Cycling Gene?

I feel like an abject failure on the bike. Good sense would have told me to learn to ride a bicycle and THEN sign up for my first triathlon. Unfortunately, I didn’t listen to my good sense. So, now here I am just 16 weeks from my first triathlon and still can’t figure out how to ride a fucking bicycle. ARRRGH!!!

Everyone keeps telling me how easy it is and how I just need to do this thing or that thing. Well, I.just.don’t.get.it! I can barely ride 8 yards, let alone trying to ride the 8 miles required for the race. I’m beginning to feel like I should just give up this whole stupid triathlon dream I have and stick with running.

Iron Girl Race Pic/Training Plan

Back to edit: I’m not sure exactly what happened, but I seem to have lost all of my navigation stuff from the left hand side of my blog. I’ll have to try and slowly get it all set back up again.

First of all, let me apologize for being so remiss in posting this week. It seems like it’s been a busy week for some reason, but it’s not really been any busier than normal I don’t think. I’m not sure what it is exactly, but it just seems busier.

Perhaps it’s a psychological thing since I started my training plan this week for my first triathlon coming up in mid-October. There definitely seems to be more “pressure” of sorts from following a defined & detailed training plan vs. just going out and doing some sort of activity several times per week. I’m sure I’ll adjust just fine after a week or so, but it just feels a bit odd right now.

The photos from my race on Sunday were posted yesterday. They only got one pic of me and it was right as I was crossing the finish line. At least they got me during the one part of the race where I was actually running, even though it still looks like I’m walking for some reason!

In other MAJOR news, my toe is feeling much better! So much so, that for the first time in YEARS, I actually jogged just over a half mile (0.54 mile) without any walk breaks last night! I was slow as hell (15:09 pace), but I did it! So, I’m well on my way of meeting my goal of running the entire 2 mile run portion of my tri.

Yesterday’s training plan also called for an 18 minute swim, so I did that prior to the run. I swam laps in the pool at my complex which is 15 yards in length. I did repeats of 60 yards of swimming followed by a 1 minute rest. I managed to get in 360 total yards of swimming in 17:57. All in all, yesterday was a good training day!

Here’s my training plan for the rest of the week:

Today: Bike 25 minutes
Friday: Swim 18 minutes & Run 15 minutes
Saturday: Bike 45 minutes
Sunday: Run 30 minutes

I’m still going strong on my food challenge as well. Today is day 17 for me with no slips and/or cheats on my food plan. It’s really paying off, too! I was down another 1.6 pounds this week at my WW meeting which brings my total loss thus far to 5.8 pounds since I started the challenge. Go me!!

Until next time …

Another Sad Loss

George Carlin was probably the first comedian I was ever “aware” of as I was growing up, although I didn’t TRULY appreciate his comedy until I was grown. The world has lost an amazing talent. Here’s a clip of my favorite Carlin bit:

Of course, it’s hard to post a tribute to George Carlin with the Seven Words bit, too. (Warning: If you are offended by harsh language, you might want to skip this one.)

Rest in peace, George!

Iron Girl Del Mar 5k

I’m back at the hotel. Let’s just say it was an “interesting” 5k. Nearly a mile of it was done on the dirt horse racing track at Del Mar. I knew in advance that we were starting and finishing at the track, but I didn’t know they meant ON the track. It seemed to slow everyone waaaaay down due to all the ruts and such in the dirt. Apparently this is the first year they’ve done the race at this venue and no seemed to be very happy about it. I’m so covered in dirt that I feel more like I did a trail run than a road race.

By my Garmin, the course was actually a little bit long (3.2 miles) and I finished it in 56:11. Given I’ve been battling the hurting toe all week, had to contend with the dirt track, and it was REALLY HOT out there, I’m generally happy with my performance. Would I have liked to have finished faster? Sure, since my goal is always to finish at least 1 second faster than my previous race, but this one had a lot of variables that just kept that from happening.

In addition to the 3.2 miles I completed during the race, we also had a pretty good walk in from the parking area. After the race was over, I reset my Garmin and measured the distance from the race area back to the parking lot. It was .6 of a mile, so by the time I made the round trip, that’s another 1.2 miles of walking I’ve done today which makes a combined total of about 4.4 miles. I think I’ll take the afternoon off from exercising.

I don’t have another race planned for about a month. That should give me some time for my toe to heal and work a bit more on increasing my running time. Since it takes place on July 26, heat may be an issue at that race as well, but I’ll worry about that closer to race day.

Ok, time for me to go wash the race track off.

HOT HOT HOT

Hey everyone! Sorry for not posting for a couple of days. I’ve been pretty busy and when I wasn’t busy, I just didn’t feel like making the mental effort to post. I’m still going strong on my OP streak. Today is day 12 for me, so no worries there.

I arrived in Del Mar this afternoon. I’ve already picked up my race packet for the Iron Girl 5k tomorrow. Right now I’m just relaxing in my hotel room and trying to avoid the chocolate chip cookie they gave me at check-in. Yes, I’m at the Doubletree.

My toe is still hurting, but not nearly as badly as it was earlier in the week. At this point, I’m pretty sure I’ll just walk the whole race and not try to do any running. It’s REALLY HOT down here right now as well, so that’s another good reason for making sure I don’t overdo it tomorrow. My only plan for tomorrow’s race is to just enjoy my first women only race, listen to my body, and have a great time.

I did pick up a few goodies for myself at the expo today. I’ve had my eye on a few things at the Iron Girl online store for a while. I was holding out purchasing anything because I figured I could get them at the expo and save myself some shipping. Well, not only did I save shipping, but everything was cheaper at the expo, too! Here’s a list of the things I picked up:

Transition Bag
Performance Visor
Nutrition Pack
Hydration Carrier
CompetiTowel

Hope everyone is having a great weekend! I’ll post my race report either tomorrow night or sometime on Monday.

Here’s my WW stats for today:

Total Points: 37
Exercise: 1.5 miles walking (2 AP’s)
Weekly Points balance: 30
Water: 56 oz
Consecutive Days OP: 12

Later!

Toe vibes request

Please send me all positive toe vibes possible! I am scheduled to do the Iron Girl Del Mar 5k race this weekend. Unfortunately, it seems I have reinjured the toe that I’m pretty sure I broke earlier this year. I’m scared to go to the doctor for fear he’ll tell me I can’t race this weekend. So, any and all “stop hurting” vibes for my toe are appreciated. LOL

Here are my WW stats for yesterday:

Total Points: 30.5
Exercise: 10 Push Ups (started the 100 Push Ups Challenge)
Weekly Points balance: 35
Water: 64 oz
Consecutive Days OP: 8

Until next time …

First Weigh In & Kelly’s Wedding

I went to my first weigh in today since rejoining Weight Watchers last week. I was down 4.2 pounds!!! The most amazing part of that is that in the past couple of days I’ve eaten some very out of the norm foods for me.

On Sunday, I went to a Chinese buffet with my outlaws (former in-laws) for Father’s Day. I did really well with the situation and only had foods that were steamed and avoided anything with much of a sauce. The only real “bad” thing I had was 1 small veggie egg roll. All in all, I considered the meal a great success for my weight loss journey!

Yesterday was much more of a challenge. I attended the wedding & reception of my coworker Kelly which took place on a Carnival cruise ship. Pretty much all of the food was fried with the exception of some sushi, the deviled eggs, and the fruit. Oh, I almost forgot, the cake wasn’t fried either. Since I knew I had the event coming up, I had reserved all of my extra weekly points allowance just for this occasion. I did dip into them quite a bit yesterday, but didn’t exceed my budget, so my OP string continues.

Here are a couple of pics from the wedding. As always, you can click on the images here in the blog to see a larger version of them.

The ceremony:

The reception area:

Cutting the cake:

The kiss at the end of their first dance:

I think Kelly was such a beautiful bride and her dress was gorgeous! Here’s to wishing Kelly & Adam and long, healthy, and happy marriage!

In closing, here are my WW stats for yesterday:

Total Points: 45
Exercise: Walking - 2 APs
Weekly Points balance: 23
Water: 64 oz
Consecutive Days OP: 7

Until next time …

Race Photo

Race photos were published today. For the first time ever, I’m actually happy with one of my race pics! This photo was taken just before I reached the 3 mile marker, so it’s about 2/10ths of a mile from the finish line.

And, no, my right leg isn’t malformed. I was wearing one of my running skirts and it was flapping in the wind at the time the photo was taken.

In closing, here are my WW stats for the day.

Total Points: 29.5
Exercise: None
Weekly Points balance: 35
Water: 48 oz
Consecutive Days OP: 6

Until next time …

Official Results/Next Race

Official results are in for my 5k. I finished in 52:04. So, I only missed setting a new PR by 18 seconds since my previous was 51:47. Here are my stats for the race:

Overall Place: 744/775
Female Place: 361/384
Overall 40-44: 79/81
Female 40-44: 40/41

At least I wasn’t DFL in any category.

I also realized this afternoon that I am a complete ninny. I completely forgot that several months ago I registered from the Iron Girl Del Mar 5k next weekend. Normally I wouldn’t do back-to-back 5k races like this, but it looks like I will be this time. So, I hoped on Priceline and used their Name Your Own Price option. I got a great deal at the Del Mar Doubletree Hotel (regular price is $205 and I’m playing $79! ). So, it looks like I’ll be racing again next weekend. This could be the one exception of my usual goal of always beating my time from my last race whenever I race. Since I’ve never raced on back-to-back weekends like this, I’m not sure what to expect from my body.

Well, I guess that’s it for now. In closing, here are my WW stats for today:

Total Points: 31
Exercise: 5k race - 4 APs
Weekly Points balance: 35
Water: 64 oz
Consecutive Days OP: 5

Almost PR’d

I’m home from my little local 5k here in Anaheim that I did with my friend Darla. Here are my unofficial results taken from my Garmin:

Time: 52:57
Lap 1: 16m 07s, 1.00 miles, 16m 07s /mile
Lap 2: 17m 12s, 1.00 miles, 17m 12s /mile
Lap 3: 17m 59s, 1.00 miles, 17m 59s /mile
Lap 4: 01m 09s, 0.07 miles, 15m 54s /mile

I almost beat my previous personal best which is amazing since I set it a couple of years ago right before I started having my back problems. I was nearly 50 pounds lighter then than I am now as well due to weight gained during my back surgery/recovery. So, I’m feeling pretty good about that!

I think if the conditions had been different, I would have made it today. They didn’t completely close the streets to traffic. They only closed off 1 lane. Since we were on some of the major thoroughfares near Disneyland, there was a lot of traffic whizzing by us on the left, so we were all sucking in exhaust fumes. I’m a borderline asthmatic, so I found myself starting to wheeze several times, so I would back off to let my lungs recover.

Since I only missed my PR by about 40 seconds, I think I would have gotten a new one today if I hadn’t been backing off. On the upside, even with the backing off, I managed to shave ~2 minutes off my time from my last 5k race on April 13. I’ve also shaved over 5 minutes off my time for my first 5k of year back on Feb. 3.

In closing, here are my WW stats for yesterday:

Total Points: 28.5
Exercise: Rest day
Weekly Points balance: 35
Water: 64 oz
Consecutive Days OP: 4

Until next time …