RACE!

Race on Saturday! YAY! I'm so excited. So ready to race. I've been training for 3 months now, in preparation for IM, and I want to see how my training is paying off. Sure, I can determine this by my test weeks, but its just not as fun! It's a sprint tri down at Ole Miss, but I am determined to blow my time out of the water from last year. I went a 1:20ish last year, and I'm looking to drop nearly 10 minutes. Which for a sprint is dang good. I think my swim will be about the same, hopefully faster (since I practiced flip turns under the lanes lines yesterday), my bike should be phenomenally better, and my run should be pretty solid. The only thing is, I got an email yesterday saying they lengthened the bike course from last year to have an easier turn around, so I think its an additionally 2 miles. Ok, maybe cutting 10 minutes may be asking too much with the lengthening of the course, but I'm excited nonetheless. I can't wait!!!

Character Building 101

"Good work on the cold ride. These are the rides that build character - NOT the rides when it's sunny and 70. Those are no brainers. These are brain freezes. You don't forget them." That's what Coach's email was to me when I told her about my ride today.

Brain freeze was an understatement. More like entire body freeze. This includes my phone and Garmin which were working slower than normal upon my return. First let me start out by saying I am home in Northern Kentucky for Easter weekend, and for a mini training trip. I surprised my parents and came up last night. I had a 3:30 hilly ride scheduled. Perfect! I'll be in KY where there are rarely flats. Then I woke up to 40 degree weather. It hit a max of 42 degrees and I finally told myself JUST DO IT.

I put on practically every piece of clothing I brought, and borrowed clothing from my family, and I was off. I mapped out a ride, as I don't normally ride here. Originally I was supposed to go up to Cincy to ride with Mary Sunshine, but we decided it was too cold and windy. Plus she had already ran 16 miles, so I guess I could cut her some slack ;)

Anyway, starting out, it actually wasn't too bad. I mean, yes, I was cold. But not nearly as bad as I expected. I rode the route I mapped out and was pleased with the hills I was riding. They were much more than I'm used to in Memphis, and I was actually riding them pretty well, despite having pretty trashed legs. I got to the point where I didn't know where else I could go, so I turned around. Then the headwinds began. The hills are a bit tougher with a headwind. Soon after, I noticed I couldn't feel my toes. I frequently wiggled them just to see if I still had toes. Sometimes I did, sometimes I didn't. About halfway back is when I started contemplating calling my family to come pick me up. I thought to myself "what happens when I hit mile 80 in Ironman? I can't call anyone...I just have to do it". I pressed on. About a half mile later, I wanted to call again. At this point, my toes were completely numb and I wanted to cry. But I realized the tears would instantly freeze.

I toughed through it and finally reached a street that was only about two miles from my house. Those were the longest two miles I've ever ridden. Of course I hit every red light during those two miles, lengthening my ride even more.

So back to Coach's email. Though the ride was cut nearly 2 hours short, and I only got 22 miles in, it was monumental for me. I ride nearly no hills in Memphis, and never in anything less than 55 degrees. So when I get to mile 80 of the bike, I'll be laughing thinking about this ride today. It will probably be 90 degrees and 100% humidity at that point. I'll be wishing I was on this ride today.

By the Numbers:
Number of snot rockets: 17ish
Number of times I wanted to call for a ride: 459 +/- 13
Number of dogs that barked at me: 5
Number of dogs I thought were going to attack me: 5
Number of gels: 2
Number of water bottles consumed: barely 1...aka not enough
Number of toes I still cannot feel: 1
Number of socks I'm still wearing: 4 (2 pairs)

Bye Bye Fat

When I started training for Ironman, and my tri season altogether, it was December 31st. I weighed myself that day, and as soon as I got back to school, I had one of the other students take my body fat percentage via skin folds. Yesterday, about two months later, I had him take them again. I've only lost about 6 pounds since beginning training, which was beginning to frustrate me a bit. But, as of yesterday, I'm down a whole percent! That's pretty good for two months, and being female. So I'm having a little celebration in my head :)

Go hard or go home

Yesterday was a hard workout day. First off, its my long week. Next week is rest/recovery week! I had scheduled an hour interval run in the morning and an easy hour spin at night. The run went well, besides feeling like I wanted to yack at one point because of the intervals, but that's to be expected.

Today I had a crazy busy day, and I had many things to do while the pool was open, so I had to do my scheduled swim for today, yesterday. I'm not being wimpy for doing two workouts in one day by any means, but when they are two intense workouts...then yeah, they are hard! It was a sprint workout, essentially. My main set consisted of 8x25 stroke non-free on the :35, 50 easy back, 12x50 FAST on :45, 50 easy back REPEAT. Reading this before I went to the pool, I thought, "ok not too bad, obviously I'll do backstroke for my non-free stroke".

Then I read coach's blog for the day. She was talking about pushing yourself, and training with people that are faster than you so you can learn to push through the pain. Go beyond yourself, and what not. This truly inspired me. Triathletes are used to training solo, for the most part. We get excited for group rides and runs! With my team mostly being located in KC, I train solo EVERY DAY. Long rides where I end up talking (or singing) to myself, lap after lap in my own lane, and hard runs with only the sounds of my feet pounding the pavement. Though for the most part, I push myself every day (it's the drive in me, the passion of the sport), some days are hard. Some days the motivation is just not there. It can't be 100% perfect everyday.

Today was not that day. I was going all out balls to the wall, FLY for my 8x25's. Now, that's only a 200, but STILL. Who voluntarily does fly? Ok, let me rephrase, of those who are not swimmers, and swimmers only...how many of us normal people CHOOSE to do fly? Besides my coach, and other crazy people she trains with, and Corky, I don't know any other triathletes that would choose this torture. The first two=solid. The next two, a bit more difficult...getting harder to breathe, but I was half way. The 3rd two...why did I choose fly? The last two...stay strong..its only two more! I did it. 8x25's fly. I pushed through and proved to myself that I was tougher than most. Training solo, where no one was watching me (besides the bored lifeguard, trying to stay awake), where my coach wasn't watching me to make sure I was pushing myself (except sometimes I feel like she can see me). Only ME. I was the only one seeing my times, knowing the pain in my upper body, and the deep breathing just to stay conscious. But you know what? I'm the only one crossing that Ironman finish line in August. And for that reason alone, I'd do it again.

*Note* I did end up doing the 2nd time thru backstroke because my shoulder almost fell off. Next time, though, its fly and fly only. WATCH OUT Ironman Louisville competitors..I'm swimming the whole thing fly.

Hello, my name is Junior....

....and I live a "ruff" life.

Sponsor Shout Out

We have a deal through my team with RunningWarehouse.com. They are such an awesome company with things like 2 day FREE shipping and great deals on products. I had the ultimate experience with them in the past few days.

I usually order my gels and GU20 thru them because I get free shipping, and that way I do not feel obligated to purchase in bulk, because as we know, I'm poor. So Tuesday, I ordered 2 boxes or Powerbar Gels and 2 canisters of GU20. I received them yesterday (yay for 2 day shipping!) and when I opened them to empty the gels into my huge tub 'o gels, I realized a few of the vanilla gels had burst upon transit. Not only were my gel packets covered in goop, but I couldn't get about 10 gels out of the box because they were glued to the sides. I immediately emailed the sales department, explaining my situation, and even included pictures for proof. (I always feel like people try to cheat the system, so I wanted them to know I was telling the truth). I received an email overnight, saying they were very sorry for what had happened and they were mailing out another box today. I didn't have to return the other gels, which means I get to keep the ones I can actually get out of the box! Not only that, but obviously I will not be charged for the replacement and it was sent out today!

I couldn't be happier with this company. They are truly the essence of how people should run a business and I highly recommend purchasing your running products from them.

Habit Breaking

Hello my name is Robyn, and I've been nap-free for 5 days now. Tomorrow doesn't look promising for one either.

I cannot believe it. First of all, I'm actually sleeping at night now, even with Junior crawling all over me, chewing on a bone on top of my back and what not. But I actually seem to get things done during the day...imagine that?

I hope this behavior continues....ok but weekends are still acceptable napping days.

What the....?

Last night, I came home and Junior was extremely excited to see me, per the usual. When he's excited and hyper, he'll grab something and run around the apartment trying to get me to chase him. It can be anything: a sock, a bone, a ball, underwear, etc. Doesn't really matter, but he does have a knack for grabbing things that seem to be somewhat important....then he knows it'll get my attention for sure!

Usually, I don't mind and give in and play: "Oh Junior, you don't know how badly I want to chase you around the apartment just to get that disgusting bone you've been chewing on for weeks! Here I come!!"

So, when he proceeded to play the chase game, I thought, alright, I'll let him bait me for a second. But then I was so hungry, I didn't want to chase and I just wanted to make my dinner. Well, Junior didn't like this. He jumped around, ran at me, trying to get me to chase him. Finally, I thought "He must have something pretty important if he's continuing to do this".

And so the chase began.

I got smart and decided to try to barter with a treat. Well, he wanted no part of that! Because what he had was so much better: dirty, slightly crispy, and most important of all - Mom wanted it back.

Eventually, his dog instincts kicked in and it was like I was holding a large steak...Junior thought "TREAT!!!!" And he dropped the thing he had been ripping apart. And there it was:

I no longer want to claim this dog because I would NEVER condone ruining money. Even if it was a dollar. Alas, I woke up this morning to two large, brown puppy dog eyes and I couldn't help but laugh :)

Rockstar Status

So yesterday I had a paper and presentation due. Guess when I started it? Sunday at 10pm. I know I know...probably not the most appropriate time to even starting my research for it. But as I mentioned earlier (I think), I feel like I'm in a time warp. I feel like I go to bed one night, and wake up days later, with nothing accomplished. I blame it on the shorter, winter days, but I can't blame them for much longer (thank goodness for that).

So back to Sunday night. It was the end of spring break, and as I did nothing productive over break (except train, eat, and sleep), there I sat with my laptop on the couch. Currently, my computer desk is covered by random things: mail (openend and unopened), empty gel packets, numerous HR monitors, water bottles (empty, and half full), etc. Not the best conditions for writing a paper. So I took my laptop to the living room. Then I realized I couldn't steal the neighbor's internet connection, so I was finally forced to set up our wireless, which I've been putting off for weeks because I thought it would be a hassle (Believe me, with the first two routers it was). So I guess the 3rd router was a charm...30 minutes later, we had wireless!

So now, it's nearly 11pm. I still had a paragraph I wasn't even sure I could use because I took it from a paper I had written last year (yes, on a related topic). I was finally ready to get something done. I was reading through books, looking up papers, and between Junior wanting me to throw his ball and emailing my sister about how I didn't want to write the paper (only to get responses back from her, doing the same thing I was), my roommate came home who I hadn't seen in days. We proceed to chat for about 20 minutes, until I realized it was approaching midnight. Cool. The last time I was up this late, I was either babysitting (so falling asleep at that) or attempting to revisit my college days of partying (but again, resisting the urge to fall asleep at the bar).

With everyone in the house in bed except me (probably the first time this has happened), I began actually writing something. Approximately 45 minutes pass and I had several hundred words on paper. Yes! However, this only equaled about a page and a half. And our minimum word limit was 4,000. I wasn't even sure I was writing coherent sentences because it was 1:15am. I do not function well after 10pm, and not at all after midnight. I called it quits, emailed sis to tell her I gave up for the night, and headed to bed.

I made sure to still get 7 hours of sleep. There was no sense in waking up extra early, just to sleep through the whole day and STILL not get the paper done. I came straight to work, coffee in hand, ready to work. I didn't even read my daily blogs. I checked email and got straight to work. I proceeded to write, complain, drink coffee, write, use the restroom, check email, complain, etc. for six straight hours. I was actually exhausted from SITTING. My eyes were strained, my fingers cramping up, and my butt was slightly numb. Similar to a 50+ mile ride...I would have taken the ride over the paper writing.

Finally, at 4pm, I finished. I didn't read it to see if it made sense, but dammit I had 3900-ish words and 14-ish pages. Yeah, not 4,000 but who's counting? I had exactly one hour until class and my roommate informed me she wouldn't be able to let Junior out for me, like we had planned. So I rushed home, literally was home for about 8.4 minutes, and jumped right back in the car. I made it to class 5 minutes late (the stairs slowed me down..my legs were still tired from last week). Another girl in the class was presenting before me, so I would have time to read over my paper before presenting (Note: our prof doesn't teach with powerpoint, I think he's the only one left in the universe, so I didn't feel it necessary to prepare a powerpoint presentation...aka I ran out of time). Well, said girl in class was late...later than I was. So, the prof said "Robyn, you're up!"

Robyn --> WHA?!?!?

Ok, no problem. I just got up and essentially read from my paper, like I was reading them in bulleted notes format, and added my thoughts and comments afterwards. All in all I spoke for an hour and 15 minutes (we were supposed to talk from :45-1:00...oops) and one of my classmates said he couldn't tell I was reading from my paper.

Afterwards, I found out I had until next week to turn the paper in. Great, I went thru all of that for NOTHING. I could have just stood up and presented, and written the paper later. But I'm glad its done. So now, I'll actually read it before I turn it in.

Lesson Learned: Start assignment much earlier than the day before it is due.
Thing Realized: I'm a rockstar.

Also, I'm giving a nutrition talk specific to triathletes tonight at Whole Foods! I'm pretty excited. Also, I started making up the presentation about 2 hours ago.....Maybe I didn't learn my lesson.

I'll be waiting

I'm just going to say it: I'm a rockstar today. I've been having pretty frustrating training this week and finally today I had a great run! My shins have been bothering me, and I had NO pain today. That was a positive all by itself. But also, it was pretty cold outside..right at freezing. That's not so bad, but add on 30 mph winds, and you've got yourself a good time.

Not only that, but it was SNOWING. Yes snowing in Memphis. But it wasn't just snowing...it was like small pieces of sharp ice blowing into my face at 30 mph. I'm pretty sure my face was bleeding. The bad thing was, I slightly overdressed so I was sweating. I think that made me colder.

But I felt GREAT. The whole time. I could have ran for hours. I didn't want to over do it, so I only added 5 minutes to my run. The awesome thing is, though, on my way back, a great song came on my ipod (can't remember what it was now, though) and I was running at a pretty fast pace for me, at a low HR, and I felt awesome. I felt like I was flying. I just had to smile and thank God for all he has given me.

I thought about all the people that wouldn't have chosen to train outside today. They probably thought "it's far too cold". On top of that, I got numerous stares at people thinking "That girl is CRAZY". Considering I was the only person out running, I guess I can see their point. Well, to all those athletes who chose the treadmill instead of outside, and to all those drivers who only wished they could be doing what I was: I'll be waiting at the finish line as you finish after me.

Is anyone else ready to race??

I'm getting antsy. Antsy to race. I've been reading blogs of race results and I'm jealous. I want to race. Show off what I've been doing for months now. Test the limits of myself. Go fast. Hurt. I want to hurt, and cross a finish line hurting. Not just hurt while doing an LT set on my bike. I want others to be hurting, while I pass them. Is this too much to ask??

March 29. My first race of the season. Yeah its only a little sprint down in Oxford, MS, but its a RACE. I cannot wait. 3 weeks from Saturday. I just need something different on a Saturday, rather than a long ride and quick run off the bike. I want a full blown triathlon. And I'm going to get it.....soon.

But for now, I have piles and piles of work to do. Probably won't get much sleep until Monday is over. Did I mention its Spring Break? And where am I? Working. Neat.

Bike fit

Once again I'm still alive. Just been super busy. Although I feel like I've gotten nothing accomplished...how is this possible?!

Training...let's see. Its been going pretty well. I felt amazing in the water yesterday. Very fresh. My run on Monday didn't go so hot. I was having asthma problems, and only ran a terribly slow 40 minutes instead of a good 1:30 long run. Oh well, coach says its ok for now.

I got fitted for my bike yesterday! Finally! I've had the thing for 2 years and never got properly fit for it. I learned so much. First off, I'm too tall for my bike. Neat. We tried to work around that as best as possible by making small changes everywhere else. So short of getting my legs shortened, which was mom's idea because it would be covered by insurance and therefore cheaper than buying a new bike (???????), I will have to make due with the changes made. I bought a new saddle because my sit bones are 155mm apart, and the widest part of my saddle I had was 143mm, or something ridiculous like that. So that explains why I wanted to cry every time I got off my bike, no matter the distance! Numerous other changes were made and all in all I'm much happier than I was. I rode this morning and it was pretty solid! I'm hoping it will increase my power output, too. We'll see how it goes for a few weeks and from there I'll have to figure something out. So if anyone wants to buy me a bike, email me and I'll tell you where to ship it ;) If I do not end up getting a new bike, then I'm definitely going to buy new peddles. Definitely.

Other than that, I'm tired, hungry, and a little sore. So....normal day. Peace out for now.