Progress - or lack there of

I am mad.
I am working so hard, but I feel like I am making no progress.  I really think my problem is that I am going by the wrong numbers.  That darn scale just will not move!  I think I need to lock Mr. Scale away somewhere for a while and focus more on my training progress in each sport.  Then who knows, maybe when I pull my old friend back out, he might be kinder to me.

This weekend I biked to/from a friend's house on Saturday even though we had nearly hurricane strength wind gusts, but it felt so good to use an alternative mode of transport other than on just my commute to work.  On Sunday I did the swim thing and it was one of the best swims so far.  The pool was nearly empty and I was able to get in about 400 yards without too much rest in between each lap.  I switched between front crawl, front crawl with the buoy, flutter kicking with the board, back stroke and some side stroke for my cool down.  It felt great!  THAT is the kind of progress that needs to be my focus.

I treated myself with a haircut today.  I have naturally curly hair and a while ago I had tried out the Deva cut in order to enhance my curls.  I hated it.  It thinned out the ends of my hair way too much and just wasn't a flattering shape.  I let it grow out for - gosh - somewhere over six months, I think.  I was constantly throwing my hair up in a ponytail before/after swimming and before/after biking and I was loathing the ponytail.  So I took the plunge today and walked out of the salon with a bob that is just above my chin.  It feels SO good.  The stylist even commented on how thick my hair is and how much of it I have.  And here I had been thinking it was getting thin, but I guess it was just that stupid cut.  Phew!

I biked to work today.  It is still pretty warm and humid here.  I had no idea how to dress for the weather.  Give me under 20 degrees and I know just what to wear, but 62 at 7:30am?!  No idea.  I went with  my very light bike jacket and a short sleeve jersey with shorts.  I was a little toasty in the jacket, but it was good with the wind.  I'm looking forward to keeping it in the bag for the ride home!

Feelin' hot hot hot

Today I conquered my first outdoor run on the training schedule.  I did 1.75 miles in about 20 minutes.  When I checked the weather before I left at noon it said it was already 72 degrees and climbing.  I live in Minnesota and the weather is terribly unusual for this time of year.  While a pleasant temperature for sitting outside and relaxing, I was not prepared for how hot 72 degrees would feel while running. I was a sweaty mess!  A beating red, sweaty mess.  And I know it wasn't just me because my husband ran (elsewhere) at the same time and he said the same thing.

My shins still bother me while running walking.  I did get this checked out last summer to eliminate any serious injuries and it was diagnosed as straight-up shin splints.  I went to Sports Medicine and they gave me some stretches to do, but they haven't helped.  The only thing that seems to help is putting more miles on my legs.  The more running/walking I do, the easier it gets with time.  Here's hoping that by June I'll be in a place of no pain for the race.

Bad scale

*sigh* Wednesday is my weigh-in day.  The scale was kind, but not as kind as I feel like the amount of work I've done this past week should have warranted.  Whenever this happens I tend to look at what I've been doing and eating and find something I can change to hopefully boost my results in the next week.  I certainly can't fit any more exercise into my schedule, so that's not something I can change.  So this week I'm looking at making two more simple changes:

1. Stairs.  I'm that person that rides the elevator two floors.  Yep.  I know you've stared people like me down or made remarks when we've left the elevator...

For me, it isn't the climbing that I don't like.  It is what happens to me when I do climb stairs - or walk briskly - or even THINK about moving.  If you've had the pleasure of being with me during any one of those activities or more, you've undoubtedly noticed something unusual about my physical self.  My face turns bright red, no - bright purple.  Even the slightest bit of movement (okay, maybe more than the slightest) and I am all strawberry up top.  I can't help it.  This problem has plagued me since childhood.  No matter how fit or how thin I've been, this problem has never gone away, so I can assure you it isn't a case of being too out of shape.  It is just who I am.  Same goes for whenever I'm the least bit embarrassed, mad, or frustrated and even sometimes when I am not.  I cannot control it.  And it sucks.  So, imagine me walking up two flights of stairs to a meeting and walking in looking like I've just run 3 miles.  People make comments.  They're concerned for me.  "Are you okay?  Do you need some water?!"  No.  No no no.  I'm just ME.  So I ride the elevator.  BUT I know this is an easy thing I can do to add in a little extra exercise every day.  I guess for the meantime I'll just have to put up with the peanut gallery chiming in about how I look from time to time.

2. (I'm really scared to go here...) I am addicted to Diet Coke.  Ugh!  There, I said it!  Do I dare to attempt to curb my addiction?

I drink about one 20oz bottle during the day (this is cumulative, I usually drink only half of two different 20oz bottles - I know, I know, this problem has been documented) and between 1 and 2 cans a night.  I'm not ready to go cold turkey, so I was thinking about trying to just keep my first-thing-in-the-morning bottle and switching to water/crystal light for all other beverages.  Can I really sustain my thirst with WATER?!?  Will it really help?  Who knows...but I am willing to try!

*update* I originally wrote this post yesterday and have since not really put these items officially into action.  I HAVE used the stairs much more today than I usually do, but I'm on bottle #2 (but only my second half total of the day) of Diet Coke.  Also, as an fyi, I took a bit of a mental health day off of work yesterday and I did not exercise at all.  I am switching my weekly rest day from Friday to Wednesday, so I will be visiting the gym tomorrow.

I did swim today over my lunch hour with my husband.  We had a great time, but I was struggling a bit today to keep my mind and breathing focused.  I am trying out the new things that I learned at my swim lesson on Tuesday and maybe that is what's throwing me off.  It was a good workout regardless of how difficult it was for me.  Sadly, I did not get into the swim lesson class again for April.  I totally forgot to wake up and call in to register this morning and when I did call in, my Tuesday class was full.  I'm on the waiting list and am hoping to talk to Amy next week to see if there might be room for me.  If I don't get in, I'll still swim on my own on Tuesdays and maybe try for the class again in May.

Food, drink and more food

I ate my way through the weekend, but I did also manage to get some really great training in, so hopefully it all evens out in the end.

On Saturday afternoon it was 63 degrees in the Twin Cities, which was where we were spending our weekend.  My husband and I bought a brand new bike rack for the car before leaving home.  We packed up my road bike and his brand new tri-bike for what would be its first time off of the indoor trainer.  We brought the bikes out to Harriet Island in St. Paul and got ready to enjoy a great ride in beautiful weather.  About one minute on the trail and we realized that the extra snow storm that the Cities had (that missed us in Rochester) left extra snow on the trails that had turned to ice and had not melted yet.  We both nearly wiped out going through two patches of slush.  It was an easy decision to stick to the streets after that.  We managed just over 12 miles and it was so fun and such a beautiful day.  Admittedly I did have some trouble getting up a very steep, large hill, but Mike was there to "push" me up.  Considering my training schedule only required 4 miles on the bike this weekend, I think I can safely say my weekend bike training was successful.

On Sunday I met up with two of my sisters-in-law for some swimming.  They are both excellent swimmers as they swam on teams in high school, so I was certainly the newbie there.  They gave me some great tips and help with my stroke and we even practiced some flip turns.  We burned off some calories swimming and gabbing and then ate all of those calories back (and then some) with a brunch later that afternoon.

I am back to clean eating and onto a day of running on this wet Monday...

Day of rest

Rest days are hard.  Mine is today.  I know that resting is good and that it is necessary.  However, when you have so much forward momentum, it is difficult to stand still for a while.  Especially when standing still for one day can quickly turn into two days or a week or a month or more.

I've spent some time today going through beginner triathlete race reports on their first tris.  Not sure how good of an idea this was, but I did pick up on some commonalities in the reports.  I'm guessing that since so many of these newbie triathletes experience these same things, the odds are in my favor that they will also happen for my first triathlon:

1. I will get no sleep the night before the race.
2. I will feel inadequate before the race while setting up my transition spot (is that even what it is called??) because of the much cooler, better bikes.
3. I will feel inadequate while waiting for the swim because everyone else will be wearing a wet suit and I will have on shorts and a tank.
4. I will panic and nearly drown during the swim.
5. I will swim off course and have to make my way back to a buoy thereby adding unnecessary distance to my race.
6. I will be disoriented while running into Transition #1.
7. I will be passed by far too many people on the bike course.
8. I will nearly (or definitely) fall unclipping my shoes from my bike.
9. It will be impossible to get my legs to move coming out of Transition #2.
10. I will be passed by far too many people on the run.
11. I will finish with a smile and a sense of accomplishment that I have not felt for a very long time.
12. I will wear my finishers medal with extreme pride.

If #'s 1-10 are what I need to get through to get to #11-12, I'll take it all!

Power of an egg

I have struggled for a very long time with finding a healthy breakfast that keeps me satisfied until lunch time.  I love oatmeal and I can eat it without adding much to it to keep the calories down.  I just throw a few raisins in it and that's all I need, but even with just 1/8 cup of raisins, a 6 oz serving of oatmeal was coming out to cost me FIVE points on Weight Watchers.  Plus, by 11am or even earlier, I was starving again.  I discovered that the little food shop near my office sells single peeled hard boiled eggs, so one day I decided to try one.  I had my oatmeal (with raisins) and the egg.  Now I was up to SEVEN points, which was far far too much for breakfast, but the meal kept the hunger pangs away much longer.  I was happy with what the food was doing for me, but unhappy with how many of my precious points I was using for this one meal.  Recently I've decided to ditch the oatmeal and add in a cup of grapes and banana (both ZERO points!) along with the egg.  This plan has been working, plus I'm only using the TWO points from the egg, which allows me to have more points available for later meals and an afternoon snack.  AND I am getting two servings of fruit/veg out of the way first thing in the morning!  That egg is powerful, plus tastes oh-so-good!

Breathe

I'm not very good at breathing.  I'm not good at it when I am swimming.  Not good at it when I am running.  I'm not even very good at it when I am sitting still.  I hold my breath a lot.  I suspected this was a problem whenever I attended yoga classes in the past and my breathing never matched up with the slow relaxed breaths the instructor demonstrated.  I tried, but I could never regulate my breathing.  I'm guessing swimming is more than 50% about the breathing.  I'm trying, I really am, but every once and a while I panic mid stroke and suck in a mouth/nose full of water.  I am improving though.  My swimming instructor gave me some exercises and some really great tips on Tuesday and I put them into practice today.  One thing I'd really like to work on is counting my laps!  I'm paying so much attention to my stroke, my breathing and to not swimming into my lane partner that I have so far failed to gather any sense of how much or how far I am swimming.  I need to swim with coins in my pocket and leave one at the end of the lane when I've finished 50 yards, haha.  Right, because I need to carry that extra weight with me!

Speaking of lane partners, I've had the same one - a cute boy - for the past two Thursdays: my husband!  We use our lunch hour to share a lane and I have to say it has been the highlight of my past 2 weeks.  :-)