Melting!

The heat index was 86F when I started my long run today. 96F when I finished. Went out too fast and ran the "no shade" route. It's a pretty route along the water front but...there is no shade.

6.3 miles in 1:15. Not my fastest day. Bleah.

Obviously I need to start these runs before sunrise.

Training continues

Life stops for no one. And if Carol's sudden passing taught me anything, it was to realize what is important in life. My ironman goals are very important to me. Not as important as, say, my marriage, but one of the things I enjoy most in life is being active. Being outside. Pushing my limits. So why wait?

This morning's schedule called for a 90 minute ride. There was very little wind this morning so I really nailed the ride. Eight minutes faster than last week.

This afternoon I tried doing a CrossFit workout at home. The full workout was 100 burpies (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5QCYQAKlyI) with a push-up + 1 pull up. We don't have a pull up bar at home but I gave 100 burpies my best shot. It wasn't pretty. Stubbed my toe. Had to use knee-down push ups. But I made it. Workouts are more fun at the gym and hopefully I'll make it to the gym tomorrow.

This life is more than just a read thru

Lost a distant friend today. A fellow parrothead with whom I spent a few memorable nights. :) Carol, I will miss you even if we just reunited on Facebook.

Nothing will bring Carol back. But it reminds me to hug the people who matter, every day. To enjoy the little moments. That life is not a dress rehearsal. Make life count.

More rides like this please.

In exchange for last week's crappy long ride, the training gods rewarded me with a strong ride where my nutrition went so well, near the end of the ride I thought "why not just make it an even 60 miles?" 60.25 in 3:45 which included 3 round trips over the only big bridge in south Pinellas. 100 feet tall and almost 1/2 mile climb. Oooooooo!

Apparently, red kool-aid with a little sugar and Carbo Pro works for me. Take a few Lava Salts for electrolytes and I'm golden. It would be great if this formula works as the rides get longer.

Just to give myself a few more details for posterity...started around 8am to give me an easy 30 minute warm up before joining the St. Pete Bike Club for their group ride. I chose the 20 mph group because....there was no slower group. However, I tend to be really lazy when I ride alone so I figured if I rode with the club, even just part of the way, they would push me to ride at my physical ability rather than what my internal committee thinks I should ride. And it worked. Even took a few turns pulling the group before they headed back north. It was a great ride.

112 miles on the bike this week!

Day 3 of the CrossFit Experiment

I finished my first CrossFit Workout of the Day (WOD) "as prescribed". No alterations. Today's workout was either run 10K (yawn, been there done that) or "choose your torture". So, I chose the workout named "Kelly" which relied on running/lower body strength. DOMS has been my constant companion since Tuesday. My poor shoulders needed a break and, to be honest, I knew there was a good chance I could finish the whole thing. I wanted to remind the boys at CrossFit that I'm not your average fat housewife no matter what they think they see.

"Kelly" is 5 repeats of:
400m run
30 box jumps (box is as tall as my knees)
30 wall ball with 10 lb ball

"Wall ball" is a sick combo of a squat combined with a 10lb ball toss as you stand up. Then you catch the ball and repeat. You know it's tough when you use the 400m run to "cool down". Took me 48 minutes to do all 5 reps.

This came after the 90 minute ironman training ride this AM. I'm tired. Don't know how fast I'll be swimming at the beach this afternoon.

And I've asked myself why I'm posting so much about CrossFit while making my actual IM training a side note. CrossFit has made working out a little more fun, even if it hands me my ass most days. And it seems like a path to the "next level" that I've been seeking. After 3 days, it's too soon to say if I'll stick with it but it's been fun so far.

Crossfit Experiment

So I finally headed over to the local CrossFit studio to check out the latest fitness rage (http://www.crossfit.com).

Like many of the other CrossFit centers, it's owned by 2 ex-military types which, based on my martial arts experience, gives me the hee-bee-jee-bees. One broken collarbone is enough for this lifetime, thankyouverymuch. I did not expect to like it at all. But my coach loves it and they offer the first week for free so why not? They claim that they can scale the workouts to any level. They included a few pictures of normal looking people on their website. Today was the day.

And my opinion is: definitely challenging but fun. Don't get me wrong. The bias is there. The trainer tried to hide the "another chubby housewife" look. But he asked me to do the same things he asked my husband to do and I hit the mark. The only modification was that I do full pushups instead of dips. Even then, I could pull off 5 real push ups. He was surprised. We took our baseline test. Joe is faster at pushups and sit ups so he beat me by 40 seconds but we both qualified for the full "workout of the day" tomorrow.

I definitely like this type of strength training over the nautilus approach or the power pump classes. Not for everyone but more my style. We'll see how I feel on Saturday.

It's 7:15 Am

And if I want to be a 2-time ironman, I need to get my butt on the bike, not read blogs/email/facebook.

Train well!

Schedule: 1 hour easy ride (am), 1 hour swim (lunch)

Long ride.

My ride was a huge mental victory. My evil internal committee almost had me convinced to sit around like a loser but I beat them back. My ride nutrition was a complete disaster. Not enough calories which made me very cranky. Something in my drink mix made me feel sick. I'm thinking it was the sucralose in the Nuun tablets and lemonade packets I used to flavor the water. Carbo Pro seems to work pretty well in terms of getting me the calories I need. But I need a little something for flavor. Heed tasted weird. Cytomax was too strong. Obviously Nuun is out for long stuff. Tried Accelerade, Perpetuem and Infinit in 2005 with little success. Gotta figure that out soon.

Another warning about lighting

For those out there who think I need to HTFU about lightning, here you go

Holiday bolt kills 1; 27 hurt.

"Witnesses said there was some cloud buildup in the area, but it wasn't enough to alarm anyone, Judd said.

Meteorologist Josh Linker of Bay News 9 verified there was no rain near the lightning strike. Linker said there was a storm well south of the strike that the lightning came from.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has said lightning causes more deaths in Florida than all other weather hazards combined, including hurricanes and tornadoes, and that Florida has more lightning casualties than any other state."

Train safely, my friends.