From 12oz Curls, to Bicep Curls, to Wedding Dress Twirls

Man has it been a long week and it's only Thursday! Last weekend we did our annual ski trip to Hunter Mountain for MLK day. And although I didn't ski, I did go tubing one day. But this ski trip is just what you expect it to be, a huge group (16 this time) in a house skiing, drinking and oh wait, drinking. Now since I haven't been drinking very much I took it easy on the cocktailing but I was still there to witness all of the debauchery that comes with 16 people and 3 kegs of beer. And man was there a lot. One of the funniest memories, is someone pulling their groin muscle playing air guitar. Talk about an athlete right there!

Once we got back it was back to the grind stone with the past three days filled with recovery swims, max strength phase lifting, 1 hour Z1 rides, which might I say I am really enjoying and 1 hour runs. Today started with some lifting and then a quick make up swim that I missed from Monday. I then followed that up with a quick 1 hour ride, where I caught up on some reading.

Oh, and this week, we have made it official, well I guess more official, we are getting married on October 8, 2011. So then you can add into the whole training and weight loss some bridal bootcamp. My goal is to lose about 9 pounds by October, which with the amount that I am training I believe is possible, I just need to stick to it.

So with the date planned, my mother and I set off for some wedding dress shopping. And man, was that an experience. I mean honestly, I would feel most comfortable getting married in running shorts and a sports tank with sneakers on, but alas, that is not an option. I mean I can get into the dress thing it just takes me a little while. So about 4 dressed in, after explaining to the woman that I was wearing a sports bra and would need to borrow a "real" bra, things started to click. I think I found the style I want at least, but no dress jumped out at me. The craziest part was standing there in a grandiose dress, then the woman came up to me and put a veil on me, and BOOM, shit got real! I finally felt like this was all real! Talk about crazy!

Well enough of the wedding talk and back to the real issue at hand, training! This week will end with a nice long ride and some more 1 hour runs. I plan on taking it real easy this weekend since we were a bit out of control last weekend. Let's see how that goes!

So Much for Surprising Myself!

As I pictured, I went for my second run last week on Friday and there I was at the top of Z1 averaging 10:29 miles. So much for that little pipe dream of 10 min miles to start with. I then went on and completed my 8 minute bike test from hell. Now surprisingly I was able to maintain a decent speed with high resistance without crapping out early. So at least I know there is some improvement there. Now as to how that is going to translate when fixing my HR zones, I don't want to know! I figure if it didn't feel too bad that I have a lot of walking and hopping in my future!

This weekend, we headed to Madison Square Garden to watch a bull riding competition. And man, did I underestimate this experience. I figured it would be interesting for sure, but it was totally entertaining! Now I am not saying that I will become a regular spectator on the bull riding circuit, but it sure made for a fun Friday night.

Saturday was early to rise to head out for another full day of wedding venue searching. And I think we have made a decision. After seeing about 12 venues, I hope we have. I am working on the contract now and will hopefully have it all signed off on this week. Then it is on to more planning. Honestly, at least I have training to focus on, so I have a daily stress release session as I plan!

I Am Surprising Myself Here

So the new HR monitor showed up and after fighting with it and trying to get it to work for about 3 days (yes, I know I could have read the directions in the first place, but really, who does that?)I began my training with the monitor. Now I just want to remind you it has been 4 months since I trained with a HR monitor and also about 4 months since I have done anything on a bike besides teach spin, so I knew the first couple of weeks in January would be a doozy!

You already know the deal for Monday, on Tuesday, I got on the bike for a 1:10 Z1 ride, and let me tell you, by 45 minutes, I was done for. It was taking so much energy and resistance to get my HR up to Z1 in the first place, that maintaining it was killing me! But I suffered through it and was done for the day at around 9:00am, with a sore ass and lead legs.

Today, I got up early again, as I am trying to make that the trend for the year, and hit the gym for my first run with the HR monitor. Now, I thought that this was going to be reminiscent of my walk with a hop routine from last year, but I didn't want to go in with a negative attitude. So I took the "whatever happens, happens" view and began my run. I thought I was on track and doing well in terms of my HR and I got off after 40 minutes averaging 10:15 miles. Now for you speed demons out there, I know you are probably wondering why I can't run faster than that, but I can, don't be fooled, just not with that monitor on. So when I got home to log my time, I was nicely surprised, my average HR was only 154 which is the at the bottom of Z1. This means that I may actually begin the year with a Z1 pace of 10:00 minute miles or maybe even less! Unheard of, I tell you!

After my run, I got in the pool for a quick 30 minutes steady swim. And even though my arms were a bit sore from Monday's swim, I was again very happy to be back in the water, well more so underwater and away from noise.

Tomorrow I do a HR test, which means that these happy posts will most likely disappear when my Zones get adjusted and I have to go back to my crawling pace, but today I can bask in feeling satisfied with my morning.

Happy New Year...

And now it is back to the grind, in every sense of the word. Today started with a 6am spin class and then an early morning gracery stop to gather all of the ingredients for the first week back to healthy eating in my house. Tonight we will be dining on zuchini and eggplant cassarole. I think we are going to go strictly vegetarian this week to get us back to where we need to be.

After the grocery store, I got through my first few hours of work and then it was time for a training lunch break. I set off to the gym for a 1 hour recovery swim. Per the usual I came home with an earful of water, but god it feels great to be back in the water so much. I miss the quietness of the pool.

Then tonight it is back to the gym for 30 minutes of lifting before my last spin class. And I am picturing that when I get home at 8:30 tonight, moving will be a challenge! But there is no way better to start off the new year than with 4 hours of working out, right? Right!

Let's see if my attitude changes by the end of the week.

Let the Soreness and Bank Account Drain Begin

As you can probably tell from my lead in, I have begun officially training again! I have hit a few bumps in the road this week, like my HR monitor dying, 2 feet of snow keeping me in the house one day and my pool closing for maintenance but I forged onward and did what I know how to do best. I spent some money!

With the Garmin out of commission, I knew I had two choices, send it in for repair of just buy a new one. Well after the year I had last year, I figured why not just buy a new one. I found a place online where I could pick up the Garmin 405 for only $200, so I went for it. I figured it was time for an upgrade and also maybe a little less weight on the wrist would speed me up this year. (You like how I totally just justified my spending? That is how it all happens in my head!)It arrived this morning and I am currently charging it and waiting for my first usage. Which in the end I am sure will be frustrating because I am almost positive I have been running waaaaay faster than my Z1 pace, so that means it is back to the daily walk/run/crawl training scenario!

So far, in terms of training, I am not feeling too spent, although I think the weekend workouts may take their toll on me! But I will check back in tomorrow after my first HR workout and let's see how this story changes. In the mean time, I am going to go play with my new toy!

Merry Christmas to All and to All A Goodnight!

I honestly can't believe it is Christmas already! I also can't believe this is my last week of freedom before my training starts. It was actually supposed to start this week, but with the holiday, it was a bit hard, so we moved it out to next week! And I will take the extra week any day and next week it is back to the drawing board.

So from then on I can get back to blogging about real training as opposed to my version of it! But not before I enjoy a few days of overeating! I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday! And have an extra cookie or two for Hailey. She got caught in the icing before she was able to get to the cookies!

Best Vacation Ever

So I have been totally MIA for the past week but with good reason. Last Saturday we packed up and headed to Sedona, Arizona for the week. The plan was the hike as much as possible and relax and boy did this vacation deliver. Sedona was unbelievably gorgeous and we arrived right in time for some winter temperature highs. The first 4 days were 80 degrees and sunny and we spent our time, hiking different trails in Sedona and then taking a day trip to the Grand Canyon and hiking the South Kaibab trail on the Southern Rim. And let me tell you that was the most amazing hike I have ever done in my life. We hiked about 2.5 miles down into the canyon and then had to hike our way back out. It was crazy!

We also took in some tourist attractions while in Sedona. We went on a Pink Jeep tour of the canyons in Sedona, which consisted of a ton of off roading and laughing while we bounced around in the back of the jeep. We also decided to be brave and take a helicopter ride. Now this was a first for me, but we figured, if we were here, we should try it. And now I have officially decided that I will now only travel via helicopter everywhere I go. It was such a smooth flight and I seriously felt like I was in a video game.

Because my coached training still hadn't started, I didn't have any prescribed workouts so I did my own. Every day I could I ran about 5 miles on the treadmill. And the altitude killed me! I would get off the treadmill completely beat after 5 miles, red faced and out of breath. But I figured it would make the kick off of my training this week a little bit easier.

The best part of the vacation happened on Thursday night. I got completely blindsided by Nick when I came out of the bathroom to get ready for bed and he had a beautiful diamond ring in his hand. I stood there completely shocked with my mouth open until he got down on one knee and then it all registered. I was getting engaged!After that I don't think I slept for more than 2 hours at a time because I just had to wake up and look at my ring every few minutes!

So 2011 is going to bring a lot of good things! I plan to race as hard as I can, and plan my September wedding in the process of all of it! Now I just have to go and rearrange my racing schedule, so I can fit my wedding into the plan!