Stuck in Transition

This week is a recovery week. YAY! Except I feel as if I don't deserve it because I was sick during my intense week last week, and ended up missing 2 days of workouts. So really I'm not recovering from much. So anyway, this week I'm trying to remind myself of the love of the sport(s). I haven't lost my drive or passion for tri's, its just been an off week. It's a recovery week so I'm not doing intense intervals or speedy workouts. Mostly easy recovery type things. Obviously.

Also its been a "blah" week at work. Talking to my roommate yesterday I determined I'm bored at work. Last year, we had two studies going on for the whole year and I was constantly training people while doing computer work in between. Since we finished the Parkinson's study in July, we haven't had anything to replace it. Not that we (by "we" I mean the boss) haven't been trying, but BKS is writing grants like crazy. The only problem is, they just don't give $100,000 grants out like candy. Super competitive, especially to the places he's submitting to. So, we wait. And while we wait, all I have to do is computer work. Research various things, make up spreadsheets of article after article related to possible future studies, reading said articles, looking up articles, etc. Not that I don't love my job or this area in general, but just getting a bit burnt out on the nitty gritty things involved in research. As time consuming and tiring as the training of 25-30 subjects a week gets, it gets me moving around and out of this chair!

As much as we don't want work to interfere with training, it does. Let's take yesterday for example. I had a 45 min run followed by a 1 hour bike planned. I mean to do the run early, before bible study, but slept thru my alarm. Oops. Ok, no big deal, I'll do it in the evening. Well, I got home from a very unproductive day at work and all I wanted to do was sleep. Even after two cups of coffee yesterday, twice as much as I usually have. So I layed down for an hour. I woke up to darkness, and immediately realized I'd be doing my run on the treadmill...dammit! Its not that I wasn't motivated to do the workout and I even wanted to, its just my body and mind weren't working in harmony. Body says: eat, sleep, drink coffee while Mind says: train, train, train! Those two don't mix. Unless you count the espresso flavored gels.....then yes, they do mix.

Coach put up next week's workout and it has me excited. Harder intervals, more training time, and longer workouts actually have me excited.....I'm a sick minded person, just like the rest of you crazy tri people. So hopefully after this week of lull in my life, I can get back on the "YAY FOR TRAINING!!!!" bandwagon. My mind is there....but my body is stuck in transition.

New Shoe Day!!!

Isn't it PRETTY?!?! I'm so excited. New shoes day is one of the best days! You feel like you're bouncing along...at least I do. I have a decently long workout tonight, 45 minute run followed by an hour easy spin on the bike. Not too difficult, just long. But wearing my new shoes will be so exciting! Now if I can just get this cold weather to disappear.

I was supposed to do my run this morning, but alas slept thru my alarm. I've been really tired the last two days...not sure what that's about.

I also had extremely weird dreams last night, one of which had me nauseous when I woke up. I dreamt that I took my brother to McDonald's at the mall to eat. It didn't taste like normal McDonald's, not that I would know, I haven't had it literally in years. But it was absolutely DISGUSTING. I seriously was nauseous when I woke up. Don't know what that was about. Also, I dreamt I had two Juniors...which was awesome, but then I forgot one somewhere (MY Junior) and had to climb into a basement thru a hole to get him...it was WEIRD. Anyway....I was glad to wake up and see my Junior sleeping next to me on his back, mouth open, legs sprawled in 16 different directions...of course as soon as I woke up he hopped up on top of me and gave me the look of "LET'S PLAY!!!!! YAY!!!!!!"

I'll post pics of my little angel on Friday...the before and after of his extreme makeover...aka a much needed groom. Peace out playa.

Decisions, Decisions

Best decision I made this weekend: Got a massage
At KU we had a travelling sports massage therapist...that was amazing. However, since then I have not had any work done and I've been training like mad. It was getting to the point where I wasn't even comfortable in my bed and wouldn't sleep very well because my upper back/shoulders were so tight. I had about 6 knots around my shoulder blades. Not cool. So I took the plunge Saturday and got a 30 minute massage. Pam from Body Mechanix is the person of the week.

Worst decision I made this weekend: Rode outside yesterday
It was supposed to be near 55 yesterday so I was quite excited to ride outside. I had an hour and 40 minute workout and I definitely did not want to sit on my trainer for that long. Well, it didn't make it past 42, but I already had it in my head I would be outside. This probably isn't that big of a deal for most, but 1. I'm a wimp when it comes to cold, probably from my diving days where if you were cold, it also meant you were wet...double whammy. 2. I don't have winter cycling gear. I was tempted to just wear my parka but that wasn't so aerodynamic. I put on some tights and an underarmour long sleeve shirt, and my new cycling outfit, and I was off. The first 20 minutes weren't bad...but oh that last hour and 20. SO COLD. I had no fine motor skills of my hands when I returned, and I was sure I had lost at least one but up to three toes on my right foot. I stood in the hot shower for 30 minutes (or more) when I got back, put on 2 layers of clothes and climbed under my blankets for an hour until I warmed up. Man that was a bad idea! At least I wasn't on my trainer for nearly 2 hours....

awesome Friday thoughts

1. I'm wearing my skinny jeans today and for the first time I notice how rocking my legs are getting...Thanks to coach for that one!

2. So there are two undefeated basketball teams left in the NCAA: KANSAS! and memphis. I am a Jayhawk alumnae and currently attend the other school. How awesome is it that I wear my KU stuff all around campus and people stare at me like "How DARE she?!?!?" Someone even came up and talked to me while I was just getting coffee asking me if I am from Kansas, and if I coached there, or at Memphis...blah blah blah. Not to mention, my roommates boyfriend is the manager for the Memphis basketball team, and we give each other crap all the time about who is going to lose first. Its obviously Memphis......

3. Going back to the coffee thing...I usually only drink one cup of coffee a day so I don't dehydrate myself. I could drink it all day and all night long, but alas, I get dehydrated. Well, since this is my first day of no nap while still being sick, I need an extra boost, so I went to the starbucks in the next building (convienent, eh?) I usually get a latte, but seeing as how my budget is on a shaky foundation at the moment, I decided to just go for good ole fashioned brewed coffee. DAMN is this stuff strong........weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Happy Training this weekend! I finally get to train again!

Sicky McSickerson

Yes, I caught it. The cold that everyone seems to have. I thought it was a sinus infection, as I get at least 2 per year. But alas, just a cold. It started after cleaning and scrubbing everything from top to bottom over the weekend. This usually sets off my allergies and that's what I thought it was. Until I woke up on Tuesday morning, not being able to breathe thru my nose. NEAT. Tuesday night I started to feel really bad. I still swam because it actually helped to be active to clear my nose. I took benedryl to knock me out Tuesday night and it was probably the best night of sleep in a long time. I didn't even feel Junior trying to nudge me off the bed so he could lay directly in the middle! Then yesterday morning, I had bible study and I had every intention of getting thru my bike workout before going. Well, I decided it would be best to have more sleep. So I stayed in bed. Went to bible study...felt kind of bad. I texted the boss asking if I could stay home or if he needed me. He said sleep...so I followed orders and slept for 4 hours! YAY! Woke up to see Junior had pooed on my floor. NEAT. He continued to do that the rest of the night...fantastic, now he's sick. Last night I knocked myself out again and slept really well, while Junior pooed on my floor again overnight. This morning I was going to do my one hour run but felt icky still, so I opted for more sleep. Again while Junior pooed on my floor AND threw up I slept in. Finally I got up cleaned up after the pup and called the vet. Just found out he has some sort of stomach/intestinal virus...NEAT. So now I am getting ready to go to class, and coach just told me no running tonight and maybe no swimming tomorrow!!! ahhhhhhh! I'm antsy but I know I need to rest. Like coach says, better to miss time NOW than say...a week before Ironman...Guess I'll listen to her................

Time for a Rant

Or as Courtney calls it: Robo's Rants.

Now I'm not a super complainer these days. I have a lot to be thankful for. With that said, I have a complaint. I go to the grocery store every Sunday after church. Since my New Year's resolution was to stick to my budget, I have given myself $50 a week for groceries. Most "normal" people can do this and even have money left over. But I never claimed to be normal.

You see, I'm an athlete. Athlete's eat healthy. I eat healthy. Healthy food is expensive. I pay lots of money for healthy food. I think that equation goes something like this:

If A=B and B=C, then A=C. But then C gets jacked up because of oil prices and makes A go over her food budget. I blame Bush.

Anyway, enough math for the day. So anyway, I bet I didn't make it out of the produce section and I already had half my budget. I got one green bell pepper and one cucumber. Not so bad. Probably $1.25 so far. Then....................the fruit. Oh the fruit. A bag of clementines is like buying gold: $7.99 a bag! Now that bag will last me quite a while, but still! Then, grapes. Another product laced in gold. $2.98 a pound. And they shove as many grapes as they can into one bag. I think my grapes alone cost me $9!! Got some nectarines, which weren't too bad, relatively speaking. So what...I'm up to at least $20!! I could live on fruits and vegetables, but I don't think my intestines would like me very much....

Of course I buy whole grains. My bread cost me about $4 for a loaf, but again I don't eat much bread so it will last me nearly 2 weeks. Soy milk...I don't even want to talk about it. Yogurt, that's a steal, but again I can't eat just yogurt. I got a few more necessities, and then I realized I was out of conditioner, which means I will shortly be out of shampoo. Also, I'm out of hair spray. Since I grew up in a pool, and my hair is still most likely 48% chlorine, I get the expensive stuff so my hair doesn't fall out. Kind of a preventitive thing. Well throw another $40 on the bill. Oh yeah, my hairspray is expensive too!

All in all, I spent.................well I don't want to talk about it. But let's just say I went severely over my budget. I ranted to my mother via text messages, but I am still livid. Here's another equation for you (I know, I said the math was done, but this is a good one)

If Americans are obese, and healthy food is expensive while the cheap food is loaded with simple carbs, sugar, fat, processed junk, sugar, sugar, and sugar, then America is going to get OBESER. Oh, that's not a word, but I think it made the point clear.

I'm so annoyed. If you couldn't tell. One thing that sticks with me from the head swim coach at Kansas (Clark Campbell) it is "You put crap in, you get crap out. So eat healthy and you'll train and compete well". Although he usually shortened this to "Crap in....crap out". Well friends, I'm trying to do the right thing! But its costing me a small fortune that I could be saving up to buy a bike!!!

Moral of the story: When's the election?

Never underestimate a workout

I learned my lesson yesterday. Swim workout. I had a pretty busy day yesterday and since the pool at the University doesn't open until 1pm, I didn't make it there until 5pm. Gross. I want to be done by 8am! Anyway, up until arriving at the pool, I had only glanced at my workout. I saw that I was doing 8 200's and they were things like pulling, pulling without paddles, a couple swim HARD (Liz is a fan of the capital letters), etc. Yay!! Easy swim workout!

Then I really read the workout when I sat on the gutter of the pool. Warmup. Check. Mainset. 8 200's (various descriptions of each one) on 3:15. Che- Wait...what?!?! 3:15? I'm not an Olympic swimmer here. I am a good swimmer, but I wouldn't say a 3:15 200 swimmer. Ok, trust the coach trust the coach....

So I hope in and do my warmup. My first 200 was just swim. No HARD. No easy, just swim. So I swam, I'd say at a decent clip. I touched the wall at 2:57 and my HR felt like it was decently high. Then I looked at my next 200. PULL. I have to make this interval while pulling?! No kicking? I didn't even get to think that far ahead because I had to shove my paddles on, grab my pull buoy and push off for my next set....within 15 seconds. So I'm off. I felt like my shoulders were going to fall off because I had lifted the day before. I touch the wall and I see I have about 7 seconds until my next 200. I'm thinking Yes yes! I made it! Oh crap, here I go again!

This continued for all 8 200's, including the two HARD ones. By the end, I was so proud of myself because I had made all 8 of them, even the last one which I'm always tempted to go slower, simply because I don't have to do my cool down directly after that set finishes. But I did it. Short of gloating about myself, I really am impressed with how well I've done with swim workouts. I have a swimming background, so my training for every tri before this (including my 70.3) was "I'll just swim/float/kick around for about 45 minutes". I hardly did anything over 2500 yards. So this season will already be better!

Anyone else?

So I've decided for outdoor runs and bikes I need one of those Quarterback play cheat sheet sleeves so I can put my workout in it...anyone else??

So busy!

I guess I'm so busy (sorta) that I keep forgetting to update my blog regularly. My mother probably thinks I'm dead. Well, school started today, along with the exponential increase in traffic around campus and the lack of parking spaces. I can't wait until students stop coming to class! You see, this happens about 2 weeks after school starts, probably at every university. Parking spaces begin to free up in MY parking lot so I can avoid rockclimbing across gravel and railroad tracks in high heels. Yeah, that'd be nice. T - 2 weeks!

I actually have classes this semester (grrr...). I was spoiled last semester when I only had my thesis to work on. Ok, not that it was easy by any means, but I at least didn't have to attend regular classes. That was AWESOME. Now I have 3 classes a week! The nerve! Get this though....One class has 5 students including myself, one has 3, and one has.....ME. I'm the only one in the class, AND my advisor/boss/mentor is my prof! Guess I have to read the readings this time.... So much for an easy last semester!

I'm starting to get in the habit of training early again. With school starting, I'll need to do some workouts early mainly so I actually get the workout in, but also so I don't have to shower twice in one day, and by shower I mean completely redo hair and makeup :). As much as I love to do that, I hate doing it twice in one day! Being one of the only girls in my department, I have to keep up the good looks to represent all women....or something like that.

So anyway, this morning I had an hour and a half bike workout. It went rather well for being on a trainer! Coach was happy with it, so that's good! Tomorrow starts out with a 45 min run, and then FUN STUFF (inside joke) lifting session in the afternoon...I can't wait to cry!

Also, I ordered my new phone today! That's the great thing about sticking with Verizon, I get money towards a new phone every 20 months, and this'll be the 3rd time I've gotten a new phone! That's like 6 years with them! I should get something for that.... Anyway, I'm pretty excited about having a new phone, so my battery lasts more than one day, and so the phone doesn't turn off randomly, and so my text messages actually send....Oh I could go on....

I have a decently busy week with the start of school, start of bible study on Wed morning, hair cut, and dinner on Friday! Now I must return home to play with Junior so he doesn't hate me, at least for today. I mean, how could you stay away from this little face for anymore than a few hours??? I know I can't. Then its BACK to school for class....oh well I'm kind of excited for this class tonight, its a nutritional supplement class! YAY!

Blood, Sweat, & Tears......and puke.

I'm feeling it. The increase in my training. Even though its only by an hour to hour and a half per week, it feels like 5! Not only that, but school is starting next week, and I actually HAVE to go to classes this semester....jeez! That's the only drawback to having my thesis finished....THE ONLY.


I've been email chatting with my coach for about an hour and we discussed:

1. my body fat percentage - classmate took it today and I'm not super happy with it, BUT I know it'll go down with all my training.

2. Including a monthly Wingate test - with access to all this fantastic testing equipment, why not use it? So that'll be fun...hurling every month = guaranteed.

3. Some new workouts my coach is sending out tomorrow, guaranteed to make me cry. YAY!

So needless to say I'm pretty excited.....??? Yes that's it...EXCITED. No I'm definitely taking a more positive approach to everything (more so than usual) because that's the only way I'm going to make it thru everything in the next 8 months (Ironman, graduating, getting a big girl job, etc.) Last night I started reading "The Purpose Driven Life", a 40-day journey (1 chapter a day) that answers the question "Why am I here?" I'm really excited. I hope I figure out that I'm here to win the lottery and be a professional triathlete. Kidding. But that would be sweet....

Well, I'm off to the pool to kick my own a$$. Theme of the year...life really. So here's to blood, sweat, and tears.....................and yacking.....

2 down, 1 to go

Well, I had my bike test tonight. First off, my swim test went really well! I ended up holding a 1:22 pace for the 10 100's....not too bad for a diver, eh? So back to the bike, I had to do a warm up and then 20 minutes all out in my big ring holding between 80-95 rpms. No problem, right? First off, ALL OUT (in all caps) scares me. If you want me to go all out, I'll do a wingate test and hurl in the garbage can (little exercise science humor there...google it if you so choose). So this test is teaching me to pace myself. Take my "attack!!!" personality and change it to "pace pace pace (but still go fast)". That's kind of hard to do, but I know it'll pay off in the end!

So I turned on what everyone watches while they ride their bike: MTV. Those crappy shows are so entertaining! Did my warm up and got going. The first few minutes flew by! This isn't bad! Or so I thought. Then minutes 6-17 happened. Of course the last few weren't bad because I knew I was almost done. I kept pushing though. The only thing is, I wonder if I could have pushed harder? I didn't want to blow up in the first 5 minutes. (Remember the ATTACK!!! personality?) But research shows that one familiarization session is satisfactory for taxing exercise tests. So hopefully next time, I'll know more of what to expect and can push a little harder. Man, I'm such an exercise science dork! My coach already sent me my HR zones to train with, so I'm pretty excited to use that, and not just ride to ride and run to run.

In other news, I've been really job searching lately. I found a few "perfect" jobs, but some I have just contacted, asking if its too early to apply and I have phone calls/emails into other as well. Can't someone just pay me to nap? I'm good at that. I'll even throw in a little exercise and cleaning here and there. For myself though. Is that too much to ask? Don't answer that.....

*Random story of the day*
My boss made me go to the faculty meeting, where I was the only graduate student in the place! I soon figured out why. He needed someone to make funny remarks and comments to during the whole thing! Alright, I'll be that "guy". After all, I'm in a heavily male-populated field.....

How do you study for a fitness test?

So let me start by saying, yeah I fell off the face of the earth for a few days. Getting out of my house and back to Memphis was a little more time (and energy) consuming than I thought. So I've been recovering, cleaning, running errands, etc. All in all, I made it back to Memphis and I'm ready for school to start.

So back to my question......

Answer: You don't.

This week is test week for Robyn. Let me tell you how excited I was to hear that. No matter how in shape you are, an all out test is always hard.....painful.....gut-wrentching.....etc. Today was the swim portion. I had a 1000 warmup choice then 10 100's ALL OUT with ten seconds rest. Yes. As in sprinting all out for 1000 yards. This took me back to my one full year of USA swimming. Kicking my own ass in the pool. Honestly it wasn't too bad. I say that now of course. The first three 100's were really hard, just knowing I had seven of them left. Also, trying to get into the all out rhythm was hard. Numbers 4-7 I rocked. Felt so smooth in the water. Everything felt great. Yeah...I can do this! Then number 8 (and 9 and 10) happened. FATIGUE. Yeah that's a killer. But once I was finished, I felt so accomplished. And I only cursed my coach's name once! (Then I remembered her blog from today, talking about how races are won in the winter, and you have to suck it up and tough out the pain). There's no getting around the pain. Unless you want to finish last, then you can just trot along and avoid the pain. Sure go ahead. But I'll be the one already sitting down, eating and drinking while you're crossing the finish line (in pain) :) That's just how I roll.

Wednesday Thoughts

1. Today, Junior realized you can actually EAT the snow. He started running around like crazy eating it here, then eating some five feet away, then back to the first area. It was hilarious. Then tonight, he thought he had to chase after the snow...not the snow falling from the sky, but the snow already on the ground. He's a strange one....he also got a new collar tonight! It's blue with rhinestones (bling bling!) on it. He's looks spectacular.

2. Not doing so hot with the new year's resolution today...the staying on a budget. I bought some shoes (but they were only $8...marked down from $70!!) and some new jeans....so yeah.

3. Workouts are going great! Granted its only day 3. But I'm super pumped for the upcoming season. Had a fantastic swim tonight...and it was 3250 yards. That's the most I've done since Halfmax! But it went great. I couldn't be happier with my coach and the way things work...makes me truly excited for the next year. Also, I've decided that with my increase in workout volume, I better look like Jillian within...oh, say.....3 weeks.