Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Look how far we've come
I was thinking though how far the two of us have come in terms of fitness. I played soccer from the time I was 4 until I was a sophomore in college. I didn't take up running until I was 23 and at that point, it was a sluggish jog at best. I thought for sure that I would die someday running, with the prospect of a half marathon looming 5 months away. 13.1 miles? That was crazy far. 10 minute miles - yikes, only if I pushed it really hard! Walk breaks were often, and it took every ounce of energy to muster my way through my workouts, each planned with the right amount of rest before to get me through it.
Fast forward to this week. I decided to go outside yesterday and run a familiar 6 mile route alone. I went out around 9:30 am. It was cool, the sun was popping through, I could hear the birds chirping. I was working, but felt great. I averaged 8:07's for the 6 miles. I probably could have gone sub 8's, but then I wouldn't have enjoyed the morning!
Then today. Tom and I putzed around with work and helping his mom out around her yard. Finally around 4:30 we decided to go for a run. Knocked out 10 windy and hilly miles home from her house without blinking an eye. About 2 miles from home, I laughed about how we used to "carb load" for a 10 mile run. I used to taper for a 10 mile run. I would always take the day before completely off. Here I am running them midweek without blinking an eye.
It's really amazing where I've come and what my body will do. I think that's one of the best things about the sport I've come to love.
Wonder will my body will take me tomorrow (**here's a hint... it's going to be nearly 80 degrees. There's a great little pizza joint about 30 miles away. Maybe Flicka will take me there**)
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Picture update
Here's me a my mom at the indoor tri the beginning of March. She was a volunteer and like always, my personal cheerleader for the day!
For my birthday, I bought the Perfect Brownie Pan! :) It's awesome!
Now that spring is here, we shaved our lion down. He's so much happier (and don't comment on how fat he is. We know... we're working on it!
My friend Trisha is pregnant with her second and believe it or not, due in April (she has looked like she could pop out an infant since winter)! She's too cute and pregnancy fits her well! Rhiannon and I hosted a little shower (or I guess people are calling them sprinkles) to help her get some boy stuff since she has a little girl at home.
Saturday I went to my friend Danica's St. Patty's Day party. We had such a great time with our friends... I'm really lucky to have all of them in my life!
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Workouts galore...
Had two really good rides outside the last two days. Tuesday we did a quick 26 and I felt stronger than I have in a long time. Tom even commented on my biking. I think the spin classes in the off season helped. It's like the bike and I clicked again which was a major problem last year for me. I got home and slipped on the running shoes for a 2 mile transition run. I know that I've been training for and racing tri's for like 5 years now, but it never fails to surprise me on transition runs. It literally feels like I can't turn my legs over. They are usually numb and feel like they are encased in cement. It's so frustrating. Then I look at my watch and see that I averaged 8:20's and I smile.
Yesterday we went out to hit some hills on the bike. We were out for a little over 3 hours and I loved every minute of it. Who am I and where did my bitchy self go? :) Tom said that he was glad to have his training partner back. I'm glad to be back. Maybe it's the new helmet and pink sunglasses... I feel like I'm where I belong when I'm on my ride.
Now if we can just get the wheel of cheese asses off the road, we'd be all set. We're biking yesterday and a guy damn near hit us. Tom showed him that he was number 1 in our book and the guy pulled over. He opened the car door and started screaming at us, telling us that we shouldn't be on the road and that he has every right to come close to us because he pays taxes. He was fat, like REALLY fat. Maybe he was jealous of us and being able to even ride a bike. Or maybe he's a big wheel of cheese ass like I referenced above. And he drove a beat up old car that proceeded to stall when he tried started it backup. I laughed. Served him right. It's super frustrating though when people treat bikers the way that they do and then I bike home in fear that this guy comes from behind us and hits us. People are crazy. And jerks.
I also swam yesterday. I have to admit, I'm not big on swimming sets. I've always just gotten in the pool and swam for a period of time (yeah, I know... and I wonder why I'm so horrible at swimming and never see improvement!). I'm working on it people... I swear. So yesterday I warmed up with 1000m and then did 10 x 100's just to see where I would be. I'm going to go the test once a week and see what I can do. I must say, I was consistent, but don't laugh... I know I'm slow.
1:38
1:39
1:39
1:38
1:37
1:37
1:38
1:36
1:37
1:38
And at that I was sucking major wind. Hum... maybe a swim coach is what I need??? I've thrown that out there before, but this time I'm serious. Any suggestions?
Off to go run (we're doing a longer one today because of the gorgeous weather) and then I'm biking with a group tonight. Thursday night rides start tonight and I'm excited to get out there!!!
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Breakdown of a Kingery run
So we wake up to a dreary Ohio day (shocker, I know). I knew we needed to get a run in but I was having one of those days. You know the ones. I was going to be a pain in the arse until I was done with the run and knew how good it would be for me. Tom convinced me to get 8 miles in and looking back, I have to laugh. We're not right. Here's what our run looked like...
Mile 1 - Tom telling me how bad his ankles have hurt this year during the first mile of all his runs. Must be his age. I'm sucking wind big time. Did I take a day off yesterday? Am I going to die?
Mile 2 - We start talking about Hawaii... anything to keep our minds off the fact that we're tired and wish we were still in bed.
Mile 3 - Tom makes some suggestions about what we should do in Hawaii - something along the lines of getting up the first day and running 13-14 miles to go pick up a rental car. I make every opposite suggestion I can, especially when it's about running to get a rental car. Can't we just pick it up the night we get there and pay $24 to park it overnight at the hotel?
Mile 4 - We start arguing about how the other always has to be right. Not even about Hawaii - about everything... cleaning the house, work, whatever...
Mile 5 - We exchange F*** you's. We don't mean it, but we are both so frustrated with the other (or the fact that we're 4 miles from home and it's gross out) We pick up the pace. We probably don't want to be running with each other and are trying to find a pace where the other will be dropped, but we keep in total sync.
Mile 6 - We talk about how we can never just talk and that if we want to be with a pushover or someone without an opinion, maybe we should speak up. Pace increases again. No losing the other person, no matter how hard we run.
Mile 7 - I have to stop for a minute because I feel like I'm hyperventilating because of holding back the tears. I cry. I tell Tom I'm sorry and that I'm just stressed. He tells me he loves me just the way I am. He's sorry too.
Mile 8 - We talk about what we're going to do in Hawaii, this time telling each other that our ideas are perfect, adding a few "I love you so much" lines every now and then.
We put the fun in dysfunctional! :) God I love him!
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Resting
It seems so funny to me that I am having such a hard time with taking a rest day though. It's miserable out. I should just be happy to be laying on the couch, or better yet, shopping for my upcoming Hawaii trip (did I mention I was going? I think I might have... a time or two...) :) But here I'm sitting patiently waiting for my husband to call me, probably hoping to get some reinforcement that it's alright to take a rest day. It's been over a week. I know I need it. I felt it in my legs last night when I laid down to bed. I felt it this morning when I walked up the stairs with a basket of laundry. But my mind still argues with my body.
"Just one 30 minute swim would do you a world of good".
"Just hop on the bike and spin for an hour. Read a magazine while you do it and don't worry about time and pace".
"Running in the rain isn't horrible when it's nearly 50 degrees out".
I can't stop my mind. Ugh... it's annoying! I know I'll be happier tomorrow if I rest, so I will. It's not unusual for my mind to win in the game of triathlon. It's something I'm working on. This time, the mind winning is a good thing I guess!
Sunday, March 7, 2010
What a weekend...
First, the Grady Indoor Triathlon was yesterday and it was a huge success. Everyone at the Grady Foundation put a lot of work into making it another huge success. There were tons of positive comments about how it was run this year, some of the changes we made, and I'll be honest... there were lots of great happy athletes out there! We had almost 100 participants which is awesome! Tom and I raced it too which was fun. It's always good to see where we stand in March and what needs work. Tom kicked major butt. He's a rock star. That's all there is too it. He's been putting in a lot of hard miles on the bike for RAAM and it showed. He biked 7.6 miles in 15 minutes (um... that's 30mph!) He thinks the distance might have been off a smidge because we were using indoor trainers, but still. He managed to walk away with the overall male prize by 6+ minutes. Woo hoo! I had such a great time and I'll have to tell you, there are some rock stars that came out to race! I was happy to see so many fit people. I ended up barely squeaking by with the overall female again!!! It was close though... much closer than last year! I did better in swim than last year, although it still frustrates me that I'm slower than molasses - lots to work on there! The bike was slower this year (5.2 miles in 15 minutes versus 5.7 last year) but again, with our bikes on trainers, the resistance can vary from year to year. Personally, I felt like my bike was riding through mud as it seemed to hard to maintain 20+ mph on my bike. My run made me really happy though. I averaged around 7:35 for the 15 minutes which was a comfortable pace yesterday. I am seeing improvements there which I like! I also ended up meeting Meredith and Dave at the race. They are great athlete and Meredith's racing IM Louisville in August (Dave's doing the REV3 at Cedar Point). I'm hoping that we can get out and ride together in the coming months. :) I always love meeting new people who share my passion... there aren't many girls out there like me!
After the race, Tom and I decided to go out for another 4.5 miles of running. We had a great talk and enjoyed the blaring light in our eyes... THE SUN! Shocking, I know! It's amazing how well we both slept lat night!
This morning we had a lazy Sunday which quite honestly are the BEST things ever. Around 2, we decided to not be total bums all day and ran from Tom's mom's house to ours. It's a little over 8 miles and again, it was a perfectly sunny day! I feel like spring might be coming - there's a little glimmer of hope! :) It was nice to be able to run in a pair of tights and a long sleeve. I know that it was close to 50 but I'm slowly migrating toward shorts. If you know me, it's going to have to be about 60 before I bust those babies out! :)
The biggest and best news though which is the TRUE reason I'm all giddy this Sunday is because I just found out that Tom and I are going to Hawaii!!! I'm so stinking excited and can't stop talking about it. We just found out Friday that Tom's being sent there for some Team Type 1 talks so I'm going to go along. I have huge plans of laying on the beach, reading trashy magazines and drinking Mai Tai's! WOOT WOOT! So of course now I'm on a major hunt for new sundresses, a new bathing suit (BLAH - I hate shopping for bathing suits) and I'm so ready to bust out my flip flops! I have another month and a half until we leave, but I can't wait!
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Spinning virgin
Moving right along... I had fun today at the gym putting Tom (aka the Spin virgin) through a spin routine. He's never taken a spin class and I think was a bit hesitant that he could get a good enough workout on a spin bike. :) Oh you can buddy... trust me!
We started out with a 5 minute warm up and then did climb ladders:
:30 climb
1:00 recover
1:00 climb
1:00 recover
2:00 climb
1:00 recover
3:00 climb
1:30 recover
3:00 climb
1:00 recover
2:00 climb
1:00 recover
1:00 climb
1:00 recover
:30 climb
3:00 rest
We did this twice. :)
I think Tom's a converted spin lover.
And he threw out a HOORAH a time or two just to make me feel at home.
What a guy!!!
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
March Madness
I went to PA to visit my grandparents this past weekend with my mom. It was a tough visit because they are changing so much, but we ended up having a good time. I'm super glad that we got to see them. They are moving this weekend from independent living to assisted living. We broke the news Saturday and they both took it surprisingly well. I think they know that they need the help. It's crazy how the circle of life works and my mom tells me that all the time. For so many years, my grandparents were caregivers to the family and now they are dependant on the kids and grand kids to take care of them.
We are so busy with planning a triathlon this weekend. It's an indoor tri for our local hospital that we raced (and won) last year. We had some suggestions on how to make the event better and ended up on the committee. It's been a lot of work. But, I get to race this weekend which is fun. I don't know how I'm feeling about it. It's a good race to see where I'm at since it's only 15 minutes of each discipline, but I kind of wish I was faster than I am right now. It'll be interesting to compare my stats from last year to this year.
It's baby central with my friends. Addi was born in February, Claire was born yesterday, Trisha is due with her second in a month and a half, Rhiannon is due in August. You would think that being surrounded by babies makes me want to start talking about my family. It doesn't... And I wish that some people could understand that. I feel like most people I'm around think that I'll be dying for a child soon and that's not the case. Sure it could change, but it very well might not. Is it a horrible thing to not picture a child in my life right now? I wish some people would try to accept my point of view and not be so judgemental. It makes me sad when I realize how different I am from some of my dearest friends. It seems that very few share my interest in triathlon and fitness which is fine, but I almost feel like I'm being judged because of it lately. I know what I do is crazy, love me for it. I'm happy that two friends are signing up for half marathons this year and I'm super excited for them. They are both going to do fabulous!
Training is going well. I about fell over when I looked at my schedule for the week and saw only one workout of an hour this week. The rest are 2-3 hours. I know that I'm "in season" but I guess it hasn't hit me. We're already talking about hotels for IM Louisville and when we want to try to get out there for some rides of the course. I know that it'll be here before I know it. :) I'm excited.
I had a good 8 mile run yesterday. Averaged 9:00's, but we didn't stop the clock when we stopped for cars and red lights which was a lot. Never again will we run at 6:30 at night either. SCARY! :)