Tidbits

So I am having trouble finding time to post, clean the house and all those other general things that are being pushed to the wayside momentarily....but one more week and hopefully things should get better.

Taking the Series 7 test next Wednesday 12/6 and would much prefer to put in some extra studying and pass than the alternative!!

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Okay so now I must mention how totally excited and thankful I am for my early Christmas present from my parents. A new trainer!!!!! It came Monday. It is a Kurt Kinetic trainer that I found thanks to Jodi! Last night I put it together and hoppped on my bike to try it out for one minute before we had to head out the door. I can't wait to actually try it out. For some reason though the bike seems crooked. I am not sure if it is my old floor or something is not adjusted just right. I will have to figure this out I suppose. The only thing I don't like about biking is figuring out all the gadgets and what is wrong.

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Training has been going pretty well. Today hit 1 hr 6 AM spin class followed by 4.2 mile treadmill run and then cam eback to the gym on the lunch hour for 1000 yard swim....hence why I am just not feeling overly energetic for a trainer ride tonight.
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I totally fell off the eating wagon over the holiday with a million family gatherings...but the good thing is I have gotten back on it!

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Did the Pigskin run the day of the OSU / Michigan game. Go Buckeyes!!! Total time 22:40 at a 7:22 pace. Holy fan support downtown Cleveland!!
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Lastly, turkey trot run on Thursday was pretty awesome. First and foremost the last two years I barely made it downtown Cleveland for the event on account of horrible driving conditions. This year it was sunny and around 50!!! I was enjoying the morning and seeing many friends at this race of nearly 2000 people.

I had made myself a new playlist on my Ipod which I swear makes a huge difference when I run. I decided to just see what I could do on the race. It has been so long that I don't have my splits anymore but I ended up with a time of 36:13 for the 5 miler at a 7:16 pace. They were giving away pies to the first 50 females and the first 50 males. I guess the far-fetched goal in my head was to win one, not because I really wanted a pie, but I just wanted to win it. No such luck with that though as the 50 for females was somewhere in the 35s...there are so many fast women in this darn town!!

So since I missed that far-fetched goal I will just have to focus on another one for this weekend's Reindeer Run 5K of somehow breaking that 22 minute mark that I have yet to accomplish...last shot for 2006. If nothing else, I will go out trying!!

Quick weekend recap....

I had spent the evening Friday hitting a few stores in the hopes of finding a windbreaker which would help keep me warm during Saturday morning's du. On the 4th store (thankfully the hubby was also in pursuit of a garment he could not find either) I finally found an insulated windbreaker at Target in the boys section for $14.99 that I thought would do the trick...major score as it was way better than the $50+ ones I was scoping out at Dicks.

Saturday woke up to a crisp morning and hoped I would watch my temperature rise as I left the house at a cool 28 degrees. It warmed a bit until I started dropping into the valley where the event was held. My car, G-unit (as it is a Pontiac G-6) said 27 degrees. Brrr....oh well, I shound warm up on the run anyways.

There was 8 of us doing the event. I was pretty sore from weight training & Friday's spin class but with the countdown I was off. I tried to hold back for a little while on the run and just tried to stay close with the only other female, melanie who was running strong. 3rd one in of 8, 2 mile run one, 14:11. At T1, I had planned to put on my new windbreaker but I was so hot from the run, I did not bother.

Lesson of the day- Test the bike befoe every event. So I started off only to hear my front brake dragging. I kept trying to fix it while I rode for the first 4 or 5 miles and then I just decided to deal with it. It was not too bad once I just quit worrying about it. I managed to catch Melanie (who totally kicked butt as she was on a mountain bike) and then just tried to keep a steady pace. My body was plenty warm but I could not wait to get off the bike on account of very numb toes. 13 mile-ish bike time 44:39.

As I entered t2 now in second (behind this guy who just destroyed the rest of us), I complained a bit about my toes and was off. Ouch, ouch..poor numb toes. 2 miles later (17:15) I came in to the finish still in second with a total time of 1 :15:35. I will take that 2 plus minute improvement over two weeks ago, even with a dragging brake. (2 weeks ago it was 14:39, 45:10, 18:08 for a total time of 1:17:57).

Totally a great morning despite the cold. I tell ya that the best part about these events is doing them with a great group of competitors and volunteers. I cannot say enough about the volunteers who cheered everyone on in the cold!

Sunday morning, woke up early again to head to the 5K on the other side of town with TriSaraTops, Buckeye Runner, and many other familiar faces. This race is one that counts for points in the Hermes Road Race series, so I was not sure what to expect on legs that were far from fresh. However before long I was off. The first mile heads down a small hill and up a medium one. I was attempting to hold back a bit the first mile which was 7:19. I had felt pretty comfortable at that point and started to pick it up a bit. There was some wind in the face for mile 2 and was trying to pick up the pace a bit mile 2- 7:04. On the last mile as I tried to con myself in to dealing with some pain for just a little while longer, my quads started to tighten as I rounded the final stretch. When I saw the timer I was disappointed to see the clock ticking over 23. Final time 23:04. As it turned out, the race director said the race was a bit long at 3.2 miles. So slight redemption.

The time was good enough to get 1st in my AG. Trisaratops was right behind me for the unofficial 2nd in our age group. (Her chip did not work, so she got screwed out of a cute tuffed animal).

At any rate, today I took off on acount of some sore legs after my busy weekend!

Weekends are not for resting...

My body will adjust here at some point.....

At the moment I need to give myself an assist sitting down and I am willing to take the stairs up but not down...ouch!

All this variety in my workouts with weight-training and spinning has really woken up some new muscles which is a good thing, right??? I tend to think so and I can say I have really enjoyed the challenge of new things.

However....

This weekend I had planned to do the Cleveland Tri Club duathlon on Saturday and then my Hermes Road Race Series 5k on Sunday. So even though a bit sore, I will just go ahead and attempt both, even if it means a PR is not in the cards. So here is to the start of another fun weekend!!!!!!!!!

22.5

22.5% body fat. 133 lbs

Somewhat embarassed to put it out for all, but that was the number the trainer this morning came up to. He did the 9 spot caliper pinch measurement following another solid workout.

It was an interesting conversation as we talked about where the different numbers in different areas could be improved and which areas will be more difficult on account of my high cardio training (stomach...grrr, I am going to find a way to show it can be done).

My takeway is to not worry about calories so much, but focus on intaking quality food (not high fat content, etc.) and probably add more lean protein.

Recent nutrition (minus the Halloween party-too many beers!) has been improved and I find myself really enjoying all of my additional weight lifting in addition to my normal runs, swims, and bikes. The weight training has led to a lot of muscle soreness over the last couple weeks, which hurts on one hand but sort of feel good on the other.

So for now, I have a reference point in writing to work with. These numbers will be coming down..............!