WWoW

Today of course was WWoW.

It was wow in other ways too; I'll get to that eventually.

This morning's track workout consisted of strides and 200's. The goal was to do 8 to 10. I managed 5. I felt it here. (pointing to head) I felt it here. (pointing to heart) But my sad little legs felt like lead. My knee felt a bit wonky and I just didn't have it in me this morning. Confused, I cooled down and headed home. Oh well, some days you just aren't "on."

But when I got to work...many great things awaited me. Look and see - It's like my desk exploded with pink and pretty!

See, it's my birthday today. Actually, I don't celebrate my birthday. I celebrate the anniversary of my 27th birthday each year. How convenient is that? My body, my rules. I felt very loved today. Lots of well wishes, kind words, Hello Kitty and cookies from JD's Chippery. In a rare demonstration of self control, I only ate ONE snickerdoodle. (however I have the other stashed away safely...tomorrow is another day)

For supper, Hubs took his cheap date to the restaurant of her choice, Potbelly. Yep, Potbelly. I get the Veggie on wheat with lettuce, onion and tomato. Don't forget the Zapps! I don't know why my thumbnail looks dirty in the photo. I swear it's not! On the way home from Potbelly, I got a cramp in my calf. Suddenly, I remembered waking up a few times in the night with leg cramps. Not quite a Charlie Horse, but probably would have ended up there if I hadn't woken up and massaged the heck out of it. Ouch. My calf was sore. Oh yeah, maybe that explains the crummy run this morning! Mystery solved.

Anyway. How cute is this? Hubs wrapped my gifts in cupcake paper and bought pink satin ribbon. Isn't he just the bee's knees?

Instead of cake, he surprised me with Godiva dark chocolate truffles. Um, yes please! He bought a milk chocolate and mint ones for himself. Hubs isn't a dark chocolate fan. Hey, no one is perfect. Ooh, it was delicious! And I still have 5 more to last me for a while. Yummers. Now, how thoughtful is that?

I've blogged about how much I love the Wii game, Just Dance. Creeshy loaned me hers. So Hubs got me my very own. Admittedly, I've danced to Katy Perry's "Hot and Cold" about eleven times tonight. Hubs is for sure going to start making me play this with the tv on mute! It's fun, it's silly and honestly, it's a good workout. My heart rate def stayed up and my arms are feeling the burn!

I say I got the 3G for my birthday. Godiva chocolate, Game for Wii and...a Garmin! I'm finally one of y'all! I will know my pace, distance and all that jazz. It's plugged in charging and I can't wait to take it out for a run. Truth be told, I did put on flip flops, head out in the rain and run up and down the driveway just to test it out. I managed to maintain a 15 min mile and burn 1 calorie on that bad boy. Ha! All in all, I had a very blessed day. Hope you did too! June is done and I've got some big plans for July. Stay tuned...

Ten Things Tuesday

Kim is pretty much brilliant.

This is not news.

Recently she posted 10 of her favorite things and ways she is working to incorporate those into her daily life. You can read all about it here. I mean, seriously, how smart is she?

Pretty much a genius.

Inspired by her sagacity, I decided to make a Top Ten list of my own. I tried to be realistic. I could have listed "Trips to NYC" or "Long Vacations," "Shopping Sprees" or "Hummingbird Cake." But I really wanted to focus on the simple pleasures in life. The tangible things that bring my enjoyment.

You know what? It's hard. And amazingly, my listed ended up very similar to hers. In fact, with the exception of candles, she listed most of MY favorite things. (I knew I liked her) Either we are destined to be friends, we have very generic "girl" favorites (but hummus, really? who else puts hummus on the Top Ten list?) or I'm completely devoid of imagination this week and I just had the same list because I read hers recently.

We'll go with Option 1.

That Pink Girl's (amended) Top Ten Faves

1. Hubs

2. My cats

3. Pink

4. Cleaning House

5. Sleep

6. Dark chocolate

7. Baths

8. Magazines

9. Letters

10. Running

So I'm gonna work to incorporate my faves into my daily living. Really focus on enjoying my days, filling them with the things I love.

So I live with Hubs. But I don't spend nearly as much time with him as I'd like. I'm gonna work on guarding our time together and not wasting it away with television. (even though that's one of HIS favorite things) Like last night, we did the 30 Day Shred together and then spent some quality time playing Wii. Let's Dance. Have you played that? You must.

I love my cats. But one of my cats is quite the loner. I need to seek her out more often. Give her the attention she deserves. It makes us both happy.

I'm already doing okay with running, ha! Same with the dark chocolate. Not many considering cleaning house a fave, but hey, it's my list.

I can make time to go to bed earlier. I know my body and mind will appreciate the extra sleep. And I get can all loosey goosey and sleepy reading a magazine in the bath before hand!

Lastly, I'm going to do a better job of letter writing. Of remembering those who are important to me. Who doesn't love a letter? Not an e-mail, not a message on your wall, but a honest to goodness letter. I can't wait to get started!

I'll leave you with this pic of Perry. Hubs sent this to me while in Florida. He's trying to catch a bug, but it looks like he is looking for me, right? Ha!

Made my Monday

I woke up with a sense that today would be, well, weird.

I headed to the trail to meet Bahama Mama for Run #1 of the day. We got in 3.5 humid, sticky miles. We did our best to maintain a steady pace but somehow managed to come in slower than last week. Uh, oh well. Chalk it up to the heat. I blame everything on the heat! Hot as it is, I love starting off my day running with Mama. We make the most of the miles we cover and have the best conversations. From makeup, to theology and everything in between. She's a good friend and I am thankful to have such an edifying relationship in her. We all need good people in our lives!

This weekend I watched about four episodes of the show, Hoarders. I am most certainly not a hoarder. But that show always makes me want to get rid of things. I loooove to purge our home of "stuff." It makes Hubs nervous because we really don't have much to get rid of. So this weekend I settled for some pre-packing. I have a small collection of vintage pink pottery. Some McCoy, most of it unmarked, none of it particularly valuable. It was one of the first collections I had as an adult. I do love my pink pottery but it's time to move on. So I packed it up. Maybe in our next house we'll have the perfect spot and it will be new again.Work was good. I got some good news and we are one day closer to a long weekend. Don't get me wrong, I love my job - but I love holiday weekends too! We've got some fun plans for this one. So, obviously, I'm couting the days!

North Texas got a nice surprise this afternoon. On the drive home dark, ominous clouds filled the sky. And those clouds were heavy with precious water. Whattya know, it started raining. I can almost hear my yard groaning in delight. Rain water!

My coaching gig was called off due to the storms so Hubs and I actually got to eat supper together. This is a rarity for a week night. If I'm not running, he's playing hockey. But tonight, we have the evening free! Being the excellent cook that I am (cough) I "made" frozen pizza. I did add some color to my side. Can you tell which side is mine??? My tummy is full and now I have leftovers for lunch tomorrow. Yum!

Getting to stay home this evening Made my Monday. The extra time with Hubs is a blessing. He's my favorite person in the whole world! I don't even mind that I missed my run. He's totes worth it!

What Made Your Monday?

WWoW

Today, of course, was Wild Women of Wednesday.

Sadly, the track unlocker person was not there at 5 so we had to amend our plan. We could jump the fence. But since A. I'm pretty sure that is trespassing and I don't want to go to jail for jumping a fence to, ahem, exercise, and B. I'm not sure after an intense speed workout that I could get back over the fence to leave!

So, we improvised and ran an Indian Drill around the neighborhood. Let me explain an Indian drill. Y'all line up single file, leaving some space between y'all. Take off running at a comfortable pace and then person in the back of the line sprints to the front of the line. As soon as she reaches the front of the line, she slows down. The new last person repeats.

And over and over.

However, this morning, there were only 3 of us Wild Women and that doesn't allow for much recovery time between sprints! Whew.

Finding the track finally unlocked, we headed to the end zone to get our plyometric on. Yep, bounding. We high stepped, kicked our own tails, skipped (my favorite,) monster walked and grapevined. I discovered that while I'm an average left grapeviner, I'm a very awkward right grapeviner. Take that one off my resume.

I expect to be as sore tomorrow as I was winded today! All in all it was a GREAT workout. Try some plyometrics for yourself!

Hey, look at my handsome lunch! Actually, this was supper last night AND lunch today. Both times, delish.

That's an Ezekiel spelt wrap, Boca patty, lotsa spinach, lettuce, tomato and salsa. Yummers indeed. I know, this isn't a food blog. But sometimes my lunch is pretty. Today was one of those days.

And...earlier this week I expressed my heart's desire was to have new markers for my training room. I put down butcher paper to let those inclined to doodle, doodle and these skinnier ones come in handy for grading quizzes. Imagine my delight when they arrived today! Mr. Sketch are the best and these are even scented. Brown is my favorite. It smells like Christmas. (cinnamon) I mean really, what better way to end the workday than with scented markers?

Made my Monday

Last week I was in Florida for work.
It was a busy week but a week I was looking forward too. Can you believe that I've never been to Florida before? I knew my spare time would be sparse, but I intended to make the most of what free time I would have! First thing Sunday night I headed to Publix to pick up some fruit and milk for my room since our hotel had a fridge. I love having a fridge in the room because it allows for healthy snacks!

Hubs graciously loaded my favorite movies onto the iPad. I watched Elf on the flight there AND the flight back. (and, confession, in my room too...can't help it I just LOVE Elf!)

Taking a cue from Christen, I plunked myself down by the pool every chance I got. I mean, seriously, how often do you get to go to Florida? Here was my view of the Splash Zone. (not a real whale)

The lovely view of the palms from my poolside perch. So I love Florida. Or at least the hotel, ha! I used plenty of sunscreen but I did come home with one souvenir, a tan. I actually got called "brown bunny" at work today. Creeshy, watch out!

Our hotel was across the street from SeaWorld (we were in Orlando) and while I didn't actually go to SeaWorld, we did enjoy the nightly fireworks by the pool!

I love my job. Beyond love. But it was nice to get away for a week and do something completely different for a bit. A respite if you will. I knew that when I returned to the office today, a full desk and overflowing e-mail would be there to greet me. And yeah, it was there. But so was this cute surprise! Two of my trainees got me this adorable Hoops and Yoyo card. (it even talks when you open it!) Okay, so I LOVE Hoops and Yoyo. So sweet that they remembered that! I think I like them because like me, they are loud, obnoxious and insanely funny. What a thoughtful gesture they made. Honestly, it Made my Monday! I'm so blessed to work with such generous people! I met Bahama Mama early at the trail this morning. to get in a quick run. Since we weren't going far we kept the pace fast to maximize our run. After so much cross training, it really felt good to be back at the trail, back to running with my friend. This evening I had class and I cut them a break. We were supposed to do a tempo run, but at 7 pm it was still a toasty 99 (37 C.) That is just TOO HOT to do any kind of speed work - I didn't want anyone falling out! I love getting in 2 runs in one day. All in all, it was a great Monday. And how often can you say that?

Wordless Wednesday

Starring Perry.

You're giving me anxiety and I'm underwater

Oh, Good Charlotte, we still love you.
I woke up and shot out of bed at 4:23 this morning. Excited for the day, I sprang into action getting dressed and my bike loaded. Poor Hubs got home very late from his hockey game, yet he still woke up to head to the lake with me. Sweet man. He's much better than I deserve.

We thankfully made it out there before they closed the streets off. Unloaded our bikes and stood in line to get marked. Here I am with Lucy's bike. (thank you for the loan Lucy!)

The sun came up pretty quickly and things seemed to make more sense in the daylight. Bahama Mama had the bright idea to get in line for our chips before the line actually started. Smart woman as that line got long pretty quickly!

Of course, in the darkness and in my ignorance, I racked my bike incorrectly. Everyone around us was so helpful; I soon got it corrected. There were a lot of other first timers and the experienced athletes were full of advice. See how I finally got my stuff laid out just right? Here we are, two newbies. Ready for this thing to start already! Bahama Mama wanted to make sure I noted that I had to pee twice. I never have to pee before a race. All that hydrating I did yesterday! Maybe a little bit of it nerves too. Little bit.

I was assured that there would be all types of dress. WRONG! Nearly everyone had on a tri-suit. Bahama Mama and I were giddy when we spotted another swimsuit wearer. Here we are walking down the chute towards the start. We were in the Gold wave, 3rd to enter the lake. Notice who has on bright pink? Okay, so everyone wears dark colors. Um, hello, why would you wear something that is the color of the lake? I wanted to be easily spotted! Waiting. Again, I'm pretty easy to spot. As we walked out I could feel the sand between my toes and the rocks under my feet. The waves were stronger than usual I was told by some who frequent this lake. It was a windy day! They said the water was 87 (30) degrees but brr, it sure didn't feel that warm! We were ready to go and as soon as that airhorn went off, so were we!

I got out about 25 meters, pulling the same strokes that I've been practising. I was breathing just like I'd been taught and then...I began to panic. I couldn't breathe. Gasping for breath, I was taking in a lot of lake water. Which made my breathing that much more difficult and frightening. I looked around, I tried to calm down. The girl in front of my instructed me to swim on my back. Bahama Mama looked back, worried. It was all I could do to tread water. My heartrate was sky high. I was full on hyperventilating. Frantic, I kept turning around looking for someone, anyone to GET ME OUT OF THAT WATER. Waves were knocking me down and I was not getting any calmer. Finally, a kayak spotted me and came over. She instructed me to hold on but I was shaking so hard I could barely grab it. It seemed like forever until we reached shallow water.

Yes, sometimes I have anxiety attacks. They always seem to strike at the strangest moments. (Banana Republic at the mall, oh yes, perfectly normal place to have a break down) But let's just say that in the middle of the lake is probably one of the worst places to have a panic attack. Because unlike Banana Republic, there is no bench to sit on and calm your breathing. I'm the type of girl who always likes to be in control. I'm in control of everything I do at all times. And having a panic attack is the most out of control you can be and still be conscious. In my head I'm telling myself to slow my roll, get a grip, slow my breathing, reassuring myself that I'll be fine. But my head is also saying "OMG OMG OMG OMG!" and for a few moments, that side wins.

I hate it. I don't say hate much. But I hate it. I hate that overwhelming feeling, that feeling that I can't breathe, the fast heart rate that makes me feel like I'm going to have a heart attack. I hate it. And today was no exception.

I'm not a quitter, but I just wanted out of that water and FAST. When I finally made it to shore the nice man in the neon yellow shirt took one look at me, sensed how scared I was, grabbed me and told me to get a hold of myself. He made me put my hands over my head and really focus on my breathing. He asked me if I needed anything. Crying, (but still with my goggles on) I sobbed, "I j-j-just w-w-w-ant to find my h-h-h-h-h-husband!" He told me I could look for my husband once I calmed down a little bit. There were two other swimmers pulled out of my wave. One of them, a guy, asked if this was my first tri. I nodded. He told me not to feel bad, that this wasn't his first and he freaked out too.

I didn't feel better. Now I just felt badly for both of us. Dejected, I shakily plopped down on the shore and watched the other swimmers, feeling awful that I had left Bahama Mama. However, there wasn't one ounce of me that wanted back in that lake. When I thought that I could once again trust my legs, I went out in search of Hubs. I found him waiting for me to come out of the water on the other side. He was undoubtedly surprised to see me come up from behind in instead of out of the lake.

He held me and let me cry, let me shake. He told me he was proud of me for trying. That made me cry harder. I just wanted to go home, but of course the park was closed to traffic and oh yes, Bahama Mama was still out there tri-ing her heart out. I had to get over myself and cheer her on!

So that's how my first triathlon went. DNF. Over almost as soon as it began. I felt like I had let Hubs down, let Bahama Mama down, I felt like I let y'all down and mostly, I let myself down. I was so disappointed, yet I knew there was no way I would have been able to regain my composure in the water. I did the right thing for me at that moment by grabbing on to that kayak.

Bahama Mama, however, did an awesome job! I am SO proud of her!!! Coming off the bike she was worried that she was last. (she wasn't, not by a long shot)

Here she is crossing the finish line!

Going strong!

I hugged her and was SO excited for her. She did it!!! And she looked great doing it! What a woman!

I knew a few others competing in this tri. Tim, a running buddy, is an avid triathlete and sometimes he even places in these things. He made sure to find me after the race, excited to hear about my adventure. I told him that I had a bad race. He replied, "Of course you did, it was your first one!" I was finally feeling better but of course I started to cry again when I relayed the story to him. Ugh. He thinks I should sign up for another one right away, but I don't know. I'm usually not one to let things like this beat me. I'll try, try again. Maybe not this time. I'm might be okay never getting in a lake again. Ever.

But I don't think it was the lake that freaked me out. Or the swim. Or the race at all really. This has been a very difficult week. Very. And those waves crashing down on me embodied all that I've been through. Just beating me down, pushing me under, taking my breath away. So symbolic, it could have been a book. Whew.

I headed to the gym this evening and busted out 800 meters, just to show myself that I could do it. That's twice as long as the race, albeit no waves. I managed all 800 meters without stopping once. Clearly, it wasn't an ability issue. Clearly.

So there you go. The race report that wasn't. Sound like a lot of y'all had some rough races this weekend too. Thanks for all the Twitter love this morning. Your encouraging tweets and your virtual hugs made things a little better. :o)

The wheels on the bus

Fell completely off this week.

It's been a draining week. Physically, mentally and emotionally. Whew. I'm tuckered out. No worries, I am fine. It's just been a wild week.

That low mileage you see over on the right isn't helping any. Of course I AM trying to get my mileage down to focus on cross training and speed, not distance. But as a distance runner, that is hard to see. Yeep!

Wednesday morning was WWoW. We had a great workout of 200's. We only did 8 but my quads are still feeling it!
My times:
47, 47, 47, 48, 49, 48, 47, 45 Those are seconds. And no, I didn't capture the fractional seconds. I still don't know how to use my watch properly and record all this. So I just remembered the whole seconds.

The bottom really fell out of my week right after my workout when I got home. We won't go into that. It's over now and Hubs and I are finally relaxing after all the drama. It's so great to have Hubs by my side to lean on. He's such a good partner to me! I am abundantly blessed with that man.

Thursday I of course ran with my group for my coaching gig. I introduced them to Fartleks. Oh how I love fartleks. I hope they do too now! We each took turns deciding how far to sprint. After my exhausting track workout the day before this one really took it out of me! But that didn't stop me from heading to the pool afterwards to get in one last swim before Saturday.

Met up with Bahama Mama and ooh boy, that cool water felt so good after a hard workout in the heat.
I really focused on slowing down my stroke and breathing right. And it felt GREAT! I think I've been swimming too fast. Not in a Michael Phelps kind of way, but more of a "I hope I can get to the other side so that I don't drown" kind of way.

I can totally do this. I won't rock it, but I will survive. (que the Cake cover of Gloria's song)

So, I love Bath & Body Works wallflowers. Mmm, scented. Did you know that they now come in cute colors??? Well they do and guess who snatched up pink?!?! Now how cute is that?Today I head out to pick up my packet for the race. I'm still not sure what to wear. I've got my rainbow throw up suit of course. Planning to throw some shorts on over it. But...not sure what to do about the whole, er, support issue. Went to Target to find a cute sports bra to wear under my suit and came home with these babies instead. Now I need to get my transition bag packed. And find out how to get to the lake. And what time to leave. And, and, and...
This time tomorrow I'll be a triathlete! (ha, hardly, well, sorta)

Off to foam roll my quad issues away!

That's my bag baby!

Is today over yet?
Because this morning's 5 am swim feels like 4 days ago instead of earlier today. Today wasn't a bad day, just a very, very full day. Whew.

It started out with me bringing my new In Boxes to work. I've been wanting something cuter to put on my desk, cuter than the black plastic boxes I've been using forever. And of course, for a really cheap price. Found them at HomeGoods.
Surely work will look less menacing in these happy boxes! Now if only they were pink...
Ah, luv, HomeGoods. It's my second favorite place to wander around after Target. Annnddd it's right across the street. My ideal shopping Friday is Target, HomeGoods and then Hobby Lobby. Done.

You just never know what you'll find at any of those stores. Like, you know, this totes adorable insulated lunch box. I'm pretty sure that my food will actually taste better being toted around in this precious bag! Here is my afternoon snack that yes, arrived in my cutie patootie bag. I loooove Horizon chocolate milk. Y'all know it's my favorite recovery drink. But sometimes when I'm craving something sweet, I'll reach for the chocolate milk. A while back, Central Market had the individuals sizes on sale for $1. What a deal! I usually buy the big cartons and portion it out, but this sure is convenient on occasion. Tonight with my group, we ran 30 minutes with pick ups. We've got a pretty big group and they get kinda spread out. There was a lot of loud talking tonight trying to communicate when to pick it up and when to slow it down!

The countdown is on to my very first tri. Eek! What are YOU looking forward to???

Like Riding a Bike

So I've signed up for a sprint triathlon.

This we know. I'm a crazy lady. Because I don't swim and I haven't ridden a bike in, like, 7 years.

I tell myself, "I'll learn to swim!" "How hard can riding 11 miles be?"

I ride like a maniac on the stike for months. I get very good at going no where. I swim in the pool. Sadly, I don't get any better at swimming.


Did I mention that I don't even own a bike? What cotton headed ninny muggins signs up for a tri and doesn't even have a bike? This one. My sweet gal Lucy offered the loan of her spiffy red road bike. I gratefully (and a little desperately) accept. We picked it up last night and made plans with Bahama Mama to ride this morning before it got hot. (yeah, right) Don't let that smile fool you. I'm downright terrified in this picture. While the skill of bike riding might have come back to me quite quickly, you know like pedaling, the confidence I once had as a child, did not. The ground seemed very far away and possessing the ability to come swiftly to me.
I'm afraid of falling. My feet don't touch the ground. I see this as a problem. I'm afraid to go fast because that might require stopping. Bahama Mam is not afraid. Look at her, she looks like a professional. And she's fast too.
She is going to complete the bike portion before I am even out of transition, of this I am certain.
After 11 white knuckled miles* we returned to her house. And headed out for a quick 2 mile run. Just like the race next weekend!
I've done brick workouts before. I've practised this transition from stike to treadmill.
It is not the same.
I felt like I was running up a down escalator. A lot of effort was being made, yet I didn't seem to be going anywhere. Why won't my legs work? I thought that wonky feeling was supposed to go away?
It did not.
Now I'm worried I'm going to fall off my borrowed bike AND that I'm going to fall on my imaginary escalator.
To borrow a phrase from Kelly, this was a horrible idea.
Mama's dog Sparky came with us and you can see by the look on his precious little pooch face how hot it was. We are supposed to hit double digits for the first time today. They say it will feel like 108. (42.2 C) At what point to my bike tires begin to melt into the road?After my humiliating morning of terror...I headed to the local bike shop to have my bike inspected before the tri. This is a requirement and thankfully, a free service. It passed! Good thing they didn't inspect me; there is no doubt that I would have received a giant red FAIL on my forehead. While I was waiting I spotted this sweet ride. Do you think it comes in a tri bike?

Speaking of sweet pink rides...check this out!

It's been a good day and it ain't over. I got a new Runner's World that I am SAVING for my trip to Orlando coming up. It's gonna be hard not to read - I've already peeked at the feature on Lolo. We all know how much I adore her. We headed over to REI where I tried on GPS systems. The Timex Ironman GPS is freakin' HUGE. Like, it would make a man's wrist look teeny. I've asked Birthday Clause for the Garmin 205. We shall see...

Enjoy your weekend. Stay in the shade or better yet indoors!

*and in the interest of my campaign to improve cyclist/pedestrian relations...I said "Good morning" to EVERY SINGLE PERSON that we passed. I even spoke to dogs. Hopefully, at least one runner thought, "Gee, that was a really cheerful cyclist. But why did she look so scared???"