keep on rollin

I am a little bored blogging about training. Okay, I'm actually a little bored with training. It is just one of those weeks that I want to be lazy and watch the Bulls play and eat candy. But I do have a deadline that is approaching with a goal attached so I gotta stay with it. These moments seems to pass if I just keep at it. The training part anyway. I am hopelessly weak when it comes to junk food. I exercise so much that I am starving, and vegetables are too much of a pain to prepare and no one will make them for me. I know. Excuses, Excuses.

This is what I have done this week.

Mon: Brick workout (that's where you do them right after each other) Bike: 1 hour, Run: 30 min. I'm not sure how far I went.
I actually ate very good on Monday.

Tues: Swim 45 min. 50 laps, and about 20 more laps that were sprints
Run: 5 miles. 3 of the miles I ran at a 7.5 mph pace, which is slow, but really good for me. Then I had a warm-up and cool-down mile.

Wed: Woke up late and was really sore and tired. I did weights for 30 min. I ate crummy today too.

Today: I went to spin class, and ran a fast mile afterwards. I was supposed to go run some hills today, but I got talking to Mark about where we want to live, and that took an hour, and my run time was over.

Tomorrow I am going to swim laps at a new pool to compare, because I think the pool I have been swimming in is short. I am also going to try to do those hills, but I'll have to do it on a treadmill. Not nearly as fun. :)

Wow, I feel more motivated already. This does help.


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I have a problem with my children and lying. Does anyone have any helpful advice or discipline techniques? I don't like to spank. I am pretty much a time-out mom. But it is not working so good. I may just need to give it some time for them to quite testing me. It is so sad and frustrating though.

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Mark and I can't decide where to live. We can live anywhere. Where would you live?

So blogging as a motivator didn't really work, because I fell off the wagon again this weekend. I just don't know what's wrong with me. You would think eventually I would learn not to eat so much junk food on the weekend and continue working out. I had good intentions this weekend. I did. I had planned a bike and run brick workout for 1:00, when the kids take naps. Well, at 1:00 it was raining. What was I supposed to do. Get ice cream and watch "24"? I thought so too. Only, at 1:15 it stopped raining. So I really have no excuse. Then I was going to go at 7:00 in the evening after Mark went for a swim, but we went to a new gym and it took a long time to take the tour etc, and it was just too late. Those are my sort-of excuses. It's sad I know. Tomorrow is a new week though right?

Thursday I slept in and took the kids to the day care to go swimming. 3/4 of the way into the workout, Abigail had a dirty diaper and I had to get out.

Friday I went to spin class and then did some weights. Mark talked me out of going swimming to make up for Thursday, so I ate chocolate instead. I love the weekends and hate them too.

Goals for this week: Interval training. I need to get my speed up. I am so slow on the bike and the run. I need to learn to do them faster. If anyone has any suggestions. I'd love them. Also, eat good food.

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Our soccer season is over. It went by so fast, just when the kids were getting the hang of it. We lost our last game, but we got trophies. The other team didn't get trophies because it wasn't their last game. Emma was so confused by this, and had to sit down and really explain it to her. It was kind-of funny.

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St. George is starting to get warm. I like it, as for the kids, not so much. We rode our bikes to the park on Wednesday, and after playing there for 30 minutes or so, we decided to ride our bikes to another park. We played there for too long because we left at about 12:30 and it was really hot and the kids were tired. Gabe just couldn't make it home. I had to call my Dad to come pick him up. Poor thing. They slept good that night. :)

I raise my bowl of ice cream to a new week. Cheers.

Cloudy

Do you remember the days in college when everything was very sharp and clear. You didn't forget things like where you put your phone, at least not 5 times a day, or important things like a test that you've studied endlessly for. I can't remember those days because I can barely remember to put bread out to thaw for the morning or to check the weather for Emma's field trip. I am just way up in the clouds these days. Maybe I feel that way because the last couple of days have been intense.

Today I accidentally did a sprint workout. I know. weird. I plan my schedule out a week a head of time, and check it every day, usually more than once a day. I woke up at 5:00 and went to spin class at 6:00. It was a great class. I really pushed myself. For some reason, I thought I was supposed to do another run workout which I did this afternoon. It was very hard too. So now my legs are overworked and sore.

There is a science behind all this which I don't totally understand, but Mark does. It has to do with my endurance vs. intensity. At first you want to build your endurance, and as you get closer to your race raise the intensity level and lower the endurance. And rest quite a bit towards the end. I just try to do what Mark tells me. So at this point in time I am doing more high intensity shorter workouts. Hopefully they will help me get faster.

Today's STATS: Spin Class: 1 hour, around 12 miles
Run: 50 min. 3, 4 min intervals, 5 miles.

Sleep is Good

Just a quick blog because sleep is good, and I need some. Last night Abigail was up 3 times, and finally at 3:30 we caved, and let her sleep in our bed. Needless to say, I did not get up early for my swim workout. I hate not waking up early. I feel like I'm playing catch up the whole day. Because Abigail was so tired, she needed a morning nap. My whole schedule was just messed up. The house desperately needed cleaning, and I was trying to fit a workout in somewhere between other important things. *side note on important things* I have made it an unspoken rule of thumb to read the scriptures before I do anything else. I love the calm and clarity it gives me at least for a while. Anyway, at like 3:30 when I should have been getting ready for my back up exercise time, but wasn't because Abigail was really tired and needed a late afternoon nap, and because I was still cleaning and doing laundry, I was grumbling. Then I had a nice thought. I just needed to get my priorities straight. I was really hating the bathroom and cursing the toothpaste on the mirror because there was somewhere else I really wanted to be. If I didn't have anything to do I might be happy to clean up after my family. I think that when I get annoyed with the kids, it's almost always because there is something that I think is more important than them. So I readjusted my priorities a little, and remembered that it's nice to be able to take care of my family, and felt much better. I also complained to my sweet husband who said I could go swim as soon as he got off work. :) Yay.

So as far as training goes I did get a swim in where I practiced my flip turns almost the whole time. I did some sprints as well. I was researching the triathlon, and the swim is very very short. This stinks because swimming is my best event. I looked up last year's times and the best swim time was 6:45. I can swim it in under 6 minutes easy. But it's only 6 minutes of the race. So it doesn't make a big difference.

But boy did it feel good to swim today though. I did 6 loads of laundry (which included folding and putting them away), tidied my room and the kid's room, dusted everything, vacuumed, and cleaned the bathroom (not including the floor or the tub). It was a lot. I feel a little guilty actually because I'm sure I neglected the kids. I had to of, that is a lot. BY 5:30, I was stressed. After the swim I felt like I spent the day at a spa. I felt incredible. Energized, happy, renewed.

The best part of the day was I got to play volleyball tonight, and it was so much fun. I laughed and laughed. I was so loopy. Speaking of loopy. I gotta get to bed now. Sleep is Good.

The Good Kind of Bad Planning

So I lied a little bit. I said I had two training weeks left. That really means three weeks because the last week is a rest/recovery week and you don't do a lot. But I really have three training weeks left. Yea! I like having more time. Although that is more time to stay motivated. I am doing the Woman of Steel Triathlon in American Fork. It is on May 16. Four weeks to go.

Today I was up at 5:30 and went to the gym for spin class. Spin is a class that you do on indoor bikes and the instructor tells you how fast to go, and motivates you. We'll do sprint intervals, or increase resistance like we're going up a hill, etc. I LOVE IT! Again, bike is not my favorite thing so when I discovered spin class I was excited. I love it because I get a great workout on the bike, which is so hard for me to do on my own. It's great having someone direct my workout. BUT...it is really hard. I sweat more in one spin class than a whole week of exercise. Today especially. I didn't rest enough from my long ride on Saturday, and I was still sore. I made it through the class though a ran a slow fat-burning jog afterwards.

Stats for today: BIKE- 1 hour (no idea how many miles, 10-12 maybe)
RUN-40 min, 4 miles

My biggest problem is actually eating. I don't eat the kinds of foods that will maximize my training. Translation: I love candy. Today eating was just okay. I started off well with a protein smoothie for breakfast, and more fruits and veggies than usual throughout the day. I had a lot of crackers which made more calories than I need. For FHE we went to sonic and got ice cream. I didn't order anything, and then ate half of Mark's shake. :) Sigh, I know, but I did try.

Swim...Bike....Run

I need a little motivation. Something to help me stay focused. This is where you come in. Last year my goal for my first triathlon was to finish before they started cleaning everything up. This year I would like to compete. I'd like to be in the top ten in my age group. This being said. I only have two training weeks left until that triathlon. I'm having a hard time staying good. I'll train and eat good for four days, and them eat crap for 3 and start over. I only have two weeks now, and I need all those days if I am going to do well. So I am going to post my training and eating everyday for the next fourteen days. I am going to pretend that you are reading it and are interested, and cheering me on in your head. I probably won't write a lot, but today I need to because it was really awesome.

I was depressed after the load of sugar I ate yesterday, and for breakfast. Also, the jr. bacon cheeseburger didn't help, nor the fries. At 1:00, I was not feeling a lot of motivation for my long bike ride I have been planning all week. At about 2:30 I finally got out the door. I do not like biking on the road. It is uncomfortable, and hurts my legs. I don't like how it doesn't really use the whole body like swimming and running. I like to feel all my muscles moving when exercise. It is by far my least favorite part of the triathlon, and incidentally the longest part. Breakdown for approximate times for a race. Swim-20 minutes, Bike-50 minutes, Run-30 min. So it is a big part of the race. I have been riding around on my mountain bike pulling kids in the trailer lately. Today, I got on my dad's road bike and prepared myself for a 2 hour bike ride. 2 miles into it I was in heaven. I was flying on a cloud. Maybe not on a cloud, but I was flying. It was such a thrill and so fun to go so fast. The only problem was I kept running out of trail. I went out to Washington and back to Bloomington and to Hidden Valley. There was a lot of turning around and trying to decide which way to go. Two hours and 32 miles later I returned home. I was on such a high, I wanted to go for a little run(It's good for the muscles to get used to running after biking), but Mark had to take a test. I am so excited I had such a good time on the bike today. It makes me even more excited for the race.

Look forward to more exciting training posts to come.

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On a different note. I have been coaching Emma's soccer team. Our team is very little and it's hard to compete with some of the bigger, faster players. But we have been improving a lot and it has been so fun. Today, Emma scored her first goal. Yay Emma! I was video taping and I got so excited while it was happening, I stopped recording. I'm so mad I didn't get it on camera. The important thing is the kids love it and are getting better. I am sad that it's almost over. I will try to control myself to try to get some pictures or footage next time. :)