15 Miles!

Sorry I've been neglecting the blog for a while. I think I'm still having a hard time believing anyone really cares about reading it. I know that I look daily at the blogs I read and hope they put up a new post, but I can't believe anyone would do that about lil ole me! :) So, maybe you do, maybe you don't.....regardless, I do enjoy blogging so here I am again!

Last week was fairly successful. I skipped 2 workouts, but I absolutely KILLED my long run on Sunday! Originally I had 17 miles on the plan, but that was after 14 miles 2 weeks ago. If you recall, I missed the 14 miles that weekend because I got sick. I did 10 miles last weekend and struggled through each of them. I decided that I wanted to go farther than 14 so I could truly increase my mileage (since I already did 14 once). But, I didn't think jumping to 17 was probably a bright idea. So, I decided to shoot for 15.

I know you've seen this one before...but it fits well for the topic of this post!

I've been working on getting over the fact that my previous training partners and I have kind of parted ways for this training. We're just at way different places. I can't keep up with them and they can't slow down enough to stay with me (nor should they). It's just a little tough because they still mostly have eachother, and I'm out there to tackle this on my own. I mentioned a few posts ago that I was going to try to enlist people to help me get through these long runs. Now it was time to test that theory out. I asked my mom if she might be willing to ride her bike next to me for the 2nd half of my run. I've run 13.1 miles by myself plenty of times so I figured I could do 15, but it'd be more fun to have someone to talk to (or listen to while I huff and puff). My mom lovingly agreed. The plan was that I would start on the trail and she would meet me at the turn around point. Just so happens that the 15 mile distance was perfect for this. There is another parking lot about 7.5 miles from where I park.

I started out on my run knowing that I'd tackle the 7.5 alone and then have company. I swear this made me run faster. Also, I started with my training partners (that would be SIL and Adrienne - sorry Ade, can't think of a cool blog nickname for you right now), and although I didn't stay with them for more than 3 minutes, I did catch up to them on my 2nd run interval....and then kept them in my sights for quite a while. This is so good to me because I see them as being significantly faster than me (cuz they ARE), so to keep them in my sights tells me I'm moving at a pretty good pace (for me).

Yea....get used to seeing this one. I need to remind myself of this often, but I'm getting better at it!

I felt AWESOME! I was completely out of my head and just enjoying it. Before I knew it, I was at mile 6 texting my mom to tell her I should be there soon. And then....in front of me was not just my mom, but my dad as well...on their bikes....ready to ride with me back to my car. Now, it did make me a little nervous to have them with me. The trail isn't big and it's quite crowded with people TRAINING. You have people going probably 25+mph on their bikes and I worried about them being hit by a bicyclist because they were trying to go so slow for me (and because some of these annoying bicyclists don't WARN you that they're coming). Yes, I'm a worry wort. And, apparently I DID need to worry as my mom had her own version of a slow moving tipover! Not really though, she apparently went to get off her bike and her leg went out from under her! She was fine...and yes, gave me permission to talk about it on my blog!

ANYWAY...so I loved it because she said to me, "you're moving pretty good for having already completed 8+miles". I said I feel freakin AWESOME (only I didn't say freakin!  - yup...I have that kind of relationship with my mom)! It got a little more challenging around mile 10, but I was still going strong. My parents decided that they would turn back with a little less than 2 miles to go so they could ride back to their car. Right before they left me I yelled out to my mom that I had just passed 13.1 at 2 hours and 59 minutes, which is my 3rd best time (1st = 2:41 2nd = 2:56). Considering I had almost 2 miles remaining I was pretty happy with that. I promised my mom that I wouldn't give up the last 2 miles and that I would keep my intervals (to this point I only took 1 extra minute of a walk break - that's UNHEARD of for me! I've never completed a half marathon with keeping my intervals through the entire distance). But Sunday...I kept my 3/2 intervals for 15.05 miles!!! I finished 15.05 miles in 3 hours 27 minutes and 48 seconds. That was good for a 13:49 minute per mile pace. When I did 14 miles in April, I believe I was around a 14:09 pace! Here's the way I see it. The marathon course is open from 7:30 AM to 3PM. That gives me 7:29.59 to complete the marathon. That means I just have to be faster than a 17:10 minute/mile. I think I can do that. I have not yet decided if I have any goal for race day (other than crossing that finish line), but Sunday I was hoping to just stay better than a 15 minute/mile. I KILLED that!

I felt absolutely amazing after my run. My parents took me to breakfast (awesome! well, awesome that they took me, the food and service were not so awesome); then I went home and proceeded into the ice bath. SIL thinks I'm crazy, but I really do think it makes a huge difference. I'm just glad it's summer, because I think it makes the bath that much easier to handle. I then put my cozy compression socks on and vegged on the couch. I attempted to sleep, but failed after about 20 minutes. Unfortunately then I didn't feel very good. It's quite tiring to run 15 miles! My awesome sister took the kids that night  (and the next actually), so Drew and I just came home and vegged the rest of the night with no kids to worry about.

Oh ice how I LOVE you....even with the bath toys!

I kind of laughed to myself on Monday as I was going about my day at work. After my first half marathon I took the day after off from work. I was glad I did and I was quite sore. But yet, after running 15 miles I was working the next day. I was sore, but not unbearably so (ice bath..I'm telling you!!). Just funny to me.

So, my exercise is getting there. I still need to stop skipping so many workouts, but a 15 mile run is awesome! My eating still sucks, but that's old news. I'm always a work in progress and just need to keep reminding myself of that.

And with that I'll stop rambling.

Have a wonderful night and no matter what, never give up! If I can run 15 miles - you can do what you set out to accomplish!

70.3 Thoughts...

I ended my last post with a promise to discuss the thoughts of this "70.3"...so that's what I'm  here to do.

I don't really know when this started. I can remember it being December 2010 and I was struggling (as usual) to continue in my weight loss efforts, had just registered for the Cleveland Half Marathon in May 2011, and was dreaming of completing a Triathlon....one day. I don't know why I was thinking about triathlons. Perhaps it was because I had completed a half marathon before and the triathlon seemed like a new challenge. I remember emailing a friend of mine who had done the Cleveland Triathlon the previous year to get her opinion about it. But, I thought to myself that perhaps this would be my 2012 goal because in NO WAY did I want to wear what I would have to wear to complete a triathlon in my current state (ie. weight).

Fast forward to May 2011..... after losing more weight and crossing the finish line of my 2nd half marathon 24+ minutes faster than my first, I decided not to wait until I was thinner to tackle a triathlon. No time like the present, right??! If I could do 13.1 in under 3 hours I could surely tackle a sprint tri, right?!?! Although I was still considerably over weight, I had lost about 20lbs from my highest weight and was doing well. I picked a race that was about 4 months out figuring that gave me enough time to train. I trained and I crossed the finish line in 2 hours and 10 minutes.

I can't believe I'm posting this picture on my blog! This pic is courtesy of my daughter who LOVES it because she thinks I look like a kangaroo....and he's right!

I think it was somewhere in training for my first triathlon, coupled with reading blogs, that I first thought about conquering 70.3. Let's discuss what that really means! For those who don't know - 70.3 stands for the miles covered. It is a "half iron distance" race. Ironman is the most known brand and they call theirs, simply, Ironman 70.3. Here's how it adds up:

Swim: 1.2 miles
Bike: 56 miles
Run: 13.1 miles
all in less than 8 hours (time cut-off's range per race, but is usually around 8 or 8:30)
=Absolute craziness for 70.3 miles!

I feel like I do best when I'm really feeling challenged. Although I suppose that isn't working to my advantage right now since I feel TOTALLY challenged with this marathon.....but I digress....

I have really been thinking about this 70.3 lately. It's July and if this is truly a 2013 goal, I need to start thinking about it NOW. Training for a half iron will take me (at least) 6 months, which means that I need to decide at least 6 months prior to the race. And if you know me at all, you know that it really means I need to decide a year before the race! Ok. So in 2010 I was thinking I had to wait until I lost some weight to TRI. I'm back in that mindset right now. I think this isn't necessarily a bad thing or a negative thinking process. I'm thinking of it as more of a motivator to get things on track. I haven't decided for SURE yet, because I hate to set a very specific goal and then fail, but I'm thinking about putting a weight range on my decision making process.

Although I'm not yet ready to disclose my exact weight on the wonderful world wide web....it won't be too difficult to figure it out! For my height, the highest weight that is considered healthy (simply based on BMI, which I personally think is a crock of shit.....but I digress)...is 150lbs. I have never believed and still don't, that my weight will ever be at or under 150lbs. Perhaps when I get closer to that I'll start to believe it's possible. But, I can remember when I got down to 154lbs and I was pretty skinny. Skinny may not be the right word, but small nonetheless. Hmmm...makes me wish I had a picture to post.

Wow! Blast from the past!! This is probably me at my smallest in my adult life. This was 2002 and I was somewhere around 155lbs.

Ok...found a picture to post and of course looking at the picture I don't think it does me justice. I mean, that dress is a size 10, which to me...is plenty small! I have never been one to be tiny...nor do I need to be tiny. A comfortable size 12 would probably be just fine for me...heck, right now a comfortable 14 would make me scream (in a good way)! Ok...but anyway...I'm getting off topic (ha! do I do that a lot??). What I am trying to say is I'm contemplating putting a weight goal or range as a goal to hit prior to deciding to do 70.3. Perhaps a good goal would be to be under 179, which would be the difference between "just" overweight or obese (per that stinky BMI - unfortunately nothing else is quite as "easy" to use). Body fat is truly the best indicator of health and a healthy body fat percentage for women ages 31-40 is 21-33%. I'm somewhere around 30-35%, depending on which form of being checked you look at. Regardless, the point is, in regards to body fat percentage I'm not quite as far off from "healthy" as I am when you look at BMI.

In either case, 179lbs is a doable goal....and I want to make an acheivable goal because I want to tackle 70.3! I just feel that I need to be a little smaller to do it more successfully. Being SLOW matters in 70.3. I can happily bring up the back of the pack, but I must be able to complete within the cut-off. I am not a person who would handle crossing that finish line at 8:45, and therefore not "officially" finishing, well. Yes, I still would have "finished", but I believe there would be no medal and no recognition for finishing since it wasn't within the cut off. Frankly, I think they make you stop...I'm not sure about that though (someone feel free to correct me on that). Regardless, I want to be SURE that if the cut off is 8:30, I can come in at 8:29:59 or better!

So these are my thoughts.

What do you think? Should I put a solid weight # by a certain timeframe in order to be "allowed" to do a 70.3? Or should I look at other things....like having lost more weight since now, a lower body fat percentage, eating healthier on a more consistent basis, etc????

3 WEEKS!!!

Sorry. I don't mean to be yelling at you, but I realized over the weekend that the Oly Tri (which I still have yet to officially sign up for) is 3 weeks away! Less than actually....since it was 3 weeks from yesterday!

So, yesterday I had a very difficult 10 mile training run. I was supposed to do a brick workout of a 15 mile bike followed by a 5 mile run, but I made a rookie error with my bike and ended up having no air in the front tire. Since this happened late Saturday night and I could not get to a store to get a new pump, I decided I would just run on Sunday. As I ran I was composing this post in my head. Let's see if I can remember all the things that were going on.........

The title of this post was going to be "Another BAD Week". I was going to warn you about the fact that this would be a horribly negative post (once again) and bitch and moan about all the things that are negative in my mind right now.  But, around mile 4 I decided that was STUPID. It was at that point that I decided I would start by getting all the negative out of the way and then focus on the positive or on what is being done to change the negatives to positives down the road.

Without further ado....here is the NEGATIVE list:

1) I'm S.L.O.W.!!!! Oh...you say this isn't new information??? Well, I feel as though I'm getting even SLOWER, which is currently driving me up a damn wall!

2) I'm F.A.T!! Again, nothing new you say?? Yea...I have officially gained weight. Every time over the last almost 2 years that I went up slightly in my weight I could always say to myself "I'm still down xlbs from this time last year so that's great"! And, it usually was a considerable amount of lbs - 20, 30, 10...whatever. At the beginning of July I looked back and noticed that one year ago I weighed 6lbs LESS than I do right now. Ugh. So, I'm getting fatter as well as slower....wonderful!

3) I have to train alone (see #1), which makes it quite challenging to stay out of my head (running by yourself for hours on end...struggling the whole time...it's a LOT of time to THINK, which is a recipe for disaster for me). I know, probably 90% of runners train alone, but I've been used to having people to run with - for at least part of the distance. It has now happened that because I'm not improving and they are, I now run by myself after about 3 minutes. It kind of sucks. It's a constant reminder of #1. And then, that nasty "not good enough" demon enters my head.....the thought that I would like to be "good enough" to be able to find someone who runs my same pace/same intervals/etc.

4) WHAT THE HELL WAS I THINKING about this marathon that is now less than 100 days away?!?!?

Ok. I think for right now those were the main things bringing me down on Sunday. #1 and #2 are the main culprits and really contribute to everything else. Therefore I decided that perhaps I'm angry enough and fed up enough with myself to actually DO something about it!

So what am I doing about it?!?!?

1) I can't really do anything about being slow other than KEEP GOING. Keep moving forward, putting one foot in front of the other and always remember that "You Don't Have to Go Fast....YOU JUST HAVE TO GO!!!"

2) This I can do something about. And this will probably result in a better outcome for #1 as well. So, starting today I made a committment to get back to basics. I'm even OK with baby steps, but I have to make SOME kind of steps. So far today I have tracked all my food, did NOT eat one meal out (this is HUGE on a work day for me), and am still within my calorie range. No lie - I'm already struggling. I'm fighting the demons that are telling me to just go raid my kitchen because I've been good all day....and even with a little binge tonight my day will still probably be better than it's been! Ugh...shut up!

3) This I just have to deal with. So what if I have to train alone?? I need to learn to enjoy the me time. And, I have already talked to my husband about how he might be able to help me.  I also plan to ask other people as well to help in some capacity.

YES! This I need to continue to work on daily.....

Regarding last week's workout plan....I failed miserably! I'm not even going to recount day to day because it's so sorry. Whatever the plan was last week, I didn't do it. I ran 3 miles on the treadmill on Tuesday and ran 4 miles outside on Thursday....and that's it! HOWEVER, I started this week off right so far. I ran 10 miles on Sunday, which took me a little longer than it would have taken me to bike 15 and run 5 so I still got the time in. Today was a scheduled rest day and I swam 1000 yards instead! Tomorrow I am planning to do the brick that I should have done Sunday (bike 15/run 5). Wednesday I am going to rest. Thursday will be another swim or bike; Friday run; Saturday swim, bike or rest. Next Sunday is my next LONG run and will be a distance I have not yet covered. 17 was on the training plan, but since I missed 14 and just did 10 this past weekend, I'm thinking 15 is more reasonable. Still longer than I've ever done before. Wish me luck!

My goals this week are simple, yet challenging.
- Track my food and try very hard to stay within my calorie range (but track NO MATTER WHAT...I always stop tracking the minute I think I've blown it, perhaps if I still tracked I would stop before it got out of hand).
- NO WINE
- Get all workouts in....no more than 2 rest days this week.
- Limit eating out....if I eat out 4x this week total, that's probably HALF of what I've been doing...baby steps, remember?? (frankly, I don't even want to take a minute to figure out how much I've been eating out because when you figure in breakfasts and lunches out during my work day + family meals out......).

Wow! Once again I find myself having written a HUGE post and I still haven't covered at least 2 of the topics I wanted to cover. I want to try to keep the readers I have, so I'm not going to continue to bore you tonight!

I simply need to remember to discuss the recent thoughts I've had about an Ironman 70.3 (or any 70.3 - doesn't necessarily have to be the "Ironman" brand). For those of you who don't know what that means....stayed tuned. For those of you who do....you know how crazy this is!

And with that...I leave you to go figure out my calories and see if I can have a snack since I'm STARVING!! :)

Best Laid Plans....

The title makes it sound like this is going to be yet another depressing, negative post. But it's NOT!

First things first...I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th! We had a blast (pun intended) at Blossom Music Center dodging the storm and then seeing the fireworks anyway since the storm passed in time!

OK. To report my planned week of exercise vs. what was actually completed.....

 Day               Planned                                  Actual
July 1            Brick 15 bike/4 run               COMPLETED!
July 2            REST                                    COMPLETED
July 3            Run 3-4/swim                        Treadmill 3.5...walk to 4.
July 4            Bike 25                                  Bike 22
July 5            Run 3-4 miles                       Treadmill 3 miles
July 6           Open Water Swim                COMPLETED
July 7           Bike 20                                  REST

So, I'm pretty happy with these results. Here's the little explanation that goes with it. Tuesday, the plan was to run 3-4 in the morning and swim on my way home from work. Well, I got up and ran before work, which was a huge accomplishment! Then, the storms came. The pool I swim at does not let you swim (even though it's indoors) if it's thunder/lightening. Since it was storming when I could go, I decided that I would skip the swim and just double up on Thursday. Then, on Thursday I just didn't...and I was OK with it. By Thursday I was feeling the fatigue in my legs. Thankfully I received my very first pair of compression socks this week so I tried them out!

Wow...is it just me or does this picture make my calves look huge and my feet look tiny?!?!

I had pretty much decided at this point that I would probably not ride on Saturday morning since I had already completed 2 rides and 37 miles this week. Then, my body had other plans to be sure that I rested on Saturday....I didn't sleep at all Friday night because I was having severe stomach pains! Not fun. So, not only did I rest on Saturday, but I also skipped my 14 mile run on Sunday! :(

Today I continue to "rest" as I prep for another colonoscopy (fun stuff!)....oh yea...for those of you who don't already know, I was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease shortly after my son was born in 2006.  I just recently got over a pretty bad flare (for me) and that's why I am now getting another colonoscopy.

A short post today....I leave you with my workout schedule for this week:

July 8 - Run 14 (obviously we know how this turned out)
July 9 - REST
July10 - Run 3-4/Swim
July 11 - REST
July 12 - Bike 20
July 13 - Run 3
July 14 - Bike 20

I'm thinking it's a good thing that I had planned 2 rest days this week. My focus right now is simply on getting all my workouts in (as long as my body is cooperating). When this becomes enough habit again, I'm going to focus on my diet. The last 2 days have helped, I guess. I didn't eat much at all on Saturday because I didn't feel good....then yesterday I had to fast most the day and today I can't eat until after my procedure, which isn't scheduled until 1PM! I'm starving as a type this so all bets are off with what I eat for dinner tonight! But, I'm hoping these 3 days of lower calorie days will help get me back on track with my eating too! The good news?? When I got on the scale this morning it was down 3.6 from last Monday! I know why....and I don't care! :) I'm hoping that I can at least maintain that loss next week!

I hope that everyones Monday is better than mine is today! :) Of course, that's not saying much when you're comparing whatever it is you are doing to what my plans are for today! :P

Getting Out of My Head

Tonight I had a nice little therapy sesh with SIL over some fondue at the Melting Pot (yummmm). It was quite nice and a great reminder that I simply need to get out of my head! Unfortunately, it's not simple. If it were, I wouldn't be typing this blog post right now.

Let's talk about why I need to get out of my head shall we?? Hmmm...this should be an interesting post! I apologize if I end up all over the place. My mind tends to wander as I type.

Demon #1 - The not good enough demon. I touched on this in my Excuses post. This is a horrible demon of mine. One might think that feeling not good enough wouldn't be such a bad thing. Perhaps it would give you that drive to move faster, do better, eat healthier, etc. But, for me, it's completely opposite. It totally defeats me. It makes it hard to keep going and it frustrates the HELL out of me. Therefore, I need to figure out how to make things ENOUGH. My 13 min/mile or 14 min/mile or whatever minute per mile needs to be ENOUGH. Can it be something I want to improve while still being "good enough"?? Certainly it can! It's all about getting out of my head. All I need to do is believe that just doing it is step #1...and then working to improve it is step #2! And to know, that within trying to reach #2, I will inevitably have set backs....AND THAT'S OK...and to be expected frankly. I seemed to be able to do this last year. I was ECSTATIC when I crossed that finish line in Cleveland at 2:56...and I worked hard and improved that time to 2:41. I think because I never really questioned it being good enough. But yet, here I am now. I need to figure out how I got here, why, and how to change it.

Demon #2 - the comparison trap. I compare myself to everything and everyone. I compare myself to the people who stay home and sleep in on Sunday mornings and that makes me feel good about what I do. However, I more often compare myself to the people who ARE out there running and are doing it faster, farther, better than me. If that's not bad enough, I compare me to a past me. It's not quite as bad as comparing me to my high school self or something; but I compare myself to where I was last year and think that I should be faster, smaller, running different intervals, a stronger rider, faster swimmer - whatever! I need to start looking at things in the moment. I can certainly look at numbers and such to improve upon what I'm doing. But, if I felt good while doing it - then go with it! Like I said yesterday, I felt AWESOME at the end of my workout. Then, I tried to talk myself out of feeling good by comparing it to what I was doing at this point last year and felt that it should have been better! REALLY?!?! This demon ends up going back to Demon 1 with the feeling of not being good enough. Ugh - horrible cycle that I need to stop.

Demon #3 - not sure how I want to word this one. Hmmm...maybe just the ability to use anything to sabotage myself! Here's what I mean....

HA! I would LOVE my scale to ever say that number!

Example #1 - the dreaded scale. This is one of my best sources of sabotage for myself. I've done it all...weigh myself once a day; once a week; attempt to wait once a month; not at all; multiple times a day...ALL OF IT. And every single strategy has worked to help sabotage my efforts if I want it to. If I'm weighing myself every day and the scale gives me a # that is higher than I think it should be, I get frustrated so I eat. On the flip side, the scale shows me a # that is perhaps smaller than where I think it should be, I'm happy and figure that perhaps my body can handle more calories so I EAT! When my mind is really in the "game" I simply use it as a tool. I take note of the number, eat as planned that day and move on. If I choose not to weigh myself at all, I inevitably gain weight so that certainly doesn't work. I need to continue to work on using the scale as a tool and that is all.

Example #2 - using positive affirmations to ultimately sabotage myself. I think it's good now and again to remind myself that a lot of people my size would not or perhaps could not do the things that I'm doing. Frankly, people half my size don't do some of things I'm doing. But, using that as a reason to make it feel OK to be this size is not good. Yes, one can be fat and fit - I truly believe that..it's the entire basis of this blog. However, do I also believe that I would be overall healthier and even MORE fit if I lost some weight??? Abso-friggin-lutely! So, just because other people don't attempt triathlons and marathons, doesn't make it OK to stay 50+lbs overweight. It IS okay when I accept it and move on towards making the changes necessary to lose that weight. It doesn't even have to be a plan to lose it quickly, but filling my body with crap simply because "I burned 1500+ calories today so I can" is stupid. I think that attitude every once in a while (even once a week) is not a bad thing,  but when I'm doing that 2-4 times per week it becomes a little ridiculous to justify overeating (or drinking) because of that.

Ok. I'm sure there are more demons, but I'm tired and this was enough soul searching for one night! It's kind of exhausting! I need to get up and run tomorrow morning and then stop to swim after work. Getting up in the morning to workout when I'm doing it by myself is a HUGE weakness. Feel free to ask me tomorrow how my run in the morning went! I have no doubt I'll swim in the afternoon. I enjoy swimming and stopping on my way home from work is easy because I'm already out.

And with that, I'll leave you for tonight. Here's to a day of workouts and healthy eating tomorrow!

A Positive Check In

Wow! I'm actually finding the time to write a positive blog post for once! :)

First - THANK YOU for all your wonderful words of encouragement. It definitely helped. One thing that is difficult with my training schedule is when one is training for a triathlon, you have to fit in several workouts in just so much time! So, I've changed around my training plan to include 1-2 rest days per week. However, that means that some days I will need to do two-a-days in order to get the workouts in. This is part of what makes triathlon so challenging! And let's keep in mind that through all this I'm also still training for the Columbus FULL Marathon in October! I still think I'll be better able to feel positive about my workouts if I have planned rest days. If those days don't happen as planned, that's fine, as long as I still end up having 4-5 workout days each week! I need to work on this feeling of being a failure when I don't reach a goal.

Now - to the HAPPY stuff! So, I posted Thursday night about potentially going for a bike ride the next day with a friend. Thank goodness she came through for me! Melanie - you have no idea how much I needed that ride so thank you! We planned a 30 mile ride out by the lake (so pretty)! The plan was to ride out 15 and then back to the car 15. Well, we started and were only about 4.5 miles in when the sky did not look pretty. We were worried the skies might open up, but decided to keep going away from the car for the time being. Not less than 5 minutes after making that decision it started to rain! It wasn't a bad rain so we kept on. We made it to almost 10 miles out from the car and decided we'd better turn around. We still had 10 miles to get back to the car and it might get ugly. It continued to rain lightly, which was actually quite welcomed after the heat wave we've been having. By the time we got back to the car, the weather cleared up. So....back out 5 we went....bound and determined to get 30 in. And we did! And in a better time than I've EVER done any distance - let alone 30 freaking miles!

This was a GREAT ride! I felt like I loved riding (almost) the entire time! It definitely makes a big difference to ride a flat ride. But, what it also did was make me really appreciate the hills I do around my house. It made me feel like a stronger rider because I do the hills that I do. The hills get me down and defeat me some time....but I think the reason the flat ride felt so great was BECAUSE of those hills! It helped to make me feel like I can DO this!

Saturday I was going to go swim, but ended up spending time with my family instead. The difference? I was totally OK with this. I know that I have to BRING IT during the month of July, as we're 1 month from the Olympic Tri. There will truly have to be no excuses for this month if I want to cross that finish line on Aug 5th. I also knew what was on my schedule for today: my first brick workout (well, 2nd if you count the Twinsburg Duathlon). On the schedule....15 mile bike immediately followed by a 4 mile run.

So this morning.... I freaking KILLED IT! I got on the bike and could immediately feel every one of those 30 miles I had ridden on Friday. I eventually loosened up, and before I knew it I was turning around to finish the last 7.5 miles and start the run. I was thinking around an hour for the bike and I finished in just around 58 minutes. I was happy with that. Then, I put my bike away, put my running shoes on and started out for 4. I started with thoughts of....ugh...4 is far...I'm slow...I feel like I'm not moving (hate that about running right off the bike). But then, all of the sudden I was at mile 2 - the turn around point! I looked at my watch and saw that I was making pretty good time. I pushed it. I kept my intervals the entire 4 miles. I didn't take any extra walk breaks and kept a pretty decent pace when running. I couldn't even believe what I did at the end of the run....I NEGATIVE SPLIT!!! OMG!! I have never, ever done this! This is when you finish the 2nd part of the run faster than the first. It was only by seconds, but a negative split is a negative split! Frankly, it would have been impressive for me to finish the 2nd half just as quickly as the first. I'm usually much faster the first half and then can't keep it up the 2nd. Intervals are supposed to help this, but I think I've been taking my intervals too fast lately. So, I'm back to 3/2 and I'm loving it!

I wanted to be sure to post tonight while I'm feeling positive. I did have one moment today when I was trying to get in my head. I felt GOOD about my workout, but then I started comparing. My bike/run today was about 1 hour and 50 minutes....add a swim to that and transitions and I woud have been around 2:10ish, which was my time last year in my sprint tri. Now, granted, that bike was 14 and the run was 5k, but I still felt (for a second) as though this wasn't good enough! ARGH! I have to get out of my head! But, I'm working on it. I literally yelled at myself in my car and told myself that I need to just let myself feel good. Think of the workout TODAY and how I feel NOW and STOP COMPARING...whether it be comparing myself to others....to my previous times, etc.

I'm a work in progress and will forever be!

In closing....here is my workout schedule for this week:

Sun (today): Brick: 15 mile bike; 4 mile run
Mon: REST
Tues: Run 3-4 miles in AM; Swim in PM
Wed: Bike 25 miles
Thurs: Run 3-4 miles
Fri - Open Water Swim (thanks mom for agreeing to go to the beach with me, watch the kids and keep an eye on me while I swim in Lake Erie)!
Sat: Bike 20

That's the plan. I'll update how I did at the end of the week!