What's Up Weekly 3

It’s been a while so I figured I better get in here with some kind of update!


Weather…it’s crazy! Don’t get me wrong I’m kind of enjoying the fact that we have not yet had any kind of “real” snow at my house, however I’m starting to worry that this means there could be snow until July.

Christmas…. I wish I had some spirit. I’m just looking forward to the time off work but it does not seem like Christmas. It’s been quite a few years since I’ve had the Christmas spirit. Not that I’m bummed or sad or anything it’s just that other then getting together with family which I enjoy holidays just don’t seem to mean much to me. It’s a far cry from the decorating and entertaining I used to love doing.

Swimming… not so good. I’m committed to getting back in the pool come the first of the year.

Cycling…still loving the trainer. Although we have had some (read many if your hardy!) days that you could get out and ride I’ve not been out. Partly because it seems most of the really nice days are during the week when I’m at work and I won’t ride in the dark.

Running…been keeping at it. Must say I enjoyed a great run/walk with my Dad this weekend. It's fun to get out there. He has just recently started to run with his walking and he runs pretty fast! He kept telling me I was killing him, but he was setting the pace and although we did a lot of walking we still managed just over a 12:00 minute mile pace for 4 miles. Even according to Garmin hitting (however briefly!) 7:58 when we were sprinting. And believe it or not, he does this in jeans! I did notice the other day something the other day. I seem to be getting faster month by month which makes me very happy! Now I'm still by no means fast but I'm seeing improvement!

Below is my miles/time spent running/average pace for the last 6 months.
December: 31.3 Mi 6:29:15 12:25 / Mi
November: 33.5 Mi 7:01:51 12:36 / Mi
October: 53.9 Mi 11:20:33 12:38 / Mi
September: 72.4 Mi 15:25:14 12:48 / Mi
August: 57.6 Mi 12:10:45 12:42 / Mi
July: 48.9 Mi 10:29:12 12:52 / Mi

So I've gone from an average of 12:52 to 12:25 and that makes me happy!

I appreciate everyone who stops by to read about what's going on in my world and wish everyone of you a happy and safe holiday season!

source

What's Up Weekly 2

November, feeling really good about my workouts in November, 3 of the 4 weeks I trained 6 out of 7 days and I even made it to the pool a couple of times! Still need to work on that, and the strength training, but happy to be keeping up with the running and bike. The lack of snow has played a big part in that and although I've enjoyed it I'm sure it will end in the near future. It is now December and we have not had anything even coming close to a snow at my house.

Hot Spots...this mornings run was a little strange. First of all it was almost 40 degrees at 5 am this morning and second of all I kept running through these spots where I think the temp was at least 10 degrees warmer. It felt so strange I mean it was very noticeable warmer kind of like those hot spots in the pool.

I received this in an email today about the Turkey Trot I did...

I asked the timer to give everyone a "chip" time (which means your time starts when you cross the starting mat) and he instead did a "gun" start (which means every one's time started when I said "go"). I apologize for the difference you will see in your watch time and the results page. I am taking up this disappointment with the timer myself and I promise it will not happen next year. You train hard for the race and it is my job as the race director to ensure an accurate course and time and I feel horrible as a fellow runner!

Explains the difference between my Garmin and the official time, and means I really did do around 32 minutes. Need to find another 5k to do soon and see if I can get that kind of time again or was it just because of the fast course. :)

I want to give a shout out to Kevin over at Half TRI-ing who posted a link to some fantastic tips on cycling safely. It's worth a few minutes of your time to give it a look and watch the video clips

Does anyone use Athlinks ? I've not fully explored it but I have added my races in and it's really nice to have all that info right in one place, broken down by year or category. I need to spend some more time seeing just what else you can do, but even if I don't I like what I've seen so far.

While filling out paperwork for insurance at work today I had to pull out my drivers license to put down the number and so of course I had to check out the weight...feeling really good that my actual weight is almost 15 lbs lighter then my drivers license weight...feels so good! I'm sure I fudged the number when I got it, doesn't everyone?

Have a fantastic weekend!

Advice and What's up Weekly

So first of the advice.....as I said before I'm using the Winter Maint. program from BT which by the way I'm really enjoying. It gives me the structure I need as well as the direction my workouts should go. The only real problem is that they use time for the running workouts and being as I'm not a fast runner I'm not going as far as I think I should be. So my thoughts are that instead of running for 30 minutes I will call that 3 miles/50 minutes=5 miles, it seems to me that might bring me more in line with the mileage I will need to be at when I start into the real training this spring. Does that seem logical? The longest run in this plan is 70 minutes (it's a 20 week plan) and I would much rather be running my long runs of 7 miles versus around 6 which is what they be with my current speed. Opinions please?

So this plan has been great for biking and running...have I mentioned I haven't been in the pool since my last tri? Yea this week....this week it is going to happen!

Much as I didn't think I would I am really enjoying using the trainer. It is so nice to be able to get out in the morning and ride my bike before work.

This week on the plan I have fitness assessments. Should be interesting, I've never done any time trials. I'm curious though to get a better idea of what my heart rate zones should be.

Tonight for dinner we made homemade pizza. I've always avoided making pizza dough and just used pita's or tortillas for pizza but today we used the new Pizza Crust Yeast and I gotta tell you it worked really good! It was so very easy to work with we made 4 thin crust pizzas and they were really fantastic. Give it a try.

What's Up Weekly

This time of year with few races on the books and not as much in general going on posts become harder and harder for me. Here's what's up this week.

Winter has finally come to Colorado along with the time change. The temps have dropped and we have a little bit of snow....and I was so enjoying the lovely fall weather. Oh well you knew it had to come sooner or later.

Update on Blogger comment reply. First using google I found a way that you were suppose to be able to add a reply button, tried it didn't work for me. I'm sure it was something I did but I didn't want to spend a ton of time (and I'm not that great with computer stuff) figuring it out. I did however figure out that if you receive email notification of your comments it will show a reply email if the person commenting has one listed on their blog. So I will be using that when available. (HINT HINT go make sure you have an email on your blog :) Use one just for your blog so you don't clutter up your "real" one if you want. )


Because I never want to pass up the opportunity to win a new Garmin and because he writes a really informative fun blog I have to post about the give away over at DC Rainmakers. Hop on over there and check it out and see his fantastic comparison on today's' GPS sport devices accuracy as well as a ton of other reviews and FANTASTIC photos.


Training this week? Not to bad actually. I've manage to get my runs in and ride on the trainer all week long, not so good on the strength training and swimming...working on that. But all in all I feel it was a pretty good week. I took advantage of the time change and have gotten up early 4 days out of 5 to work out before work. Very nice, I will try to continue this.

Taking advantage this weekend of a deal I got for the spa and having a mani/pedi done today. Can't wait! I find them both very relaxing! Also planning to get to Outdoor Divas and use the Groupon I purchased a while ago. And then lunch tomorrow with some friends as an early birthday celebration. We are planning on going to Lucile's Creole Cafe. I've never been there but the menu looks yummy!