Schooled

The past month I've gotten schooled by lack of accountability. Drats. I created this blog to keep myself accountable for being fit & staying active, creating goals & eating healthy. I've been pretty good with all of the above, not great but solid. I have not been good about blogging or journaling about it, which I need to do since it keeps me on track & shows me when I've gotten off the rails.

Last week was late night binge madness. Husband was away so I stayed up until 1am watching bad tv & eating Triscuits & cheese. Each morning I had a sleep & salt hangover~ick. When I eat dirty I feel dirty but when I eat clean I feel light, lean & good, I need to remember that at midnight!

Took a fantastic 6 miler today & pondered all my goals, near & far away:
Lose 15 lbs to make running easier & lighter
Gain 5lbs or more of muscle
Strengthen core big time
Shape arms into awesomeness
Stretch & PT until ankles feel like gold
Eat clean
Sleep better
Clean out the house & revamp it to fit our active lifestyle
Fall half marathons & century rides
60 mile Tuesdays
Mighty Mermaid
Maui Marathon
Napa Valley Marathon
Avenue if the Giants Marathon
Death Ride
Terrible Two
Barbs Race
SF Marathon Full

Summertime and the posting is...lazy

Summer has hit and I am lazy.  Not in regards to training but in posting to this fabulous fitness & life blog.  I am still running (need to more but toe has been irksome), bike (would love to spin 2 times a week), swim (need more time in the lap lane) and really want to incorporate UJams extreme zumba, Core strength & crankcycle (spin & arm workout) at the gym.  Super pumped for half marathons, century rides, Maui mary training and Mighty Mermaid.  Not super pumped for a 1 mile ocean sharkfest in a little over a month.  Need to change my mojo as far as that is concerned.  To DO list:

• Run, log more miles.  Follow Galloway method
• Bike, join SR cycle group for rides when triple A ladies can't.
• Swim, MORE
• UJam, GO
• Crankcycle, GO
• Watch diet, no junk.  High fiber, High protein, Low sugar, Vegan-ish
• Core strength, Fonda
• Choose some fall fun runs and centuries
• Sleep more
• Hydrate more, diversify water if needed (Nuun)

Quiet

Feeling quiet today.  Not bad~just quiet.  Some days I am bouncing off the walls and throw myself into running, biking, swimming, and sometimes all those activities in one day.  Not today, woke quiet and been that way all day.  Might be that lady time of the month on the horizon, I have an overwhelming desire to eat chocolate & watch bad Lifetime movies.  Have a lot of ponderings & family activities swirling in the brain, lots of passion for fitness & events...so it feels nice to be quiet for a day.  My bike crashed to the ground the other day in the backyard and I thought I had really damaged it, I was more upset than I thought I would be.  I was almost on the verge of tears, thinking about the amount of money & time it might cost to fix.  Then I got on bender of looking up new bikes online, faster, lighter, newer ones ~ one not picked out by my college boyfriend (although that was a sweet deal having a cyclist who worked at a bike shop buy/assemble & work on your bike. I am feeling the bike shop $$ rub these days, I gotta learn how to fix my own bike!) I took my bike to a local shop & they were great, said my bike wasn't damaged, a few parts had just shifted, it does need a massive cleaning & tightening & overhaul but it is rideable, whew!  Funny how entitled I felt when I thought they could work on it 'today' but instead they said it would be over a week to get an appointment.  No idea why I thought I might be the only one interested in getting my bike worked on during summer vacation & during the height of the Tour de France :-)

Last night I had a bad dream about my bike, it kept disintegrating and falling apart.  I was on a century tour with my dad and a few other random friends kept coming in & out of the dream, we were in a hotel room that turned into a water slide (so odd) but the overall feeling was unhappiness that every time I looked at my bike the wheel or fork or seat was twisted or mushy/melting.  I woke with the realization of how much I am loving biking.  I am of course watching hours of Tour coverage a day so I am sure that is a big influence too but....overall my love for biking and my ladies Triple A group of riding & open water swimming has given me a HUGE passion for activity lately.  When I was camping for a week, it felt like I was gone for sooooooo long, I think partly because I missed two Saturday century rides my friends did.  I was so glad to be camping & relaxing with the family but a big part of me was missing that exhilaration & bonding you get on a century ride.  Chatted with my ladies today about it and I was so happy & proud to see them shining & beaming about the ride, I love seeing that.  Just love it.

SO many things I want to do lately and not enough time to fit it all in.  Between Santa Cruz Mighty mermaid in September and Maui marathon in January, it isn't possible to fit in this 3 day ride in Santa Barbara but oh man, I really wish I could and am inspired to get it on the calendar for next year for sure:
Young Survivors Coalition Ride

So many things to ponder & DO....excited, motivated, inspired...but for today~happily quiet :-)

Busy

Been busy this week...camping! Eating too much (dairy, chips, chocolate) but walking everywhere, lake swimming daily & a few glorious runs 4.5 miles each. Ate dirt on one run, haven't tripped & fallen like that in a looooong time, humbling. Another run, I almost smacked into a huge deer. Scared me to pieces at first since I was worrying about mtn lions as usual. As soon as I realized it was a deer & not a saber tooth, it was cool, we locked eyes for a while, she was huge~again, it was humbling.

Spent a lot of vacation pondering running, triathlons, and missing my weekly triple A bike ride. Felt good to be so consumed with fitness thoughts. I also felt groovy in my swimsuit, I'm not perfect & my thighs are far from photo-shoot ready but I'm comfortable in my skin. That is very relaxing to me.

Camping & Training

Leaving today for a week of family camping. Planning on lots of sunshine, fresh air, Fonda, daily 2-3 mile easy runs & daily lake swims...I bought the wetsuit!

See ya in a week!

Feeling Life...

Absolutely LOVE this article from the Mermaid Series coach Heidi...

I have done one of their sprint Tri's and it was fantastic.  I am registered for a Tri clinic, Santa Cruz Tri & also their SF run.  A very inspiring series of events for women.

Click the link below to look at the events they offer:
Mermaid Series


Feeling Life, Not Just Moving Through It
Feeling uncomfortable is not a popular state of mind and I have many friends who think it's crazy when I push myself physically to states of discomfort that they think are unnatural.

I was running this past weekend with my husband in the woods and had to laugh at myself realizing once again how all things come together and how lucky I am to be a part of life. The most we had been running was around 4 miles as I have been recovering from a recent hysterectomy. We decided on a whim to go for one of our favorite runs which is around 17 miles. I'm not sure what we were thinking but well, what the heck, it was beautiful outside.

When we were 12 miles in, we kind of started to lose our minds, laughing at the silliness of what we were doing and then it hit me all of sudden how uncomfortable I was! I loved being uncomfortable. I know it sounds crazy but I talk to my team all the time about being in that state, and I was glad to be there. I hadn't felt it in awhile (self inflicted discomfort that is) and I remembered why I think it's so great.

When I've run too far, my body is so tired, I don't know if I can take another step. Each one I take feels like it is my last, it feels as if wherever I land in that last step is where I'll have to stay. Then I remember that I have to get back to my car. I find out that no matter what, if I have to walk to my car so slowly that I can see the flowers blooming along side the trail that I will get there. That really, no matter what, I will make it to my car.

Isn't life like that? It is in my life, there are many moments that I get dealt cards that I don't think I can handle and then I am reminded of times when I have run so far, pedaled my bike so many miles and swam for hours that I get to tell myself that if I can do that, I can do anything. Life is hard, it's beautiful but it's hard, knowing that I can get through moments that I didn't think I could get out of makes life's uncertainty less painful. I feel empowered knowing that I can tackle what lies ahead of me and gives me hope for the future knowing that if I can get through some of the physical tests I've put myself through I can probably get through anything life hands my way.

When I've run so far that I'm left with nothing but my thoughts... I am reminded of who I really I am. It's difficult when you are pushing yourself beyond your breaking point to not really be who you are. You can't hide behind any made up image or idea that someone else created for you, it's just you and yourself. It's sometimes a scary place to be but mostly it's a great place to be. When you've run far enough that you have run out of excuses to stop what you are doing, your mind is free, it has time to really think and to expand and to embrace what your life has to offer you. I find myself actually FEELING life and not just moving through it.

BEING uncomfortable as opposed to just seeing it and passing it by are two very different things. We are told so often to just by-pass discomfort, to do whatever we can (buy something new, move on from relationships, read some quick fix book,) to move as quickly away from the moment that we miss out on something extraordinary. It's easier to walk away from stress or from hard times than it is to sit in them. What happens when we do though is wonderful, just like pushing your body physically, when you do it personally, you see who you are, how far you've come and how much you want to learn and grow.

You might be wondering what this has to do with being a Mermaid, and as far as I can tell it has EVERYTHING to do with being a Mermaid. Whatever state you are in, having trained and raced for years or just getting started, you are bound to push yourself beyond what you thought possible. My encouragement to you, wherever you land on the scale of new or seasoned athlete, push yourself, trust your body and be confident in the idea that when you have pushed yourself beyond your comfort level, a new you will emerge and you will be happy to meet her. Your workouts will be more efficient, you will feel stronger and going out for your training sessions will bring more satisfaction.

Train hard, wherever you are, knowing that each stroke, each pedal and each mile makes you stronger heart, mind and soul.

Heidi Boynton
www.mermaidtriathlon.com
www.findingsophia.org
831-234-6724

Kenwood 10k

Did the Kenwood 10k today for the 3rd or 4th time. Always a gorgeous hilly course, so low key. No yahoos or racers. Came in at 1:05... Felt good, ran all the hills (albeit slooooooow), took 3-4 walk breaks for 30 seconds. Going to read about Galloway Method, seems like a productive & long term strategy!

A friend called me on my Fonda today, I need to be doing them. I'm not. It's like wanting to run a marathon but never doing the long runs, not gonna work. NEED to do the Fonda!