Three Things Thursday

1. I started my half marathon training this week. I started on Monday with Yoga Mondays. It’s a new thing. I already love it. It’s really going to help me with stretching and feeling relaxed after trying to run all week! I’ve already done two runs and I didn’t do as bad as I thought I would after 23 days off from running. The first run was inside on the treadmill because it was raining after work. I almost skipped it and changed it to a Wed, Fri, Sun run schedule instead of Tues, Thurs, Sat, but I had plans on Wed night and I knew I’d be getting home late and I wouldn’t want to attempt a run then. So I did it. And I’m glad I did because it was the FIRST day of the plan. How much of a loser would I have been to slack of on the first day of my training plan? Geez?

2. I’m addicted to popcorn. After a fitblog chat on twitter a few weeks ago @Boston2Berkeley mentioned eating popcorn with chopsticks. I haven’t eaten popcorn without them since then. It’s fun. Seriously, try it! She also mentioned putting truffle salt on her popcorn. Me, when I think of truffles, I think chocolate. I jumped on that. Turns out, she meant mushrooms. Gross x100. Instead I seasoned mine with garlic and chili powder, with a dash of parm cheese. Holy popcorn magic. Again I stress: Seriously, try it!

I really love chopsticks though, so it was an easy sell.

3. My run was cold tonight. It was only about 55 degrees. Not freezing, but chilly. It actually hurt to breathe while running. Temps are dropping drastically tonight and I can only imagine how much colder it will be during training runs. I’ve never run in cold weather before. While I was training for my triathlon, I did everything on the treadmill until it got to spring and summer. But I can’t do that this time. I need the training on the outside, at least once a week because the half marathon isn’t going to be on a treadmill. I wonder how hard it will be to race 13.1 miles in warm weather in Florida in February after training in winter temps in Massachusetts. Any ideas on how to deal with this?

Three Things Thursday

1. It’s around that time of the month when pizza and chocolate make me happy. I came home today craving pizza for dinner. I knew I had some frozen ones in the freezer so I didn’t bother ordering out & spending $20 on a pizza. When I got home all I had was Kashi. Apparently I was feeling “healthy” when I picked out a pizza from the Natural Foods section of the store.

Frozen.

After pulling it out of the package I was less excited about having pizza for dinner. But under no circumstances can you not have pizza when you have been craving pizza all day. I decided to give it a try and if it sucked, I’d call & order a pizza.

Cooked

It wasn’t amazing, but it wasn’t as horrible as I thought it would be. It was okay, but definitely not satisfying.  And of course, as soon as I finished eating, I saw a commercial for Papa Gino’s. Their pizza looked better. Murphy’s Law at it’s best.

2. I haven’t been on my bike in 28 days. I have been so focused on running and getting in the lake to swim that I’ve slacked on the biking. I’ve done the stationary bike at the gym and I’ve done spinning classes, but I haven’t been on my bike at all in 28 days. That’s pretty crap. If it weren’t for Hurricane Irene blasting us this weekend, I’d plan a ride to get back into it. But speaking of spinning, I love it. I have done it in the past and haven’t really been that into it. Now, though, I love it and can’t wait til my next class. I’m hoping they’ve been keeping my legs strong enough to survive on the bike.

3. Since starting all this race business, I’ve never experienced a race cancellation. I’ve heard of other races being cancelled or rescheduled with no refunds, but it hasn’t happened to me. Until now. I was planning on doing the Tavern to Tavern 5K on Sunday, but due to the impending hurricane, it has been rescheduled for September 4th. I’m going away that weekend and can’t make it. It sucks because there are no refunds so I can’t get my money back and, of course, I can’t go either. I’ve been monitoring how they’ve been handling this on twitter and whoever is organizing this race has been unnecessarily rude to the participants who are, understandably, upset about the change in date. Being a holiday weekend, lots of people already have plans, myself included. I figured I’d just lose out on the money so I didn’t contact them about a refund, but some people have and they were met with rude responses and sarcastic remarks.

For your viewing pleasure, just a few convos:

Yikes!!

That's almost as good as a 3 year old stomping their feet and crying when someone blames them for something.

Apparently these guys were absent the day that they were teaching people how to attract participants to your race and not alienate them by being an uncooperative and unsympathetic. Nice job Tavern in the Square. Thanks for the invite to next year’s race, but I think I’ll stick with organizations that are not rude to participants. I’ve already dealt with sarcastic nitwits sponsoring races this year. My quota is already filled. 

Three Things Thursday

1. Today, I biked. And you’re never gonna guess where, so I’m going to tell you. I biked through Creepyville. And I survived!

I know I said I would never, ever, ever bike there again, but it looked fairly safe today with lots of activity going on, so I went for it.

I guess the rail trail club rides the tracks during the week. I had to hop off the trail to let them pass at one point.

I knew I wanted to do more than 6 miles and I didn’t feel like going into town and back twice. I thought Creepyville was 6 or 8 miles one way, but it was only 3, so I went the other way into town as well. Once I got there I decided to get myself an ice cream. Actually, I won’t lie, I stopped to get money out of my car as I passed it, so it was a premeditated ice cream stop.

My mom pouted at me when I told her about my ice cream stop.
You snooze you lose, sister!!

I sat along the docks and enjoyed this view as I ate my ice cream.

Even though I survived Creepyville, I was still uneasy the whole time. The second I set foot (technically wheels, HA!) on my usual route, I was more relaxed and actually enjoyed it. There are more sites and pretty things to look at on the route into town.

2. I decided along this bike ride that I do not like Nuun. Actually I had decided it twice before, but I tried it again today. I’ve given it the good ‘ol college try and I just can’t do it. It reminds me of Airborne or Emergen-C. The effervescent fizz is what gets me. It’s not carbonated, there’s just some fizz left over from the alka-seltzer-like creation that makes me gag. I’ve tried letting it sit out to get all the fizz out and throwing it in the fridge to make it super cold. I just can’t do it. So I have half a tube of Pink Lemonade and an unopened tube of Lemon Tea. If anyone wants it, please let me know.

3. Tomorrow I have big plans to bring a huge-ass iced coffee down to the beach early in the morning. Drink it while drinking in the beauty of the lake (see what I did there?) and enjoy the peace and quiet of the beach before all the families arrive for the day. Then I’ll go for a swim, dry off, maybe get some sun, get back up to the house and shower all before noon (hopefully). Then I’ll spend the afternoon at the outlets! And possibly a pedicure.  That’s my idea of a rest day before my Chunky Dunk Duathlon on Saturday.

Three Things Thursday

...in the nick of time too!


And now I’ve apparently made this a regular thing. Whatevs.

1. Is it wrong to have a smoothie for breakfast and a smoothie for lunch? I don’t mean a protein smoothie either. I mean frozen fruit and milk and a spoonful of peanut butter. And by spoonful I mean large quantity of peanut butter, because that's how I roll. There’s protein in that right? Right. Yesterday, I was not hungry for anything except for smoothies. I knew I should up the ante and add some protein, but I didn’t have any and I don’t know what kind to get and honestly, I feel like protein shakes and/or smoothies are things that only body builders drink. Am I wrong? Apparently I am. After my day of “smoothie” meals, I attempted a run. I was shaky and could barely finish it. I apparently hadn’t fueled well. I mean besides the smoothies, I had a small wrap with romaine lettuce and a small amount of chicken in it. I barely ate anything all day and expected to be able to perform the same as I have before. I kind of answered my own question there. Don't worry, today was National Junk Food Day. I totally made up for my lack of food intake yesterday! 

2. Last night I also had dinner at a co-workers house. Her daughter worked in my classroom last year, but she’s moved on to be a Wellness Counselor with Herbalife. She and her team did an assessment for me and showed me things that I was interested in (such as protein powders) and suggested some things that might help me out with my training. They have meal replacement smoothies, protein powder, energy drinks, protein bars, meal bars, etc. Whatever meets your needs as an athlete, they probably have. But the difference between Herbalife and other products out there is that Herbalife is all-natural and doesn’t have the added sugars that other products on the market have. Or so they say. I ordered Formula 1, which is a meal replacement shake and Personalized Protein which is just more protein to add to smoothies or the Formula 1.  The idea is to have 2 meal replacement shakes and a “colorful meal”. Not kidding, that’s what they called it. Given my experience yesterday with 2 smoothies before running, providing me with NO fuel, I’m hesitant. Plus, I’m not looking to replace meals. I’m looking to add protein to my morning smoothies or maybe after a hard workout. I might only replace one meal. Or I might replace breakfast and dinner and have my “colorful” meal for lunch to fuel up. I don’t know yet. I’ll see how it goes once I get my order. If you are interested or have any questions regarding the product, contact Brittany on her Facebook page.

3. Today I did my first training swim at Hopkinton State Park where my triathlon in September is being held. It was well over 90 degrees today and I just couldn’t fathom going to the gym to swim in an overcrowded pool. When I got to the park, I found the area where the swim starts. It starts with next to the boat docks, behind the boathouse. There was a huge sign that said “No Swimming”. Awesome. I asked someone at the boathouse if I could swim the triathlon route or if it was only allowed on race days. The girl I spoke to was about as helpful as a box of rocks. She said, “Oh, I’m not sure, I’m not with the park, I’m with the boat house”. I asked “You do realize where this boat house is located right?” I got a blank stare. I think she lost a few more brain cells just trying to figure it out. After asking around a little bit I was told that swimming was allowed in the swimming areas.  Well that’s good. Since I couldn’t seem to get a straight answer, I just went for it. It was really windy and the water was really choppy. I was tempted to not swim, but it was so warm out and I was already there, and I wanted to get in and just swim! I swam over to the beach in just about 10 minutes. I had to switch my breathing side because the waves were coming at me from the right and I kept breathing in water. On the way back from the beach, the wind picked up and I felt like I was fighting bears and going nowhere in the water. The waves were crazy! It took me 16 minutes to get back. Let’s hope there’s no wind on race day!  When I got home and out of my bathing suit, I saw that it was brown on the inside. It was white when I bought it. It was white after my pool swims. It was white after my lake swims. It was white when I put it on today. A 26-minute swim at Hopkinton State Park and it’s brown.  I think I’ll be saving my open water swims for the lake in NH.

Three Things Thursday

So I know I said previously that I don’t usually do these things, but here it is, my second one. Maybe it will become a semi regular thing. Honestly I just have random things to say and it happens to be Thursday. Lucky me.

1. Yesterday I completed week 4 day 1 of the Couch 2 5K program. For those of you who don’t know what that means, it is:

3 minutes of running

1.5 minutes of walking

5 minutes of running

2.5 minutes of walking

3 minutes of running

1.5 minutes of walking

5 minutes of running.

I did it on my first try. 

I had a hard time with Week 3 in the program. I couldn’t seem to get over the 3 minutes running hurdle. It was completely mental for me. I had decided that I couldn’t do it. So I couldn’t.  Finally, last weekend, I decided that I wasn’t going to get off the treadmill until I ran 3 full minutes. I had plans later that night so there was my motivation. I did it on the first try. Later that week as I did it again, I thought to myself. If I can do 3 minutes, I’ll be able to do 5 minutes. That set the stage for me. I was tired towards the end of the second 5 minutes, but I kept going. I’m proud of myself. I haven’t been able to get past week 3 in any of the times I’ve tried to do C25K previously, so this is a big deal for me. I’m still having problems with running outside, so I’m continuing on the treadmill until I can build up my endurance, then I’ll slowly start to switch to outside running, and hope that it works! Having the confidence in knowing that I can do this on the treadmill is what is keeping me going. I have a 5K this weekend in New Hampshire. I’m going to see how long I can run at a time. I need to get over this outside running hurdle and hopefully I’ll feel better about this running business. 

2. One of my co-workers had an amazing looking salad the other day and she filled me in on a little secret. Her salad dressing wasn’t dressing at all; It was lemon juice. I’m not kidding. It’s true. Lemon juice. One of my favorite salads is a family recipe for Caesar Salad and one of the ingredients for the dressing is lemon juice. But I had never thought of JUST using lemon juice. I made a salad tonight and I put lemon juice on it. I didn’t realize how much I would love this.

Yum. 

3. I went for a bike ride today through Northborough. About 2 miles in, I wanted to turn around and go home. My butt was hurting. Not bike seat wise, but my outer hip/glute area. It felt fatigued, and the muscles were burning. I don’t know if it’s still tired from the monster hill bike ride I did last weekend, or if my body was just tired from yesterday’s 5 minute intervals of running. Either way. I started thinking that I should have taken a rest day, or I shouldn’t be pushing my body this much, and I have a 5K this weekend, I don’t need to be making myself more tired, etc. Many random quitting thoughts kept flowing through my mind. Even though I remembered that the beginning part of the route was pretty much uphill, and after I hit the 3 mile mark it would switch to flat and downhill for the rest of the way of the loop, I still wanted to turn around and go home. I finally convinced myself that it was okay for me to cut my bike ride short, just as soon as I hit the top of the hill I was on. Then I’d turn around and go back. For some reason I kept going. I had even slowed and pulled slightly over onto a side street. But I just let myself keep rolling. It was downhill at that point and happened to be the area of the loop where it descended to the end. By the time I got to the bottom of that one hill, I told myself that if I wanted to turn around now, I’d have to go right back up that hill I came down.  I kept going. The rest of the ride was fine and my legs seemed to finally warm up a bit. I was still tired and I didn’t push myself at all, but I was thinking about the last time I did the loop and I tried to remember my time. I figured after a few more months of training, I’d have improved a bit. I was excited to see what the results were. I was a full minute slower than I was when I did this loop back in May. I should be getting better, not worse! Even though I finished it, I don’t feel good about it. I guess we all have our off days.

Three Things Thursday

I’ve seen several of my running/tri-ing/blogging friends do a Three Things Thursday post, and while normally it’s not my thing, today it is. And luckily, it’s Thursday.

1. I cannot believe tomorrow is July 1st. I signed up for a 50 mile running challenge in July via dailymile. I know some of the bloggers that I read regularly average 50 miles in a week, but for me 50 miles in a month is a challenge! Hence the name, I guess. Two people calculated the work it would take. Here are my options: 1.6/miles a day; 16 plus 3 mile runs; 4 miles 3 times a week or 3 miles 4 times a week, plus a little extra. Whichever I choose, I need to make sure I average around 12.5 miles a week to make sure I don’t end up with too many miles to get done during the last week. I also need to remind myself that it’s a challenge, not a life or death situation. I will try, but if I don’t finish the full 50 miles, I will not beat myself up about it. (That was more of a message to me, than to you!) Also, please join me in the challenge if you’re interested!

2. This weekend, I will be doing my first open water swim for my training. I grew up swimming in lakes and oceans and I was even certified as a lifeguard while solely swimming in a lake. So I’m not nervous at all. I’m excited to figure out how much my time differs from lap swimming. I just need to find some poor soul to kayak next to me while I swim in case I get a foot cramp (which happens often) and need to hang onto something to work it out. I seriously cannot wait to get into that lake!

My anticipated training route from one beach to another.
About the same distance as my triathlon.

3. I went to EMS in Marlborough today. I wanted to check out their selection of bike shorts. I also decided to get a new helmet once I spotted a pretty blue one. My bike helmet is over 15 years old and is missing a tabby thing inside. So it wasn’t just an impulse buy. I needed a new one eventually. Why not now? I perused the cycling area looking for a few other things I needed, like a pump that I can take with me on rides, replacement tubes in case I get a flat tire (even though I have no idea how to change one!) and an all in one tool thingy that does fancy stuff. I talked with a very helpful salesman named Stephen who explained how to change a flat tire and how to use all the fancy stuff on my all in one tool thingy. We talked for a long time and he gave me some great tips on biking and eased my mind about a lot of things. I also sought out some cool water shoes/sandals by Keen, which I tried on but didn’t buy because I didn’t like the colors they had in the store (black), but I might buy online.

I discovered this shoe when one of my 3 year olds wore it to school.
I wish they made a lot more "kids" shoes in adult sizes. Thank you Keen!

Then I talked to the manager, Caroline, about the differences between gels and bars and chomps and gummies and all that stuff. She knew a lot about them and was able to help me make an educated guess as to what I might and might not like. I definitely feel more confident about all that energy stuff than I have in the past. As I was checking out, I was mentioning who helped me in the store and realized that I had gotten help from every single clerk in the store. Go me! They were all awesome and if you’re in the area, you should think of EMS for all your sports needs.

I spent 2 hours in the store. I have a weakness for sports items
and office supplies. The day they ever combine a store to
carry both sports gear and office supplies, I'm screwed.

Me and my sassy new helmet. I'm a dork, I know.

I’m so excited for the long weekend! Lots of training mixed with lots of relaxation!