I'm Tired!

I sit here pondering this evenings ride. I'm tired!

Did I mention I did all of last week's training?! And I've done ALL of this week's training thus far (including strength). I'm tired!

Dude's was gone all week so the sleep I got was restless and cold. I missed my human heater and cuddler. I'm tired!

This week at work is crazy busy - after last night's workout I worked til 11:00(still made swim this morning). I'm tired!

I'm pseudo-boss for the next two workdays so no skipping out early on Friday (or showing up late on Monday). I'm tired!

I have an 11 mile run and a 50 mile bike ride to look forward to this weekend. I'm tired!

Pondering is over.

I'm tired but I'm heading out to get my ride in. 70 minutes in Zone 2 then a much needed training day off tomorrow.

It's IRONMAN - NOT Sissyman!

1st Time In...um ever

I did every single workout in the Team Z 140.6/Phase 3 training plan last week, to include the optional swim!! In the past, I rarely do strength training - to the point it doesn't count against my #32 in 101 in 1001 dollar totals. Throughout marathon training I skipped a practice at least once a week. And I've never made the Optional swim - there's a reason it says optional!

What's changed? This was the first official week of IMS training (it was considered marathon training before). I'm bearing down on only 4 months to go, and as Ed said, it's amazing what fear will get you to do. The bigger driver is I finally joined a gym - X-Sport Fitness. It's less then a mile from the office and Jason is a member so he is holding me accountable for the strength training (and got me to lift and swim after the Sat. run).

The shooting pain down my leg is gone. I did have some issues in my arch after running Saturday so I'm testing the Asics 2140 this week. They have quite a bit more stability then my Cumulus so we'll see how I like them.


The long ride at Glen Echo on Sunday rocked! I love my bike - so comfortable! My average speed was 15 mph so right now I'm looking at a 7 1/2 hour IMS bike split. Granted, Glen Echo is a hilly ride so maybe I can shave off a couple minutes. There was one near death experience when a truck came to a complete stop at a speed bump (bleeping idiot!!). Tires slid this way and that but somehow I did not fall. Heart rate got up to about 170 during that little slip-n-slide!

All this exercise left me exhausted. Poor Dude...we were sitting on the back deck talking last night and it was a struggle to keep my eyes open. When he went to cook dinner (the best ribs ever) I took a nap. It's going to be a long 124 days!

Looking forward to Week 2 of IMS training - let's see if I can do a repeat!

Mail Call

I have had two AWESOME mail days in a row!

Day one - three, yes, count them, THREE checks showed up.
Check from Robin for the Rumpass in the Bumpass relay (ka-ching)!
Company check to reimburse my cell-phone/blackberry bill (KA-ching).
And finally, the grand-daddy of all checks - my income tax return(KA_CHING!!!). Let me remind you what a portion of that went to...

Ahh, Pretty Penny!!!!

Day Two - Recieved two packages, yep TWO!!.
Penny's wing:


And a book I ordered: Becoming an Ironman: First Encounters with the Ultimate Endurance Event on Amazon. Let me explain...I've become obsessed with reading Ironman race reports. I can spend hours google-ing, searching blogs, etc. just to gather more nutrition tips, see where others went wrong, learn from peoples successes, etc. So, I found this book and last night I was awake until midnight reading about people's experiences.

Yaaawwwwnnnnn - swim practice came early this morning!

What can I say, I’ve been busy so here goes what’s happenin’ lately…

Thursday – Swam in am/Dinner with friends in pm

Friday – Gave blood – Just Do It!!

For dinner I made incredible Mussels in Saffron and White Wine Broth . Changes: I quartered the amount of mussels (2 pounds) but halved the sauce. Only other change is I did not have any ½ & ½ or any other dairy - didn’t miss it. I served this with some sautéed scallops because they are Dude’s favorites and some Italian bread for sopping up the broth.


Saturday – Attempted to run at Burke Lake - turned into a walk/ran due to back/butt pain. Made appointment for a massage. Ended day with dinner with friends.

Sunday – Cuddled with Dude – love to cuddle with Dude. Headed out for massage. Now, back in the day, getting a massage was relaxing. I’d lie down and within minutes I’d be sound asleep. Times have changed!
The massage therapist from Rejuvenating Massage Therapy was incredible. And by that I mean she awakened muscles that I did not know I had. It hurt a bit as she dug in but right after she was done I felt incredible. I followed her advice and drank plenty of water, took a long hot shower, and relaxed/stretched for the remainder of the day. I woke up around 11pm in pain – I mean tears in my eyes pain. Struggled to get a couple hours sleep and awoke on Monday feeling like someone used my back as a punching bag. I think this was normal reaction since I haven’t gotten a massage in years and never deep tissue. And with all the training, my body was in desperate need of a massage. I’ll go back – my plan is to go the Sunday before recovery week starts (after the long bike ride) or sometime at the beginning of recovery week. If you head to this place, despite the pain, I recommend Sarah. Vicky was also recommended if Sarah is unavailable.

Monday – Snow/Pain Day. Played hooky from work and ended the day by spinning. This was kick-off day for training for my A race (that’s IMS by the way). All I can say is HOLY COW!!! – seeing all of the volume that is planned for this month – this is the first time I’ve felt truly confident that I will be able to finish IMS...if I follow the plan!

Bedeep, Bedeep, Bedeep, That’s all folks.

#58 - Cook 101...#'s 6-8

On a weekly basis I put together a menu and for once I've managed to stick to it rather well. Mainly because I really do need to concentrate on losing some weight. Even with a drink most nights I've managed to stay under 1,800 calories a day (and yes, I know if I cut out alcohol I'd lose weight faster but there are some things I won't do). Dinner has been inspired by the Wegman's magazine and are numbers 6,7,& 8 for my make 101 new recipes (click on the links to get the recipes - I didn't want this entry to be too long).
Here you go:

Pan-Seared Salmon Puttanesca with Fusilli

The title pretty much says everything that's in the recipe and I served it with some sauteed garlic spinach. This was a very easy to make recipe (took about 15 minutes). The only changes I made were I sauteed some garlic for the salmon and I used Smart Choice butter vs real butter. All in all about 550 calories or tasty goodness!


Chili

Typical chili with ground beef, onions, green peppers, garlic, chili powder, cumin, oregano, kidney beans (oops, forgot to buy), and cannellini beans. The "odd" ingredients were worcestershire sauce, Wegmans Chili Sauce, and a beer (they recommended and I used India Pale Ale).

You'll notice there were no tomatoes so I added a can of diced tomatoes with Italian seasoning and I reduced the amount of Chili Sauce from the recipe to reduce the salt. Served this with some fat free sour cream and fat free cheddar cheese. Overall, tasted fine but the Turkey Chile with White Beans was much better.


Tomato Basil with Orzo Soup with Grilled Turkey and Gouda Sandwich (magazine said ham and gouda but I don't like ham and they called it a panini but I don't have a panini pan)

You can actually buy this soup already made at Wegman's and it is better then what I made. I think it's because I was not consistent with halving the recipe (halved some things, but not everything). The only other change I made was I used Italian Seasoning (from a tube - these are really good) so it wasn't just basil. For the sandwich, I made the grilled turkey/cheese with this tasty bread that I can't remember the name of but it's 100 calories for 2 slices, smart balance butter, 98% fat free turkey, and smoked gouda. The meal was good and very easy to make (30 min), but in the future I think I'll buy their version of this soup.


I'm a day behind on workouts because I skipped Sun. I keep saying I'll catch up and if I leave work early today I will do last nights run (I spun) and tonight's spin. 50 min run on Saturday, 2 hour ride on Sunday then "real" IMS training begins! WOOHOO!