A family of winners...

Tom and I (as well as my in-laws) participated in the Grady Memorial Hospital Indoor Tri yesterday. We kind of decided last minute to sign up, but were happy to see they had about 70 people registered. That's a good showing in Delaware! :) Word around Delaware was that we had a good chance of winning the thing so the pressure was on! It was held at the local college and since we have never done an indoor tri, didn't know what to expect. We knew that we would swim 15 minutes, bike 15 minutes, and run 15 minutes, with 15 minutes of transitions in there. They then would convert our paces to resemble a sprint tri of 750m swim, 20k bike and 5k run. I don't get it, but I didn't question it! :)

Anyhoo, my swim wave started at 7:20 and there were 6 people in a wave (that's how many lanes the pool had and how many trainers they had for the bikes... we're small town, don't laugh!) I sized up my competition (well not really up, they were all smaller than me and looked pretty fit!) They were super nice, saw my Ironman swim cap and of course asked me a bunch of questions about it. The swim went well... I giggled underwater a few times thinking that I must have looked like a total dork from on top of the water and praying my suit hadn't crept up my butt or anything because everyone would have seen cheek, but I think I was alright. I did 16.5 Laps (up and back) in the pool (which was 825 yards and they some how converted that to meters and then 750m and well... again, I didn't ask questions.) I'm in the pink waiting for them to say go.

I had 10 minutes between the bike and swim which went surprisingly fast. Got to the gym where the bikes where (which was a different building) and had to wait. They didn't expect mountain bikes to be there and they bike store didn't have enough of the right skewers or something. Anyhoo, my 10 minute rest ended up being 17 minutes which was fine. I had brought my Orbea down because that's really my only bike and I get a few comments on how nice of a bike it was. (One guy commented later as I was sitting by my bike something to the effect of "oh, he has you watching his bike now". I mumbled that it was mine and the guy walked away. As we were riding home, he pulled up next to me, rolled down his window and with a look of shock, said "that's your bike?". Yeah dude, girls can have kick ass bikes too you know!) I digress...This was a very beginner friendly tri and I think I might have stuck out a bit. Anyway, the 6 of us mounted our bikes and were off. I covered 5.7 miles in 15 minutes so that was 22.8 mph. I knew that I would probably win that by a pretty large gap, but it's hard to tell when you are not covering any distance.

Off to the run - it was an 1/8 of a mile track so I hoped to go 15 laps in 15 minutes, which was an 8:00 mile. That would be good for me. We toed the line and this is where I got a little arse kicking.I did just as planned 15 in 15:00, but 3 different girls lapped me, 2 of them lapping me twice. DAMN... they were zippy little things! I felt good about my run though and was happy overall with how it went.

Tom started right after me. He swam 17.25 laps in 15 minutes, biked 6.5 miles in 15 minutes (the fastest biker of the day 26 mph) and then cranked out 16.3 laps on the track. A few guys came up to him and told him what a stud he was... he secretly loved it I think! He did have the funniest newbie comment of the day though. A guy next to him on the bike said "how far did you go?" Tom told him 6.5 and the guy's response was "well that's weird. I only went 3.5 miles and my legs were going as fast as yours." Dude... there's these things on your bike called gears. We chuckled. Here are the guys in his heat getting ready to swim (Tom's in lane 1):

My mother in law did great in her du (came in 1st in her AG)and my father in law did great in his tri. We waited around for awards and guess what???

THE KINGERYS CAME IN 1st OVERALL!!! Tom won the overall male and I won the overall female. It was totally fun being winners together and they called us up as a couple to get our awards (free shoes from the local running store... NICE!) We've never outright won a race so it was pretty cool and we enjoyed talking about it the rest of the day! :) That will probably never happen again! (Notice Tom decked out in his new Team Type 1 gear!!!)

We came home, went out for a tough 6 mile run (cause that's how we roll) and splurged with a dinner of Chinese and a bedtime of 9:30! It was a great end to a really fun race day!

It's race time

I'm feeling 10 times better and it's warm outside (nearly 70 today and tomorrow!!!). And I'm actually super excited for my tri tomorrow. I know it's not a conventional tri, but I'm anxious to push myself for 45 minutes. It'll be fun to kind of gauge where I'm at this early in the season. Not holding my hopes too high for anything exceptional, but a fun time none-the-less. Then it's out for a 9 mile run when it's all said an done.

I think I'm going to sleep well tomorrow night.

Will post pictures and a review of the race later in the weekend!

Slow and sick...

It's been a long couple of days. I had a great 12 mile run in the cold windy weather on Saturday morning and then proceeded to get sick. Cold sick. You know the "major snot clogging, headache having, achy body, run down" kind of sick. It's gross. I spent most of Sunday and actually part of Monday just laying low in hopes that I start to feel better, all the while avoiding the hubster like the plague because I know he doesn't want this lovely stuff. :)

Yesterday I started feeling a little more like myself. My head wasn't in a bubble and I felt like I had enough energy to bike with Tom during his interval session. NOT A GOOD IDEA! I warmed up for 20 minutes then went into 2 sets of 4 reps of 3:00 hard and 3:00 active recovery. He does this every Tuesday and Thursday as part of his RAAM training. My legs were burning. I felt good when I was done, had a great dinner and didn't think much of it.

This morning... the semi hit! WOWZERS! I had an 8 miler planned and dragged my arse (and Tom's) out the door. I felt good for about the first 10 steps and it went downhill very fast. I was snotty again, choking, wheezing, gasping, hurting, whining. You know... all the things that a person who is either a. out of shape running for the first time or b. still sick and trying to get over a cold would be doing. Now my throat is scratchy again and I'm super sleepy. Ug... not fun!

I'm hoping I feel better by the weekend. Not only is it supposed to be in the 60's here in Ohio the next few days, but Tom and I are doing an indoor tri sponsored by our local hospital and the university here in town. Word has it that we've been outed as having tri experience and that people are slating us to win. Yikes... and I was thinking that I'll be happy to live through it!

PS - I bought a new camera yippie and hopefully will be able to upload a bunch more pictures soon. My blogs have been boring lately and I apologize for that! :)

I learn something new every day

Today's lesson...


My in-laws live downhill from me. How do I know this??? I ran home today from their house... Nuff said!

And now I need to rant (warning, this might be a little bitchy)

Do you watch the Biggest Liar... doh - I mean the Biggest Loser? I'm so pissed at NBC and the producers of the show. Not only is it a big pile of poo that they get viewers to believe that you can lose 10-20 pounds A WEEK and have it be healthy, but a few weeks ago, when Blaine got kicked off, they said that he was preparing to race an Ironman which consists of a little more than a 1.5 mile swim, about an 80 mile bike and nearly 15 miles of run. I about blew a gasket! I actually wrote to NBC and said that although I admire his determination to do a triathlon, please don't get it confused with a true Ironman, yada yada yada.

So last night, after Dane gets kicked off, did you notice that they said he completely a marathon in 3:53? Wow... impressive for a guy that's nearly 300 pounds right? Well I guess his wife posts on a blog that they ran together until mile 17 and stopped at a water stop where the film crew wanted to take some pictures. Since they were on a tight schedule, they DROVE he and his wife about 3 miles up the road so that they could continue running and so that they could get a finish line picture. His "finish" time for the 23 miles was actually 5:53 (which you can see in the background on the show). WHAT? Why not educate people on what a marathon is (or an Ironman for that matter), give Dane kudos for running 23 miles in 5:53 (because that's an impressive feat in itself) and move on? Why lie?

I wish I had a little car to drive me ahead every time I needed to stop and pee or walk through a water stop because I'm working hard during a marathon - the 26.2 mile kind. Oh, and while I'm at it, I'll cut 2 hours off my finish time and give everyone false hope that they too, can be like me.

I just don't get it - and I wonder why I get so annoyed when people tell me they ran a 5 mile marathon or were doing an Ironman tri-athon (yeah, I've heard that).

Stepping down off my soap box now...

My little lion

Tom and I are the proud owners of a lion for about 5 months of the year. Meet Buddy...Usually around this time of year I get sick and tired of the hair throughout the house and the crap that gets stuck in his paws when it's muddy that we bring him back to puppy land. I swear he really thinks that he's a puppy now... prancing around like he is the cutest thing ever... the whining and crying makes me think differently! HA!

Looked at my training log today (after I recorded my 41:38 5 mile run - 8:19's - booya!) and although I haven't packed in the miles, I've run 72.2 miles this month and averaged 8:53 overall. I know that's a little deceiving, but I'm definitely noticing my average going down. Me likey!

This chick is going to be faster this year... you can bet on that!

Lazy Sunday

I'm house sitting at my in laws and getting ready to go watch the final stage of the Tour of California (they did a blurb on Team Type 1 yesterday that was super cool - always like when they give those guys a little shout of for their accomplishments).  It's been kind of a lazy day... well as lazy as a Sunday can be I guess.

I did get a long run in today - 10 miles which is as long as I could probably have gone since I'm a wuss and wouldn't run outside.  I get bored on the treadmill after about 5 minutes so finishing the entire thing today (and at a sub 9:00 pace none-the-less) made me happy.  We're just relaxing and enjoying the rest of the days in a log cabin with a hot tub on 7 acres in the woods... I actually get paid to stay here... it's not a bad gig! :)

I haven't talked much about my weight loss (or lack there of) lately and that's probably a good thing (naw... it's not been that bad!).  I do want to give major props to some foods thought that I've been loving lately.  They are definitely worth a try for someone who's looking for some replacements for the yummy evil foods.

First, Fiber One Muffins.  OH MY GOODNESS they are good!  Costco has jumbo packs of these apple cinnamon mixes and all you do is add some applesauce (I do that instead of the oil), some water and a little bit of egg substitute and it tastes like I slaved away over these things.  They are really really good!!! ;)  And at 2 points a piece (or 4 if you go big in the jumbo muffin pan!) they are great!  Oh... and lots of fiber which well - has it's benefits! :)

My new other favorite indulgence is the Fiber Plus Antioxidant bars by Kellogg's.  I've only tried the dark chocolate and almond ones and I'm smitten.  It's like a little candy bar, with an extra kick with the almonds.  I love them as a good alternative to candy (no, they won't replace my love for Peanut M&Ms, but at 2 points a bar, I don't feel NEARLY as guilty!) Yummo!  Now if I can only keep them in the house between shopping trips, I'd be much better off! Again these have a lot of fiber in them (like 35% of your daily recommendation) so it's best to just eat maybe one a day! ;)

Lastly, yesterday for a snack I made homemade mozzarella sticks.  They turned out awesome!  I took reduced fat string cheese, dipped them quickly in egg beaters, covered them in breadcrumbs and then pan sauteed them for like 3 minutes.  Tom ate some too and said that they were better than what you usually get at a restaurant, although I honestly can't tell you the last time I ordered mozzarella sticks!  Definitely a fun treat when I'm wanting something a little greasy without the guilt.

I have tons of little tricks of the trade to make eating healthier a little better.  These may not be the "best" choices in the world, but they are so much better than the alternative! ;)

Off to go sit my tired butt on the couch!

Oh the burn...

Okay so I know I've said it a hundred times, but I'm beginning to hate Ohio more and more. After Tom got back from California, and watching the tour of California on TV, I want to live somewhere nice... somewhere warm with sun... a lot of sun. Ohio is so blah - it's gray today, and raining. Tonight it's supposed to get windy and then it's going to be cold, gray and probably snowing. Not like pretty snow that you can play in... it's like mushy crappy snow that just sticks to your car. It's gross.

Makes training for a spring marathon loads of fun, let me tell you. Especially for this chick - because if you haven't noticed ...

I HATE COLD WEATHER!

We went for a run yesterday. It was warm by Ohio February means - 42 degrees with a slight 5-10 MPH wind. Fine. I bundle up and run. And since my arse is cold, I run fast (the faster I get home, the quicker I'm warm). Good theory, makes me a better runner, but OH MY GAWD...

My lungs were on FIRE!

We ended up running 5 miles in about 43 minutes - yeah, that's super fast for this pleasantly fluffy chick. Like a 8:39 average super fast. And our second mile was uphill at 9:05, meaning that we ran 3 REALLY fast miles to make up the time (our last mile was a 8:13 thanks to the hubster dragging my rear home). I feel good, but I haven't adjusted to the burn yet.

I know I'll have the burn in nice sunny moderately warm weather as well, I just know that I would have a better attitude about it all if I didn't cringe at the sight of the gray sky. A girl can dream right...