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.