Benchmark Monday

For some reason, I'm in the mood for benchmarking my progress today. When I started this process, I was not terribly out of shape, but I wasn't in the greatest of shape either. I can honestly say that I am in better shape than I was, but I probably still have a bit to go until I would say I'm in really good shape.

But, physically, I can definitely say there is a difference. I am a dress size smaller, and have more overall muscle tone (although I still need some work... I may add some weight training back in when I start doing the training for May's triathlon). I am definitely faster and have better cardio strength and lung capacity too. And I don't have as many cravings for pizza, ice cream, and chocolate like I used to (although after the holidays I have some chocolate cravings but they are starting to subside a bit - especially since I keep disappointing them with no sugar added cocoa, other than this weekend...). I haven't had my cholesterol check yet, but I fully expect it to be lower. We'll find out more toward the end of the month when I have it done. When I started it was a scary 296, but in my defense I've always been a pretty healthy eater (I've completely cut out fast food, but still have pizza occasionally and the fast food wasn't all that frequent before) but I probably have the genetic issue my Dad and Grandma do where there is a chromosomal thing that actually causes them to produce more cholesterol than the average bear. But the doctor was pretty excited that I was starting to train for a triathlon and thought that would help the situation (let's hope so because if it doesn't get it low enough she's putting me on cholesterol medicine and the thought of that just makes me feel OLD).

Any who. On the running side of things, I can do 2 miles in 20 minutes (if I run the whole thing) which is 2 minutes faster than before. On the swimming side of things, I think I'm about 2 minutes faster on the 400 also (it might be 3 minutes faster but I didn't have my watch with me when I timed last weekend and was using the wall clock... but at the very least it was 2 minutes and 20 seconds faster than the last time I timed myself). And on the biking side of things, I biked 9.25 miles in 40 minutes on Saturday whereas when I started I was doing about 7 miles in 45 minutes. YAY me! This is not to say that I am super fast or that I am going to be turning pro any time soon (perhaps when I'm 50 I can go pro on the Master's circuit if I'm fast enough by then), but I am rather proud of myself and feel like I want to keep going and to keep getting faster and fitter.

So, keeping up my training is something that I'm all about. I've also noticed a shift in the way that I've been thinking about the triathlon. I'm no longer thinking about it as working out, but now I think of it as training for an event like an athlete. I also noticed my competitiveness coming out a little bit too. While I'm trying not to pressure myself and stick to the goal of finishing and not finishing last as my goal for my 1st sprint triathlon and for my 1st international triathlon, I also notice that I want to hit a certain time frame for my swim, for my bike and for my run for the sprint triathlon on February 1st. I also notice that I'm paying attention to form while I swim and run especially, and that I notice what other people's form looks like at the gym and pay attention to what they're doing wrong and what they're doing right. My brain is no longer - I need to go to the gym so I can lose weight and feel better, but it's a competitive brain. I've begun a return to the athlete brain I had back when I swam and ran competitively. I personally think that's a good thing - especially since I've been pretty able to control that competitiveness to mainly the events themselves during my life time. The Sleeping Tiger awakes! : )

Ok. I had to laugh at that last sentence there because this morning the sleeping tiger would have liked a little more sleep... Mr. Darcy and I stayed up late playing a video game (in our defense we wanted to stop at a reasonable time but the level wouldn't let us save the game until we had saved all 3 of the guys 1st) and then Angelfish woke up this morning at 4 am yelling for me because she had a wet pull up (yes, she's moved into the potty training realm as well and Ladybug has moved as of this week to underpants all day every day, other than night time... she's still having accidents but much fewer - knock on wood). She was so cute too... once I got in the room she sat up in her bed and said "Mommy, my pull up very wet. I need new one." Then once I got her changed and back into bed, Ladybug said in a very, very soft voice "Mommy I need new pull up too. This one very wet too." The second Ladybug was changed she climbed back into bed and was asleep rather quickly. Angelfish wanted to hold hands for a long while, but eventually I told her I needed to sleep in my bed and she didn't give too much of a fuss.

A cute story from yesterday. We went to the outlets so that we could get the girls some new shoes (they had a growth spurt recently and are now wearing an 8.5 (Ladybug) and an 8 (Angelfish) - the poor things were in 7's before but when they don't complain it's hard to know that their shoes don't fit anymore! I only figured it out because finally Ladybug was talking about her toenails alot this week and then Angelfish kept yanking her shoes off the second you put them on her.). Mr. Darcy's parents were with us and Mr. Darch's Mom went into the Coach store and as I was going to catch up with everyone, Ladybug and I saw the Gymboree outlet store and wandered inside - just for a minute (originally). There was a beautiful and extremely cute navy dress with red tulips on it and a red sash. I showed it to Ladybug and asked if she liked it. In response, she said "Ooh, Mommy. It pretty. Find my size!" We ended up buying it and another dress for Angelfish. My excuse is that 1) they like dresses and 2) we can use them for Easter too! (Yes, I realize that is still a couple months away... shhhh.)

Ok, and now for the training workouts from Saturday and today. Saturday, I did a 100 m swim warm up and then a 400 m swim, followed by 40 minutes on the bike (9.25 mile on level 4), and then a 20 minute run (which I alternated 3 min. run and 1 min. walk because my leg is still recovering), then a 10 minute walk to cool down. Then I stretched well and went wedding dress shopping with Lauren (her dress is gorgeous...) and her very sweet Mom, had lunch with them, went shopping at the Millenia Mall (I will be going back to see the side with the haute coutre stores like Louis Vitton and Jimmy Choo, but will not be buying from them I'd rather have a new bike!), and they introduced me to Haagen Das Peanut Butter Chocolate Ice Cream. My favorite has been Mint Chocolate Chip for years, but that Peanut Butter Chocolate gave Mint Chocolate Chip a run for it's money. I think it's a tie! I did a bunch of walking, so I'm not sure if that counts or not... Sunday was my day off, but my father in law told me that I couldn't say that I didn't exercise on Sunday in my blog (Hi, Dad! I know you're reading!) because we ran around after the girls at the outlet mall. I still don't count it as training, but I guess it wasn't being sedentary either!

Today because we overslept, I didn't go into the gym so I skipped the swim portion of my training today but I did my interval run training in the park (didn't encounter any neighbors though). That was actually where I started thinking about my benchmarking because with the interval training, I do 7 minutes of alternating 1 minute of walking with 1 minute of running followed by 4-6 x of 20 second sprint and then walking back to the start and then a 5 minute cool down. Well, when I started that took the allotted 25 minutes. Today, I ended up having to do 8 20 second sprints (with the walking back to start) and then run for 1 minute 30 seconds afterwards before I got to time for the 5 minute cool down. And that started me thinking about all that I have accomplished physically in the past few months. Another thing that I've done is that as of Saturday, I've raised $1985 for Leukemia and Lymphoma... and I have not hit the shops and doctors offices yet (but it's coming, don't you worry!) and I haven't gotten the donation from my work yet (that the CFO told me I would get). I want to raise more than the $2600 required and my $3250 goal!

Tomorrow is a 30 minute "hill" bike, which because it's so flat around here will probably be a 45 minute bike ride. I can't wait to ride my bike since I've had to use the stationary bike last week since there were a lot of swim bike bricks in my training schedule. Let's hope the rain we're supposed to get tomorrow holds off until after my ride! Until then, dear readers! Until then!

Hittin' the Gym after a Gator Championship Win!

Well, to say the least, I didn't wake up early this morning to go for that bike ride. Nope... I lingered in bed until 6:30 am. Rather late for me, but after watching the Gators win the National Championship Game, I couldn't quite get moving earlier. It's GREAT TO BE A FLORIDA GATOR!

I may not have made it up early, but I did make it to the gym (in my Gator Championship t-shirt from 2007, might I add...). Since I was a bit behind on my morning, I only had time to do a 30 minute bike at level 5 (and level 3 heart rate) and then a 1/4 mile in the pool. It's a shame I didn't have more pool time today, though, because I was tearing it up! I love those swim days where you've just got good form, arm rotation and killer kicking. It actually gave me emotional pain to get out of the pool today - it was that good of a swim day. But, the good news is I swim again tomorrow so I'm looking forward to it. Of course, it will be a bit of a workout tomorrow morning... the set for tomorrow is 100m warm up, 1/4 mile swim, 40 minute bike, and 20 minute run. My shin splints are still lingering in my left leg, so I'm going to have to alternate a 3 minute run and 1 minute walk for the 20 minute run to try and take some pressure off of it, but I can do it.

Speaking of running, I have to say that I need to find a way to change my thought process about the running leg of the triathlon... because it really makes me nervous. For some reason, I have no worries about completing the swim and the bike, but it's that silly run. I know I have the physical wherewithal for it but my brain needs to get in the game. I'll have to start doing positive visualizations or something.

Anywho, right now I'm enjoying basking in the glow of a great swim (and a good bike even if it was on a stationary bike) and a great Gator win. (What's a Sooner anyhow?)

Swim and bike... my favorite combo!

After enduring another morning of Ladybug's grumpy awakenings and switching between which parent she tells to go away, and finally getting her happy and dressed I hit the gym. (Angelfish by the way is a good morning person... she woke up this morning and said "clock says time to get up!" - we have a clock that we've marked with the time to go to bed, nap time and wake up time in their room - and then gave me a big kiss, told me she didn't want to go pee on the potty this morning and wanted a pull up, got dressed and ate her breakfast all with a smile on her face and giving out kisses to her Mommy and Daddy. I'm a morning person too... we'll just leave it at that as to where Ladybug gets her morning wake up style from : ) )

Surprisingly there weren't as many new faces at the gym as I thought there would be... my other workouts have been in the neighborhood this week, so this is the first day in the gym for training. A few new people, but not a crowd. A new guy in the pool who swims loudly which means he needs to work on his stroke because he's not quite cutting through the water, but I digress. But other than that it was a normal day. I did the bike at the gym and may wake up early and bike in the neighborhood tomorrow. 30 minutes on a stationary bike is boring but it's fun on a regular bike. We'll just have to see if I can get out of bed early enough tomorrow. Tomorrow is a bike swim day (today was swim bike... not much of a difference but just where the focus should be on the 1st sport mentioned). I swam about 3/4 of a mile and did some stroke work during it. In 30 minutes on level 5 today I did just a smidge over 7 miles. I am definitely getting faster! YAY!

I'm also getting smaller... I put on a pair of pants that I haven't worn in a few weeks and they're a little big. YAY! Now, let's hope that when I take my cholesterol test toward the end of the month that those numbers are down too...

Anywho. Let's hope my quickness is inherent in the Gator Nation today because it's the BCS tonight! GOOOOO GATORS! FIRST AND TEN, FIRST AND TEN, GO GATORS GO!

Wednesday is run day - at least today.

The neighbors probably think I'm nuts... either that or they think I've started a New Year's Resolution. Today was a 1/2 hour run and walk day and I did not want to deal with going to the gym (which would have been 1/2 an hour roundtrip at the very least) just to do 1/2 an hour on the treadmill. Not sure if that's lazy or just a wise choice of time, but either way, it is what it is. BUT, I'm still trying to finally get rid of that evil shin splint in my left leg that seems to be hanging on a bit still. So, I needed to run on something soft and spongy - like the grass in the park right up the street from the house. But this park is not a big park at all... it's not even quite the size of the grass part of the inside of a track. Just a spot of grass big enough for 9 holes of frisbee golf where the holes are 100' apart and then a little extra grass on the outsides. It's a place that you generally only see Mr. Darcy and I running the girls around to tire them out with the frisbee on a Saturday or people taking their dogs for the dog's daily constitutional. No one actually runs in it or picnics in it (although I rather like the idea of that one)... except me. I've done my interval training there a few times, and now... a 5 min walk warm up, a 20 minute run (well, I alternate 3 mins running and 1 min walking for 20 minutes to keep my legs happy), and a 5 min walk down. Every neighbor that brought their dog out said hello, but several looked at me like I was on mars... why is she running in circles around this little park in the grass? Everyone else who runs in the neighborhood runs on the road or on the sidewalk. Yes, it is true. I'm the Girl who Runs in Circles. But, admittedly, I liked it better than the treadmill because at least the scenery changed a little - sure I know exactly what color house I'll be at on that circle when I hit the 2 1/2 minute mark, but at least it's not the same picture or tv set that I see at the gym.

Anyway, tomorrow is a swim cycle day. So, I'll be at the gym and probably grousing about having to do my cycle training for the day on a stationary bike. I should be grateful that I can do it at all, but I must say I do love my bike even if I have been coveting the road bike that some guy in my neighborhood has been riding by my window each day around 1:20 pm. It's sleek, has great aerobars, thin tires, and looks really light weight as he zooms past. But, I'd rather put the money in the girls college fund or our retirement funds (or so I keep telling myself!).

Oh, and my Teams in Training trainer gave me a new exercise to do to stretch out my lower calves to help get rid of the pains I've been getting down near my achilles tendons. She says it will probably help with the shin splints too... yay!

Biking in the Mist

Today is an exceptionally foggy day. I've never been in weather where it really was more like going through a cloud than just being foggy. About 3 minutes into my bike ride today I realized that was exactly what it felt like. The last time I felt that was when I went through a cloud while skydiving... but that was a lot faster than this. Within just a few minutes, my bike and I were covered in water droplets. A rather cooling and slimy feel to it. But today was a 1/2 hour bike workout so I wasn't in it for super long.

In looking at my training schedule for the week, it appears that this is a week concentrating on the swim bike aspect of the triathlon. Lots of swim bike bricks. Which is great because those are my favorite 2 sports of the tri, but not so great because the pool in the neighborhood is still cold (we tried to go this past weekend with the girls - the highs were in the upper 70s/low 80s, but the lows were in the 50s - and the pool was too cold to swim in), which means I'll have to do the bike portion of the bricks at the gym on a stationary bike. And for as much as I love biking on my bike, I pretty much detest the stationary bike because, well, it doesn't go anywhere and the scenery stays the same. But, a girl's gotta do what a girls' gotta do!

On the Angelfish & Ladybug front, Angelfish has entered the terrible twos, but her version consists primarily of just not listening to you and doing what she wants anyway. Ladybug had a great day yesterday with potty training but today refused to wear underpants. Ladybug has been listening very well lately and really adhering to the discipline rules that we set up for the house and have posted in the breakfast nook. Angelfish has her moments and did really well with sitting nicely in her chair this morning (which was much better than Ladybug... she never made it to the breakfast table and had to have her breakfast in the car on the way to school because it took her 40 minutes to get going - that's longer than I take!). Other than that it is officially back to the grind.

Monday, it is!

Today is definitely a Monday. Not just any Monday but the Monday return to work after a long weekend off for the New Year. And despite waking with an upset stomach (most likely due to the junk food I ate at Disney yesterday, which to my shame includes fried chicken nuggets and french fries - I told Mr. Darcy to surprise me with lunch while I saved us a table... not the smartest move on my part - ice cream and yes, even a funnel cake), I didn't let it keep me down. I didn't go to the gym though (I figure it's probably stuff full of extra people today anyway), but instead I did the interval training that I would have done on the treadmill in the park just up the street from our house (nice, spongy grass) and added another 20 minute walk onto it to try to make up a little bit for not swimming at the gym in addition to the interval training. Perhaps if the morning goes well tomorrow, I'll get the pool in then.

I kind of like interval training. I did 7 minutes alternating 1 minute run and 1 minute walk and then 6 sets of a 20 second sprint and then walking back to where I started the sprint. It's kind of nice to see how far I've come from the last time I did these intervals. I may not be a lot smaller yet in size (although I've dropped one size), but I am definitely in better shape than I was!

Yesterday we had a lot of fun at Disney. We went with the girls and our friend Bryan who was visiting. The girls had fun with Mr. Bryan who is 6'5" and a rather muscular 280. So, as you can tell he is a big guy. On the tea cups, he spun them so fast with just one hand that poor Ladybug(who has the beginnings of a headcold coming on I think) did not want to ride them again. Angelfish on the other hand LOVED it. In fact, she wanted to ride them again and go faster. So they did, except Ladybug and I played while the boys and Angelfish went on the ride. At one point, Bryan thought that Angelfish was crying and took one of his hands off the wheel and Angelfish grabbed his hand and put it back on... it turned out she was laughing and screaming in glee. Later in the day she asked if she and Mr. Bryan could "ride cups and go faster." : ) Ladybug liked watching the fire works with Mr. Bryan - he was nice and tall so she had a great view. We all had a good time and got a bit of sun... of course, since we stayed for the fireworks, that made getting up this morning all the harder.

But tomorrow is Tuesday so it will be a little easier and a little closer to the National Championship Game! And as the girls said when they saw the alligators at Sea World this past Friday "Go Gators!"

Catching up...

Sorry for the failure to post the past few days... I got a short lived (thank goodness) stomach virus that started later in the morning on Tuesday. So, Wednesday I did not work out but slept alot. Thursday, after chasing two 2 year old streakers around the house and finally getting them dressed, I went for a walk/run with Ladybug. (Angelfish and Daddy started with us too but Amanda was grumpy and they ended up heading back, even though Angelfish wanted to run with Mommy originally.). It wasn't super intensive on the way to the park, but little Ladybug helped with some interval training by running and then getting distracted and stopping and then running some more, then a little walking and then Mommy carrying her (she's 30 pounds so I'm calling it resistance training) the rest of the way to the park (it's about 1 mile away from the house) where we "raced" each other and then ran the bases on the baseball diamond. She is adorable when she runs - when she's thinking about running she does this thing with her arms where she holds them bent at her sides and swings them wildly left to right, but when she is just running without thinking about it, she has pretty good form! For some reason she didn't want to play on the playground when we got to the park, but when we were done racing on the soccer field and done running the bases, she said, "Mommy, I tired and want juice. Please go home now?" and two steps later asked "Mommy please pick me up." So the last mile of the workout (Mommy walking briskly while carrying Ladybug) gave me a good sweat! Ladybug had been intent on running with Mommy that morning, and I have to say it was a lot of fun!

Friday I did a 40 minute bike ride and then we took the girls to Sea World and had a good time (until the tiredness set in for the girls) riding rides, seeing the animals and watching Shamu and the dolphin shows again. Both Angelfish and Ladybug are obsessed with the idea of riding a roller coaster. We tried to get them onto the kiddie roller coaster, but they had to be 38" tall and they're both at 36" right now. (So, the good news is that Angelfish had a growth spurt and caught up to Ladybug... we'll see how long that lasts.)

Saturday I did another tri-brick. I did a 3/4 mile swim, a 40 minute bike at heart rate level 3, and a 10 minute run. To cool down I did a 10 minute walk and lots of stretching afterward. It was great! I tore up the pool that day to the point that another swimmer told me I was really tearing it up... I talked to her a few moments while putting on my shoes for the run and she had done 2 triathlons herself. Pretty cool! Although, I have to say I hate doing these tri-bricks at the gym, but the pool is too cold right now to attempt it in the neighborhood and it's a lot easier on my legs to train on the treadmill. Usually when I'm on my bike, 40 minutes is over and I think to myself - already? Biking on the stationary bike is boring because I don't get to see anything! But, I did 9 miles on level 5 and at a level 3 heart rate, so I can't complain all together. The 10 minute run was really a 4 minute run, 2 minute walk, 4 minute run but only because of my shin splints which were REALLY not happy with me this past week after last weekend's 10 minute run at the end of the tri-brick. I'm starting to wonder if my shin splint issues are really because of the fact that I naturally suffer from really tight hamstrings. I don't know if physiologically the two can be related but I have noticed that when I'm running, especially as part of a brick, that the pain I get while running isn't in my shin but in the calf muscle down by where my hamstring hits my ankle area at the back, and then the pain shift to my shin afterwards. It's a mystery, but I'm having fun while trying to figure all this out.

I'm not sure if I mentioned that Mr. Darcy bought me a book Women and Triathlons for Christmas. It's a good book, but rather technical for a beginner like me. I'm glad it wasn't the first training book I read (I highly recommend Your First Triathlon by Joe Friel) because I think I would have been scared off. But, it has some good tips, history, and information for training. I think I may get a heart rate monitor because it explained about training based on heart rate and (again while technical) made a lot of sense to me on how you can really improve by training at different heart rate intensities and I've been trying that when I'm on the gym cardio machines and I notice what the author means when she says sometimes it's surprising when you're in say heart rate level 3 because you don't necessarily feel like you are. And of course, since Christmas I think people in my neighborhood have gotten some bikes from Santa because I keep noticing people I haven't seen while biking on these great road bikes that look brand new. Maybe if I'm really good this year I'll get one from Santa next year... although probably not since they are not an inexpensive item and it's not like you can get a trade in on your old model like you do with cars. A girl can always dream of a lighter bike that you can put aerobars and have a more aerodynamic form and allow for more power in your pedal!

Today, is Sunday and I have shifted my training schedule so that Sundays are my days off from training instead of Mondays... that way I am home with the munchkins when they wake up on at least one of the weekend mornings. Our friend Bryan is visiting and we are taking he and the munchkins to Disney. I think Mr. Darcy may be just as excited as the girls are about it because now he'll have someone to ride the rollercoasters with while I watch the munchkins! It should be a good time!