Flashback Friday and Abs Challenge Day #1

1. Today was the first day for the ABS challenge with fitblog. If you're interested, check out the challenge and her blog. Today, I did 100 sit ups the way Coach Ashley said and I will say that I HATE AB WORKOUTS but I'm glad I'm doing this because I lack a lot in core strength and it will help my running. So I'm excited about it but it's going to suck.

2. My hubby is bringing home a new phone because mine looks like this:

whoops

3. now it's time for Flashback Friday

Today, i'm going to dedicate flashback friday to the 4th of July!!! We're going to the beach and I'm ssssssooooooo excited about that. Yes yes, we just went to charleston but hey, two beach trips in two weeks can't be too bad, right??

So, Flashback Friday beings:

Movie:

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I was trying to think of a good movie and I was having a hard time, so of course, I went with Tom Cruise. He would be so awesome if he hadn't had that little crazy part the last decade... 

TV Show:

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This show was awesome. How can any regular joe schmo come on this show and beat the real american gladiator... he cannot!!

Song:

I mean, really, how can you not pick this song? it's a patriotic staple

last, patriotic fashion statement... living in the south, we see this often and honestly, going to Myrtle Beach this week, I fully expect to see the 

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AMERICAN FLAG BATHING SUIT

because honestly, nothing shows more respect for you country than using the flag as a string bikini. Thank you Heidi Montag... thank you

p.s. This is where I'll be staying for the next week:

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woot woot

Swim clinic and brick workout

As I was saying Wednesday, last night was the first of three clinics for the You Go Girl Triathlon. I'm kind of excited about this triathlon because it was made specifically for people who've never done a tri and want to see what it's all about.

Last night was the first night and we focused on swimming. Here is what was on the agenda:

You Go Girl Training Clinic 1:  Wednesday, June 29^th, 6:00-7:30 pm

Discussion

• Introduction to triathlon
• Virtual triathlon swim: what to expect
• Swim tips: common complications and how to correct them

Practice/Workout

• Swim: practice what was discussed during swim tips
• Swim: practice changing lanes
• Swim/run practice:  (50-100 meter swim + 0.5 mile run)

What to bring:

Swimsuit or triathlon suit, goggles, swim cap, running shoes, socks,  shorts/t-shirt IF you plan to throw them on before running—we won’t be changing between!

I am so happy they are offering these clinics because I learned so much information last night. Kendra has been doing triathlons for 4 years and she is currently training for her second half ironman. She told us about her first tri and all of the mistakes she made. I thought that was cool because she was helping us feel comfortable. None of the people in this clinic have ever done a tri. In fact, a lot of them hadn't even been in the pool yet. So I was like, okay, at least I'm not the only one. We talked about transition, we talked about changing lanes, etc. and as it got time to get in the pool and practice, I was getting nervous. The lanes look small when you've got all these people swimming in it and what if I run into someone, what if the person behind me gets mad because i'm not going fast enough, what if I have to stop, blah blah blah blah blah, freaking out, freaking out, freaking out, freaking out...

I got in the pool and started swimming behind this girl. Normally when I swim, my breathing is wild, I have a hard time getting it together, and I have to stop every 25 meters. I was so focused on not running into anyone, i didn't even think about my breathing... in a good way. I was swimming pretty smoothly and the only time I had to stop was when the girl in front of me stopped. And she stopped a lot, so I was fine. Once I got out of the pool, I felt much better about the swim. Not that I swam super fast or anything, but I was able to get through it without getting injured and 100 meters went by pretty quickly. My ADD my actually come in handy for this!

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This morning, I did a brick workout, kind of. I took a spin class and then ran a mile on the treadmill. It takes me about a half a mile to get through the weirdness I feel in my legs from switching to the run, but after that, I feel pretty good. I ran a mile in 9:45 which I felt was pretty strong for having done a 45 minute spin class.

My training this week has looked like this:

Monday: 4 sets of 30 second sprints, 4 sets of 60 second sprints, a warm up and cool down mile - 3.5 miles total

Tuesday: Holly's boot camp - i was supposed to swim but I didn't :(

Wednesday: 10 sets of 60 second repeats with a 90 second - 120 second recovery - warm up and cool down mile - 4.6 miles total

100 m swim with the group and 100 m on my own

then a 5 minute run after the swim

Thursday: Spin class and a 1 mile run

I hope to swim tomorrow and I have a 5k on saturday (Red, White, and Blue Shoes 5k) plus I'll add 3 miles to finish my long run

Next week: I will be at the beach so it'll be interesting to see how I keep up with my training during vacay... very interesting... 

What I'm Loving Wednesday

IT'S TIME FOR......

Thank you, Little Daisy May, for doing this again. I have been skipping Yoga Pose Wednesday but will probably bring it back when I'm either, doing yoga more or when I start my teacher training. For now, I'm in full on marathon/triathlon training. So....

THE LIST

1. Whole Foods ready made meals. They are delish... I have a hard time finding balance between working 8-6 daily, following a marathon training program, cooking meals for my friends that are having things go on in their life, being a good wife, keeping my house clean since it's for sale, blah blah blah someone shoot me... so.... Whole Foods has these ready made meals that we thought we'd give a shot this week. THEY ARE DELICIOUS. I mean, de - li - cious. We bought a chicken pot pie, $12.99 for the big one, which we made on sunday. It was so good and we ate it that night, James had it for dinner one night and I had it for lunch one day, so we got 4 meals out of it. THEN, we got a lasagna that we just put in the oven. James had some last night and I brought it to eat this morning. He said it was pretty good, I'll find out later. So yay for an easy, and fairly healthy in that the food is organic and made without the use of artificial blah blahs, although it's still chicken pot pie and lasagna.

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2. The Life Center : My gym membership allows me to go to any YMCA or Life Center facility in Greenville County but I will tell you that I LOVE THE LIFE CENTER. 1) the pool is never too full, 2) they have lots of open pool hours where as the Y always has crap going on, 3) it's open and set up in a way where you can do lots of things and 4) they are putting on a triathlon for people that want to see what it's like, me, and are offering 3 free triathlon clinics. Tonight is the first clinic and this is what is on the agenda:

You Go Girl Training Clinic 1:  Wednesday, June 29^th, 6:00-7:30 pm

Discussion

• Introduction to triathlon
• Virtual triathlon swim: what to expect
• Swim tips: common complications and how to correct them

Practice/Workout

• Swim: practice what was discussed during swim tips
• Swim: practice changing lanes
• Swim/run practice:  (50-100 meter swim + 0.5 mile run)

What to bring:

Swimsuit or triathlon suit, goggles, swim cap, running shoes, socks,  shorts/t-shirt IF you plan to throw them on before running—we won’t be changing between!

How awesome is this? It was kind of expensive, but the clinics make it worth it because I've never done it and any information helps!

3. Holly Di Giovine

She is getting ready to go to Iraq so we won't get to see her for a while but in the time that she's been patiently waiting for her assignment, she has helped me a lot with running knowledge, swimming knowledge, biking knowledge, confidence/training support, etc etc etc. I really appreciate everything she's done and I'm going to miss her while she is over their fighting for our country!

4. Pearl, Annabelle Reese, Emily, and Kate - new babies born in the last month

Baby Pearl

Baby Annabelle Reese

Baby Emily

Baby Kate

New Fitblog challenge

This is the first time I've ever done one of these. I don't know exactly what it's about so I'm assuming I'll find out. Have any of you ever done a fitblog challenge?? Any Advice?

Marathon Training Week 3

My training plan for the week:

Monday: 5:30 am speed workout.
4 x 30 second repeats
4 x 60 second repeats
recover 2 minutes
*p.s. this is a FAIL because i slept in this moring. Aboooo... what is wrng with me. But i'm going to make up for it by running after work. I'm just working through lunch and leaving early to workout.

Tuesday: Cross train: 30-45 minutes
My goal is to get up early and swim then do weights. we'll see what actually happens, but if I miss the morning, I'll have to do something at lunch.

Wednesday: Morning Intervals. Since I'm leading the group, there is no sleeping in. period.
8-10 60 second repeats with 1 minute recovery eary run
considering we usually do repeat, I'm not sure how we're going to do this with a 60 second recovery. we may have to adjust to a 90 second recovery.

thursday: cross train

I'm doing early morning spin class at 5:45. this will give me 48 hours recovery time before my long run saturday. This is super important to me because I can't have tired spin class legs for my long run. then my run isn't quality. Because I only run 3 times per week, I need those runs to be QUALITY. So I try to keep any super difficult workouts far away

friday: cross train - this will be a swim. Since my tri is in 3 weeks, i need to be in the pool, pool, pool. um, did I say pool? cause I need to be in the pool. which I also like because swimming seems to be the hardest workout cardiovascularly, but easiest on my body.

Saturday: long run - this week, it's 55-65 minutes with 2-4 sets of 60 strides in the last couple of miles.

sunday: rest

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Speaking of strides, I was reading an interview with Kara Goucher and I love how she talks about the secret word or mantra. The first article I ever read on her talked about her secret word. When she gets tired and feels like she can't do anymore, she uses a word that helps remind her body to go. I'm not saying with much finesse, but basically, when she trains, throughout her runs, she'll say a word, and then she'll run faster. Her body becomes conditioned to respond to that word so it helps when she's tired.

I don't use a word, but I use the same idea. The one thing that Holly always makes us practice are strides. Strides are when you focus on your form and you get a certain number of strides in a certain amount of time. For example, we'll do 45 strides. So we'll count our right foot 45 times and our goal is to get 45 strides in 30 seconds. If we don't get enough strides, then our "stride" is too long. If we get too many, the our "stride" isn't long enough. It helps us to focus on proper form BUT how I also use it is to help when a race gets tough. What I've learned is that my mind tells me that I can't do something when I actually can. My body just has to remind my mind that it's actually not tired. So, when I'm running and I feel tired and feel like I can't go on, I do 45 strides. My body feels strong and I remember that I've done this distance before and I can do anything. It's like getting a second wind. Sometimes, I have to do strides over and over, so I'll do 45 strides, then count to 30, do 45 strides, then count to 30. It gives me something to focus on when I'm having a hard run.

That may sound like a lot, so if you have questions, just ask. It's a little game I play with myself when I'm mentally struggling.

Do you have any games you play when having a difficult run?

Do you use a magic "word"?