Vegas?

No I did not go party it up in Vegas like the title may suggest :-) I will get to the title later, but for now I must talk about the bootcamp class I did with my mom the other night.

Coach has me lifting or yoga-ing each week and I know she would really like it if I decided to lift instead of yoga-ing every session. I promised her in my training peaks that I would hit the weights, but I really don't like the gym. Being inside... working out, just does not suit me. It never really has, I have ALWAYS been an outdoor kind of girl. Now you may be thinking that isn't yoga indoors?!? Yes, I know it is... BUT I seem to do better doing something I don't really like when others are all doing the exact same thing all around me - can you say competitive? I also go to a different kind of yoga, its not S-L-O-W, its called Power and its HARD, plus we listen to really loud, really good music the entire class and the guy (yes its a dude teaching the class) who teaches the class is a hoot - I almost don't mind going... HA HA.

Okay, so in order for me to hit the weights I tagged along with my mom to one of her bootcamp classes at her gym. I figured the class would be a great way to get a full body weight workout and the class sounded super similar to the functional lifting I am supposed to be doing. I met up with my mom and headed to the class. When the instructor walked in I had to laugh - he was shorter, a bit squatty, VERY tan and big muscles.

First thing was first, my mom had to tell everyone I was her daughter and I was training for a triathlon... yep, not ironman... "a triathlon!" She was funny. Then I learned that we needed A LOT of gear for this class. A mat, a light bar, a heavy bar, a light set of dumbells, a heavy set of dumbells, a bosu (which the instructor called a half moon and I thought he needed to learn his lingo correctly if he thought he was going to teach me anything.. lol), a ball and a thingy (ok.. i don't know the lingo for what that is called) for the ball to sit on so it doesn't roll all over the place. To warm up we had to run circles around the room, then we did lunges, then more lunges while holding a medicine ball over our head and finally more running circles around the room. Once the "warm-up" was over we starting on our legs. More lunges, some other stuff that I can't remember and then the arms. Some of the arm stuff was while standing on the half moon (bosu) and other were on the full moon (exercise ball). After arms we went back to legs and everything was pretty easy for me until we stuck one leg on the bosu and the other in front of us while holding dumbells and lunging... I got shaky leg syndrom and I was loving it - make it hurt! After shaky leg syndrom we moved on to abs and WOO HEE did I get reminded how week my abs are!!! Man do I have some work to do and I am glad Mr. tan muscles let me know how week my core was. After my abs were beat up we did a low walk (kind of like lunges but you don't come back up, you try and stay really low the entire movement) followed by jogging more circles around the room including a high five from Mr. tan muscles.

All in all I worked hard, got a solid weight workout in and felt better that I had cracked the gym door open again. After the workout my mom started talking about Mr. tan muscles... Supposedly he and his wife used to be strippers in Vegas! HA HA, it totally made sense :-)

Horse Days

I grew up riding horses. I have said it before, posted pictures of the old days and talked about why I am not still riding (but one day I will be at it again). What I am not sure if I have mentioned before is that my dads GF rides horses and is an instructor to boot. She is hoping to qualify for the 2012 Olympics with her horse Fontainebleau and was invited to compete in an exhibition event last night. It was called the Mustang Smackdown and was a freestyle challenge between once wild mustangs and some of the best show horses in the industry. There were 12 horses, 8 domestically bred horses and 4 once wild mustangs. Crowd support was necessary, booing and cheering were both welcomed.

After work yesterday I made my friend Becky run with me and then I took her to her first Horse Show. As we were watching these horses and their riders I got teary eyed. Horses were all I knew growing up, I practically lived at the barn, in my breeches and boots and the smell of manure is comforting to me. Riding was my first love and I have stayed away from most things horsey since I left for New Zealand the summer of 03'. The horse thing will always be available for me so I am not worried about never having the chance to get back into it again and when I quit I gave myself 3 years to fall in love with something else, find a new passion because I knew there was more to life than horses and well... if I couldn't find something by my 21st birthday than I would start riding again. Four months before my 21st birthday I ran my first marathon, that was all I needed, I was hooked! I asked for a bike for my 21st birthday and it wasn't a few days after getting my first bike that I was riding with a triathlon group and just signed up for my first tri.

Teri did awesome last night! We didn't stay long enough to find out if she won, but from the scores she recieved I couldn't imagine someone beating her! I took some pictures but because of the lighting they didn't turn out too well, but I want to post them anyways :-)



Kia Kaha

Changs 13.1 Race Report

I was really excited going into this race as I haven't had any way to really gauge where I am at fitness wise lately and with all my IM training I didn't know what to expect. Working in the running shoe industry left me working the Expo ALL day Friday and on Saturday I had to man the store for 8hrs. They were two VERY LONG days on my feet, not necessarily what I would like to have been doing leading into a race, but c'est la vie.

Sunday morning I woke up just after 5am, ate my oatmeal with raisins (I was out of bananas), put on my race outfit and waited for Mike to pick me up. We headed down to ASU, parked and got on the bus to head to the start line. Once there we did our first wait in the porto-potty line, grabbed some water and found Becky, Kelly and Stoner. Both Becky and Kelly were running 26.2 and they started 50 minutes before the half so we watched them start before going back to wait in yet another line to potty (man those lines were LONG). By the time I got to potty, strip down and turn my bag into UPS it was about 15 minutes out from the start. I left Mike and went for a little warm-up run before hopping in my corral.

The race started out BUSY and continued to be BUSY the entire time, I was never by myself out there and it was tough getting around people. I felt like my pace was slowed because of the people blocking me from passing, I was ready to throw elbows, but refrained myself :-) I went out easier the first couple miles, then picked up the pace and it seemed that I would go through a phase of negativity about every 5K. Each 5K I would realize how much this hurt and how much easier it would be to just slow down, then I reminded myself that I have built so much mental strength in preparation for IM that I needed to HTFU Princess and get on with it, then I thought that I was saving that for IM, this wasn't a big deal to me and if I could just slow down a bit I would be much happier. Then I remembered I had this goal in my head that I really wanted to reach and was right on target to do so if I could just maintain this pace... In order to shake the negativity I would focus on the music and the support on the sidelines and next thing I knew I was happy again.

I went throught that exact process 4 or 5 times throughout the 13.1 miles. The last mile I tried to push with everything I had left (there wasn't much) and finish under my goal time. In the end I just made my goal :-) YAY!!! And when I crossed the line I there was a group of guys I train and race with there to give me high fives and hugs! I was ready to puke... That is exactly what I needed to feel because I knew I put it out there today. I probably could have gone faster, but I am VERY happy with my PB today and stoked for IM :-)

After my race I found Mike and we headed over to the marathon. Becky and I had planned on me meeting up with her around mile 25 to finish out her last 1.2 miles of the race together. As I was heading out there I saw my friend cross the marathon finish in just under 3hrs... his goal and a PR for him!!! Congrats Brian!!! I positioned myself just after mile 25 and after 25 minutes or so of waiting Becky came by right on pace to break 4hrs (her goal) and I hopped into the race with her and ran the last mile with her! She was a rockstar today and I am so happy for her - YAY!!! Also right behind us was a couple other friends Kristine and Jordan (who was yelling at us from behind).

This was my second time running the PF Changs 13.1 and I have concluded that I don't like it, its too busy and the course isn't great... BUT I do love the 26.2 though - much fewer athletes and A LOT more fun. Maybe next year :-)

I will also post pictures sometime tomorrow, too tired to download them tonight.

PF Changs RnR...13.1

Tomorrow I have to do something I REALLY don't want to do - but will do because its ALL about the big picture, the A race that is looming in oh-I-dunno maybe 49 days ;-P Before I got the crazy idea to race IM New Zealand I had planned to race PF Changs 26.2 this Sunday! But I know that would offset my chance of reaching my goals come March 7th. So when the expo begins tomorrow I will be switching over to the half-mary. Although I love the 26.2 distance more than the 13.1 I am VERY excited to see where my fitness is... You see, my last race was the RnR San Antonio 26.2 back in mid-November, but I ran that easy and comfortable. Not to mention I now have 9 weeks of fitness since that race and I have NO CLUE where my fitness and mental strength is right now. I can guesstimate :-) But that doesn't produce any solid data... Therefore Sunday will be a GREAT day to see where exactly I am both mentally and physically.

I have also been working with a 26.2 and 13.1 training group that includes mostly first time distance runners. It's been a blast watching them improve, they have come A LONG WAY and I am soooo proud of them :-) Last week I helped give a clinic on what to expect come race day and I forgot how much I have learned since beginning running 4 years ago (yep, hasn't been very long). They were blown away with what they didn't know and were so thankful for all the information. One woman came in a couple days later and told me she was furiously taking notes during the clinic and then took her notes to work where she had some co-workers who were also first-timers and she shared with them what she learned! I can't wait to see them cross the finish line come Sunday!!!

Tomorrow is a BUSY BUSY day for me and I have been fortunate to have a few easier days this week so it will be a welcomed change. I have master's swim in the morning then I go strait to Tempe to meet up with my co-workers, load up some stuff and head to the Expo where I will be working ALL day. Then we are all going out for dinner afterwards ;-) I love working at Expos, I get to see so many people that I don't see that often and the environment is just buzzing with excitement! Its hard work and I will be trashed afterwards but its just too much fun that I don't realize it until the next day!!!

Cheers

Loser.. loser.. loser..

I just needed to write that title in hope that I could get that thought out of my head. The past week has been filled with sickness, short workouts, missing workouts and feeling like a loser. Yes, I am being dramatic, but when you have your first Ironman in 52 days you can be dramatic... right? Ironman is new to me, its a new road, a new adventure - a whole different pill to swallow and the road has been wonderful and difficult all wrapped into one. I have written Coach more times than I would like about my workouts and what went wrong, why I need to change something, how sick I am feeling, what a loser (yes its the word of the day) I am and so on. I have this picture of what the perfect athlete is in my mind and everytime I miss the mark I beat myself up about it. Knowing the fine line between being smart and just HTFU is hard for me, I can ignore A LOT of things, but I can also let little things get me mentally. When I read Coach Jens blog today it really hit home. She talked about hearing the TRUTH and how each person handles the truth differenlty. Her post reminds me a lot of my horse back riding days, when my coach would tell me the truth and I knew they were right, sometimes I could handle it, push on and other times I crumbled. It didn't matter which way I took it, I learned at an early age to pull myself out of a funk and get on with it... Being coached by Jen is the first time since my riding days that I have had someone take a personal interest in my training, be there when I fall and also to give me a solid kick in the arse. I don't know about you, but no matter how hard it is I REALLY like hearing the TRUTH, as long as it comes from someone I trust. Other people are quick to judge and that pisses me off! Like Jen said in her blog, its not the training that beats you up so much as it is the other life obligations and commitments. And since I am such a green (meaning young) athlete I don't know what being smart is and when to just say FU mind and get on with it. It's all a learning experience, but I am just want to get it right!

“Never let yesterday's disappointments overshadow tomorrow's dreams.

That's my status on facebook right now... I put that up there the other night in hopes that I would feel better today and be able to move forward with my workouts feeling healthy. Unfortunately I woke up feeling like death (yep, still being dramatic, but remember my IM rule!) and well, that wasn't the start to the week that I was looking for.

This coming Sunday I will be running PF Changs Rock n' Roll 1/2 marathon! Its my third time running this event and 3 years ago it was my first ever full marathon! I have been looking back at my training for that first long haul, how it went, how I dealt with it and how I approach training differently now. My next post will delve into this deeper.

Disclaimer..
I did not write this post to complain about feeling like a loser or to throw a pity party, but instead to be honest with how I am feeling at the moment, what I am learning and experiencing on the road to my first IM :-)

Laughing

Well this week has been a bit tough. It all started Sunday evening when I was shopping with my mom (its not often I get to spend an afternoon with her since either one of us is either working or working out) and my tummy began to tighten up. Monday wasn't much different, but the day wasn't too bad until night time. I couldn't sleep, my tummy was turning and I was planning a breakaway from bed to the toilet the entire night... The day didn't get much better and I had to label myself sick! GRRR!!! Well, it has been touch and go ever since, but I did get a couple solid workouts in yesterday. Having my new boss in town training me for my new position didn't help circumstances either, but I did it.

Yesterday I was supposed to run in the morning with my new boss, but I had to text him at 6:15am when I got out of the pool early from master's because I couldn't warm up and just kept feeling worse and worse... I even teared up leaving as I am overtaken with guild when I can't complete a workout the way it was meant to be. This past week I have found a trend in that I feel worse in the morning hours (I am not pregnant.. LOL!) and a bit better as the day goes on. So I called my friend Jordan to get me through my run later in the day. He was happy to join me, so after I endured a short bike ride I begrudgingly (didn't feel the best) met up with him. Jordan and I took off on our run and I just held on for dear life... He is a talker, nothing phases him and he just went on and on and on. At one point he said something so crazy and had me laughing so hard I almost peed my pants! It was great, I love when I can just laugh so hard it hurts!!!

This morning Cody and I went for a quick potty break before I left for work and we ran into his friend Franky who is another golden retriever in our apartment complex. Franky's owner and I usually let them off their leashes to play and today we did the same. They are too cute together and it puts a smile on my face :-) As we were gathering them up Franky decided going for a dip in the pond was a GREAT idea, he jumped right in and layed down right in the middle of the pond!! Cody doesn't get the whole swimming thing (I know he is a retriever.. its weird) and stuck it out with me while Franky's owner was beside herself in disbelief! I laughed so hard I couldn't get a word out, I was going to pee my pants!! I am even laughing about it as I write this... it was the cutest thing I had ever seen! Franky didn't seem to care it was 40F out, he was going for a dip :-)

Even though things haven't gone as planned this week with illness setting in - I can still have a belly aching laugh and thats the best medicine :-)

ER

Its time for another post...

The holidays bring an increase in socialization meaning a decrease in my desire to write about whats going on as I have talked and talked and talked until my face turned blue. Work has been insanely busy and I have left late just about every single day. I get annoyed each day that I am there past my scheduled hours as ironman New Zealand training is in full swing and I have workouts planned around my work schedule. Tuesday I took a shift for a girl who wanted to go snowboarding, I asked my boss on Monday what time I would leave work because I needed to get in a 2:15 run either before work or after work but before I had a run group social. This is how the convo went...

Me: What time do you want me to stay until on Tuesday so I know when I should do my long run?
Boss: You can leave at X:XXpm.
Me: Are you sure I can leave at that time? I will stay later if you want, but I need to know as I have this social gathering (work related) to go to that night and I need to know when to do my run.
Boss: You can MOST definitely leave at X:XXpm.
Me: You are sure? Because if I can't leave then I will be crapping my pants because I still have a tight timeline to get my run in before this run group gathering. You know how I get about time and stress!!!
Boss: Don't worry about it Elizabeth I will text so and so and have them come in earlier, X:XXpm and you will be out of here.
Me: Ok

Needless to say, X:XXpm rolls around on Tuesday and we are super busy! I tell Boss man that I need to go and he says NO, you HAVE to stay! I remind him about our convo the day before, but it didn't matter! I stayed 1.5hrs late, still got my run in, but had to email the run group informing them I wouldn't make it that night because of work and long run. GRRR! Now I really like my boss, which makes me feel super guilty when i get antsy to leave right on time, but its a retail position, not my lifelong career so I have mixed emotions about work.

New Years Resolutions seem silly to me. On NYE I was at swim practice and coach was telling us to make a resolution about something you don't do so you will be successful and start the new year off right. I told her I would quit smoking, I have never smoked a cigarette in my life so I 2009 is already a success :-) HEE HEE

I know for many people New Years Resolutions focus around working out more, losing weight, and eating right. Fortunately for me those are already part of my daily routine and who I am, its weird for me to think back about the years that those were thoughts in my head. I have always believed that there is no time like the present to make a change in life, who needs New Years to change something, or people who say I will stop eating crap in 2 days... Why not today? Why not this second? Whats wrong with the present? If New Years is what you need to change then MORE power to you, but stick with it, keep it up, there is NO ONE to blame but yourself and at the same time only you to keep yourself going :-)

On New Years day I had a long brick to do and it was absolutely beautiful outside! I had a HUGE thought going through my head the entire ride, I swear I only thought about that one thing the entire 5hr45min of my workout. I even ran into Mike during my run and told him about my dream, he threw a bunch of questions at me that I couldn't quite answer and as soon as I finished my workout I went home and researched. So yesterday when he and I met up again I fired ALL my answers and more at his questions. I dazzled him with my knowledge :-) HA HA HA
Today I went for a ride in the rain, turned into an icicle and couldn't see out of my sunglasses which became rain protectors. Then my mom picked me up to go shopping and see a movie. I got TWO new pairs of shoes and a new shirt :-) They are AWESOME! The movie was just about sold out by the time we got there so we scratched that idea and went to dinner. I told her about my idea, which I had mentioned on Christmas but hadn't brought up again since. My dream has one downside, I would have to leave Cody (my dog) for a couple years and I know this sounds silly, but I don't know if I can do that... I get teary just thinking about it!
As you can tell I am not ready to talk about what this dream is. When I decide if I will move forward with it I will discuss it on here, but until then you will be left in the dark. Its a VERY positive thing, with the exception of losing Cody for a couple years.

I am waiting in anticipation to see what Coach Jen throws at me this week for training! It should be good as we are IN FULL SWING IM MODE!!!

Bring it on :-)