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March 30, 2009

Busy Bee (or B.)

I have been a busy lady these days, I will tell you what. Having two jobs and driving around in crazy snow storms is very time consuming! Oh and there is training which is definitely increasing every week. I just calculated the amount of training I am supposed to do this week and it came out to roughly 17.5 hours. Holy cats, that is a lot! I think it may be the biggest training week I have ever done but I am not sure as my record keeping last year was not ideal. One reason why my training weeks take so much time is that my swimming is still somewhat slow. Frankly I am a bit annoyed by it! With rest and everything it takes me about an hour to swim a 3000 meter workout. I think that is kind of a long time, I may see if I can meet with my coach to get some technique pointers. I have tri camp in early June but I want to improve before then. I may be somewhat obsessed, but hey, that is what triathletes do!

Anyway once again I have slacked on the blog. At this point I think if I can blog once a week at minimum I will be pretty happy. So that is my new goal. Sometimes it is best to under-promise and over-deliver in my opinion. Or promise realistically and hope to meet your promises, or something like that.

So training is awesome. I love it. I think I must have some type of mental issue to enjoy working out this much! However last week was great and I think my cycling is progressing really well. Running is still annoying me but I think once I can start doing real speed workouts I will get faster. We had a crazy blizzard on Thursday so that was interesting, luckily I planned around it pretty well and didn't have to miss any workouts. I did go to the gym for a quick workout at 11:30 when everything seemed fine, and by the time I left it was a huge disaster, so that was surprising! It took me 90 minutes to drive 7 miles, it was pretty bad. These are the worst road conditions I've driven in for a while. A lot of cars just spun out going uphill. Some of this was due to road conditions and some was due to people being stupid but whatever.

Luckily due to the awesomeness of Colorado by the time I ran Saturday morning the trail was almost clear. It helps that the trail I ran on is in a ritzy area so they drive a truck along it to facilitate snow melt but still it was pretty awesome! I had an incredibly frustrating tempo run during which I was running about a minute per mile slower than I thought I should. But I am used to that :) It was great being outside in the snow, we have had snow on the ground so rarely this year!

Yesterday I got to have brunch with some friends (brunch is my favorite meal EVER, it was awesome!!), and then went for a ride in Boulder with Matt and Michelle. They did two hours and I had 2:30 plus a 30 minute run, so I met them in town (we had parked kind of northeast of downtown Boulder) and that allowed me to add on an extra 30 minutes on the bike. I then had a super annoying brick run wherein my heart rate was going insane. Like I felt like I was practically walking and it was impossible to get it under 157. What the heck! I think I was just reacting to not taking in enough calories on the bike but who knows. Anyway the ride was awesome and the weather was great so that was just a fabulous day! After my run, I also had the best tasting cheeseburger EVER. It was so freaking delicious. I am sure I was just really, really, really hungry but it was absolutely amazing. I think that anything would have tasted really good based on my insane hunger pangs, but that just blew my mind. Even thinking about it now is making me really nostalgic!

This morning when I woke up it was snowing again (hello, very late winter, what the heck!!) and I headed to the gym for a 3000m moderate swim. It was so fun! I love swimming outside in the snow. I am getting the most outrageous swimsuit tan lines already. I can only imagine what they'll look like in a few months. I was thinking about a lunchtime run but I had an 11:00 meeting that ran long and then I was so hungry that I just had to eat lunch. I am heading over to my old personal trainer's for lifting after work and I may run afterwards but I may just wait till tomorrow when I should have more time. I desperately need to go grocery shopping so I think that may take priority over a workout.

And that is about all the news today. Things are looking good, life is awesome! Keep it positive, friends :)

Posted by barb at 3:43 PM | Comments (2)

March 23, 2009

Good and Bad

I have not been that bad about blogging but I have not been awesome. Some of both, some good some bad. Most of life is like that in my opinion, and hopefully we can all have an excess on the positive side. I think for the most part I do, so I feel lucky about that! But enough philosophical whatnot. I am going to list out some good and bad stuff that has been up over the last few days.

- Good - I rode outside 4 out of 4 days last week! That was awesome!
- Good - I had people to ride with on every ride but one.
- Bad - (don't tell my coach please) When I ride with people sometimes I get out of my heart rate zones.
- Good - the weather was AMAZING last week. Yesterday it was 79 degrees.
- Bad - warm, dry weather is very very bad for my allergies. They are truly horrendous this year. Last night I barely slept because my throat and eyes were so itchy and I was so congested.
- Good - I got some allergy medication at Costco yesterday. It is helping a lot so far today.
- Good - my running is feeling less and less awful! Sometimes my gait and pace feel positively normal.
- Good - I got to ride with the MAO ladies on Saturday. They are awesome!!
- Good - I might start going to the Masters group two of my MAO teammates are in. I should be able to get some great tips on form, technique, etc.
- Good - the weather is supposed to cool off a ton this week which should help the allergy situation.
- Bad - the weather is supposed to cool off a ton this week which is bad for my riding outside streak :)
- Good - if I do have to ride inside a bunch I have several more episodes of Gossip Girl to watch, hooray!
- Bad - due to the sleep situation I did not get up in time to swim this morning.
- Good - I have time to go at lunch, awesome!
- Good - I get to go to brunch with some friends this Sunday! Brunch is my favorite meal ever.
- Good - I am finally nearing the home stretch on Bleak House. This is an 850ish page novel by Charles Dickens that I have been reading since November. I just want to finish!
- Good - I am loving training right now! I finished every workout on my scheduled last week and yesterday afternoon I felt like I could do one more workout of everything. I did not actually do that, because that would be stupid, but it is great to know my volume is pretty high right now and I feel good!

Would you look at that... I think either my outlook is very rosy or the good heavily outweighs the bad in my life right now, which is awesome!! All this in spite of the fact that my head is a foggy, sleep deprived mess. Not bad for a Monday. I hope you are finding a positive balance in your life today too!

Posted by barb at 9:34 AM | Comments (0)

March 17, 2009

Almost made it a week...

As I am sure you have noticed, I blogged faithfully for five days in a row last week but stopped cold on Saturday. I thought about my blog fondly on Saturday and wished I had time for it, but sadly I was so busy that I didn't even have time to boot up my computer!

Here is my Saturday schedule:
- 7:00 wakeup
- Get breakfast and coffee
- Drive to CMS, Boulder
- Text for 5 minutes while waiting for Ryan (my bike shop boss)
- 8:00 - Run 1:23 with Ryan. Luckily my coach does not read my blog, um the pace was slightly faster than it should have been, my heart rate was a bit higher than my target, whoops! I also realized a day or two later how hilly the run was, my legs hurt!
- 9:30 - Trot over to Whole Foods and get fruit, Greek yogurt (my new obsession), and a zucchini muffin.
- Walk back to CMS and sell CU tri team some stuff for their ride.
- 10:15 - shower next door. Not exactly my gym, where are the hair dryer and straightener??
- 10:30 - 5:30 - work. I am feeling so much more confident talking to customers now. That is awesome!! I also did a lot of filing, and took a field trip to the warehouse in North Boulder. That was fun.
- 5:30 - leave work, get a burrito for the drive to Denver. I was STARVING. I love burritos, it was so good.
- 6:15 - almost back home. Have a strange desire for a McFlurry. I have not been to McDonalds in months, but I go through the drive through for an Oreo McFlurry. Wow, it was really good!!
- 6:30 - shower, dry and straighten bangs. Talk my brother into going to Matt's for the St Patty's Day party.
- 7:20 - arrive at party. Have fun. Chat. Do not eat any party food because I am stuffed from my burrito and McFlurry!
- 9:20 - leave party. Exhausted. Need to go home and watch a Gossip Girl because I am obsessed.
- 9:45 - watch a Gossip Girl. I am so freaking obsessed with this show, what is wrong with me?!
- 10:30 - pass out in my bed.

That was a very long day. As you can see I guess the only time I would have had for blogging would have interfered with watching Gossip Girl which is not okay!

Sunday was not quite as bad but it was pretty intense and I had a long ride which always makes me kind of sleepy afterwards. I woke up at 6:35 (this is like a thing with me now, it is really hard for me to sleep any later than that!) and went to the pool for a short (2500m) swim. It was fun, I had a nice long pull set which I always enjoy. I think I did an extra 50 but whatever. Then I got breakfast, went grocery shopping, and got ready to ride. It was a perfect day for riding except for a bit of a head wind. I rode 2:30 which was nice, I found a great ride that is almost exactly that time. I had to add on riding around the neighborhood for literally a minute to get to 2:30. Then I went shopping with Michelle, we had a coupon and I was dying for work clothes. After that I headed home and vegged out watching more Gossip Girl for a few hours. Yes I am obsessed!

I have to get into work at 7:30 all week so this week is stressing me out with workouts and everything. I don't really like doing stuff at lunchtime but I dislike waking up before 6:00 am even more so given the choice I am doing a bunch of lunchtime stuff. Yesterday I swam at lunch and then did my long run and lifted after work. I am getting to the point in training where I am constantly starving so I spent a lot of my long run thinking about food. Mostly cheeseburgers. I really love cheeseburgers! I also lifted and it was nice to get that out of the way.

Today's plan is a swim at lunch (either 3000 or 3500, I haven't decided) and then a tempo ride after work. I brought my bicycle so I am heading out straight from here which should work out well. Then I will be getting Tokyo Joe's for dinner, I can't wait!! Yes I am very food focused right now but they have this awesome thing which is a brown rice bowl with tofu and veggies and really good sauce. Healthy and delicious, I love it! And now I am off to get some work done before my swim...

Posted by barb at 8:11 AM | Comments (0)

March 13, 2009

Is this what normal people do?!

I am having such a weird but good day so far. And now I wonder to myself, what do normal people do with all their free time?!? Today I took a shower before work - and I was not sweaty and gross, so that was weird!! - and I actually had time to put on makeup! I think my colleagues can hardly recognize me. Today at lunch I have no workouts to do so I think I am going to go shopping. I know triathlon is a very expensive sport but I do think that if I didn't do tris I would probably spend more money since I would go shopping whenever I was bored!

Yesterday was a pretty big workout day to make up for my day of rest today. I ran, lifted, swam, and biked. Holy cats!! And somehow I also had time to work for 8 hours, watch three episodes of Gossip Girl (I watched 2.2 of them on the bike so I guess that doesn't really count), and have dinner with my friend Nicole which was super fun. I also introduced my brother and his girlfriend to the fabulous world of Gossip Girl so that was great. I just love that show.

My IT band is feeling better today and I think a day of rest and foam rolling will restore it to its former self in no time. So that is awesome. Which is HUGE since I am busting out my long run tomorrow morning with my bike shop boss, and I do not want to gimp around! This is business time, running with a pro triathlete who is also my part time boss!!

It has been freezing all week but this weekend the weather is going to make a change for the warmer which is also awesome. I have spent a lot of quality time on my trainer so far but I am going to be riding a real bicycle outside again Sunday which will be fabulous.

In other news I sent in my registration for the Boulder MAO Tri Camp yesterday, I am so excited!!! Beth is coming to Colorado - for the first time I believe - for it which is going to be awesome, we have been blogging friends for years but we have never met in person. I think she will love Boulder and want to move there which is awesome too! It is a funny idea, I will be 31 when I go to camp and it seems weird to go to camp as a person in my thirties, but this will be different from the girl scout camps I went to when I was a kid. Hopefully there will be no boring craft times. Actually I have seen the agenda and I would be shocked if there was anything lame going on. It is going to be great!

That is about all for today, I am going to make myself a snack and then head out for some leisurely rest day shopping!

Posted by barb at 9:11 AM | Comments (1)

March 12, 2009

four day streak, making a day off

Well I am so proud of myself right now. Four days of blogging in a row, that is right!! Awesome! I think sometimes I just feel that I have nothing of importance to say, but I mean really, how many millions of people have blogs? I bet a few of them write even more boring random stuff than me :) At least I have a theme! Then again my theme is running in principle but now I am a tri chick so um I guess I have a misguided theme.

So here is the deal with training. Overall it is awesome. My tempo runs are now down to a 9:00 pace which is huge!! A month ago my tempo pace (this is all based on heart rate) was 10:00 at the best. I think I can get it down to 8:00 pace within another month or two. I feel kind of like a spaz when I am doing tempo runs because every time there is a downhill I have to SPRINT, and then when the inevitable uphill comes I start jogging kind of like a senior citizen. But whatever, I am improving and that is a totally awesome feeling!! I did a 50 minute tempo run yesterday and it felt so good to run faster.

In somewhat bad news I appear to have tweaked my IT Band. I blame my overzealous lifting on Monday, I did some Romanian Dead Lifts (it sounds way cooler than it is, it is just a different exercise to work the hamstrings) and ever since then my IT Band has felt kind of weird. I am going to see how it progresses over the next two days with a lot of foam rolling, stretching, and other rehab, but worst case I will get in to see my PT next week. I hope it gets better quick, though - I have a long run Saturday and I really want to do it, I am running with the guys I work with at the bike shop and they are super cool so I do not want to be the lame injured chick.

Due to my IT Band weirdness and general fatigue I have made the executive decision that I should take a day off from training. Usually I do not have days off because with 14 workouts, I need all seven days! However, this week I feel that I could really benefit from a day off so I am squishing three workouts in today. Then tomorrow I will have a day off. Which is going to be great! I am going to sleep in until 7:00, go to lunch, hang out with Bodie, and have all kinds of lazy fun. I am not a huge day off person just due to lots of reasons (potential OCD, only so many hours in the days for training, etc.), but sometimes I think they are very beneficial. My friend Robb who used to be a professional cyclist swears by them. So here's to you, Robb!

Of course this means that tomorrow I will REALLY stretch to find something to blog about, but I think I can do it! Have a great day all!!

Posted by barb at 8:34 AM | Comments (2)

March 10, 2009

welcome back, winter!

Well so far I am 2 for 2 as far as days blogging this week. And who doesn't love a streak?! I am going to do my best to keep it up.

I woke up (at 5:40, ouch!) this morning, and was surprised as I do not follow the weather very much, to find about an inch of snow on my car. It was so pretty! We have had such a mild and dry winter this year, I keep waiting for the snow to fall. It is nice right now, when it happens I am not annoyed as I am when it happens once a week. Of course my new super short commute also helps, it is really nice not having to deal with the highways when the roads are bad! Anyway I got up super early today because I wanted to get my long swim out of the way, instead of having it loom at me from a three workout day on Thursday. I just do not know how I could manage three long workouts in one day when I have to work so I have been moving things around a bit. It was only 19 degrees out when I got to the gym so I convinced myself to start in the indoor pool... um, that was a mistake! I just hate that pool. It is way too warm. I got through my warmup and my mixed stroke 50s inside and then I just had to go outside. And it was so nice! I love how the steam rising from the pool looks when it's cold out. I was the only person in the pool for a while and I guess it was a little creepy since it was still so dark but I was having an awesome time. I busted out my 5 by 500 and felt really surprisingly good. I am still not sure what is up with my swimming right now but I'll take it!

So that was this morning. I have a tempo ride on tap for this evening, luckily I have a totally awesome BFF who lent me Season 1 of Gossip Girl! I was running out of TV shows but now I am stocked up for what I have calculated to be about 13 hours of quality melodramatic but awesome trainer riding. Which is good since I don't think I'll be able to get outside on my bicycle until Sunday and I have 4 hours of riding to do before then.

Last night I did a one hour run which was nice although it was SO WINDY. I was freezing, it was like 44 degrees out when I started so I didn't take a coat and I almost wore shorts. That would have been bad! I also lifted so that is always fine. While I was finishing up one of the personal trainers introduced himself and offered me a few free sessions, so I think I might do that. I feel kind of bad though, there is only so much money I am going to spend on sports and I know he thinks he is going to sell me on regular appointments which is totally not going to happen. But I figure if he's got the free time he may as well help a sister out once or twice! That should be fun, it is always good to have different stuff to do instead of my normal routine.

Anyway that is about all for now, back to the grind!

Posted by barb at 8:56 AM | Comments (0)

March 9, 2009

fabulosity

I am not sure if the title for my post today is a real word, but I do think I've seen it used before, so I'm going with it! Anyway I think it is a cute word, and it does express my general feelings on life today. And that's in spite of the fact that I woke up at 6:35 am which is kind of like waking up at 5:35 am due to the time change. So basically life is awesome!!

And let me tell you why. There has been so much going on and I have been such a bad blogger that I am going to use the shotgun approach to talk about everything that's happened in the past many weeks. And then I am going to try to blog once a day for the next week so that I am not in this sad state again!!

Here are the recent happenings:
- Wow, my swimming is going so well. I am super excited about it! Last Friday I had a really fun little set during which I did 8 100's that descended from 1:49 to 1:41. My pool is 25 meters so the times are not as slow as they appear to people who swim in 25 yard pools, and I was really happy with them! My all time 100m PR is 1:37, so I am getting close! I just felt really smooth and awesome too, which is not rare for me but it is a nice surprise when it happens. I had one swim last week where the swim team was in every other lane and I was in a side lane (those get more turbulence, I am convinced) and it just felt awful. It was like swimming in open water without the buoyancy of a wetsuit, blah! So it was a relief to have an awesome swim two days later.
- The weather has been UNREAL. Seriously. Yesterday it was 65 degrees, only a little windy, basically perfect for riding. Oh except for the gnats. When I got back it was so gross, my sports bra (so somehow they got through my jersey) was covered with bugs. I felt like a human windshield! Anyway I had such a nice swim and ride yesterday, both outdoors. I feel like it is much easier every week to keep my heart rate under control while swimming, riding, and even running at a normal pace, so that is huge.
- I must be insane because I am so happy that the volume in my training is increasing. I think I am addicted to training. There must be a twelve step program somewhere out there for me. I need to learn how to make Eggs Benedict, my favorite brunch food, because soon I will not be able to go to brunch as I will be riding through it!
- I am having a ton of fun working at the bike shop. I just ordered a sweet new bicycle. It is going to be awesome!!
- I love being on the Mark Allen Online Elite Team. My teammates are so cool. We are doing a ride for the local ladies a week from Saturday, it should be great! Even though the team is 'virtual' I feel a great sense of cameraderie with my teammates, and I know they are all doing the same work I am, so I do not feel like a big weirdo for training all the time. Also we get sweet gear. I bought two pairs of Descente shorts (I desperately needed more shorts), and they are fabulous. I also just ordered a pair of Oakley shades, I cannot wait! They are super stylin' and they are polarized which I think is going to blow my mind. Hopefully I will do the team proud this year with some awesome results.
- It has been so long since I have blogged that I do not think I had even announced that I decided to do the Longhorn 70.3 in Austin, TX. I was not sure about Clearwater - even if I qualified I wasn't sure if I wanted to go - but I did want to do another 70.3. I have never been to Austin but it's pretty affordable to fly there from Denver and it sounds like a great town. I am super excited! My season will be about a month longer this year than last which I am very happy about. Last year I felt like I trained a lot for a very short season. This year I am trying to extend it so that it is not so anti-climactic.
- Thanks to Beth my nutrition is totally awesome now. I actually eat fruits and vegetables all the time. I am shocked by how much better I feel, it has been really noticeable. I am not sure if this is a testament to the new nutrition so much as it is demonstrative of how bad my nutrition was before!

That is about all. I will see how I do with this goal of blogging every day this week. Hopefully I will succeed, luckily I do love setting goals and trying to achieve them!

Posted by barb at 9:35 AM | Comments (1)