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February 29, 2008

Happy Leap Year!

So did anyone do anything exciting today with their one extra special day that only comes around every 4 years? I didn't really. But a couple of us at work did celebrate by going to a different cafeteria for lunch today. (I work in a HUGE hospital and there about about 5 different places you can eat) I usually bring my lunch but today I treated myself by buying my lunch. Chili and cornbread. YUM! I LOVE me some cornbread!

Regardless, it was around lunch time that I noticed that it was REALLY snowing outside and the roads were starting to look a little sketchy. Fast forward a couple hours later when I was trying to drive home and the roads were REALLY sketchy. It took quite a while to get home and there was one scary period where I didn't think I was going to make it up the big hill to our town. Luckily they weren't allowing cars to go down the hill so I coaxed my car over to the other lane to get some traction on fresh snow and it worked. Needless to say, I am really glad I ran this morning before all this snow started to fall!

I drove directly to the YMCA after work preparing myself for the fact that it might be closed (roads were getting worse and worse) and that I might have to do my lift tomorrow. But I was in luck! Still open and just as I was finishing the last set of my last exercise the manager came around to tell everyone they were going to close in a couple minutes. Perfect timing!

I came home to find one husband shoveling like a mad-man (he later gave up realizing that while it was still coming down so hard, shoveling was a little pointless) and one WILD dog. Roxy's cabin fever continues (although we did bring her on our run this morning). She was hilarious in the snow though. O would throw her a snowball and she would race after it only to be largely confused when she couldn't find her "ball". She scratched through the snow looking for it! :) This ball chasing was interspersed with racing around in the yard, jumping around like a kangaroo and looking generally cute with a snow-beard.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Posted by beth at 6:37 PM | Comments (2)

February 28, 2008

Wish Come True

Last night as O and I were driving home from the grocery store (where cereal disaster was averted with the purchase of ~7 more boxes of cereal), I commented how I hoped we did something like 50s or 75s or even 150s at masters Thursday because I was getting sick of doing 100s. Well Coach Jen must have been reading my mind because today we were treated to a workout of 50s! Woo-hoo!

Of course I'm not *quite* sure why I wished for such a thing because as the distances get shorter it only hurts more. I'm not the speediest of speedsters if you know what I mean.

Regardless, my lane mate and I got a little bold today and decided to try the workout on the intervals that the fastest lane was using. Occasionally we get a little crazy like that. Not too often though because when they are doing 100s on 1:10...well, that's just not smart for someone with a 1:08 PR. :)

Anyway, I really had fun with today's 50s and swam my little heart out on the HARD ones. I was pulling the water back like nobody's business and trying to take as few breathes as possible to try to swim a :30. No such luck. A :32 was the fastest I could muster. But I'm pretty sure this is a PR regardless. Never mind the fact that in the 1650 that I raced a couple weeks back there were people swimming :32s FOR THE WHOLE RACE. Hmmm...that's actually a little disturbing.

And so it goes. Work was good today and now I'm home writing my blog and trying to play ball with Roxy at the same time. She is WILD! I think she's getting a little stir crazy because with all the snow/slush/ice/rain lately we haven't been taking her on as many runs. Poor pooch.

Off to do some core exercises and ride my bike.... Good night all!

Posted by beth at 3:34 PM | Comments (6)

February 27, 2008

Cereal Continued

Well I'll have to say, from the overwhelming response I received re: my cereal addiction, I can only come to one conclusion - CEREAL TRULY IS THE BEST FOOD ON THIS PLANET! I had a suspicion as such.

But I have to say. I'm a little surprised at people's cereal preferences. For example - Grapenuts. Really? Seriously? As in that cereal that you eat 1/8 of a cup of that sucks up about 2 gallons of milk and that you may start to eat on a Saturday at 9 am but by Wednesday at 9 pm you still aren't finished? THAT cereal? The one that breaks all your teeth and your jaw too? Yeah - not so fond of that one.

But Kashi Go Lean Crunch? Mixed with Chex or Total or Special K or Cheerios? NOW we are talking! And how about Frosted Flakes? Helloooooo - Tony the Tiger?! Just the thought of Frosted Flakes makes me want a bowl RIGHT NOW but unfortunately we are out of milk at the current time. Not cool.

Anyway, Roxy and I have been having a good day off. So far I've swam, ran, did about 10 loads of laundry (winter = LOTS of dirty clothes), organized myself for the rest of this week/next week, packed for masters tomorrow (yipppeee!) and tried desperately to remain warm. It is COLD outside. And what has Roxy been up to you might ask? Well, there was some sleep and then some more sleep, some begging for a treat and then some sleep. Then there was the racing around the dinner table with my running shoe. Then some more sleep. Yep, that about sums us up.

As for the swim and the run, both were good. I was a flip turn animal this morning! I didn't do them for my main set but otherwise did all flip turns AND I only had one incidence of severe nose burn. :) And the run was good too. The first 10 minutes I was soooo cold and cranky and my foot hurt (blister) and my legs felt like garbage. But then after 10 minutes or so life became much better. I started to feel better, the sun came out a little, the blister just went numb and I was feeling incredibly glad and lucky to be outside enjoying the beauty of the day (you do have to admit that snow is pretty... :)

And so I leave you with this, an article of interest if you are lucky enough to be from Pittsburgh and have heard of Myron Cope. May you rest in peace Myron. Double Yoi!

Posted by beth at 3:19 PM | Comments (8)

February 26, 2008

Cereal Addiction

I think I'm addicted to cereal. Or, more accurately, I KNOW I'm addicted to cereal. I love it. I could eat it at all times of the day and night. If there were only 1 food on this earth left to eat I would want it to be cereal. Hello, my name is Beth Shutt and I'm a cereal-holic.

But I figure there is worse things to be addicted too. Besides, cereal (and it's accomplice milk) make a fine, healthy meal/snack/dessert/appetizer. My bones won't lack for strength, that's for sure!

I'm also a cereal mixer. I never eat just one cereal alone. This leads to MANY different boxes of cereal in our house at one time. In fact just tonight as I surveyed my choices after dinner I told O we will definitely be needing some cereal at the grocery store tomorrow - we only have 6 boxes left! EMERGENCY!

Cereal emergency aside, I had a dandy day. Nothing new or out of the ordinary. A run this morning in snow/rain/sleet/freezing rain/ice with about 2 inches of slush on the roads - OH HOW FUN! :) But don't take that as a complaint because I'm done complaining about the weather - remember? :) And then a ride this evening after work. Oh and by the way, I got a free lunch at work today so don't let anyone ever tell you that there is no such thing as a free lunch!

I'm mostly just really excited because I have the day off work tomorrow and that means that I can sleep in a little, go swimming and then go running AFTER our new snow (that is so beautifully falling as I type) is off the roads and it's light outside. A lot safer that way and easier on the sore calves. Perhaps one of these days I'll break down and learn how to run on a treadmill. Not any time soon though.

Have a great night everyone!

Posted by beth at 7:55 PM | Comments (10)

February 25, 2008

Waterlogged

Well the good news is, I can feel my legs again! Wow was I sore from that race Saturday. But by last night I was feeling better and I could again walk normally this morning when I woke up. :) Recovery was further helped along with my swim this morning. I'm of the opinion that swimming makes everything feel better. Unless of course you feel like trash from swimming. Then I don't know what you do!

In other news I had water in my ear ALL MORNING, presumably from the aforementioned swim. At least I think it was water. Either that or my brain came loose and was rattling around in my skull (something that shouldn't be ruled out too easily :). It was annoying me so badly! At one point I was shaking my head so violently to get the water out that one of the nurses at work asked if I was okay. (she was likely thinking -- that crazy dietitian is up to NO good again... :)

Do swimmers have some secret method of getting water out of their ears when it's caught in there? Or perhaps there is a method by which they don't get water stuck in their ears in the first place? And really, how does the water get stuck in there in the anyway?

Regardless, the water is gone now. Not sure when or how it escaped but I say good riddance! :)

Nothing much else to report. I know, I know -- this blog is WAY to exciting for you to handle! Hope everyone has a great night!

PS Almost forgot to mention that O was swimming too this morning and set PRs in not one, not two, not three but FOUR different distances today! How about that for a GREAT swim?! :)

Posted by beth at 7:33 PM | Comments (8)

February 24, 2008

Sweet Recovery

I didn't even need to move an inch this morning before knowing I was S.O.R.E. from yesterday's race! Ouch!! But luckily I had a husband laying in bed next to me just as sore. Misery does love company you know!

But being sore isn't all that bad. I used to like getting that *good* sore feeling in high school because I knew it meant I had worked hard and as my muscles recovered they would be that much stronger.

Plus today was the perfect recovery day! I only had one workout (trainer ride) that I did before church that helped flush out some of the bad stuff and loosen up the legs. Then after church O and I came home, ate lunch and took a 2 hour nap! Sweet! Next up, I talked with my mom on the phone and kept my legs up the entire time. Then dinner. Then more relaxing. It really pays to get all your "jobs" done around the house and otherwise so that one day of the week you can truly relax. I know that is not always possible so I really appreciate it when it actually happens!

I hope everyone has a great week! I can't believe the end of February is already here. When I was talking on the phone with my mom we were discussing travel plans for St. Anthony's (she is coming to watch!) and that got me REALLY excited for the fact that racing season is right around the corner. YEAH spring time!

Posted by beth at 6:03 PM | Comments (3)

February 23, 2008

Spring Thaw 10 Miler

So of course the big joke today was the name of the race because...well...there was nothing "spring" nor anything "thaw" about this morning! :)

Regardless, it was a great race. So first, a little background. Last year I did this same race on the same weekend and ran 1:06:25. Last year going into the race I had some more "hard" running under my belt. I had just started with the MarkAllenOnline team in late January of last year but prior to that was running more and harder pretty much all the time. Once I started with Mark it was back to basics and base training and no hard running workouts. Last year race day was COLD - probably about 10 degrees in the morning but more like 15 by the start of the race. But last year the roads were completely dry.

So this year was a little different. For one, I haven't run hard since October (I did do that little fartlek last week but 15 minutes of hard running doesn't really count!). And in fact, if you consider the hamstring injury that kept me from good run training at the end of last season, I haven't really run hard since September. All base training at this point. And the weather? Well this year it was a little warmer (high 20s?) but the roads were less than ideal. There was one whole mile that was covered in slush/ice/snow which made it really 2 miles since it was a 2 loop course. And there were other areas that were just dicey - if you were lucky you might be able to find some solid footing but if you were in a pack or something of that nature no such luck. Then, there were some parts of the course that were fine - wet, but good traction. (just as a side note, the race crew did an awesome job of trying to make the roads as best they could - so thanks for their hard work!)

So this might all point to the fact that I might not be able to run as fast as last year. Especially given the footing. I don't know how other people feel about running on that type of slush/ice/snow mixture but I feel like it takes a lot of energy to go no where fast! But despite all this I decide my goal is to run 65 minutes. On the start line the race director told us that "today was not a day for PRs - the footing was not good and we needed to be safe!" Humpff!! I still wanted to try and even though I told myself I couldn't be disappointed if I didn't run faster or as fast as last year, I knew I would be.

So off we go! O and his friend from work were also running so we had a nice little pack. The first mile was the bad footing one so I wasn't sure what to expect but we went through in 6:27. Good deal! Maybe this was going to be possible afterall!

We settled into a nice rythmn and surprisingly the first 5 miles went by relatively quickly. We went through the 5 mile mark in 32:30 (6:30 pace exactly!) so I was super excited. Still on pace despite the conditions and I was feeling pretty good.

As I said, the course was 2 loops so we started the course over again. At this point O and I were still together but I could tell he was feeling good, or at least better than I was. Just after the 6 mile mark he started to gap me a little and I just couldn't quite hang on. But once he got about 5 seconds ahead of me I worked hard to keep the gap the same or even close a little. With 2 miles to go I had almost caught him - getting close! This was a good goal because although I was tiring some I was still running in the 6:30-6:35 range and keeping mostly on pace in my attempts to catch him. Then in the last mile he put the hammer down! The last mile has the biggest hill of the race so I told myself to "relax and go, relax and go" but he was moving down the other side like he just stole something! I chased him all the way to the line and finished in 1:05:25 - 14 seconds slower than his 1:05:11!! It was a good chase!

Either way, I was pleased. Pleased because even if the conditions were perfect I knew 1:05 was going to be tough to get. It's hard for me (and probably most people) to run fast off of just base miles. And the conditions were far from perfect!! I figure they were at least worth that 25 seconds to get me under 1:05. It didn't have to be warmer, it just needed to be dryer with good footing. So I'll take it! And I'll work on getting O next time!! :)

After the race we did a quick cooldown, ate some yummy, warm soup (that was the food they gave out at the awards - perfect!), collected our awards and then headed home. And good thing too because I was FREEZING!! I brought dry clothes to change into but I was still so cold. Probably because I had just run outside in cold weather with soaking wet feet. My hands were so cold I had to get some nice woman in the bathroom to help me untie my shoes so I could change! :)

Of course on the way home my stomach started to ache like it always does when I run hard. Stupid stomach.

I had to get on my bike for a short little spin when we got home but oh was my stomach not cooperating. I laid on the floor a while and then just decided to get up and do it because there was no telling when my belly was going to feel better and I wanted to get on with my day! :)

The good news is, by the time I was done with my spin my stomach had settled some. And just in time because my ice bath was waiting! Ahhh...ice bath. Never felt so good for the sore muscles! Of course after being so cold all morning my body was a little angry at the thought of sitting in ice water, but it was for it's own good!

So my running is off to a good start this year! My next running race is a 5K at the end of March which I'm really looking forward to. By then I will have started some speed work (starts in early March) so running harder and faster won't feel like such a shock!

Thanks so everyone for their well wishes! And congrats to all those other racers out there that had great weekends!

Posted by beth at 7:41 PM | Comments (10)

February 22, 2008

Nothing Much to Say

I don't have anything much to say tonight (interesting or otherwise) so I wasn't going to post a blog entry but quite frankly I'm a creature of habit and perhaps a little addicted too. So I'll post an entry anyway. Plus I don't want to run the sweeper, which is the other alternative. And just in case you were wondering a sweeper is a vacuum but I've always called it a sweeper and I don't care how weird that sounds.

I thought maybe I could write about our weather with a few more complaints because we got more snow and ice, it's still cold AND I am just going to be plain ANGRY if the roads aren't at least somewhat clear for our race tomrrow.

But I'm sure you're sick of hearing about it and to tell you the truth, I'm a little sick of hearing MYSELF complain about it. You can only complain so much before you're just plain annoying. And I've definitely reached that point. :) So it's time for me to get over it.

And "getting over it" is the 10th and final step of recovery. I'm not sure what the first 9 steps are but it goes a little something like this for me EVERY winter:

1) Oh look! It's cold outside and we get to wear our winter coats and boy does hot chocolate sound so yummy! Yeah winter is here! (sometime in early December)
2) Oh look! Our first snow and boy I hope it lasts until Christmas Day. The snow is so pretty and let's decorate the house for Christmas! (sometime in late December)
3) Oh wow. It's COLD outside! Hey, the trainer isn't so bad - we can watch movies AND train at the same time. How fun! (sometime in early January)
4) Oh wow. Dang is it cold. And I REALLY wish it would stop snowing. I can't believe how many shirts I just wore on my run outside! (sometime in late January)
5) Oh man. It's now been below 10 degrees for 1 full week. I'm sort of sick of my trainer and I've run out of good movies to watch. (sometime in early February)
6) Oh man. This sucks. If I see my trainer again I'm going to throw up and if I have to run in 5 layers again I'm going to hurt someone. (sometime in late February)

And then...sulking and self pity and general unhappiness....

And then finally, I get over it. It's cold. It's snowing and icing. I'm going to run a race tomorrow in 10 layers of clothing. Then I will come home and ride my bike ON THE TRAINER. But it's okay. It will be fine. And it won't be long before I'm only wearing 4 layers during my runs and that very first day when the sun is shining and it's in the 40s and I can ride my bike outside.... Oh...I can ALMOST feel it!! And I can't wait. Because it is going to feel GREAT!

So there we have it! Now it's time to get that sweeper running. And pick out which layers I'm going to wear tomorrow... :) Have a great weekend everyone!

Posted by beth at 7:01 PM | Comments (4)

February 21, 2008

Jackpot Round #3

I seriously must have done something really nice to the mailman because he just keeps bringing the good stuff!

After Tuesday's good mail day he followed up with an awesome day yesterday and today kept it coming with a huge package from PowerBar!!! Holy cats did I order a lot of PowerBars! (and gels and recovery bars and shirts and stickers and water bottles and...well, I'm starting to embarrass myself... :) I just love getting good mail/packages like that. Too fun!

The problem is, I think my luck will run out tomorrow. Because I haven't ordered anything more and soon the electric bill will be coming. :) Oh well - it was good while it lasted!

In other none mail news, I had a good day of work and training and life in general. I started things off at masters practice where I was the only girl swimming this morning. What's up with that? I thought practice had been cancelled because there were no other women in the locker room! Regardless, I felt GREAT swimming this morning and...let the excitement build...I FINALLY SWAM A 1:08 100!!

Kind of.

I don't know if this counts or not but on the very last hard 100 we did I grabbed the wall and just as I looked up the clock was changing from xx:08 to xx:09. As in if it was electronically timed it probably would have been 1:08.99999. So do we count this? Yes? Maybe? I don't know. I might have to wait until I really swim a 1:08 but at least I'm getting closer. Heck, I might just decide to skip 1:08 and go straight to 1:07! :) Regardless, it was an encouraging swim because faster and faster paces are starting to feel easier and easier.

But I know - you are probably SICK of reading about my swimming. Because that's all I every write about. But running and cycling are sort of boring right now because all I'm doing is base miles, base miles and more base miles. Who likes to hear about a 90 minute run where, well, I run 90 minutes? :)

I do have a 10 mile race (running) this weekend though so I promise you something other than more swimming chatter to come soon! :)

Anyway, work was good and then I came home to find my package which took me about an hour to go through. I should NEVER check the mail before I do my afternoon workout because it always sets me back by at least 20-30 minutes. :) I did finally get on my bike for my ride this evening though and it was just dandy.

So now the hour of bed is approaching. Sweet dreams everyone!

Posted by beth at 8:26 PM | Comments (5)

February 20, 2008

Music for the Soul

Well I think it's an epidemic. The winter blahs that is. I wrote my tale of woe last night and then started reading other people's blogs and well, I just started to laugh. Because about 5 other people wrote the same tale of woe! Really at this point what can you do? Laugh - and take solace in the fact that you are not alone. It won't be long before I'll be complaining about the heat and humidity. :)

So today was a much better day for me. I started things off with a great swim where among other things I had a great 600 pull followed by a 600 wherein every 4th 25 I only took one breath. OUCH!!! I am TERRIBLE at all that breath control stuff. I am not a fan of the suffocation feeling!! And every time I see something like that in one of my workouts I shake my head and think "crazy swimmers." You don't see runners doing 400 repeats on the track holding their breath the whole time! :) Seriously though, I know it will make me stronger and I understand the reason why swimmers do it - but I don't have to LOVE everything do I? :) Anyway, during the 600 pull I really focused on...well...PULLING the water! Jen sent a video from her clinic back in January of me swimming and it's pretty apparent that I lack that whole follow through with my stroke. I really thought about it today while I was doing the pull and it made a BIG difference! (thanks Jen!)

Oh - and the BEST part of the swim? For the whole warmup AND cooldown I forced myself to do flip turns! I don't know if I'm doing them right because I haven't had someone actually teach me in the water but I was probably close. Some were better than others and suffice it to say, I need a lot of practice, but I did it! I'm just sticking with warmup and cooldown for now though. Let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Meanwhile, in the lane next to me, O was doing a real swim workout that I made up for him with 100s on descending intervals! And he made every interval!

Anyway, after work I got home and got the mail. And let's just say, I hit the mother-load!

First off, lately the mail has been treating me well. Yesterday I got the video from Jen, some stuff from PowerBar and NO bills. Sweet. And today? WOW!

The first thing I saw was a package from swimoutlet.com. That's where I order my swimsuits so I was VERY excited to be getting some new ones!! I really want a Splish suit but I have to admit that they are a little too expensive for us. I'm sure they are worth every last cent but I usually order from the swimoutlet grab bag (you pick the style and size and they just send you whatever color they have left) and I can get 2 good suits from TYR or Speedo for $50. Of course you end up with some wild colors and patterns but I'm really not too picky so it doesn't matter! Regardless, new suits are always really fun and a good motivator to get to the pool! And I have masters practice tomorrow! Yippeee!!!

But something FAR greater was awaiting me -- a package from Bree with FIVE CDs!!! We discovered we have the same taste in music and decided to swap some of our favorite tunes. And boy did Bree not disappoint! I was beside myself with happiness. All kinds of good music. But the very first CD I put in, first song - I nearly started crying. It's called Hungry (Falling on My Knees) and it is one of my all time favorites. Every time we sing it in church I get teary-eyed.

O is pretty much beside himself with happiness right now too. He is a big fan of Ten Shekel Shirt and Bree included a bunch of their songs. There is just a whole variety of music too (fast, slow, rap, 80s, you name it!) - I am actually looking forward to my trainer rides, my long (cold) runs and EVEN my commute into work because now I have some seriously good tunes to jam with! It's amazing to me what a little good music can do for the soul. And it's amazing what a wonderful, selfless person can do to lift someone else up, even if they've never even met. Thanks a million Bree!

My mother-load:

Posted by beth at 7:01 PM | Comments (6)

February 19, 2008

Ho-Hum

Today I had one of those ho-hum days where I didn't want to do anything including (but in no particular order) drive to work, see patients, get on my trainer (again), go out in the cold to run (again), the laundry, make dinner or even eat dinner. I think I'm getting sick of winter and the doldrums have hit.

This happens every year. I go pretty good for a long time. And then we get to that point (as in RIGHT NOW) where winter is getting really old but it's not close enough to spring yet to start getting hopeful. And then my funk begins.

I was just not in a good mood at all at work today for no particular reason other than self pity. And really I have no right to feel sorry for myself for MANY reasons, one of which is the fact that I choose to live in a place where it's cold and it snows and it doesn't get warm (as in really warm) until June. It's a free country. Nobody is making me live in Pittsburgh.

But nevertheless, self pity was the feeling of the morning and then also a little jealousy. Jealousy is an ugly emotion if you ask me and I always hate it when I feel it welling up inside of me. But if I really tell the truth, I am jealous of all those people right now that live in warm climates or that are going for training stints in Tucson or Florida or whereve the sun shines and it's above 50 degrees. I just want to ride my bike outside - is that too much to ask?! Well yes, apparently!

This is when it's good to work in a hospital. Because it's hard to feel sorry for yourself for long. Case in point. First patient I go to see today? Run over by a snowplow. I kid you not. Now that's a bad day! That trumps not being able to ride your bike outside for sure.

So here's to surviving winter. Because I know that every time I don't want to get on my trainer (again) or go out to run in the cold (again) or go swim in freezing cold water when it's freezing cold outside (again), but I do it anyway...well I'm that much stronger. Besides, spring is almost here! Or at least that's what I keep telling myself... :)

Good night everyone!

Posted by beth at 8:55 PM | Comments (4)

February 18, 2008

Swim Challenge Indeed

I really like swim training but there is nothing like a little challenge to get me ALL pumped up about it. I live for challenges and trying to achieve goals. This is why I like to race so much. So of course this morning when I woke up I was a bit giddy with excitement to be doing my tri-bloggers swim challenge workout!

Here was the planned workout:

40x100 as:
1st 10: 4@1:45, 3@1:40, 2@1:35, 1@1:30
2nd 10: 1@1:45, 4@1:40, 3@1:35, 2@1:30
3rd 10: 2@1:45, 1@1:40, 4@1:35, 3@1:30
4th 10: 3@1:45, 2@1:40, 1@1:35, 4@1:30

When I first took a look at this set I interpreted it to mean 4x100 on a 1:45 interval, 3x100 on a 1:40 interval, etc... But then I started to wonder if it meant I was supposed to swim 4x100 in 1:45 (with what kind of rest?). Yeah, you should all feel sorry for my coach who often endures questions as to how to read swim workouts... :) Anyway, I don't know what it's really supposed to mean, but I decided for the purposes of my workout the times given were the intervals, not the time I was supposed to swim the 100 in.

Now, as a little background, I've never done a main set this long. I do 4000 and 4500 yd swims but the main sets are usually 2000-3000 yds with the occasional 3500 yd main set. The farthest I've ever swam at one time is 5000 yds (wu/main set/cd) and I've done that about 2 or 3 times. So this 40x100 was a little daunting in the length of the workout. And swimming 100s on 1:30 isn't exactly easy for me either.

Okay, so I get to the pool and through my warmup and I'm feeling GREAT and ready to go! As Bree would say...vroooooooom!

The first 10 went by very fast. And really so did the 2nd 10. I was really proud of myself for keeping track of which one I was on and at which time I should be leaving. This is usually a very difficult task for me!

On the third 10 I'm starting to feel some shoulder fatigue but I'm hanging in there and swimming just about every 100 in 1:20. It was about this time that I started to ponder the possibility of chopping 5 seconds off each interval set for the last set of 10. So instead of 3 on 1:45, 2 on 1:40, 1 on 1:35 and 4 on 1:30, maybe I could try 3 on 1:40, 2 on 1:35, 1 on 1:30 and 4 on 1:25? I had my reservations about this. For one, I was starting to enter unchartered territory in terms of workout length and secondly (and probably more importantly) swimming 100s on 1:25 is really not easy for me. And I was guessing it was especially not going to be easy for me after swimming 36x100 prior to it!

But this WAS supposed to be a challenge after all! Don't get me wrong, doing the workout as orginally planned was also a challenge, but it was one I knew I could do. I had gotten far enough in the workout to know I was going to be fine to finish it up. But the last 4 on 1:25? Wasn't so sure I was going to be able to swing that.

So on the last 100 of the 3rd set I committed to the NEW challenge - 3 on 1:40, 2 on 1:35, 1 on 1:30 and 4 on 1:25 for the last set. (as a side note, I don't usually start changing things around mid-workout as I realize every workout has a purpose and it's not always to see how hard you can push yourself - but this was a special occasion!)

I got through the first 3 on 1:40 and then the 2 on 1:35 and really it was at this point that my arms (shoulders in particular) were starting to get a bit ANGRY with me. I started mentally preparing myself to swim the last 4 with no rest (as in let's swim this 400 @1:25 pace! :) because I knew that was what it might come to!

I get to the last 4 - HERE we go!! After the first one, I get 4 seconds rest - SWEET! Next one and I'm definitely tiring but I keep pushing. Almost there! Next one and now I only get 3 seconds rest. That's about enough time to grab the wall, turn around, look at the watch and push off again. Never mind catching your breath. But I'm proud to admit I made the interval on all of them - even the last! When I hit the wall on the last one (and was breathing...um...pretty hard!) the lifeguard warned me to take it easy - she didn't want to have to jump in to rescue me! :)

AHHH...great workout! I was pretty excited. It's fun to try something new you didn't know if you could do and well, actually do it! I savor workouts like this because the majority of training is NOT like this. Most of the time we are putting in the miles and doing the work in the increments and intensities that we know we can handle.

I finished off with a nice, easy cooldown (backstroke thank you very much) for 5000 yds total and then I had to go...LIFT WEIGHTS! Ouch! That was painful. But other than suffering on some of the shoulder exercises, I survived. My arms will be very glad to get a day off of swimming tomorrow!

Regardless, great job to everyone who has already finished their swim challenge and good luck to those who are yet to come! Have fun! And huge thanks to Danielle for setting it all up and coming up with the swim challenge to begin with! Now my next (unofficial) challenge in the water will be to do a workout where the full warmup and cooldown are done with flip turns! One step at a time... :)

Posted by beth at 3:28 PM | Comments (9)

February 17, 2008

Sunday Night Already?

I'm always quite surprised when about this time (8 or 9 pm) rolls around every Sunday evening. I mean WHERE does the weekend go? Much faster than 2 weekdays that's for sure. But of course I can't complain because I actually have tomorrow off work. O used to have tomorrow off too but now doesn't because they had a snow day last week. Oh well. I guess I'll have to do all the relaxing by myself tomorrow. :)

Today was a great day. We started things off with a long run wherein I decided to wear shorts. It was 38 degrees which is positively HOT at this time of year so I knew I would be warm in tights. The only confounding factor was the fact that it was probably going to start raining some time during the run and rain makes everything colder. To wear shorts or not? I went with it because who knows when I'll get to wear shorts again! And it did start to rain about an hour into the run but we didn't get too cold.

Next up church and then to O's parents house to celebrate about 10,000 birthdays. Okay, maybe only 6 but still, that seemed like a lot. O's family is BIG and they celebrate everyone's birthday. As you might imagine that leads to a lot of get togethers which is fun although at times a bit overwhelming. They do combine a lot of birthdays (like today for example) but still. I don't know too many families that still get together for EVERYONE'S birthdays - grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandchildren, 2nd cousins. I kid you not. It does help that they all live very close to each other. ANYWAY, my no chocolate eating for Lent was put to the test as there were MANY excellent chocolate dessert choices. How sad. I was saved with some apple cobbler though. Whew - that was a close call!

When we finally got back home it was nearly 5 pm and I didn't want to get on my bike at all. So I laid on the floor and stared up at the ceiling for a bit and then was attacked by Roxy (attacked with licks of course) and finally after a while I got up and got moving.

And that leads us to now. Fed, showered, stretched (and we even cleaned the house too!) and ready to start all over again tomorrow. :)

I do have my exciting tri-bloggers swim challenge workout to look forward to tomorrow though! 40x100 which would be the most 100s I've ever done for sure. My biggest concern will be keeping count of all that.

Hope everyone has a great start to their week!

Posted by beth at 8:43 PM | Comments (2)

February 16, 2008

Paddle-Challenged

So I've had a delightful morning/afternoon of training and now I'm clean, fed, stretched and happily awaiting O's return from his indoor track meet today. O's brave for being a track coach. I never really realized how LONG track meets (both indoors and outdoors) were until I was married to a track coach. They are fun when you are actually competing but otherwise - oh dear Lord. I'm hoping our children don't want to run track (just kidding of course)! :) All track parents deserve medals - especially those who have to sit through 42 heats of the 200 and 400! :)

Anyway, I started this morning off with a swim at the YMCA. It was a great one! There was some pull 600s, one of which I vowed to do with paddles. I dislike paddles to a great extent because I'm so SLOW with them. I don't have a lot of arm turnover to begin with so slap some paddles on me (even small ones) and my arms are moving even slower! Plus I'm paddle-challenged. I just can't get the darn things to behave when I'm swimming with them. I lose them or they are flapping off in directions they shouldn't be. And it's really hard to do open turns with them (I know, I know - just slap me for not doing flip turns to begin with!). I've had some pretty embarrassing moves with paddles. I always secretly hope that the lifeguards aren't watching when I'm trying to tame my paddles. In fact, I'm pretty sure Marit would have one of her fits of laughter if she saw me trying to swim with paddles! :)

But today was a little better. I didn't lose any paddles. They were going forward with me at all times and I even set a paddle PR in the 600. Now don't get me wrong, I'm still slow as molasses and my shoulders just ache when I'm done using them but I keep telling myself it will eventually get better if I keep at it. I also hated the pull buoy when I first started using it but now I love it!

Regardless, enough of the swim chatter. I came home to my trainer, ready to be ridden. I had a 3 hour ride so I was REALLY hoping the weather would cooperate and be somewhat warm but still at 10 am it was in the low 20s with windchills lower and I just can't handle that kind of cold while riding. I'm sure there are people that would think that's positively balmy but I'm not there yet. So 3 hours on the trainer it was.

The ride was...okay. Not great. My legs were protesting after only about 2 hours making for a very long last hour but I got through it and made a quick transition to outside running gear for my T-run. I'm getting better at pulling tights on very sweaty legs. It's quite a talent if you ask me. :)

My run was great. It always surprises me how good my legs can feel running right after they just felt like crap on the bike. Now in races the opposite seems to happen. Of course I wasn't trying to run hard today which obviously makes a big difference.

So that was my day. After the run I came home for food (lots of it), an ice bath, a shower, a stretch, and now back to the waiting for O. Incidentally I wanted to mention that our little Roxy dog jumped into my ice bath today. It was actually as the water was being drained - she was so curious and kept trying to get at the ice until she finally jumped in (she couldn't reach the ice otherwise). She then promptly jumped right back out. Smart dog. :)

Posted by beth at 4:21 PM | Comments (2)

February 15, 2008

Whoo-Hoo!

VERY pleased and honored to accept a sponsorship from PowerBar today! Now that deserves a BIG WHOO-HOO! Why you might ask? Well for one, I eat a lot of PowerBars. Like A LOT of them. And I have for a really long time. And I actually like them. Not like I just choke them down because they are good for me (like broccoli)!

I also use PowerGels during training/racing. And then there is the little fact that I'm addicted to PowerBar Nut Naturals. And the recovery bars are really good too. They come in flavors like cookies and cream caramel crisp (that's all one flavor). Seriously! What I'll be interested to try is the PowerBar recovery drink.

Anyway, that was definitely my excitement for the day. THANK YOU PowerBar!

As for my cold, it's getting better. Or at least not worse. It helps that I slept 9.5 hours last night and that I only had a short, easy run and some lifting to do today. And I watched 3 episodes of Grey's Anatomy. I'm officially addicted to that show!

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Posted by beth at 8:07 PM | Comments (6)

February 14, 2008

Happy V-Day!

Okay, I'm a little late. Valentine's Day is almost over. But happy V-Day anyway! So there!

I got my Valentine's Day gift last night (Wed). O wrote out a card that said something to the effect of "I wish I could buy you a dozen Zipp wheels, or 12 new swimsuits or the traditional dozen roses. But instead I ended up getting something not quite as grand, but still sweet. Look in the downstairs extra room closet for the surprise!" To which of course I raced downstairs to said closet to find a dozen thumbprint cookies - (as you all by now know) MY FAVORITE! I tell you it doesn't get much better than that! :)

Fast forward to this morning and well, I wasn't feeling so good. The sore throat and cold I've been trying to fight off might be pushing towards victory and I was feeling tired and congested and like I wanted to sleep for 5 more hours. Then again I ALWAYS feel like that at 4:45 in the morning. Plus, I really wanted to go to masters. So off I went!

And boy am I glad I went!! We did 20x100 where the first 10x100 were on a descending interval ending at 1:25 and then the last 10x100 were alternating 5 all out with 5 easy. Coach told us that in honor of Valentine's Day we would be getting our hearts pumping and boy was she right!

I LOVED the all out 100s! (okay, I didn't really like the last 2, but still, this is the kind of stuff I eat up!) My lane mate and I split the lane so that we could leave at the same time which was great but I will say I missed swimming off his feet and his nice draft! We swam the first one in 1:10 to my surprise. Let's remember now - 1:09 is my PR!

After the first one, my lane mate tells me "okay now, all the rest of these in under 1:10." Well okay then - I'm up for it! Next one 1:09 and I'm feeling good. I'm headed for a PR today - I can feel it! Number 3 in 1:09. Dang! I'll get that 1:08 next time. And then on number 4 the big old bear/refrigerator/monkey - whatever you want to call "it" JUMPED on my back and all of a sudden the arms DID NOT want to move. But I was determined. So move they did. But only to the tune of a 1:10. Okay - last one - I will get that 1:08! But again, I was dying! I was disappointed to finish with another 1:10 but then I thought about it a little and I felt better. I've only ever swam a 1:09 ONCE in my life and here today I swam it twice, plus 3 1:10s for good measure. Okay for today I guess, but next time 1:08 is mine! :)

Needless to say, my shoulders are a little on the tired side right now. :)

After practice I went to work and had a busy day. That kept me from realizing how tired I was until the drive home where all I wanted to do was lay down and sleep for a long time. I debated greatly if I should do my ride or not. I don't have an awful cold where I can't breathe or hear or anything like that but I'm also not 100% and I don't want it to get worse. What tipped me over the edge was the fact that I have tomorrow off work and a very light training day so I knew I could sleep in and rest up tomorrow. And so I set up the trainer and promised myself at least 1 hour.

But I'm the kind of person that thinks (I'm sure like a lot of other people) that if I'm on here and I have everything set up, why not just do the full 1:45 planned? And so that's what I did. It wasn't a hard ride so I got the job done and now I can have my easy recovery day tomorrow.

So that's my Valentine's Day story! Hope everyone had a great one with lots of love. Now time for BED!

Posted by beth at 9:54 PM | Comments (7)

February 13, 2008

Fartlek!

Just to give you a little insight into how much of a running nerd I was growing up ---

I had a t-shirt that I LOVED and wore everywhere. On the front it said FARTLEK and on the back it said "It's a running thing, you wouldn't understand." What a geek! I just adored that shirt. Can't remember what happened to it though because I definitely don't have it now.

Anyway, I was thinking about that shirt today because I actually got to do a fartlek! How exciting! You see my training is either aerobic or anaerobic (well duh!) meaning it's either zone 1&2 or zone 5. We don't have middle zones. No zone three. No running/cycling "sort of hard". All or nothing around here. And the majority of the training is aerobic in hopes of building a huge aerobic engine that translates into being able to go faster and faster and faster at an aerobic HR which of course means you can go faster overall. REGARDLESS, ALL of the training is aerobic this time of year. Long runs and rides and swims (although we all cheat a little with the swimming), all relatively slower. This is a long way of saying we have a LONG base building period of which I never run or ride really hard. That is unless you have a race coming up. And that is just what I have on February 23rd - a 10 miler! When you plan races into the schedule during a base period Coach will put in a harder running workout to prepare the body a little for what's to come.

So today was my day to run hard! I love running hard and I was REALLY looking forward to today because I haven't run hard since last October! It wasn't that long - 3x1, 1x6, 1x4, 1x3, 2x1 - but boy was it hard! Felt great to GO GO GO and PUSH PUSH PUSH! And I felt really out of shape. But that's a good thing to be feeling now because I still have a LONGGGG year ahead. Hopefully out of shape now will mean in shape at just the right time!

I did the fartlek outside. The roads were a bit sketchy as we got more snow last night and today but I found some clear(er) roads and went for it. I went looking for hills too because if there's one easy way to find the running hurt box, running hard uphill is just it! Great time. Really, really great time.

All of this fartlek fun came after work and a swim workout this morning where I set a new 500 pull PR. I've been setting a lot of pull PRs lately in the water. I think maybe because my arms are getting a little stronger? Regardless, I wish I could say that I have been setting lots of swim PRs too but those come a little slower than the pull PRs. :)

And that's my story for the day. Somehow it's almost 9 pm. Where do the days go? Time for bed! :)

Posted by beth at 8:32 PM | Comments (4)

February 12, 2008

Not Quite Yet

I knew it wasn't over yet but I was hoping. Winter that is. Our winter hasn't been that bad. We've had some cold snaps but none that lasted too long and we've had some snow but not nearly as much as usual. So today we got both. Really cold and lots of snow/slop. The snow turned into a freezing rain type deal on the commute home and I saw a very bad accident which I'll admit freaked me out a little.

But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself.

My morning started off...hmm...not so good. I woke up with a sore throat. Then I realized that there were several inches of snow already and the windchills were well below zero and I had a run to do. And then O's school got cancelled and I was really sad - not because he got the day off but because he would now have to work Monday (a day that he DID have off but now doesn't to make up for today). I have Monday off too and we had some fun things planned. Alas, I'll be doing those fun things by myself. BIG bummer.

But as always, if I just put my head down and get started, things always start looking up. The run? Not so bad. The roads really hadn't been touched yet so O and I got to run in some fresh powder. Not so good for the traction but sort of fun, like you are a kid again playing in the snow. It was early enough that no cars were out so we could run right down the middle of the roads and I wasn't even that cold. Good deal.

It wasn't too fun getting into work I'll admit. People are just SOOO stupid driving in the snow. I'm sorry - sounds harsh - but it truly is my one pet peeve. If you are too afraid to drive when the roads aren't 100% perfect STAY OFF THE ROAD. JUST STAY HOME. Because all the other people in this world need to get to work and driving 5 MPH isn't helping!

Regardless, I did get there and get home. Eventually. I was really glad we had run this morning because by the evening the roads were so sloppy with slush and muck and that only leads to really wet feet!

This evening I had a trainer ride of which I completed while O made dinner. What a nice treat to get right off the bike and step right over to the table to eat! Can't beat that!

And so I leave you with some pictures from this weekend's race.

A picture of the most beautiful stroke you ever saw. :)

A wider view so as to see the pool and surroundings a bit better. (look familiar Becky?)

And finally, the infamous O at work! Note the jeans - WET jeans! :) You may also note the fact that the woman in the lane next door appears to be done and playing with her children. I guess that's what happens when you LAP everyone about 20 times! I think she underestimated her seed time a little. In a heat of people swimming 22-23:30 she swam close to 20 minutes! :)

Posted by beth at 8:24 PM | Comments (9)

February 11, 2008

Back to the Pool

So it was back to the pool this morning for some more swimming. I thought my arms would be REALLY tired but they were just "sorta" tired. They would save the REALLY tired for later on this evening when I lifted weights after work. :)

I actually didn't feel too bad at all swimming this morning although that could be attributed to the fact that the workout wasn't that long or that hard. :) I do like swimming on back to back days though because I feel like my stroke is always better on the 2nd day. Like my mind and body remember better what I want it to do.

So that was my day! Not too bad at all. Work wasn't even bad although a patient did get very mad at me when I questioned his ability to chew without teeth. As in he had NO teeth at all but assured me he could eat EVERYthing including steak and an apple. He certainly wouldn't be the first toothless patient that made due but I was really curious about the apple. I mean how does that work? :)

Anyway, I'm getting really excited about the Tri-Blogger Swim Challenge! Read about it on Danielle's blog for all the details. Some of the crew involved are doing their workouts this week. GO guys GO!! I will be thinking of you and cheering from Pittsburgh. Can you hear me?! :) Danielle and Mary are getting us started this Thursday!

Posted by beth at 7:23 PM | Comments (0)

February 10, 2008

Okay, I Lied

I WILL bore you with my splits because after I wrote them all down I had to show off my amazing ability to swim 41 second 50s :)... Now next time let's make those 41s into 39s and 40s 'eh?

37.3, 40.0, 41.4, 42.6, 41.8, 42.1, 40.7, 41.9, 41.2, 41.3 (6:50.2), 41.7, 41.9, 41.3, 41.9, 41.9, 41.5, 41.2, 41.6, 41.5, 41.8 (13:46.4), 41.1, 41.3, 41.7, 41.7, 41.9, 42.2, 41.8, 41.5, 41.2, 41.3 (20:42.3)... At this point O's watch stopped taking splits (it must have been as tired as I was) but if you do the math my last 150 was ~2:02.

Regardless, I really wanted to write another entry to THANK everyone for their encouraging comments! You guys really are the best. And I got some good laughs too! To say the very least, I am appreciative of the time you take to read my blabber and the time you take to encourage me, someone whom you all have never even met! (besides one or two of you...)

My ride was good - 2:30 on the trainer and 3 episodes of Grey's. Then an ice bath. Then a hot shower to stop my teeth from their incessant chattering. Then dinner.

I can't believe it's Monday tomorrow already! That doesn't seem right that we all have to go back to work tomorrow! But either way, HAVE A GREAT WEEK EVERYONE!

Posted by beth at 8:46 PM | Comments (4)

Welcome to the Hurt Box

I'm all giddy right now. First swim meet under the belt and I have to say - I could really get into those! I had a blast. (especially after I was done and not so incredibly nervous anymore! :)

So let's start from the beginning. I wanted to get to the meet in time to warmup in the pool before the first race started (this meet only had the 1650 but there were about 10 heats of it) so O and I got down to the pool around 7:30 (warmups started at 7:45) and of course were the first ones there. I'm like Marit and Jennifer (and probably most other people) in that I HATE being late.

We checked things out and then as people started showing up and getting in the water I got in for an easy 500 and some pickups. I wasn't swimming until the 4th heat (about 2 hours later). But O and I were VERY busy trying to figure things out. Number one on the list was the lap counters. Thank God I wasn't the one having to figure that thing out! Of course O was like a pro and figured it out right away but it was way confusing for me. After watching the first heat though we started to devise a plan. I wanted to know some kind of splits for the 500, 1000 and 1500 so O told me when he would be yelling them and all that. This swimming stuff is tricky. Runners can just figure it out themselves by looking at their watch. :)

Anyway, speaking of the first heat, what an awesome thing to watch! I'm really glad we got there early enough to watch it. I've just never really even WATCHED people swim fast. So to watch those guys and gals swimming around 17 minutes - I was really impressed. They all looked very smooth. Great learning.

So we watched a few more heats and then I started to get really nervous. Soon it would be my turn! I got into the diving well pool for some more warmup and more pickups and then before I knew it I was lining up for my first swim race. Oh boy - here we go!

I chickened out with diving off the blocks so I started in the water. Sort of embarrassing because everyone else in my heat went off the blocks. Oh well. O has also informed me that I was the only one in my heat not doing flip turns. Needless to say, I have a lot to learn yet!

Anyway, we get started and I feel good. But I want to make sure I don't go bonkers. I seeded myself with a 23:30 but was thinking I could probably swim faster. Maybe even break 23 minutes?

I get through 500 and hear O screaming that I'm "on pace". Not really too sure what that means because we had discussed several different paces and I wasn't sure which one he meant I was on. Regardless, the first 500 was somewhat comfortable so now it was time to ratchet up the pace some.

Now I'm through 1000 and I hear O yell 13:45. Okay - definitely faster than 1:25/100 yd pace because that would be 14:10. Still feeling pretty good so it's time to ratchet it up some more.

I get to around 1200 and now I'm starting to feel the effects of swimming hard for the past 16 minutes. I can feel the stroke getting a little ugly and I know, all of a sudden, that I'm about to enter the serious HURT BOX for the last 450 yds.

And a hurt box is was. I alternated between telling myself to relax so that my stroke would even out a little and GO GO GO so that I could just be done!! 150 to go and O is yelling like crazy. I want to cry. My shoulders want no more of it. I'm breathing every 2 strokes now.

50 to go and I'm sprinting as hard as I could. Oh boy - this is going to be over soon!! And I hit the wall and I look up on the big board and I see 22:44. Sweet!!

Of course now was the real hard part - getting out of the pool! I was just hanging on the wall for a bit until I realized that I needed to get out so they could get started on the next heat. I grabbed onto the blocks to try to pull myself out. Oh dear Lord - NOW we were entering the REAL hurt box! I was close to asking someone to help me out but I finally hurled my body onto the deck. That might have been harder than the last 50! :)

I went back to the other pool to do some easy cooldown and mull over my results. Faster than I thought and certainly faster than my seeded 23:30. After quite a bit of calculations (I am NOT good with math after I just swam hard) I figured it to be somewhere between 1:22 and 1:23 pace (my computer now tells me it was 1:22.7 pace). Good but I think I can do better.

This was a great starting point. And swimming hard in the pool in a race certainly helped me to realize that I CAN swim harder in open water. I just need to do it. Of course that's easier said than done. But next time I want to swim faster - under 22 minutes. 1:20 pace isn't that out of reach for me.

A glance at my splits revealed that I was incredibly consistent even though I felt like I was swimming harder for each 500. I won't bore you with all my 50 splits but my 500s were 6:50, 13:46 (6:56) and 20:42 (6:56). After the race I asked O if I looked like I was sprinting the last 150 and he was like "um, yeah...maybe?...sure...it looked like you were going harder" when I know he was thinking "um NO - you looked like you were going the same pace!" :) I was really trying though!

Overall it was SOOO fun. And a great learning expereince. And a great starting point. I've set a goal for each race that I have this year and I'm off to a good start! :)

And now, a list of our rookie moves (we are so not accustomed to the swim scene):

1) I only brought one towel. That one towel was soaking wet about 30 minutes into the morning. For the rest of the morning I still only had one SOAKING WET towel. Next time - 2 (or maybe 3) towels!

2) O wore jeans and didn't bring any change of clothes. I don't do flip turns so he didn't get AS wet as the lap counters whose swimmers did flip but still, he was wet. With no change of clothes. And there is about a negative 10 windchill going on outside so needless to say, he was a little chilly on the walk to the car. :)

3) Also of note was the fact that O wore jeans at all. Because it was about 10,000 degrees in the pool area and he should have been in shorts and a sleeveless shirt! :)

4) Not diving into the pool was really rookie. I promise I'll at least dive off the deck next time! :)

So there it is! O and I celebrated afterwards with burritos (my favorite - YUM!) at Qdoba and now I'm back at home trying to let said burrito digest before I do my ride. Unfortunately I'm a triathlete and I still have 2:30 on the bike today. :) And as mentioned previously there are gale force winds and blowing snow out there right now so it will be a 2:30 trainer ride.

But that's okay because it will give me some more time to think about my swimming and to watch some more Grey's Anatomy.

Of course I would be really remiss if I didn't thank all the people who encourage me on my blog to challenge myself with swimming and who inspire me with their own swimming. I don't think I would have done this meet had it not been for you guys and I'll have to say - it was worth it 100% and more. Thanks guys! And HUGE thanks to my (wet) lap counter O! I could hear his voice yelling each time I came through!!

Time to pedal!

Posted by beth at 1:14 PM | Comments (11)

February 9, 2008

Lazy is Good

Sometimes that is. Lazy is not good all the time. But every once in a blue moon. Ahh...lazy is good.

It's 10 am and I'm still sitting in my pjs and all I've done today is look on the internet and eat breakfast. It helped that I slept in until almost 9 AM!!! What a treat. I certainly couldn't do this every day (or every week or even every month) but right now it's just what the doctor ordered. I'm now learning that when you don't take any days off from training usually, the ones you do get are MUCH more appreciated!

Regardless, O is off at the pool swimming with his friend (that's for all you people who think I FORCE O to train with me - see - he just does it on his own accord without me! :) and when he gets back we will tackle our to-do-list. Taxes is high up on the list. But I really like to do taxes because ours are really easy to do AND we almost always get a nice return. Who doesn't like getting money back from the government - the one time making very little money is a GOOD thing! :)

Hope everyone has a super day!

Posted by beth at 10:00 AM | Comments (3)

February 8, 2008

Breathe

Ahhh... I've been waiting for this moment all day...all week even and oh was it worth it!

It's been a long week. Long week of work and training and life in general. And I'm tired. When I woke up this morning I knew it would be a long day. I had a swim, my long run and of course work.

I woke up pretty tired but by the time I got going on the main set of my workout in the pool I was in the groove. Next up? Work. We have a lot of patients on our service now and I was rounding today with our attending. Our SLOW attending. He's a great doctor and takes his time with each patient which of course is awesome...but...slow. I knew we were in for it when an hour into rounds we had only finished 2 patients. FIVE hours later we were finally done. Ouch. But other than the length of the day, everything went pretty smoothly.

I didn't leave work nearly as early as I had hoped which meant I wasn't going to get to run on the trail tonight. It would be too dark by the time I got home, changed and drove to the trail as there is no lighting along it. Major bummer. I had been looking forward to that all week but I guess some times things just don't work out the way you want them too.

So instead I suited up and hit the neighborhoods.

What a relief.

Running is my peace. Unlike cycling and swimming I can just go run and not think. No worries about traffic, potholes or cadence if I'm on the trainer. No thinking about stroke or pace or what lap I'm on. Just running. I'm sure this is why I fell in love with running in the first place. I can just let my mind go blank. Which is exactly what I did because I needed to STOP thinking and just relax. I had gotten through the week alive and in one piece and now I could relax.

And my run was just awesome. It was one of those runs where you keep asking yourself "seriously?" as in "is my HR seriously that low while running this fast or is my HR monitor broken?!" or "do I seriously feel this good and fresh even after feeling tired all week?" or "is that dog seriously running at me full speed or is there a hidden leash holding him back somewhere?" :)

And now I'm in heaven. Dinner is eaten, I've showered, stretched and now I'm ready for a thumbprint cookie and some episodes of Grey's Anatomy (yeah Netflix!) while I wait for O to get home from his track meet. Life is good. Real good.

Posted by beth at 8:58 PM | Comments (2)

February 7, 2008

More Swim Chatter

Well, I have swimming on the brain right now so if you are really sick of reading my swim chatter (and I wouldn't blame you), you might want to return to my blog on...say...Monday. No, make that Tuesday because I still might be chattering about the swim meet on Monday. :)

Anyway, first of all, very big THANK YOU to all the good luck and well wishes comments! I really appreciate it! I will certainly be thinking of you all and swimming my tail off in your honor!

This morning was masters practice, my last before the meet so there was much chatter about Sunday's mile. Coach Jen talked to us about how to warm up (um yeah - I needed that because I am SO clueless) and then I got the low down on the pool from one of my lane mates. I really just wanted to know if there was one of those nice digital clocks on the wall so I could easily check pace while I was swimming. Indeed there is! Sweet! Of course we actually did a workout too. :) 100s and 25s and it was all good.

Coach Jen also had the heat sheets! Now this is very fun for me because as a distance runner I never had the excitement of of seeing which heat I was in. Distance runners just all line up and go at once. Cross country? Yeah - 300 bodies on the start line and then GOOO! But now I have my very own lane! (yeah I know, don't get used to it because open water swimming doesn't allow for such luxeries!) Anyway, I am right in the middle of my heat seed time wise so that is good. Because I think I might have underestimated my capabilities when I entered my seed time so I wanted to make sure there were faster people than me in my heat of which there were. This is going to be great - really great!

I think what it comes down to is, I just really, really, really like to race. This swim meet is very fun because it's all new and unknown but I could easily get just as excited and nervous for a running race of which I've done HUNDREDs. Nope, it's the challenge of racing that does it for me. If I could, I think I would race every week!

But alas, racing weekly isn't in the cards. That darn training gets in the way. :)

This evening when I got home from work I loaded up some Netflix and started pedaling away on my bike! Although it was 60 degrees yesterday today it was in the 20s and snowing. Go figure. But I'm not going to complain because at least we don't have like 5 feet of snow like those poor people in Chicago! Regardless, the trainer it was tonight, for 90 minutes.

As for O, he's feeling better. He thanks you all for the well wishes too! Still not quite right but definitely on the mend. One thing about him. He doesn't get sick often and when he does, it doesn't last long!

Regardless, it's time for some sleep. Sweet dreams to all!

Posted by beth at 9:20 PM | Comments (4)

February 6, 2008

Where Has the Day Gone?

Every time I have a day off work, it flys by like none other!

What's been going on (in no particular order):

(1) Something is wrong with O. He's sick, but I'm not really sure with what. Chills and nausea that have now come and gone and left him very...dizzy. He has trouble getting around. Needless to say, he didn't go to work today and spent the majority of the day in bed. I don't think tomorrow will be any different! This is all very odd for me because in our 6 years of marriage (and the 4 years we knew each other before we got married) O has NEVER been sick. He maybe once had a cold. And then there was the time he ate the bad BBQ chicken in the dining halls. But flu? Nope. Sore throat? Nope. I don't think he even gets headaches! Of course I believed that he was sick but I knew something was REALLY wrong this evening at dinner when he couldn't even get down his pizza. In our 10 years together I have NEVER seen him even come close to turning down pizza! AHHH - we have an emergency on our hands! :)

(2) Training. Both yesterday and today I RAN IN SHORTS AND A T-SHIRT! Yes, you heard me right - it was in the 60s in Pittsburgh! Of course it rained pretty much all day both days but I won't complain any time I can wear shorts in February. The cold weather is coming in now (it's VERY windy out there) but any little reprieve we get from the cold is much appreciated! I also had a bike (yesterday) and a swim (today).

(3) I am tired. Training is definitely adding up. I knew I needed a day off yesterday when I came home from work and wanted nothing more than to lay on the couch and eat peanut butter all evening. Bike ride? Forget it! Of course I did do my ride but when I get to feeling so "blah" and my body is all aches and pains, I know I need some down time. This is the first time in a LONG time that I've NOT been routinely taking a day off each week but I knew at some point I would have to build one into the schedule - maybe once a month or every 6 weeks. Well now is the time! Luckily that's already planned in because I have Saturday off before my big swim meet Sunday! Yippppeeee! I also helped matters today by getting 9 hours of sleep last night and getting a massage this afternoon. Trying to take care of business!

(4) SWIM MEET! I am so unbelievably excited. I don't even know what I'm in for! But it will be a blast and I'll have fun and I'll find that swimming hurt box if it kills me! Sunday - 1650 yds - heat #4. WATCH OUT!

(5) Although I'm not Catholic I usually give up something each year for Lent. Today being Ash Wednesday is the first day to start so...no chocolate until Easter! I usually try to give something up that wouldn't absolutely kill me to lose but something that I eat or do often enough that I would be daily reminded of the sacrifice Jesus made for us. So chocolate it is for me this year! Last year it was pizza. One year ALL sweets (that was really hard). And one year - pop. That's the only year I failed miserably. I only made it about 2 weeks before I wanted Diet Pepsi so badly I thought I was going to kill someone. Needless to say, I haven't attempted that one again!

Alas, time to check on O and see if he's still alive in bed. He groans every once in a while so I know he is still okay! Have a great night everyone!

Posted by beth at 8:00 PM | Comments (5)

February 5, 2008

A Run Down Memory Lane

I have absolutely no idea what possessed me to do it, but on the way out the door this morning to work I grabbed my running log from my senior year in high school. No idea. Okay - maybe one idea. Reading Pedergraham's blog entry the other day about her younger years as a swimmer may have got me to thinking about my younger years as a runner. She was commenting about how hard it was to see herself swimming slower now than when she was a 13 year old (although not quite a fair comparison given her focus as a triathlete now!!!) and I think it got me to wondering - am I a lot slower now as a runner than I used to be?

So during lunch today I started leafing through that old log. Hard to believe it's 10++ years old now! And what a trip down memory lane! I hand wrote my log then (all on the computer now) although I have to say I was just as meticulous about recording all the "data" back then as I am now. No HR back then. But I had the distances and the times of each course we ran. My splits from each workout. The weather. Who I ran with. The place I got in each race. How I felt. And then...the comments. Some of them were hilarious! One said "I told coach that my calves were sore and he made me ride the bike today - that's the last time I tell him anything!" Humph! (back in the day being imprisoned in the trainer's room riding the bike was like punishment when I could be out running - and now look at me! :)

I even sometimes wrote what I talked about with my running partners for the day. Once, the whole run was about how my teammate Rachel broke up with her boyfriend Vertus - how tragic! And now? They are happily married and new parents to a beautiful baby girl. Too funny! And then, some recorded conversations with my beloved coach who passed away in 2006. Flipping through I realized that I ran just about every run with him my senior year. That's a lot of miles together. And my heart ached thinking about it.

I couldn't wait to get home and go through my running logs from college. And they did not disappoint! The ones from my freshman year were the funniest. "I ran with Donna today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" - a reference to my teammate (who I obviously looked up to a great deal) who was an All American on the track in the 10K. (and yes, there really were about 10,000 exclamation marks)

And again, I relived so many memories. Like the time I got lost on the morning loop (we had about a 4 mile loop around campus that we did as our morning run each day before afternoon practice) and ran more like 6 miles...only to learn at practice that afternoon that we were doing hard mile repeats on the cross country course. I shed a little tear all over again just thinking about it.

Or what about Coach Sullivan's famed "Michigan workouts" - the ones that we cringed at as she announced - where you ran hard miles on the track but in between instead of resting, you ran tempo loops out on the roads? Or the hard 1200s on the indoor track. Or the 400 repeats on the Blue Band field where the last one was always "all-out".

Needless to say, a ton of memories all came flooding back. And you know what? Although I know there was a lot of frustration and tears. A lot of injuries and disappointments. All I can really remember now is all the fun we had. All the times I felt good and strong and ran well. All the teammates who now are my closest and dearest friends. And that's the way it should be right?

In the end, I'm not too sure if I drew any good conclusions about whether I was a better run then or now. Of course I ran A LOT more back then. And I could run an all out 400 WAY faster than then I could now.

But what I was reminded of more than anything was that this is a process that is to be ENJOYED. Sure it's easy to get caught up in the day to day this and that and all the NUMBERS. But some day I want to look back on all my triathlon logs and just have happy memories of that time I rode my trainer for 4 hours inside while watching Grey's Anatomy or the swim where I tried to do flip turns and I got so much water up my nose it started to bleed or the the long runs were we got chased by a gang of wild dogs.... It was a good reminder indeed - what this thing we call "sport" really is all about.

Posted by beth at 8:00 PM | Comments (6)

February 4, 2008

O is a Netflix Junkie

I've created a monster. A Netflix Monster. Actually - the monster created himself. I really didn't have much to do with it other than the fact that I encouraged the use of Netflix as a way to view the remaining seasons of Grey's Anatomy without paying $100 for buying the DVDs. O is out of control. Netflix this and that and he was on the phone with them and every time I look he's on the Netflix website. The first words out of his mouth at dinner? "Our first installment of Netflix movies was sent out today and maybe they will arrive tomorrow! Hey - when's your next trainer ride? Because you could start watching Grey's Anatomy and then we could send that one back and get another..." His voice trailed off. He was deep in thought. Netflix thought. Scheming his next Netflix move. I can tell this is going to be trouble. Especially because I don't really understand how it works. If you don't see any blog entries for a while, know that I'm okay. It's just that I'm being forced to watch movies so we can return them to Netflix for more! :)

Regardless, today was a long swim day and a lifting session. The swim was this morning and went well. I was hurting by the end but managed a very good set of kick 50s to finish things off well. I'll tell you, I'm a kicking queen. I can seriously almost kick as fast as I can swim. Pull? Not so much. I guess that tells you were my strength lies. (hint - NOT my arms :)

So anyway, this afternoon after work I went back to the YMCA for my lifting and learned that one of the guys that I always see lifting in the weight room lost $6000 on the Super Bowl last night. I think I shed a tear for him right then and there. I will NEVER understand gambling. Never. I'm just not a risk taker in that sense. A risk taker in races, yes, but with money? NEVER, NEVER, NEVER! I would be absolutely sick if I lost $6000 on a football game! And homeless. Because we would have to default on our mortgage for sure. :)

So that's my story for today! Tomorrow is a new day and is...get this...supposed to be 60 degrees!!! O informed me that he WILL be wearing shorts on our run tomorrow morning. We shall see. I'm guessing it won't be 60 degrees at 5 in the morning but if it's above 37 degrees, I will be wearing shorts too! :) Good night everyone!

Posted by beth at 7:23 PM | Comments (4)

February 3, 2008

Super Sunday

We've been having quite a super Sunday!

O, Roxy and I started things off this morning with our long run for the week. It was in the low 20s but actually felt quite nice because there was no wind and...get this...it was SUNNY! Doesn't happen often around here so when it does, we all take notice.

Next up was church where we sang one of my favorite hymns. I'm not a big hymn person. I like a lot of Christian music, but mostly contemporary stuff that...well..isn't so "old". But there are certain hymns that I love. Silent Night on Christmas Eve when the lights are turned off and it's just the flicker of candlelight. Here I Am, Lord - a song I first heard my freshman year at Penn State and to this day can still bring tears to my eyes. As The Deer, another one that I really like. And then this morning, It Is Well With My Soul.

I really only knew the first verse of this one - and the famous line:

Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

But this morning the third verse caught my attention. As our pastor always says, God will meet you right where you are at. And this is where He met me this morning:

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

It's always a humbling thing to think of my sin nailed to His cross. Powerful and very, very humbling.

Regardless, after church we ate lunch (the other half of my dinner last night from the Cheesecake Factory but unfortunately all the cheesecake was gone... :) and then a 2 hour nap. Yep - a TWO hour nap! I always feel a little groggy when I get up from a nap that long but once I wake up I feel great. And today was no exception.

After that (in no particular order) we cleaned the house, I got on my bike for a nice, easy spin and we ate dinner. And of course now we are watching the Super Bowl. It's been a great game so far - close and exciting!

Hope everyone has a great week!

Posted by beth at 8:18 PM | Comments (1)

February 2, 2008

Cheesecake Coma

Where to begin?

Perhaps with this morning's training - a brick, my first of the year. My first question was, to ride outside or not? I waited and waited but still by 9 am it was only in the high 20s with windchills in the low 20s. That's positively balmy for running but riding? Not so much. I was quite conflicted as to what to do but in the end decided to ride inside because the roads were still wet and slushy/icy from yesterday's weather. I've already had one big crash in my riding career - I just don't need another.

So on the trainer it was and I'll have to say, my legs were definitely tired from last night's training. But I pushed through and did just fine and I've now watched all the episodes of season one of Grey's Anatomy. :)

I got off the bike committed to making it a quick transition with my outdoor running gear but it then took me about 5 minutes to get my tights on my sweaty legs. Yuck. Oh well! Like I said, this was my first brick since...well...that would be since my last race in November! And boy did I feel it! Hard to get those running legs back after the bike. But once I got rolling I felt fine. I think bricks are one of my favorite triathlon workouts of all.

O and Roxy came with me on the run and just as we were almost home O proved to me that riding my bike inside was a smart move - he slipped on some black ice coming around a corner and fell flat on his face. And he fell hard! I felt so bad. But he's fine. His knee is banged up but he's a softball player and used to having banged up knees from sliding all the time. I told him that he better be ready for our long run tomorrow! :)

Regardless - after the run, an ice bath! And boy was it extra painful today. Maybe because I didn't do one last weekend (while at the clinic). But it felt good and after several weeks of being back into some good training, my legs are feeling the effects and needed some TLC!

Next up - BIKE SHOP! I love the bike shop. There is just so much fun stuff to get into! Today's mission was picking up my wheel (that decided to break a couple weeks ago) and my new shoes!! Yeah for new shoes!! And I LOVE them. I won't use them for a while. I want new (different) pedals so I think I'm just going to wait to use my new shoes until I get the new pedals and cleats. In the mean time, I might just wear my new shoes around the house. Although those carbon soles make them a little slippery. :)

And after the bike shop? The Cheesecake Factory. O and I got a gift card for Christmas to the restaurant and it's sort of close to the bike shop (neither of which is close to our house) so we decided to treat ourselves.

And now I'm in a cheesecake coma. Try some chocolate peanut butter cookie dough cheesecake on for style! Wow - if I can't move on my run tomorrow, we'll all know why. :)

So that sums up today. Last night's swim and lift? Well that could be a whole post in itself! Let's just say there is a reason to never go swimming on a Friday night. Try "open swim" and "scuba diving practice" all at the same time with "lap swim". I'm lucky I made it out of there alive without being jailed for scuba diver murder! But I actually felt quite good in the water and my lift was good too so all is well.

The best part of the whole night was the fact that O's co-worker and friend who is really interested in triathlons and will be doing some this summer came with us for the workouts. He's really fun to be around because everything triathlon is new to him (he was a football player in HS and college!) and he is so excited about it. And I'm excited for him because this is a great sport. A really, really great sport. Make that a really, really great life.

And what do I leave you with? A picture of Roxy from our trip to Chicago last weekend. But it could be a picture of her just about any and every day of the week. Sleeping is top on her list! :)

Posted by beth at 7:36 PM | Comments (6)

February 1, 2008

Welcome to February

So today I have 3 workouts to do - my usual short, easy recover run, a lifting session and a swim that is normally on Saturday but has to be done today since the pool is closed tomorrow due to a masters meet.

Well okay then.

My plan was to do the run/lift in the am before work and the swim in the evening. I mostly came up with this plan because O could come swimming with me if I went at night and it's always fun to have a partner (even if we aren't doing the same workout).

Of course this plan started to go a little awry last night when I woke up around 2 am and heard the ping, ping, ping of freezing rain on our windows. Yuck. I would honestly rather that it just snow because snow is one thing and ice is entirely an other thing.

Sure enough when I woke up (for real) to let Roxy out everything (roads, yard, sidewalks) looked like a sheet of ice. Double yuck!

I waited until O got up before I formed my plan. What I really wanted to do was crawl back in my warm bed, call off work and sleep another 3 hours. But that wasn't going to happen so we moved onto plan B.

Going swimming in the morning probably would have been best but I just wasn't mentally prepared for a swim. I'm generally relatively flexible about adjusting workouts and times, etc... but it was 4:45 am, cold, dark and I was sore and tired from training and I just didn't FEEL like swimming at that given time. I hadn't planned on it and I didn't want to. Plus, O wouldn't be able to go with me. Therefore, we move to plan C.

I next decide that I should just shower and go straight into work and then do all three workouts after work. Nope - I wanted to get at least one workout in before.

Plan D - save the lifting and swim for after but at least get the run in. It was only a very easy 30 minute run and really, how icy could it be? That's about the time I started wishing I lived in Arizona. Or South Carolina.

O made the decision for me when he offered to go on the 30 minute run and if it was too icy well, than we'd turn back. So on with the running clothes we go!

We got all dressed and gingerly stepped out our back door. Okay - not too bad, but definitely a little slick. Problem #1 came when O tried to open our back metal gate to actually get out of the yard. Nope - it was frozen shut! But it didn't take too much coaxing before he got it open.

We jogged easily up the back alley and then onto the roads and discovered that it wasn't so bad afterall. Instead of a sheet of ice it was more like a sheet of slush. Very thick sheet of slush but not too terribly slippery.

And the run was fine. Cold and a bit wet yes, but not dangerous by any means. At one point O and I both stepped in a HUGE, icy puddle that basically numbed my right foot for the whole rest of the run - to which O commented, "well, at least you won't have to ice your feet when you get home!" Good point by you O!

Welcome to February - the worst weather month of all in my opinion. But the good news is, Feburary is also the shortest month of the year! And once March rolls around, although still cold and snowy at times, you get excited to get a 50 degree day every once in a while. And then April? It may rain a lot but there's no more snow. And then summer is right around the corner.

So now I'm waiting for O to get home from work and we'll head to the pool and then do our lifting. We are such a fun couple on a Friday night! :) But I'm thankful and glad that I can be doing this - this running, swimming, cycling and lifting. And doing it with my husband (and dog!). Because although it makes me tired and sore and at times cranky and although the weather is bad and I hate running out in the cold and slush - there's not much else in this world that I would want to be doing MORE than what I get to do every day, right now.

Posted by beth at 5:06 PM | Comments (2)