Cycling.
I guess that's what you can call what I did this morning. I woke with a very stiff back (and realized I forgot to do my lower back stretches after my swim last night) and it continued to be stiff throughout my 30 mile bike this morning. I felt it the moment I got on the bike - the tightness. So I did a 90 cadence during my warmup thinking it would loosen things up (it usually does). I made it up the "giant" hill that doesn't seem as giant as it once did, although still large and then started the official part of the "airport loop." Of course, we were apprehensive because there was a police officer pulling drivers over left and right... we were riding at about 6 am without bike lights on. No one wants a ticket for not riding with a bike light (or even worse, failing to stop at a stop sign on your bike). Luckily, he was just targeting speeders.
I was not a speeder today. It was a bit disappointing on the speed side of things. I averaged about 15.5 mph because my back just didnt' want me to pedal faster in higher gears. Very frustrating. But about 24 miles into the ride my back loosened up and I started doing great. 18 mph, 18.8 mph, 19 mph, 20.3 mph. I was climbing and then I had to turn around and head the other direction... smack dab into a terrible head wind that came out of nowhere. 16 mph, 15.5 mph, 15 mph. It was killing me - and my back was tightening up again too. So, I took it easy the rest of the ride, up over the hill, and through the toll booth (well, the side with the bike route), and to the stop light. I started through the intersection and was approaching the stop light and notice I'm doing 17 mph, and then 18 mph. I think my back was happy to be headed back to the car and let me go fast again... too bad it was only about 3 miles from the car!
Allergies.
I know this is gross, but I just have to share. My allergies are awful at the moment. I can literally feel my sinuses swelling as I type. My post-nasal drip is nasty, but even worse was how my nose was running while I was biking today. I need to wash my bike gloves for the mere reason that they are, quite literally, covered in snot. At one point, I even had a snot bubble form out of my nose while I was riding. Fully disgusting. Luckily, I am already married and need not worry about trying to attract male cyclists.
Doctors.
Which is why when I went to the doctor today so that they could deem me worthy of a refill on my medication, that I told the doctor I didnt' care if my blood pressure was 136/80 (which it was) because I needed my allergy medication. I told her I have been known to have white coat syndrome (completely true). I even told her the bike ride story. After listening and then peering into my nose and exclaiming "my goodness those are bad allergies," she agreed to the prescription. She gave me the refill but only for 1 month, and is making me come into her office (it's right down the street) 3 times a week for the next 2 weeks to have my blood pressure taken and written down on the form she gave me. 3 times a week for the next 2 weeks? I have no idea how I will fit that into my schedule, but if I have to do it to get my allergy medicine I'll have to find a way. She says she just doesn't want me to stroke out, especially not in the middle of a triathlon. I guess that's a good enough reason, but it's just such a hassle!
Lunch.
So after driving to the pharmacy to drop off my allergy prescription, and realizing I had not eaten at 11 am and it was now 1:45 pm and since Mr. Darcy emailed to say he would have to work rather late today, I decided to treat myself to a nice lunch from Davis Bakery (take away of course). An "Empowered Turkey" sandwich and an apricot square to go. The "Empowered Turkey" sandwich has to be a sandwich from the gods. I get it on whole wheat, which is freshly baked that very day and possibly a sin to even taste because it is so delicious. Hold the onions (yet another allergy of mine), but yes to everything else - hummus, sprouts, tomatoes, and cucumbers, pepper and a smidge of sea salt. I'm not sure what it is about this sandwich because I've tried to recreate it (without their bread), but it is not recreateable by anyone but them. Delicious really isn't strong enough of a word to describe it, but heavenly. And they gave me a sample of triple chocolate cake as a "side." Sinful, and fully worth every calorie and fat gram it surely contained.
Ah yes. Nothing like a delicious sandwich to wipe away a doctors visit, a stiff back, and a somewhat disappointing bike ride. I'm still savoring every bite.
Showing posts with label eating. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eating. Show all posts
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Tired Swimmer
Note to self: it is not beneficial for training to stay up until 11 pm when your swim workout is around 7 am... aka you need to be up and eating breakfast around 5:30 am. I didn't quite make the 5:30 am wake up. I was, however, up and eating by 5:50 am. And it is now that I am questioning my sanity. Why ever did I think it would be ok if I kept reading?
The swim itself was good, but now I am tuckered out and am only on my lunch break before my conference call starts. A nap would be in order, but I'm all out of luck on that one. Not to mention that tomorrow is Valentine's Party Day at daycare and we have to bring cookies, valentines and pullups into school (pullups just for our munchkins), which means I can't sneak a short nap in before picking up the girls at daycare either because, well, I forgot to buy the cookies and pullups when I was at the grocery yesterday. As Angelfish said yesterday "You crazy Mommy Kate!" (I was being rather silly at the time.)
Swimming was good. One of the drills was to breathe every 5 strokes... evidently, I need more lung capacity because it was hard. The irony is that occasionally I will swim part of a lap breathing every 5 just because I feel like it, but when I had to do it the breathing was a bit painful. But then I could return to breathing every 3 or 4 like usual and I was a happy little fish. Better lung capacity would be awesome. I actually have wished I had gills before because then I'd never have to worry about running into the wall when I lose track of how fast I'm going and when I am almost at the wall. It doesn't happen often, but I do sometime breathe a little too close to the wall and then think I have room for a few more strokes and bam my arm smacks the side of the pool. Not the brightest, but so it is. But the sound of the water and the pattern of breathing was definitely peacefully intoxicating this morning. Stress, what stress? At least until I get back to the house to start my work day (I work from home) and I see all the laundry I failed to fold!
Oh and yes, the hunger continues as does the eating. Although I will say that I did not wake up ravenous this morning like I have in mornings past. Perhaps it was all that food I ate yesterday! But like clockwork, after my "2nd breakfast" as I like to call it, 3 hours later I was hungry again. And now, creeping up on 2 1/2 hours later, I can feel the hunger coming on again. I guess that's why I'm supposed to eat all this stuff! Luckily it's all pretty healthy, although if anyone has ideas on how to get the right number of calories while eating eggs without as much fat in them, please let me know! The egg beaters would be great, but there's hardly any calories in them and I'm not quite in the mood for eating 2 cartons to make up for it.
The swim itself was good, but now I am tuckered out and am only on my lunch break before my conference call starts. A nap would be in order, but I'm all out of luck on that one. Not to mention that tomorrow is Valentine's Party Day at daycare and we have to bring cookies, valentines and pullups into school (pullups just for our munchkins), which means I can't sneak a short nap in before picking up the girls at daycare either because, well, I forgot to buy the cookies and pullups when I was at the grocery yesterday. As Angelfish said yesterday "You crazy Mommy Kate!" (I was being rather silly at the time.)
Swimming was good. One of the drills was to breathe every 5 strokes... evidently, I need more lung capacity because it was hard. The irony is that occasionally I will swim part of a lap breathing every 5 just because I feel like it, but when I had to do it the breathing was a bit painful. But then I could return to breathing every 3 or 4 like usual and I was a happy little fish. Better lung capacity would be awesome. I actually have wished I had gills before because then I'd never have to worry about running into the wall when I lose track of how fast I'm going and when I am almost at the wall. It doesn't happen often, but I do sometime breathe a little too close to the wall and then think I have room for a few more strokes and bam my arm smacks the side of the pool. Not the brightest, but so it is. But the sound of the water and the pattern of breathing was definitely peacefully intoxicating this morning. Stress, what stress? At least until I get back to the house to start my work day (I work from home) and I see all the laundry I failed to fold!
Oh and yes, the hunger continues as does the eating. Although I will say that I did not wake up ravenous this morning like I have in mornings past. Perhaps it was all that food I ate yesterday! But like clockwork, after my "2nd breakfast" as I like to call it, 3 hours later I was hungry again. And now, creeping up on 2 1/2 hours later, I can feel the hunger coming on again. I guess that's why I'm supposed to eat all this stuff! Luckily it's all pretty healthy, although if anyone has ideas on how to get the right number of calories while eating eggs without as much fat in them, please let me know! The egg beaters would be great, but there's hardly any calories in them and I'm not quite in the mood for eating 2 cartons to make up for it.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Who Knew Eating Could be Soooo Confusing?
Eating, yes, eating has me in a quandry. I have been eating healthily, but it turns out I am not eating enough. Some days I evidently haven't even been hitting the 1200 calorie mark, which is the base line for just what you need to keep your body in motion. Of course the days we've eaten out or had pizza, I well exceed the mark. Based on some calculations that our coach gave us and due to the amount of exercise we're doing per week, it looks like I should be eating (even with subtracting out 500 calories for a weight loss of 1 pound per week) 2,000 calories a day. That is a whole lot of eating when you primarily eat fruit and veggies like I do. To give you an idea of what a quandry I'm in, yesterday I ate 1 cup of kashi, 1/4 cup of skim milk, a v-8, an orange, green tea with honey, 2 smart dogs, 1 fat free activia with 1/4 cup of mixed berries mixed in, an apple with 1 tbsp of peanut butter, turkey sloppy joes, and added a package of power bar energy gels, and I still only hit 1,206 calories (maybe 1300 because I ate a little extra bread with my sloppy joes). To me, that's a good bit of food. But evidently not enough. Of course, I was rather hungry this morning for breakfast...
Luckily I purchased Joe Friel's newest edition of The Triathlete's Training Bible because it has a section on nutrition and it gave me some helpful information, like eat 20% of your calories as fat calories and eat low to medium glycemic index foods during most of your day (which I do already) but increase your glycemic index foods around and during exercise (but still avoiding the sugary stuff). BUT, those fat calories need to be "good fats," ie. monounsaturated and omega-3s to the best of your ability... so getting them from unprocessed foods like nuts, seeds and lean meats. How I wish someone would just hand me a menu already put together with a grocery list so I could purchase and cook! So, today, I'm using a handy spreadsheet to see if I can get this ball rolling in the right direction. I still can't figure how I'm going to lose weight if I start eating more than I'm already eating, but we shall see.
Last night was our swim workout. It went well, but trying to learn the new version of the stroke is a little difficult. I will perservere of course, but until I can train myself to stick my arms into the water straight in front of my ears I may be swimming a bit crooked. And crooked is not good because that means I'm adding distance to the length of my swim and we don't want to swim farther in a triathlon than we need to. I'm going to give it a go for a week or two, but there's only 11 more weeks until the Miami Tri, so if by week 9 I'm not swimming straight, I may do as my coach suggested and just stick with what I already do well. But, I'd like to be as efficient (and hopefully as fast) as possible since swimming is the sport that I am the best at. Too bad it's only about 1 mile out of the total 32 miles we'll be doing. Of course, most people on the Team in Training team with me are happy about it. I, on the other hand, would rather swim than run! Most kids ran in sports as little kids, me, I swam!
Tonight is a 3 mile run at Lake Eola followed by a running clinic at Track Shack. Our coach said something about a 1 mile warm up, a timed 1 mile, and then a 1 mile cool down. I'm not looking forward to officially hearing how "fast" I do a mile after already running one. But, as always, I will do my best! Running has grown on me, especially now that I make myself pick my head up and look around (instead of straight ahead of me), but I still would rather be in the pool or on the bike. I'm hoping to like it even more as time progresses. Before that we'll be playing on the playground with the girls in the hopes of making the car and parent transition a little more fun for the ladybugs, plus I get to spend more time with them (and feel a little less guilty about not being home with them in the evening).
It's funny because last night in reading some of my new book, he asks the question why do you want to do triathlons? And to be prefectly honest, I'm not 100% sure why but I know that I am driven to do it. At first it was because I was bored with my workout and wanted something to get in better cardio shape and to have a goal, but then the more I trained it became something more. It was a sort of mental therapy because I have endured a good bit in what I consider to be a relatively short life thus far (yes, I do know I'm in my 30's but even with cardiovascular disease running rampant my Dad's side of the family tends to live until around 90, so imagine the possibilities!) and it was somehow proof to myself that I'm still here, I'm still alive and I'm still kicking and I refuse to just exist. And then it is a way to raise money for cancer research in memory of Angela, whose death has really changed the way I look at life (mine and everyone else's too). And not only is that the case now, but it is all of these things and yet something more that I can't quite figure out. It is fun for me, it is something I do for myself in a time when I work for others, take care of others, and try to run a household, but yet there is more to it. I am not delusional... I am aware that I was never a fast runner as a child and most likely will never be what others consider "fast" so I can never be a truly "great" triathlete. But, I somehow don't care as to whether I'm "great" at this in someone else's eyes, I just want to be happy with my progress and what I'm doing. When I finished my 1st sprint triathlon, my Mom said to me,"well, now you know what to do to be better next time." And for me, yes, there were lessons that I can use to improve, but it wasn't about being better. It was living in that moment that I did something that I considered amazing. Every time I get a little faster, I amaze myself that I did that. Perhaps this triathlon stuff just gives me a different perspective on myself from where I was before, and it drives me to do and be even more than I already am. Not to mention it is good therapy for working out whatever is going on in my brain or in my life as well. So BRING IT ON!
News in from the potty training front. After a war of refusing to wear underpants Sunday and Monday (despite using the potty all day at school yesterday), Ladybug has returned to the allied front, is proud of wearing her underpants again and has vowed to keep her pretty pants clean and dry today. Angelfish's teacher at daycare yesterday also informed me that Angelfish has been doing very well using the potty. In fact over the past week or so, she has been keeping her pullup dry. This morning she too is in underpants (although extras were sent with her to school). Is the end of pullup land in sight? Stay tuned...
Luckily I purchased Joe Friel's newest edition of The Triathlete's Training Bible because it has a section on nutrition and it gave me some helpful information, like eat 20% of your calories as fat calories and eat low to medium glycemic index foods during most of your day (which I do already) but increase your glycemic index foods around and during exercise (but still avoiding the sugary stuff). BUT, those fat calories need to be "good fats," ie. monounsaturated and omega-3s to the best of your ability... so getting them from unprocessed foods like nuts, seeds and lean meats. How I wish someone would just hand me a menu already put together with a grocery list so I could purchase and cook! So, today, I'm using a handy spreadsheet to see if I can get this ball rolling in the right direction. I still can't figure how I'm going to lose weight if I start eating more than I'm already eating, but we shall see.
Last night was our swim workout. It went well, but trying to learn the new version of the stroke is a little difficult. I will perservere of course, but until I can train myself to stick my arms into the water straight in front of my ears I may be swimming a bit crooked. And crooked is not good because that means I'm adding distance to the length of my swim and we don't want to swim farther in a triathlon than we need to. I'm going to give it a go for a week or two, but there's only 11 more weeks until the Miami Tri, so if by week 9 I'm not swimming straight, I may do as my coach suggested and just stick with what I already do well. But, I'd like to be as efficient (and hopefully as fast) as possible since swimming is the sport that I am the best at. Too bad it's only about 1 mile out of the total 32 miles we'll be doing. Of course, most people on the Team in Training team with me are happy about it. I, on the other hand, would rather swim than run! Most kids ran in sports as little kids, me, I swam!
Tonight is a 3 mile run at Lake Eola followed by a running clinic at Track Shack. Our coach said something about a 1 mile warm up, a timed 1 mile, and then a 1 mile cool down. I'm not looking forward to officially hearing how "fast" I do a mile after already running one. But, as always, I will do my best! Running has grown on me, especially now that I make myself pick my head up and look around (instead of straight ahead of me), but I still would rather be in the pool or on the bike. I'm hoping to like it even more as time progresses. Before that we'll be playing on the playground with the girls in the hopes of making the car and parent transition a little more fun for the ladybugs, plus I get to spend more time with them (and feel a little less guilty about not being home with them in the evening).
It's funny because last night in reading some of my new book, he asks the question why do you want to do triathlons? And to be prefectly honest, I'm not 100% sure why but I know that I am driven to do it. At first it was because I was bored with my workout and wanted something to get in better cardio shape and to have a goal, but then the more I trained it became something more. It was a sort of mental therapy because I have endured a good bit in what I consider to be a relatively short life thus far (yes, I do know I'm in my 30's but even with cardiovascular disease running rampant my Dad's side of the family tends to live until around 90, so imagine the possibilities!) and it was somehow proof to myself that I'm still here, I'm still alive and I'm still kicking and I refuse to just exist. And then it is a way to raise money for cancer research in memory of Angela, whose death has really changed the way I look at life (mine and everyone else's too). And not only is that the case now, but it is all of these things and yet something more that I can't quite figure out. It is fun for me, it is something I do for myself in a time when I work for others, take care of others, and try to run a household, but yet there is more to it. I am not delusional... I am aware that I was never a fast runner as a child and most likely will never be what others consider "fast" so I can never be a truly "great" triathlete. But, I somehow don't care as to whether I'm "great" at this in someone else's eyes, I just want to be happy with my progress and what I'm doing. When I finished my 1st sprint triathlon, my Mom said to me,"well, now you know what to do to be better next time." And for me, yes, there were lessons that I can use to improve, but it wasn't about being better. It was living in that moment that I did something that I considered amazing. Every time I get a little faster, I amaze myself that I did that. Perhaps this triathlon stuff just gives me a different perspective on myself from where I was before, and it drives me to do and be even more than I already am. Not to mention it is good therapy for working out whatever is going on in my brain or in my life as well. So BRING IT ON!
News in from the potty training front. After a war of refusing to wear underpants Sunday and Monday (despite using the potty all day at school yesterday), Ladybug has returned to the allied front, is proud of wearing her underpants again and has vowed to keep her pretty pants clean and dry today. Angelfish's teacher at daycare yesterday also informed me that Angelfish has been doing very well using the potty. In fact over the past week or so, she has been keeping her pullup dry. This morning she too is in underpants (although extras were sent with her to school). Is the end of pullup land in sight? Stay tuned...
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