Week 16 - wrap up

The week started out fairly easy to allow me to recover from the race but, by the weekend, it was clear full on training was finally here.

This week will be the highest volume week I've ever had and yet, next week will be bigger. The hardest thing to all of this has been balancing time with Grumpy.

April numbers are a bit surprising. I think it reflects how much my swim and my run are improving. The bike is a little lower perhaps because I'm doing so much more trainer work and that always resolves to lower mileage. 

Picture of the week:

Tazzy, Shelby, and Essie

2013 Silicon Valley International Triathlon

Last Sunday, Grumpy and I drove down to a local reservoir about 25 minutes south of us. I chose this race to work on the run after the bike.

Uvas Reservoir

The forecast was for a beautiful day with a high of 85F. At the crack of dawn, it appeared to be on track.

Ramp for Swim In

After finding a nice transition spot by the Run/Bike Out, I met up with Grumpy and waited to warm up.

After warming up, Grumpy and I made our way down to the shore line. I met up with the 15-20 50+ year old women that were in my wave. We chatted. I scoped out the fast ones.

The swim course was a nice counter clockwise swim around the little peninsula and up the nicely carpeted boat ramp. However, the swim start was about 150 yards out! Waves were going off every 4 minutes. As soon as the wave before us took off, we started to swim out. This is when I realized that I'd left my ear plugs! It felt like forever. I couldn't feel vertigo coming on. I began to think I wasn't going to make it there before the horn. Seconds after I got there, I heard the horn but realized there was still a wave ahead of us! Good. I had 4 more minutes to pull myself together and get rid of the dizziness.

I lined up behind the speedsters and we were all lined up to the far left (shortest line possible). The horn went off. I went with the speedsters ... and they were gone!  In the picture below, I'm the middle swimmer with the head up and arm up. It was the 3 of us on the short line. Every one was far to the right. They did this last year and I can't figure it out. Simple geometry says the my line would be the shortest distance. There is no current.

Two strokes and they were gone

So, I was on my own... again. The plan was to moderately swim with long, full strokes. I didn't pass any one and once past the first buoy, no one except the very fastest relay swimmers in the final wave after me.

Swim: 30:21 (4+ minute course PR)

Imagine having to walk after spinning around and around for 30+ minutes. I was very dizzy getting out of the water and did all I could to move swiftly through transition. Yep. I sat down to get my wetsuit off.

Better to sit, than to do some damage trying to be cool

T1: 2:10 (second fasted in AG)

Still dizzy getting out to the mount line but, once on the bike - no more dizziness. Plan for the bike was to stay in my Oly power range. Keep the power up on the flats and down hill but, be reasonable on the uphills. I also wanted to keep the nutrition flowing on the same schedule I used last year. I nailed both!

No one passed me. However, I passed men and women all the way through the course. Yeah me!

Bike: 1:33:43

T2: 1:10 (fastest in AG)

By now the temperature is was in the mid-upper 70's. This was the test. How were my legs going to do after 1 1/2 hours of Oly watts and how would my core do with the temperature. The run course was a rolling run course mostly with out shade. In the past, I've melted. But, I was determined to beat this.  In preparation, I had done several runs in "warmer" temperatures. I also brought 2 10oz bottles with sport drink for the run. Water stations were every mile and at each water station I poured 1-2 cups of water all over me.

The first 2.5 miles weren't bad. At about 2.5 - 3.1 miles there is a double hump that is a bit steeper. I slowed to make sure I had enough to carry me through. By mile 5, you just bake. There are no trees to provide even the sparsest of shade. But, I wasn't going to slow. By mile 6, I gave it everything I had.
 

I almost LOOK like a triathlete!

Run: 1:06:59 (8+ minute course PR)
Overall: 3:14:23

Last fall, I sent coach my list of 2013 races and goals for each. The goal I had for this race was 3:15!


Overall, I'm pretty happy with this race. I focused on the process and had a great time. Everything is coming along. I just need to keep doing the work and following the plan. Some day I'll get that run down below 1 hour.

Weight Loss Intro - week 2

• I AM NOT A TRAINED DIETICIAN. 
• I AM NOT A DOCTOR
• BEFORE EMBARKING ON ANY WEIGHT LOSS OR EXERCISE PLAN, TALK WITH YOUR DOCTOR. Your doctor is a partner in your health. Don't shut him/her out. Use them!
• I HAVE NO VESTED INTEREST IN LIVESTRONG.COM, WEIGHT WATCHERS.

So, how did you do last week? Did you have problems getting set up or tracking? If you haven't already, go weigh in.

This week is all about getting started with movement. I'm a big believer in getting my body moving every day. There are so many benefits to movement but, most important to me is mood. Often, I really don't want to do it but, I've never regretted having done it.

Movement can be anything you are capable of but, most importantly something you enjoy doing.

• Dance
• Walking
• TRX
• Yoga
• Running
• Swimming

The list is endless. But, only do what you are able to do. Studies on the benefit of exercise and weight loss are often conflicting. I can promise you, as you start to lose weight and see you are doing more and more movement, you will be proud of your efforts.

When I started getting healthy, I bought a pedometer. I thought that walking the dogs every evening, I was getting more than my 10,000 daily steps. Imagine my shock when I barely hit 2500!

For this week, purchase and wear a pedometer. You don't need anything fancy. You just need it to learn how much you are actually walking.

Weight Loss Intro - week 1

There are a million websites and books and forums and organizations out there talking about how to loose weight. Some of it is good info but, a lot of it is crap.

But, when you're getting started, it's hard to know where to get started. Lots of the good info out there is too vague. How do you get started? What does this mean to you? What do all these terms mean? I recently read a book (Choke: What the secrets of the brain reveal about getting it right when you have to) which talked about how once you master something, you begin to lose all the little steps that it took you to master it. Therefore, you lose some of the insights that would be useful to teaching another person.

One of the reasons that I started this blog was I wanted to show people that any one can do this stuff. Whether it is losing weight, racing a triathlon, or what ever you dream of, it is in all of us to shine.

Before I get started, let me make it clear.

• I AM NOT A TRAINED DIETICIAN. 
• I AM NOT A DOCTOR
• BEFORE EMBARKING ON ANY WEIGHT LOSS OR EXERCISE PLAN, TALK WITH YOUR DOCTOR. Your doctor is a partner in your health. Don't shut him/her out. Use them!
• I HAVE NO VESTED INTEREST IN LIVESTRONG.COM, WEIGHT WATCHERS.

I believe in balanced, some what clean eating combined with exercise. Pretty much what the CDC
advises. So, if you're looking for cleansing, paleo, vegan, etc., I won't be talking about those. I also don't go in for a lot of supplementation other than a good multivitamin and a Omega-3 pill.

Without further ado, let's get started.

Recently, the results of a study was published. This study showed that with 2 groups of dieters, those that were instructed to NOT change their diet for the first 8 weeks while they learned about weight maintenance, kept the weight off longer than those that began immediately.

So what is there to learn? I mean, everyone knows it's calories in verses calories out. In the upcoming weeks, you'll see how that is just not true.

For this series, I'll be using MyPlate on Livestrong.com to explain about tracking you food intake, determining how many calories your body needs, and how exercise burns calories. You can use other calorie tracking software (or you can do it by hand) but, examples and settings will be based on MyPlate. There is also an IPhone app which I use regularly but, the set up needs to be done on the website.

Assignment:

1. Log on to Livestrong.com/myplate
2. Create an account if you don't already have one.
3. For your calorie goals, set it to maintain weight
4. Follow the instruction for Activity Level (How do I choose the right activity level)
5. Weigh yourself and enter the current weight. Be brave. It's just a number and gives you a starting point.
6. For the next week, enter every bit of food or drink you have. Be honest but, don't drive yourself crazy about it either. Also, start tracking your exercise.

DO NOT worry about what the numbers are currently adding up to. Take a casual note of what things are high calorie and high in fat. But, we haven't talked about a lot of stuff so right now you're just gathering data. Data about yourself and your habits.

As you enter the data, think about how you were feeling before and after you ate it. Did you want more? Were you stuffed when you were done? Were you nervous/bored/upset? How much sleep did you get? When did you last have a drink of water?

Be kind to yourself.

Week 14 and a little bit of life

What a week. Mileage was down a bit this week since my daughter was having cosmetic surgery and I was determined to be by her side as much as possible.

The first part of the week was front loaded with as many workouts as I could fit in. Thursday was the big day. We were up at 3:45am to get her to the hospital in San Francisco by 5:30am. This was scheduled to be a 10 hour surgery, so the plan was to leave once they took her in and we'd be back before they wheeled her out. Driving in San Francisco at 5:30am isn't too bad nor, is leaving San Francisco at 7:30am.

Each time we drove into San Francisco, Garmin directed a different way. I had absolutely dreaded spending so much time in the City. As an adult, I've only been through the tenderloin, the financial district, and market street -- my opinion was not good. But, we drove through Noe valley, Twin Peaks, Dolores Park - all very nice.

Once released from the hospital, she is now convalescing in a near by hotel. She was doing so well this morning that I felt comfortable leaving her while I did my last run of the week out on the bay trail. I had hoped to go early and beat the cold fierce wind. Ha! 8am and it was a strong head wind. But, on an out and back course, that meant a very lovely tail wind. This was to be a zone 1-2 run and I was beating last year's 10k pace EASILY.

Ran this in the Diva's Half Marathon last May

Magic Week 13

Posting a little late. Life is CRAZY right now. Because my workout hours are iffy, coach gave me peak week for Week 13. It's amazing how easy a peak week is when you just come off of a rest week.

Week 13 Mileage:

Swim: 3.24 miles
Run: 20.66 miles (Really???)
Bike: 53 miles (sucks my trainer reports less mileage)

So, if that wasn't enough, Grumpy and I helped do an agility demo. I was so proud of all the grrls (even little Essie) for working with a very large crowd watching. Afterwards, they did a meet and greet where the crowd came up to touch and ask questions. Shelby was the perfect little golden - children waving hands, hugging, kissing - she was calm and accepted their attention.

10 year old Tazzy

2 year old Essie

5 year old Shelby

Beef, Beet, and Cabbage Soup

Need ideas on something easy, delicious, and packed with that high performance beet nutrition? The following recipe is just a suggestion. You can add more vegetables or remove vegetables as you like.

Prep: 20-30 minutes
Crock Pot Cooking Time: 4-6 hours on high or 8-10 hours on low
Serves: 6
Serving size: about 1 1/3 cups
Calories: 200

• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1 lb boneless chuck trimmed and cut into 3/4" pieces
• 2 onions, thinly sliced
• 4 beets, trimmed, peeled, and diced
• 3 carrots, sliced
• 1 cup thinly sliced cabbage
• 1 (14 1/2oz) can petite diced tomatoes
• 1/2 tsp salt (I don't salt)
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1 bay leaf (I put 2)
• 8 cups reduced-sodium  beef broth

Steps:

1. Heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the beef, in batches, and cook, stirring, until browned (about 8 minutes). Transfer the beef to a 5-6 quart slow cooker.
2. Add the onions to the skillet and cook, stirring, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add to the slow cooker along with the remaining ingredients. Cover and cook until the beef and vegetables are fork-tender.
3. Remove the bay leaf. Ladle the soup into bowls