Merry Christmas!

I made out great this Christmas! Tri-riffic! (I'm such a dork.)

Not only get I get my awesome bike (which, btw, has made my butt sore from the seat and my shoulders sore from the new angle), but I also got a wet suit, nice goggles and a swim cap! The wet suit is a little big, so I think we're going to go back to get a smaller size, but I'm nearly ready to go!

I got a ton more than that, too! Highlights include a lamp, Scrubs season 1, a pretty wall picture, a few picture frames, sheets and food!

Pictures of me in the sexy wet suit to come!

Santa came early!

And he brought me a road bike!!!

Isn't it just so pretty???

We took it for a short ride, mostly flat, one big hill, to practice. It's completely different and will take time to get used to it, since I've never had one with handle bars like that. Braking is especially difficult for me! Still, it's a smooth ride and I feel like I can go faster with less effort, which is obviously ideal! It's light weight too! I love it!

Heaviness

My AMAZING boyfriend fixed my computer! Now it works again! Woo!

I tried to post yesterday at his house, but then he reminded me I wasn't paying enough attention to him, and I gladly decided to wait until I got home today. So here you go...

I haven't worked out since my run last week! I know, I know...here are my excuses. I've seen various tri-training programs and they all give you a week break every 8 weeks or so, and I've been doing this since June! Of course, I wasn't completely perfect about everything in the rough month of October, but I've been back, solid, since then. Anyway, I started out with just a few days break, which was a good time to catch up on Christmas stuff that I was seriously behind on! A few days turned into a few more. It was getting hard to motivate and the Christmas stuff took longer, so I just didn't. I planned on being active this weekend, too, but Nick hurt himself and was a gimp all day Saturday. Kayle and I planned on running today, but it was really cold and neither of us had a lot of motivation.

Starting about Thursday, I began feeling heavy. I don't know how else to describe it. Heavy. Not fat, but just...heavy. I decided it had been too long (although it was still a nice break), so I would need to start soon. It's only getting worse! I know I need to work out. I feel it. (I love that, btw.) I will feel better once I can get back out there. The problem is, though, I have so much to do in the next two days before I go to Tulsa for Christmas! I found out I didn't have to work on the 24th, which is great, except that now I'm going to Tulsa a day sooner, so I have less time to get things done. I made a quick Wal-Mart stop earlier on my way into town, which helped me de-stress a little. But really, I'm not sure how I'm going to have a tough time fitting working out in this week! I have a lot of wrapping to do, I'm baking brownies for my co-workers and I'm going to be working a ton in those two days because we now have one less reporter and a ton of days to cover with content!

Over the holiday season, I'm going to take it easy with the workouts. I'm going to try to go three or four times a week, anytime, and just take turns doing each of the activities. I think trying to follow a schedule with the holidays and travel and my sister's new baby (which will be here within the next couple of weeks!) will be difficult. I'm starting back up with an intensive training program Jan. 5. Should be fun!

Oh, and since I've just talked about my lack of time, I won't be posting pictures of the run for another while...sorry!

To sum up, I've been lazy and as result I feel heavy. I don't have a ton of time to un-heavy myself, but I'll have to make it work. Finally, I'm going to workout mildly until Jan. 5, when I, in my mother's words, "will hit it hard!" Picture to come.

3.1 miles later

For all of you keeping up, I ran my first official 5k this weekend. Here's how my weekend went down.

First, let me start with training last week. As you know, I ran 2.5 miles Monday and then promptly threw up. Tuesday, I decided on a different approach. My dad told my mom she'd be able to do it if she could run on the treadmill at 6 mph for 15 minutes. Of course, she'd run one before, in 27 minutes no less. Well, I decided to try that. It's faster than I normally run (I'm really slow!), but if that could indicate how I'd do, I thought, why not? Well, I barely made it 10 minutes! Very frustrating! Then, I woke up Thursday morning intending to do a short run, but it was 18 degrees outside, so I went back to bed, determined to run that afternoon at lunch. I did manage to do that and went two miles (1/2 mile run, 1/2 walk, etc.) to make it light since the run was Saturday morning and I didn't want to wear myself out. Again with the hills. It's right by my house, so it's convenient.

Then Thursday evening Kayle came into town! I had to work Friday, but we figured it would be fun for her to get a head start on the weekend! We loaded up on carbs, but also on some sangria. Yum! It was fun, great night. I worked all day the next day, except for lunch where we had pretty good Chinese food. Details, I know. After work we headed to Tulsa! My parents live there and she was coming to see where I grew up, etc, plus, the race was in Tulsa. Nothing major to report from that night. She got really nervous, as did I. Could I do it? I'd barely managed 2.5 miles...

By the way, my dad said it's good to have three goals. One you should be able to accomplish, one you want to, and one that is rather unattainable. My three goals were:
Goal 1: FINISH running the whole thing
Goal 2: Do it in less than 40 minutes
Goal 3: Finish in less than 35 minutes

Get up early (for me) Saturday morning! I was up shortly after 7 a.m. so I could get ready and eat some oatmeal before the race, which started at 9:30. It was warm that day, around 40 degrees at race time, except for that Oklahoma wind Kayle and I always talk about! 18 mph, blowing in the direction of half the run. Woo! And, I also discovered how hilly the path was! I was thinking it wouldn't be too bad, but that part of town has it's hills. We get our packets and then go hide in the car for a while. Nick shows up. It was good to see him since it'd been almost a week! Terrified, already nauseated, we go line up! Here we go!

Gunshot! Since this was such a low key race, people didn't necessarily line up right. A lot of people walked from the beginning and it took almost a whole K to get to where you could run at your own speed (a little less for me since I'm slow!). Mom, Dad and Kayle stayed a few minutes ahead of me the whole time. (Nick sat this one out.) Well, I ran. Close to the halfway mark, we go up this killer hill! Honestly, you were so close to walking when you were running because it was steep! By the time I got up it, I was feeling sick again, so I grabbed some water to rinse the taste out of my mouth...and partly just to have the thrill of throwing the cup down! I didn't stop at all. Of course, when you go up hill, you eventually get to go back down! Once we turned around, we were heading into the wind, but fortunately it wasn't blowing too hard at this point and fortunately the hills weren't as bad from this way. I was at 26 minutes at 3k and figured I wouldn't be able to get to the finish in 14 minutes (reaching goal 2). I kept running. Making it to 4k seemed to take forever! I was even counting down the streets because I knew which street the finish line sat on. Anyway, I made it there! One more to go! I have no idea how I propelled my way through that last k. I was feeling really sick and wind picked up a few times. Additionally, I kind of felt drunk at this point. Like things were moving a little off and I just felt...not completely coherent (but not un-coherent). Maybe you understand. When I finally saw the checkered flags, I just starred at them...waiting to get there but unable to run any faster. Most importantly, I was telling my body to hold off vomiting (and falling over) until I crossed that line. I keep looking for my group, hoping to hear inspirational words, but I couldn't. (They were there yelling though, btw.) Anyway...I DID IT! I made it! I ran the whole thing! Of course, I'd barely taken a step after when I started to gag. The lady pushed me forward and said "I'm sorry honey," while pushing me determined to keep me in the right order. I made it a few more steps before hurling the half an orange I ate before the race. Finally, my mom rips off my tag on the number and gives it to the lady...like I cared about that right then? Water and a little sitting helped me recover. I'd done it.

My official race time was 35.25 too! I'd reached one and two (and got pretty close to three, but I don't care about that)! Kayle came in around close to 32, I think, and my parents crossed at 31 minutes. So the time I'm working with is 11 minutes 20 seconds per mile. It's slow, but I'll work on it. Mom and Dad took us all out of some IHOP after, but I didn't want to eat anything "heavy," so I got a salad. Kayle and I were zapped the rest of the day and didn't want to get up to tour the town or anything. That night, we got to go to this free dinner at Santa Fe Cattle Ranch because they were opening a new one in town. We all loved it! If you have one near by, go! Everything I sampled was tasty! I deserved a steak dinner!

The night was fun, spent drinking and watching Will Ferrell movies. Kayle, Mom, Dad and I went on a 2 or 3 mile hike the next day, which loosened up my back, but made my legs hurt more. Then Kayle and I headed back to Stillwater, so she could go back to Norman. I had a really fun weekend!

I decided to take today off and may swim tomorrow and start back up. Kayle's getting really into now, which is great. She's already got another 5k lined up for us and has a pretty solid plan going for her training. I got back Sunday to a broken (fried perhaps) computer. It won't turn on. I'm pretty sure my power supply is shot. I'm actually posting this from the public library! I miss my computer already! I can't post pictures for that very reason, although I have a few to share. I will hopefully have a working computer next week. Nick is building a new computer and told me I could have his old power supply, so hopefully we can make that happen to save me some money.

Well, this is a terribly long post, so I shall leave you with that. I ran a 5k! Now I just have to add some swimming and biking beforehand...and try to keep my breakfast down! Wish me luck!

Not my most favorite run ever...

I went running today. I skipped yesterday AGAIN to hang out with Nick. This long distance thing is tough because I find it hard to tear myself away to train. He's not a big runner, I find.

Anyway, the run today. I wanted to push myself to 2.5 miles, of hills, so I could "rest" (while still training some) before my run this weekend. The past couple of weeks, I've been able to push myself a half mile extra, so I figure it I can run a solid 2.5 miles of hills...I should be able to run 3.1 on race day. Well, today wasn't good. When I wasn't dealing with the hills, I was dealing with Oklahoma wind...never to be messed with. It was just tough run. Some are better than others, as you probably know. Before I hit the 2 mile mark, I started feeling a little nauseated. Nothing too terrible, so I pushed through it. At this point, I wasn't even able to lip sync along to my music, which isn't good. I turn the corner to head up the hill. Now, the wind is at my side, but hard to compensate for nonetheless. This hill is a bitch, btw. I wanted to make it another half mile, so I kept running. "Just keep running, just keep running..." I say, "Once I get up this hill, I can walk," but then fool myself and push it a little farther to actually make it to the 2.5ish mark. I'm getting really nauseated at this point. I've never gotten sick from working out before, so I pushed. If I had stopped just 1/16 of a mile earlier, this probably would have turned out differently. Then, I got that "awesome" metallic taste associated with almost vomit. But I made it to the 2.5 mile! And then I threw up...anyway, I'll spare the rest of the details, except that then, I had to walk a half mile home...without water, a paper towel or a tooth brush!

I'm not really sure why it happened. I wasn't coughing. I hadn't eaten too much or too little. I had a heavy Mexican dinner the night before, but it was 18 hours previous. I'd had cereal for breakfast that morning. It was around 1:30 p.m., but I usually go that long without eating before a workout because that's just how my schedule is. I had some water that morning, but not too much. Coffee at 9:45 that morning. The weather was great, besides the wind.

Basically, I'm now really concerned about trying to run 3.1 miles if I throw up at 2.5! It's less than a week away! Eek!

Swimming

I totally thought I'd packed my goggles today. I apparently didn't. All I have to say is "boo!"

But I decided to use that in my training. I thought it would be a good chance for me to practice swimming in a straight line without that handy line telling me where to go. It's hard! I didn't really like it though since it bothered my eyes, so I focused a lot on my back stroke and kicks....more than usual. I did 100 meters of free style (front stroke), 100 meters of kicking, 100 meters of backstroke. I did that 3 times. Then I did 50 meters of free style and 50 of backstroke to make an even 1,000 meters. I didn't rush or go at race speed. I took my time and took some breaks after each set of 300. It took 35 minutes, which isn't too bad considering my speed.

After Sunday, I'm going to concentrate on my running for the following week because my race is next Saturday!

Da brick

I didn't get to post last night to tell you about my workout...it was great, btw.

I did my version of a brick. I read online about switching between biking and running to train your legs to adjust quickly. Most of the stuff I read suggested about 5-6 miles of biking, 1 mile running, repeating three times. Well, according to my machines at the gym, that would take me FOREVER! Instead, I decided to reduce those numbers. I biked 3 miles (about 15-20 minutes on the machine) ran (fast for me) for a half mile (5-6 minutes) three times in a row. It took a little more than an hour to do the rotation thrice. I have to tell you, it was tough! But...FABULOUS! I'm serious. A lot of the people who read this probably understand how a hard, long workout can just make you feel amazing! When I was done, I did a few abs, but I had to get home. It was the best I'd felt all day...which I guess isn't saying a whole lot since I slept poorly and woke up with a migraine. Just great. I was energized for hours.

Today I took a day off. I was going to do another zumba class, but honestly, I just wanted some time to get stuff done around the apartment. I think Nick and I are going to try to take a walk Saturday, so I can count that as a day off "activity," although probably not a workout. I hope it's nice weather...