Training Week 4 & Gratitude

My training has gone pretty well this week:

Sunday: 8.24 miles
Monday: Speed workout 3.2 miles
Tuesday: 700 m swim, NTC strength workout
Wednesday: Interval workout
Thursday: rest day, NTC ab workout

Friday: evening Yoga - I haven't done this yet but I am
Saturday: I'm going to swim

Sunday: Triathlon (250m swim, 10 mile bike, 2.5 mile run)

I've been trying to take it easy the latter part of this week because my legs were trashed from early week training and i want to be prepared for Sunday. I'm not doing a good job of hydating, so I've got to focus on that the next 2 days. Overall, it's going well

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Yesterday was a special day for me because it was an anniversary. I've never spoken about this in my blog just because I get nervous talking about it in public but when I was younger, I had a major problem with drinking. Alcoholism runs in my family and I was one of the lucky receipients of the disease. I struggled with it early in life and by the age of 20, I had to enter a recovery program. Yesterday marked the 11 year mark of when I took my last drink.

I am very grateful for two things:

1. my family because they were instrumental in helping me get into recovery. If it were not for some tough decisions that they made, I may still be drinking or ever worse

2. the fact that I was so out of control, it brought me down early. So many people get into recovery every day but not many of them get the opportunity at such a young age. I am grateful because my detour was short and I got my life back on track fairly quickly.

SO..... yay!

How is your training going?

Have you ever had to overcome anything major in your life? Any major mistakes you've made? 

Netflix & Black Swan

First comment/question/thought:

WTF netflix? You used to be a good deal, but now, not so much. I AM DEVASTATED. As many of you know from reading my blog, I occasionally mention movies that I've seen. My hubby & I have netflix and we usually watch 1-2 movies per week. It's nice because we have date night on wednesdays and consists of us cooking dinner and a movie. But, we really only use the DVD portion of Netflix so we could just get that... but I mean, $7.99 seems kind of steep for 1-2 movies per week. We could use the streaming portion but it seems like the movies I want to see are never available for streaming. So, is it worth it to keep it or just go to Red Box? My movie choices will be limited, but Blockbuster is always available and it's only like $2 to rent a movie now... so we now have a very important decision to make.

Second thing:

The movie, Black Swan...

*pic from comingsoon.net

I have mixed feelings about this movie. The premise is right up my alley. I LOVE a dance movie, hello Centre Stage

*pic from huffingtonpost.info

AND i love a horror movie - especially something that is a psycho type thriller like American Psycho or Silence of the Lambs...

so the plot had potential. Also, I heart Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis - both some of my favs... And actually, they both did well with their performance. I truly believed Natalie was fragile, and so focused on perfection that she was a teeny bit psychotic BUT I didn't like how it played out. I am no movie expert, and maybe i'm just not smart enough to understand the metaphor, who knows.

DANGER: SPOILER ALERT - if you haven't seen it and want to see it, do not read any further

so I get that there's this whole like, inner struggle between being perfect/good and being human. And she's growing up from this 12 year old girl who has been overprotected by her crazy, obsessed mom and I guess that the black swan was the Yang to her "perfect" Yin but I don't know if the director did a good enough job making reality/metaphor distinct. I understood what he was saying, but also thought it was poorly done.

Just my opinion and opinions are like a-holes :)

A lot of people loved it. I think sometimes, a director/writer gets so caught up in trying to make it confusing/shocking, whatever, that they get lost in story and don't see that it's not clear to the viewer.

so... that's my movie review... when am I going to get a show like Siskel & Ebert?
also, I don't know if you notice, but I use a lot of these.... I don't know why. I just like them

Have you seen Black Swan?
What were your thoughts?

Yoga pose wednesday..... NOT

it's actually:

courtesy of our friend over at Little Miss Daisy

1. Running off the Reese's

This is my favorite blog right now. She is funny, she talks about working out but it's totally unique. Some blogs (like mine) just list out blah blah, this is what i did, but she tells it in a funny way. She likes to post celebrity pics although Hugh Grant made me feel guilty about liking celebrities this morning on the Today show (did anyone else see it). Somehow, I got off topic... what I'm saying, her blog is awesome and I look forward to reading it daily.

2. Back To Nature

*pic from their website

It's delicious. I mean, I have been eating it like, 2-3 times per day. I do not know if that is good. I did read an article where it says we need 3 servings of whole grains and more fiber than most of us take in, so i'm assuming that means chocolate granola, right?

3. Orgain

*image from PRweb

I honestly have been drinking these for a long time BUT i've never mentioned them because I kind of took them for granted. I get them at Whole Foods but this time, they were all out. So I grabbed one of those gatorade prime drinks. I usually meet my running group at 5:30 am mondays and wednesdays and I don't like to eat before I run but need the energy, so I just drink one of these and run and it's pretty good. This morning, i drank my gatorade thing and I was RAVISHING hungry at 6 am. Like, thought i was going to die hungry. i think it's because it was all sugar/calories and orgain has protein, but not the protein that makes you poop, just enough protein to keep you full longer than just straight up sugar. So, now that I realize how well they do before a run, I'm never taking them for granted again. I love them. love. them.

4. Beginner Triathlete

Since i'm new to swim/bike/run, I was wondering how exactly one would train for a triathlon, especially swim, and I've blogged about this before, but I LOVE the swim workouts it's given for the learn to swim program. I did the first one and it was perfect for me. It was challenging enough that I wasn't wearing swimmies and learning to doggy paddle, but it didn't start in straight up ironman mode so I was actually able to do it. If you're not a beginner, I dont know. If you are, I recommend this site.

This kind of seems like an advertisement today, but I just like reading about others' recommendations because i've learned about some new things that I never would've known about without blogs... so there we go! 





Posty Posty Posty Post, oh and I swam finally

I don't really know what to blog about today. Oh yeah, more training... super exciting.

Have any of you ever worked ou with your husband? I love my husband, he's hilarious. He always seems to make me laugh, even when I try to get mad. But if it's 91 degrees and humidity is 80%, i don't like to run. And when I am running, I don't want to talk, be touched or laugh. Especially by my hubby who never runs but is magically way faster than me, who seems to run easily around me as I attempt speedwork on a hill behind our house.

My workout was:
10 sets of 30 second hill repeats. The alley behind our house is a BIG STEEP HILL, so that's where we started. And it was friggin' hot. Like for realz... HOT... So I suffered through that, thought i was going to die and yelled at my husband several times for smacking my butt.

6 sets of 60 second repeats on flat ground. Repeat everything above. I did get a, "you're mean" from my hubby and I think maybe, a "chill out" and then not a vocal, but a look that said, "you're crazy" and "you're being ridiculous". I did tell him that I read in the Runner's World article about heat that if you're irritable, it's a sign your body is in distress and he said that my body must be in distress every day. NOT NICE!!

So, I decided that it would be best for our marriage that I train by myself today, plus he does not get up before 6:30 am, so I went to the pool, solo, this morning. I ran into my friend, Justina, so I was super excited. She helped me learn how to do pull drills because since I'm blond without actually being blond, I had the buoys turned the wrong way. So, after fixing it, I was excited. So, as I've mentioned on here before, I went to Beginner Triathlete, and printed out their learn to swim 5 month program. But I forgot it, the blond thing again, and I tried to do it by memory.

Here's what the plan called for:

100 meter swim, rest 60 seconds
6 x 25 (2 kick, 2 pull, 2 swim) rest 30 seconds after each 25 m
100 m swim, rest 60 seconds
6x25 (same as above)
100 m swim

This is what I did:
100 meter swim, rested for however long I wanted
2 kick, 2 pull, 2 swim
4 kick, 4 pull, 4 swim
100 m swim

I mean... that doesn't even look remotely close to what I was supposed to do. Nice memory buddy.

Lastly, last night, I got lost. On a major street... in my hometown, going to a place I've been to several times. Yes. That. Is. Me.

I had to call my husband for directions. Bless his heart <- proof that I am southern ;)

Maybe it'll work this time

So, yesterday, I tried to post about my long run and it wouldn't save or publish. I don't know what happened but I was upset when I tried to publish my post and IT WOULD NOT. I think it might've been our internet or maybe blogger, I have no idea. So, here I go again...

Yesterday, I ran 8.24 miles in a terrible time, something like 1:38 or something, but here's what my training plan called for:
first 2 miles, half marathon pace
4 miles, run 2 minutes, walk 2 minutes
last 2 miles, half marathon pace

my half marathon pace is run 4/walk 1 so that's what I did. I didn't feel like carrying a water bottle, so I did a 5 mile loop, went up to my porch, drank some water and ate a GU, which turned into a longer break because my hubby wanted to talk to me.

I felt bad that it took me so long but what I loved was that it felt so good! My half marathon pace if I just ran without the run/walk would probably be about a 10 minute mile, maybe a 10:20. The issue is that I HATE running that slow. My body feels most comfortable running at a 9 minute mile, but I can't hold that pace for 8 miles, much less 13 or 26.2 which is what I'm training for, so since the training plan called for run 2/walk 2, I was excited because that meant I could run fast!! It felt so good and I remembered why I love running. I felt strong, it felt good to be sweating, I felt happy, I LOVED IT!! At one point, i was rounding the corner, singing Black Eyed Peas out loud and dancing with my arms. I realized that I had to reel it back in before someone saw me and I thought I was completely psycho.

I think my play list helped too because I just put it on random and it included Bob Seger, Chicago, Black Eyed Peas, Amy Winehouse, Beastie Boys and Stone Temple Pilots. That seems like a weird mix... I guess it kind of is...

The other thing, I am participating in the FITABS challenge and missed my day yesterday. I realized that this morning so I guess my rest day for the week is over... whoops. Otherwise, I have done 700 since we started. WooHoo!

Lastly, I have a triathlon this weekend. It will be my first. I have not been in a pool since the last wednesday in June. I have not been on my bike since the beginning of June... whoopsy... But, I signed up for the back and I think there are going to be a lot of old women, so I'm like, eh, i'm sure i'll be fine. At least I'll have the run down :)

So, speaking of all of that, my training for the week will be as follows:

Monday: Speedwork: 10 x 30 second hill repeats, 6 x 60 second repeats on flat ground with 1 minute recovery
*p.s. speed work is my fav, i'll talk about it later

Tuesday: swim. My friend Holly recommended www.beginnertriathlete.com and that site has a learn how to swim 5 month program so I'm starting that in order to become a better swimmer. They've got all kinds of stuff on there so it seems pretty cool! I will also try to do strength as well, either after the swim or at lunch

Wednesday: 6 x 3 minute repeats

Thursday: spin class

Friday: swim, yoga

saturday rest

sunday: TRIATHLON!!!!! 250 m swim, 10 mile bike and 2.5 mile run

It should be easy, I'm just not going to be placing or anything. I need to learn to swim. But what I will say is that when we practiced the swim/run workout, I LOVED IT. So I hope I can train and do a longer sprint one day!!

What does your training look like this week?
Have you ever done a triathlon??