Where'd she go?

Where am I?  I'm over here.  I've been struggling with just plain life.  Nothing earth shattering or worthy of this slacking but just the daily grind.  I can't seem to find any motivation whatsoever to get out the door and train or read twitter or even read blogs which is where I get most of my mojo from.  I just feel exhausted all the time. 

wahhhh wahhhhh wahhhhh

I'll be back.. sooner rather than later I hope. 

PS - I got my tattoo done and holy crap it HURT!  In fact days later, it STILL hurts and now it's starting to get itchy.  I'm sure it doesn't help that it's the size of a Toyota..  mid life crisis much?

Here is a tattoo pic for those that don't have twitter. :-) 

is this thing on?

Just a quick test of my running route from Saturday to see if this works.  John told me how to embed the pic into my blog but this is the same "IT" guy that barely figured out how to put a counter in his blog. (hahaha)




No laughing at how slow I am.  On Saturday I actually ran alot more than i normally do atlhough my time never seems to get any better.   

Hi my name is John and I'm a.....

Last night I headed over to Millcroft Wellness and Fitness where Coach Nancy and Janicke were hosting the orientation meeting for the Musselman half iron training program.  About 16 people or so showed up to hear about the program and there were a few of the superstars from my Mommies in Motion group.  It was really nice to see the ladies, it's been a while since I'd seen some of them.   There was a guest appearance by none other than John and his awesome wife Mrs. LOTC and even Daryl from twitter was there!  The session was informative, a little about the race and how for the swim you end up swimming in a canal for the last half of the swim and the current helps you finish, I LOVED that part.  Of course they went around the room and we had to say a little about ourselves.  Obviously John was the life of the party and started out by saying "Hi my name is John and I'm a mountainbiker", like we were in a self help group or something, and it went downhill from there.  JUST KIDDING, he was really really funny.  He mentioned that he trained for the Muskoka 70.3 by doing ALOT of mountain biking and a little running so I was a bit alarmed when Nancy kept referencing his race and training.. what part of "he didn't really train did you miss"? lmao  I can't wait to see how this year's training goes for him (JPO).  Aside from the coaches he was one of the more experienced guys in the group and provided MUCH entertainment.  I confessed that I was doing it for the tattoo.

After the meeting we went for drinks, apparently these triathletes aren't much into drinking, maybe we need Bryan to join the group and liven it up?  I had a really good time chatting with the Procs and getting to know them better.  And while John may appear to be a really nice guy because he paid for my drinks he still won't buy his long suffering amazing wife a bike.  I'm determined to find a way to convince him to get her a new bike this year, there has to be a bribe out there somewhere!

So after loads of laughing a few laughs and some #trashtalk about Rodney we called it a night.

8km run on deck for me today, that will be over by 11:00am and then I have the rest of the day to myself. I have a free spin class (thank you Janicke) on Sunday as well and I'll need to fit some strength training in there too.

I wanted to mention that I got my postcard from Kona (that was actually mailed from Burlington) that contained the seekrit message only meant for those that bought him beer by contributing to the TPPF.  I can't tell you what the message is but I've put the card up on my fridge next to my training plan for the month for motivation. Thanks Bryan!!

One final interesting fact, my last blog about reorganizing my triathlon clothes got more hits than any other one I've written.. I'm not sure what that says about you guys....

That's all I got.

Sort of...

Well after pretty close to a perfect weekend I am happy to report:
MASS shopping spree - check!
8km run - check!
15km recovery cycle - check!

When I first met the woman from TCOB (who just finished Kona not far behind Bryan I might add) we were talking about biking and she mentioned that she would come biking with me as she needed to 'spin her legs' and do some recovery after riding 180kms for training that day.  In the past, from this coach potato,  I had never heard anything so ridiculous. I would pretty much pat myself on the back for getting off the coach to walk to the fridge after walking to the store.  After my run on Saturday which was my longest run to date, double my usual mileage, my legs were toast.  My quads were a burning mess, my shins a disaster, my hamstrings refused to speak to me and my knees were bulging out of their sockets and I never knew I had hip flexors until they were screaming at me while I was sitting down, WTF!! So on Sunday my coach had advised rather than do the tri training with the group I should do a recovery bike ride and 'spin my legs'.  After some coffee and a GU gel, because I wasn't feeling very breakfasty I headed out, well hobbled out the front door with George in tow.   I did 15km  ride along the lake and it was absolutely gorgeous.  While my legs still hurt they did start to feel better.  I got home and the hobble was gone and I was feeling amazing!  That is until I realized that I had about 5 loads of laundry to do, the machines are downstairs, the dirty clothes were upstairs and stairs still kinda hurt.  But I get it, I see how this recovery stuff works now.

Today after work I had last minute dinner plans which I had totally forgotten about and then I had to make some stops on the way home so tonight became an unplanned rest day that I am swapping for Friday so I thought I'd do some dresser drawer rearranging.  I am starting to get more training clothes and gear and gadgets and I can never remember where the heck anything is so I decided to organize!  The only question, sort by sport or sort by type of clothing (shirts, shorts, pants)?  After some deliberation I decided I would sort by sport, a running drawer, a cycling drawer and an odds and ends (socks, RUNderwear, gadget) drawer!  I also realized that while I will often wear running shirts cycling I never wear cycling shirts running, is that weird?   So there you have it, I'm all sorted and organized and I know wear my Garmin chest strap is (right this minute).  #WIN!  And oh my gawd when did I become THIS person, THIS person that is getting excited about sport focused drawers??  Remember when I used to post about fun stuff like friends throwing TVs at my feet?  oh the good ol' days!   or how about when my friends almost burned down my house?  What happened to THAT girl huh?

And no I'm not telling you how slow my run was, trust me it was SLOW.  I can say the first half was much better than the second half but I have absolutely no clue how on earth I'll ever be able to do a half marathon in February.  It feels like an impossibility now but talk to me after my next 8km run this coming weekend.

That's all I got!
Whoops, I lied, I wanted to mention that I met the coolest lady Pamela at the lake after I finished my ride.  She came over to check out George as I was putting him back in the rack and we got to chatting and she's a triathlete with a super cool TREK bike with the tires that cost twice what my bike costs and she was really sweet and we chatted for ages. I want to be just like her one day.  She was going out to Grimsby or thereabouts for a nice afternoon ride, maybe do 70 or 80km.  Nice job Pamela, you rock!!!!!

Shopaholic?

I JUST posted this entry and my internet died.  I'm NOT happy about that.. argh!  Sooooo what I think I was saying was that all my life I would join a sport or start a hobby and buy ALL the gear.  In fact alot of the time I couldn't start unless I had absolutely everything I needed and within 2 weeks or a month I'd be bored and the 'stuff' would there just sit taking up space.

Triathlons seem to be a different story.  I just got back from Foottools, my local running shop and they are having a blow out sale!  I got alot of stuff, two pairs of shoes, more on that later, long sleeve shirt for when it gets chilly, long pants, new socks, hair buff and running underwear.. seriously.. "runderwear?" ok I admit I think I got a bit caught up in the whole shopping/sale part.  But I'm excited to have some clothes so I can keep running outside as it gets cooler.  I used to be a treadmill only girl but I am converted now, I dread the day I have to run on the treadmill again.

I got home and went to put away my shoes and realized I own 6 pairs of running shoes.. SIX pairs and they were all bought for running but each have their own purpose now.

Saucony - I bought these to run in years ago but hello shin splints, so these are my everyday shoes
Mizuno - these were my first real running shoes that were comfortable.  I only use them for running, they still have some cushion in them and I love them so!!!  I will soon move these down to my everyday shoes.
Nike Free - I bought  these to run in but I like more cushioning so I use these for lifting weights (squats, lunges, deadlifts etc), because they are so flat it's almost like lifting in bare feet and I feel much more stable.
Nike - these were a huge mistake purchse.  I bought them cause they were cute but no human could run in these so I only wear them for short periods of time.  They are white and pink and adorable!!
Brooks Infinity, my new shoes!! Got these today for a STEAL!!  MORE than half off!  Paula advised to use these for regular running with the group and my shorter runs.
Mizuno Alchemy, oh my god these are heaven!!  and I got these for a STEAL as well.  I should use these on my long runs.  Saturdays are my long run days so after breaking them in I'll be calling them my Saturday shoes.

The Brooks and Mizuno make it official. I'm a runner.  Not a fast runner but I run..  It's pretty cool to go out and buy all this stuff knowing it will get used, and then overused and that I'll have to replace it sooner rather than later.  I've come a LONG way.

It's great that John and Paula are part of my Tuesday running group, they have seen my running (or attempt at it, haha).  They are super helpful AND on top of the sale items I get a discount there because I work with Coach Nancy.

And on that note, me and my old Mizunos are heading out for our Saturday run, 8km, my longest yet.  It's going to take me a while but I have my Garmin, some tunes and I think I'm going to drive back down to the lake to run, it's much prettier down there.

That's all I got!  (I better press post before this dies again)