair is so long its crazy! And gotta love those fly-aways on top!

Anywho, the count down to the end of this work madness is at 24, (technically 96) hours and I could not be more happy! I feel drained. Anywho, starting Tuesday (which I get off work as a 'atta boy' for a tax season well done) I will be back in full swing. No more mental work drainage, just complete body exhaust drainage :). Ahh sweet body exhaustion.

OK, happy sweating weirdos!

Happy Girl!

2011-04-12T19:51:00.000-07:00

Today's training:
3 mi run by the bay
Tacfit

Today was a good day. Work was nuts as ever but I got a ton of help which was amazing. I only had to stay 45 minutes late today. WIN!

Then, I lugged my stuff inside, changed, got a few funny looks from my co-workers (they don't get to see me in spandex that much) and headed out on a lovely OUTDOOR run! It was beautiful and sunny today, though by the time I actually left the office it was overcast, but still not cold. I headed down to the bay which is about 1.5 miles from my office. Once I got there, I went out as far as you can on the point and just sat, turned my music off and enjoyed one of the most beautiful places I know. I didn't have very much time to doddle though because I had to get back for Tacfit where this happened:

I think I mentioned in a previous post where I developed a blister on my hand which I thought was going to rip off LAST time, but just sat around looking gross. Today I did a total of 3 pull ups before that bad boy ripped off exposing the soft baby skin underneath. The unfortunate part was that the baby skin was exposed, thus irritating it during the next 20 minutes of pull ups. Dang. Oh well, Tacfit felt good, my run outside was amazing and I'm in a good mood!

Oh and did I mention that I bought myself a tire pump at REI and new flavor of GU Brew to try for this season!?! I love me some new gear!

Another lovely, sweaty day in the training-hood!

Happy sweating weirdos!

The 'Lazy' Chronicles

2011-04-11T19:56:00.000-07:00

Boy oh boy. You won't believe it, but I am getting workouts in. Including but not limited to a killer speed workout, followed by Tacfit where I developed a dime-sized blister on my hand that kept almost ripping. Trainer Aaron threatened to administer first aid. It was/is gross. This weekend though ... not so much. Damn that Sugar Ts for driving me around and cooking tasty dinners with me! And damn my Grandpa for having a birthday where I got to see my family! Ugh, jerks, all of them. Then stupid today I worked until 6:30 and was so hungry/peeved that I just came home and polished off the remaining black bean enchiladas in the fridge. Seriously, someone needs to publish a cookbook by me, because those were killer.

What I'm trying to say (without complaining too much) is, the theme of my life feels like organized chaos. And makes me wish my life was like this:

Happy sweating weirdos! One day I'll join you again!

Is work cross-training?

2011-04-04T20:59:00.000-07:00

I feel like my bitching-factor has been up ten-fold lately. In two sweet weeks I will no longer have a reason and I won't think you're a heartless jerk if you tell me to quit whining. Until then, watch yourself.

Saturday's run was short, sweet and awesome. It started sprinkling right at the end which is just what the doctor ordered for a recovering cold, right!?! Don't tell my Mom. It's amazing how much you can get done when you can't sleep past 7:30 am. At some point in the last two years I lost the ability to sleep past 7:30 am. UNLESS I go to bed at a freakish hour like MIDNIGHT! Ugh. Who even likes staying up that late? Last night I think I got a total of 2 hours of sleep. Not only did I go to bed at MIDNIGHT like a total doofus, but there was so much running through my mind that it wouldn't let me drift off. My ten hour day at work was sure fun after that!

Today's workout:
Another cool 3 miler. I should have hopped on the bike but I just didn't want to be at the gym past 7:00 and the only way to do that was to get my run on. It made me realize that running outside is so much easier than running inside! I've been stuck on that silly treadmill for so many months that I forgot how much I love being outside! Even if I can't watch pro sports on mute while I'm running outside.

I did the thing you're really not supposed to do tonight too. I went to the grocery store right after going to the gym. I bought a lot of stuff that I normally wouldn't have. I don't even know what I'm going to do with half of it. However I did make roasted veggie fettuccine alfredo which should feed me for at least a few meals this week and I restocked on simply orange juice which makes me look forward to waking up. I'm calling that a win.

Hope your weekends were awesome and it didn't rain 3 inches where you are! Happy sweating weirdos!

March in Numbers!

2011-04-02T07:57:00.000-07:00

I sit here in my running clothes thinking, yes, I need to get out there and run, but maybe I should read a few blogs first. Then I see Megan's March recap and I think that I should probably do that do before I go out into the cold to run a measly three miles. My only three in (tear) over a week. I'm a sickness slacker, what can I say?

March in numbers:

Swim = 7,400 yds
Bike = 176 mi
Run = 26.5 mi (yep, OVER a marathon ... for the whole month)

Too bad I essentially took the last week off or those numbers could have been higher! Oh well, soon work will quit making me want to crawl into a non-tax-related hole and die, and I'll no longer be sick, so I'll get back at it. I think a quick 5k out in the fresh air will help things. At least that's what I'm telling myself.

Happy sweating weirdos!

3 Things Thursday

2011-03-31T19:11:00.000-07:00

It's Thursday and tomorrow is Friday and then it's the weekend! Woot woot woot! The rivers up here are flooding like crazy so kayaking down the river is out for sure. Not sure what the weekend will hold but hopefully not just sitting on my butt doing nothing like I've been doing for the last two days. The list!

I'm still sick. I did a nyquil shot last night and just like all booze it put me out solid for five hours, then I was wide awake until time to wake up for work. Dammit. I was practically dehydrating myself yesterday with all the snot rocketing. Today I was more body tired (or maybe just hung over from the 'nyquil') than letting the body fluids flow. Tomorrow I'm hoping that I'm feeling better and plan to get a little spin session in after work. I need to get a little sweat going again.
Sugar Ts drove up to my house to nap. He has literally been in my apartment for two hours, and I think awake for less than 30 minutes. I'm very tempted to take a picture ... but I'm sure he won't be awake by the time I post this. No chance to put up a fight.
I have been watching 30 Rock from the beginning on instant netflix and very sadly last night I finished season 4 which is the last available online. I'm really sad about it. And I really like 30 Rock now!

OK, I'm off to eat some chocolate chips and own at Jeopardy. Oh, Sugar Ts just stirred ...

Happy sweating weirdos, I'm living vicariously through you!

Urrrrg

2011-03-29T19:18:00.000-07:00

Today's workout:
4.5 miles run/walked
Tacfit

At 7:00 this morning, I got sick. Runny nose, sore throat, body fatigue, the works. I sniffled my face through work making everyone gag when they looked at me, and practically bathing in hand sanitizer. At my work, the moment that you sniffle you're a pariah. People practically force you out the door home and follow you around with lysol spraying everything down. We're not a very 'sick friendly' office. I would have LOVED to stay home today and catch up laundry and reading and sleep, however being that it's tax season (count down 21 days), that is not an option. I will snot and phlegm my way through the next three weeks probably making everyone else sick on the way. Oh well.

I decided after work that I should try to get a little workout in being that I took four mental health days, oh, two days ago. The 4.5 didn't go so awesome. I knew I wasn't going to bust out the 5.5 RUNNING that I had planned, so I just thought I wanted to keep myself moving. I felt decent after it was over. Then Tacfit started.

50 pullups
25/25 kettle bell presses
50 box jumps
50/50 clock squats
For time

My running buddy was in class today and could not get a handle on the clock squats. They consist of swinging the club bells side to side and then planting them on your shoulder and squatting. There is a slight finesse to it. While Trainer Aaron was trying to help him he said the words that every teacher's pet loves to hear, "Just watch Diana for a second, she's doing it perfect." Aww, TA, you're too sweet. I won't lie, I really enjoyed that, especially since I felt like death the entire time.

I wish there was some trick I could use to see how often I compare Tacfit to death. I have a feeling it would be dramatic. After class I showered in record time, and now I'm preparing to sit on the couch and intermittently nap until bed time. Tomorrow I will feel better. Tomorrow I will go to spin class (if I do feel better). Tomorrow I will drink coffee so that I don't drag ass all day at work even worse.

I refuse to be sick.

Mental Health Day(s) Success!

2011-03-28T20:15:00.000-07:00

Today's workout:
25 'miles' on the spin bike

Chalk up another weekend to awesome-ness. Friday it was another mental health day with some of my ladies, and then super chill time falling asleep on the couch with Sugar Ts. Saturday was errands, and more kayaking! I think I won a gold star because I didn't throw a hissy fit this time. Just like last weekend it was a ton of fun. Then off to Costco, a softball tournament, and the more falling asleep on the couch. Sunday was a birthday party, more errands, and MORE falling asleep on the couch. The only bad side was my tummy was very upset the whole time I believe a quote from Sugar Ts was, "Oh my god was that your stomach? It sounds like bass," as in my stomach grumbles were vibrating the couch so much he could feel them. Awesome.

I worked overtime today and just really didn't want to go to the gym at all (I'm sensing a theme), but I forced myself over there, and did some work on the spin bike. I actually pushed myself really hard, making myself keep time with the crazy music that I listen to to entertain myself. I felt good about my workout even though it was a tad shorter than I wanted.

Oh hey, welcome new followers! Maybe one day I'll get 100. Maybe before my birthday I'll get 100! Maybe I should bribe you guys with treats again like I did last year! We'll see ...

Happy sweating weirdos! Hope you guys had great weekends and awesome adventures, or at least really good workouts.

Oh yeah, I got nothing

2011-03-25T17:15:00.000-07:00

I was reading some blog just now and thought that I should throw up a post on what I've been up to for the last couple days. So I checked the last time I posted and realized it was Wednesday, the last day I actually worked out. Yesterday, not so much. Trainer Aaron will probably kick me in the shin on Tuesday.

Yesterday I took a mental health day. As I said before it's been an insane couple weeks and it all sort of hit me on Wednesday. Everything that anyone said tipped me off and I just needed a break. Since I've got to keep myself in running shoes and moisture wicking apparel, I couldn't skip work, so I decided to skip my workout and just come home and chill for a bit. I had a lovely trip to REI to watch Sugar Ts buy life jackets (that will hopefully be used tomorrow on a lovely lake while kayaking!), and then even more amazing tofu pad thai at the thai place right next door to REI. It was lovely. In bed by 8:45 reading my book that is/was (I finished it today) lovely.

Sometimes I just get so stressed and feel stretched in too many directions and I just need time to do nothing. Now, skipping workouts isn't always the best way to accomplish this, I've never regretting completing a workout and I always feel better after one, but sometimes you just have to. I felt better, more relaxed and less like I was going to use the client's heads as soccer balls today. Now if only I could convince my boss to let me take mental health days from work ... paid.

Do you guys just ever have to take a day off to relax and regroup? Or do you use your workouts to do just that?

Happy sweating weirdos!

Back to back!?!

2011-03-23T19:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's workout:
5 mile run
Tacfit

Today's workout:
2000 meters in the pool
1500 straight to see where I'm at for an Oly. Because I hear most Oly's are actually 90 laps in tiny pools with lots of pushing off the wall and stopping when you swallow water or get splashed by children. It was 35 minutes FYI. I have literally no idea if that is good or not, but it's my 'starting point' and we'll see where I go from here.

Yesterday at Tacfit I was standing around waiting for class to start, hating that I just ran so far and wishing I could cut off my calves. This was after I changed out of my running shirt because I sweat so dang much that it was too sweaty to wear for Tacift ... sexy (kind of). So I was standing around and one of our latest Crossfit converts (who can do a mother effing iron cross! See picture below. This kid is ripped ... like whoa. I have found myself a couple times just watching him do these insane modifications on our exercises in complete awe. Sorta like the time I caught myself staring at Trainer Aaron's butt ... just different.)

walked in wearing a Warrior Dash shirt. Being that this year is the first year Washington State actually has a Warrior Dash I started talking to him about where he road tripped to do it (Oregon). We then started talking about if we were going to do it this year, and yada yada yada. I told him my predicament with Chelan Man and he encouraged me to do both. Oly on Saturday, Warrior Dash on Sunday. Sweet Zeus. Honestly though, that's the way to do it. Chances of getting hurt go way up during the dash, and it's really just a fun crazy thing so time doesn't matter to me ... but could I do it? I think I probably could, but do I want to? We'll see I guess. Undoubtedly though my waffling will decide for me as the Dash is likely to sell out soon. Pressure! After class the Iron Cross came over again and said, "OK, I don't want you to think I'm crazy or anything, but I thought about it during class and I really really think you should do both. You could totally do it. I think it would be awesome." Hahah, Yeah, I do think he's crazy.

Sidebar: I'm such a crazy ball of emotion lately, it's insane. Work is crazy which amps me up all day, it's like a constant adrenaline rush trying to keep up with the madness. Then after work, I work out for quite a while then I go home completely exhausted. I feel like if the cat looks at me wrong I'm enraged or in tears. Maybe it's the roids ... I'm pretty sure that no one likes being around me currently, and I don't blame them. Who has two thumbs and needs a day off!?!? This guy. This guy right here. Please though friends, I won't (I don't think) be like this forever, just for the next 3 weeks or so. So my March 23rd resolution is to try really hard to chill the ef out and quit taking out my stress on other people.

Happy sweating weirdos!

Ouchie

2011-03-21T19:55:00.000-07:00

I have no energy or witty banter to share. I do have a list!

I went kayaking this weekend and it was a lot of fun! I hope Sugar Ts takes me again, because ...
I had kind of a hissy fit right before kayaking
I essentially carbo-loaded the entire weekend
I ate a boca burger with approximately 100 bikers surrounding me
I just rode the spin bike for 2 hours
My butt hurts
For the first time in probably two weeks, I'm not hungry at all

That's all.

Happy sweating weirdos!

Just like a little fishy

2011-03-16T19:15:00.000-07:00

Killed it in the pool today. KILLED IT! No, really. I didn't even have to get all pissed at the front desk workers first. I tromped in there happy as a clam, changed while a little girl watched me undress which made me SUPER uncomfortable, and then had to wait while all the naked little girls ran in and out of the showers before I could shower and hit the pool. At least they were out of the pool early so I could get in there right on time, otherwise I would have been a cranky pants. Still a little weird though with around 6 eight-year-old girls running around in their ~~bathing~~ birthday suits while I awkwardly wait to take a shower. The gym is weird. ANYWAY, I hopped in there as absolutely fast as possible once lap swim started because my plan called for 58 minutes and lap swim is an hour. Cutting it close! Warmed up a little bit and then did a 1000 straight set, and finished with a total of 2200 meters. Felt good. Didn't push super hard, but just went and went and went. It's always pretty entertaining where your mind goes in that insanely boring hour of turns and turns and turns and turns. I was all over the place. Trying to plot out my training for the next week, what races I wanted to do, when I would go home next etc. etc. Good swim!

So I have some weirdness that's been going on lately. I cannot stuff enough food in my face! I eat a normal (for me) breakfast, and I'm starving by 11:00. I eat a normal (for me) lunch and I'm about to gnaw on my leg by 3:00! I'm making sure to eat a protein bar or something around 200 calories about half an hour before I go to the gym, but jeez! I feel like all I do is eat or plan what I'm going to eat. I would like to say that it's just because my training is amping up, but a lot of people at work are feeling the same way. Maybe stress? Maybe the time change? Who knows. I'm really trying to at least stuff my face with healthy, non-crap stuff. Not always easy ... I'm not gaining any weight so I guess that's fine.

Do you guys ever feel like you just can't eat enough even though you know you're eating about right? Just me? Yeah, I kinda figured :)

Happy sweating weirdos!

Second Season is Official!

2011-03-15T19:46:00.000-07:00

Today's workout:
70 minutes spinning
Tacfit

Let me start by saying thank to to Big Clyde for channeling my dearest Papa Smurf and responding to my last post. Always good to 'hear' from the good ole boy (Papa Smurf ... well and Big Clyde).

It's official! I've registered for my first race, the Lake Padden Triathlon, competitive division. And I'm pretty sure that Megan at the Daily Sweat will be there kicking my butt and taking names! Or, something that makes sense. It's so nice at least having one person to chat with before and after a race. I can't imagine racing and then just jumping in my car and being done ... that would be so odd, not to mention hard! But anyway, I'm really excited to finally have something on the calendar to look forward to and focus on. I might have another race on Memorial day weekend, but it's not booked yet, so who knows.

Very exciting! Another season begins!

Keep on getting sweaty weirdos!

A Letter to My Love

2011-03-14T18:49:00.000-07:00

My dear Papa Smurf:

I just want you to know that, I miss you. You're so handsome and shiny and forgiving. It's been months now since you've tried to give me blisters on my hands, and a sore butt, and I miss it. It's daylight savings time now, did you know? As I type this it's still light outside ... and it makes me miss you even more. Every time I walk in the door, I glance over at you and feel a little guilty. I'm sorry you haven't gotten to feel the rush of the crisp Bellingham air over your gears, and get your tubes threatened by rogue nails in the street. But the days are getting warmer, and longer and I'm getting very antsy to have you back in my life as well. Each spin class feels like I'm cheating on you a little bit and I'm sorry about that. Even today, I laughed and danced and had so much fun spin class, but you were all I could think of! It's true!

I just thought about how happy you make me, and all the wonderful country roads that I want to ride you on this summer. You're not the most expensive, or fast, or light, but you're mine ... and I love you. I hope that in a few weeks (and/or when I quit being a wuss) when the weather gets a little nicer, we can spend many wonderful hours together. Just us, in the wonderful bright sunshine, the wind whipping over us, it's going to be perfect. So, Dear Papa Smurf, I hope we're OK. I hope you miss me as much as I miss you, and I simply cannot wait to back together with you. I hope it's sooner rather than later.

Missing you,

DTAT

Really relevant cross training

2011-03-13T11:20:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had some really awesome cross training after my 'long' run in the diaper pants. After a quick trip to REI to oggle my tri top options, and decide what I'm going to blow my dividend on (which I should find out what it is tomorrow) me and Sugar Ts hit up the batting cages. Yep, the batting cages. I was a little hesitant to go and when we pulled up and the parking lot was full, my confidence dipped a little more. Once we walked inside and saw that 60+ kids I'm guessing ages 8-14 were doing some sort of little league draft, I was pretty much ready to leave. Thankfully Sugar Ts convinced me that the little kids and their parents couldn't give a rip what we were doing and the batting cages were still open, we got our swring on. It was fun! And I got very very sweaty! I was warned, but I did not heed the warning. I played softball in ... middle school, and I do have some experience with baseball:

Ok, maybe that's less experience with baseball and more experience with dancing at a jazz club after a Mariner's game, but I have the right gear on right? In any event, I'm calling this cross training because my arms are SORE and my abs are VERY SORE! Must mean that I had a really strong and powerful swing! And somehow I managed to develop a pretty random bruise:

Look at those guns ...

Happy sweating everyone! And go tell Megan at The Daily Sweat that she was a trooper for running ~~4.66~~ 5 miles in the rain for the Running O' the Green! I really should have signed up for that race, I'm kicking myself for not. Good job Megan, even if the race director might have shorted you a bit!