Train smarter, not harder - Day 1

First of all, the half marathon was a success! My final time was 2:13:33, which I'm very happy with. The whole thing felt good with only a few stumbling spots where I wasn't sure I was gonna be able to sustain the running. The course was beautiful - along the river, on both sides, in Eugene. My one complaint was the amount of zigzagging that was required for them to get the course to the right length...my knees did not appreciate having to make something like 6 right turns in the last .1 of the race. Aside from feeling like I was going to pass out for a bit about two after hours after it was over my recovery went well. The weekend was full of protein and carbs and although my quads were pretty sore on Monday by Tuesday I felt almost better and even went for a run on Wednesday.

Today was my first run with the heart rate monitor I ordered. I didn't put it on any settings per say, and just measured what I would say is a pretty typical run for me. Turns out my heart rate is way higher than it ought to be. I've been trying to do more research and looking into what I should be doing/looking for/etc and think I might have a better idea of how to use this thing to my advantage. It'll be an interesting adjustment period and I will try to do better about tracking that progress.

Whew...long time no update

The end of the school year sort of caught me off guard - with work, school work and school (all three different things) I was pretty busy with not a whole lot of time for exercising. Then we've been on all sorts of mini-vacations...so on and so forth, I will stop making excuses now.

The exciting news is that the last month I've been staying on top of things and will be completing *hopefully* two races in the coming month and a half: the bike portion of the Portland Triathlon and the Inaugural Eugene Women's Half Marathon. This basically means I've been either biking or running every day with a break here and there. It's felt really good and I think I'm finally over the hump with running and will be able to get some good distance going in the coming weeks.

That's about it at this point. Much and little happening at the same time, but I'm feeling good right now - I like this time of year.

Maintaining...

I've been in a stage of maintenance the last couple weeks. After being sick for a week it was hard to come back, so I was just trying to get myself out every other day doing SOMETHING. Today felt really great though - 3.15 miles, the longest run in awhile.
I was thinking about races while I was out and I think I'm going to focus on one triathlon and one half marathon for the season. Look out for an updated list on the right after I decide which one's I'm going to do and sign up for them so I can't back out.
The food battle has been going much better lately. Life in general has made it more difficult for me to snack continually, so I've been more deliberate about meals and cooking even small things when I get home from school and feel exhausted.
The journey is going well, but I'm thinking a solid work out buddy would be of great benefit right now...

Today did NOT go as planned

This was a busy weekend, and I had high hopes to go for a run this morning after putting pot luck coffee cake into the oven. Unfortunately, by the time that happened my mood had already turned sour and I decided not to go then.

Well, then, I ended up having to babysit the coffee cake for 10 or so more 15 min increments until it was actually done, at which point it was too late to go to the potluck, the constant drip of snot from my nose (and in my head in general) hadn't stopped, it had started raining, and I found out dragon boating practice for this afternoon was canceled - my one hope at getting any exercise in today.

In an attempt to get my butt out of the house Dan suggested a bike ride, but the absence of even an eyebrow raise from me wasn't too encouraging. So, I have spent most of the day napping off and on on the couch, feeling kind of 'blah' in general, but knowing that when I wake up tomorrow things will feel better.

Lesson for this weekend: Don't book up weekends weeks in advance. It's just not a good idea and causes more anxiety than necessary and then I end up having a day like today anyway. We'll see if I try to switch up the schedule this week and go out tomorrow - even for something short - or just stick to the regular schedule with a day off. I'm also hoping the weather will permit me to ride my bike to school at least one or two days this week.

This totally doesn't count as off the horse, just...like taking a rest stop.

Cycling! and allergies! YAY!

Dan and I went for a great ride this morning. It was just over 16 miles, which I think is longest ride I've done EVER, but it was also almost entirely flat. It felt really good though, and my core is slowly starting to strengthen itself no matter how hard it fights. I'm considering checking out some of the Group X classes at the Rec Center next term for this very purpose.

Things have been going well otherwise. I've been wanting to move myself every day and get out and just do something, even if it's a walk in the evening.

Some of the gals from school have been talking about cycling to the coast during the summer, which I have both both excited and terrified feelings about. Maya was trying to reassure me that I would survive though, so I think I'm going to give it a try.

I STILL haven't figured out a race schedule for the summer. I think it's going to be pretty low key - shooting for a half marathon and probably two sprint distance triathlons. List to be updated soon...

Things have been going very well!

The last few weeks have been awesome. I've been doing some distance of running, riding or swimming almost every day and I definitely can feel that it's keeping me from going crazy as the end of the term is more and more imminent.

Three things specifically have facilitated my ability to do this:
1. going running first thing in the morning - this includes being able to sleep in a little bit so my body is more prepared, figuring out how much I need to eat before going, slowly increasing my distance without killing myself
2. road tires for the bike! - I've had these for several months, but with Dan's encouragement and recent purchase of road tires I actually put them on my bike and the difference in the ride is phenomenal...have yet to go on a long ride
3. the pool at the SRC is open pretty much ALL DAY - which means I can go swimming whenever fits my schedule, and I got a locker in my department building (next door) so I don't have to truck my stuff back and forth from home.

For the foreseeable future I should be able to continue this, and my desire to do so doesn't seem to be waning in the face of aforementioned end of term craziness. I have the feeling I won't be able to figure out any sort of race schedule until next month - or, more appropriately, until I figure out what classes/other things I'm doing over the summer.

In the meantime I will enjoy my activities and at least momentary feel of accomplishment.

p.s. We found a place that does a spring CSA so at the end of the month we'll start getting weekly fresh veggies (and fruit?) which I'm VERY excited about.

scheduling conflicts

I just sat down to do previously-mentioned season planing, and realized that I need to do a little more thinking about my plans for the summer. There's an amazing farm internship that I want to apply for, and obviously do, but that takes out Sundays from August 3 - October 29 (ie the entire triathlon season). There are some other conflicts with the internship as well, but this was not what I was looking forward to when I sat down to go through these things...