Well, the first month is done. Amazing how fast a month goes when you are training and working and working and training. It's like a day, maybe.
This will be short, but the things I have learned and/or remembered about endurance training are as follows:
1. Always pre-map your routes, especially when you move to an unknown area, so you don't bike/run twice the distance.
2. Buy more food/Bring more food
3. Alarm clocks suck anytime before 9am. This is 7 days a week when training
4. You chance of hitting/being attacked by wildlife greatly increases the earlier in the day or later in the evening you train
5. Always carry TP
6. Buy more food/Bring more food
7. You will be tired/hungry/awake/crazy from now until after the race is over. Then you will be even more tired/hungry/awake/crazy.
8. Race registrations cost a lot.
9. Handlebar tape will come undone when you are farthest from your car and/or a bike shop
10. Circle swimming=Thumbs down
11. Buy more food/Bring more food
12. People will wonder why you seem so awake and you will wonder how you are faking it so well
13. Find good running tunes and change them up often....Van Halen's "Why Can't This Be Love" is an awesome one....for now.
14. Sunscreen.
15. Buy more food/Bring more food.
Happy Training!!!
T-minus 17 months!!!!!!!!
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
The Well-Intentioned 4 Day Weekend Away....
Intentions. Good ones. I had them. I really did. Intentions to get my running in while I went to Montreal and Vermont last weekend for a friend's wedding. Guess how long that lasted?
Now I know I am not the only one who has done this....I hope, or I'm going to feel like a HUGE slacker. I even made room in my tiny carry-on (cause let's face it, I'm not paying $25 for a checked bag) for my running gear including hat, GPS (very useful in foreign country!), some gu's and my hand held water bottle! First morning there, even after drinking two bottles of wine the previous night (I'm on vacation and I shared so :P) I got my butt up and went running....Didn't set an alarm cause who cares when you're on vacation and the weather doesn't hit 100 by noon. It was a beautiful run in my most favorite kind of weather and it reminded me why I love to run. I love to run to burn off the drinking calories but I also actually love to run for that freedom in the cool weather....No, this feeling does not hit when it's 100 out and I actually despise anything in 100 degree weather besides sitting in a pool or the ocean.
Now we drove to the wedding site in Vermont 4 hours away and had a great mini road trip there. Hit the store, the hot tub, and then the family and friends pre-wedding gathering at the bonfire with S'mores. Oh, you must remember diet rules go out the window when on vacation. Even with the best of intentions I succumbed.
Wedding morning was suppose to be a 10 miler. Hurt my knee to the point where I couldn't actually bend it without pain and it wasn't form the IT band side. That was all the excuse I needed to not run the next morning...That and the other bottle of wine and some beer we had.
Wedding reception was a blast and included lots of beer.
Mini-road trip back to Montreal was a blast and when we got to Montreal it included lots of wine.
Next day in Montreal was amazing and included lots of wine and vodka. I did walk like 5-10 miles in the city so that has to count for something.
Now it's leaving day. Getting on a plane across the country for a 6-7 hour ride into the jet stream so I thought maybe, just maybe I should get my ass out of bed and do a little run. Managed to do two miles with sprint intervals. Not bad for a slacker who's done nothing but eat and drink her way around the Northeast the last 3 days.
I love mini vacations. Not only for the piece of mind and rejuvenation you get from being away from "the grind" but in seeing good friends, not being on any kind of schedule, and doing whatever you damn well please.
My travel bug came back full force and I almost cried when I had to get on the plane back to SoCal again. I have two parts of me and I still don't know which one will make me happiest. One wants to find a place to settle down and have a great house and the other, more likely the slightly louder one, wants to forget everything and just go travel and see that big bright world. There is a lot in it and my spirit is called to see it more times than I'm prepared for.
Back to the grind....training, working, but keeping my wandering soul free to allow me to see any new opportunities that come my way....
Now I know I am not the only one who has done this....I hope, or I'm going to feel like a HUGE slacker. I even made room in my tiny carry-on (cause let's face it, I'm not paying $25 for a checked bag) for my running gear including hat, GPS (very useful in foreign country!), some gu's and my hand held water bottle! First morning there, even after drinking two bottles of wine the previous night (I'm on vacation and I shared so :P) I got my butt up and went running....Didn't set an alarm cause who cares when you're on vacation and the weather doesn't hit 100 by noon. It was a beautiful run in my most favorite kind of weather and it reminded me why I love to run. I love to run to burn off the drinking calories but I also actually love to run for that freedom in the cool weather....No, this feeling does not hit when it's 100 out and I actually despise anything in 100 degree weather besides sitting in a pool or the ocean.
Now we drove to the wedding site in Vermont 4 hours away and had a great mini road trip there. Hit the store, the hot tub, and then the family and friends pre-wedding gathering at the bonfire with S'mores. Oh, you must remember diet rules go out the window when on vacation. Even with the best of intentions I succumbed.
Wedding morning was suppose to be a 10 miler. Hurt my knee to the point where I couldn't actually bend it without pain and it wasn't form the IT band side. That was all the excuse I needed to not run the next morning...That and the other bottle of wine and some beer we had.
Wedding reception was a blast and included lots of beer.
Mini-road trip back to Montreal was a blast and when we got to Montreal it included lots of wine.
Next day in Montreal was amazing and included lots of wine and vodka. I did walk like 5-10 miles in the city so that has to count for something.
Now it's leaving day. Getting on a plane across the country for a 6-7 hour ride into the jet stream so I thought maybe, just maybe I should get my ass out of bed and do a little run. Managed to do two miles with sprint intervals. Not bad for a slacker who's done nothing but eat and drink her way around the Northeast the last 3 days.
I love mini vacations. Not only for the piece of mind and rejuvenation you get from being away from "the grind" but in seeing good friends, not being on any kind of schedule, and doing whatever you damn well please.
My travel bug came back full force and I almost cried when I had to get on the plane back to SoCal again. I have two parts of me and I still don't know which one will make me happiest. One wants to find a place to settle down and have a great house and the other, more likely the slightly louder one, wants to forget everything and just go travel and see that big bright world. There is a lot in it and my spirit is called to see it more times than I'm prepared for.
Back to the grind....training, working, but keeping my wandering soul free to allow me to see any new opportunities that come my way....
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