Heat Wave!

OK, 2 blog posts in one day? Well, it needs to be of some significance to do this...but in Minnesota when the thermometer hits 46 degrees??? You need to stop the presses!

So what does 46 degrees + Lake Harriet + 2 Lake Calhouns equal? A great 10 mile run outside! 

Noelle and I headed to the lakes to get in our long run for the weekend, which was a great escape from the dreadmill. Lots of people were out in full force at the lakes - definitely a great day to get outside! Now if only the rest of the winter would cooperate (preferably on Saturdays when it's our long run days)...

Go Stacy!

I had dinner last night with Mom & Dad - a little post-birthday get together due to my crazy schedule. I figured my carb cutting diet could start today, so mom and I shared a pizza at Boston's. Yum!

During dinner, Mom had mentioned that Stacy (my sister -in-law) is doing really well in her training. Stacy has been a great cheerleader for me and Pink Lightning in several of my races (including Chicago). I think she caught the bug and she signed up for her first triathlon this summer at Minneman. She is going to have so much fun at this race. I cannot wait to be there with her to race and to help her train when the weather gets nicer. Go Stacy!!!

Meet The Trainer Day...

This morning was an early one to meet Nicole, my trainer. We are on a monthly regimen where I get my weight lifting routines, we address my diet (remember 6 meals a day that started a month ago?), and do monthly measurements (Yuck).

I was a little apprehensive for this month's measurements. I was doing very well on the 6 meal a day plan up until the last two weekends outta town. After returning from Reno, I think all progress I had made (scale-wise) was wiped away and then some! Progressing back to normal still, but may take a few more days to get over the vacation road-block.

Needless to say, most of my measurements were down (which is good!) except for my thigh measurement that skyrocketed! Nicole could barely put the calipers on my leg due to a bit of lactic acid buildup from yesterday's workout making them literally swollen. I thought that was a bit humorous. I didn't get my final body fat % from the measurements, due to her computer being down (she's gonna email me it when she gets her software back up), but we estimated that I'm probably down 1-2% body fat this month (goal is to be down 6% by race season). Good progress.

This month, new workouts to play with and the diet gets some shaking up on a week-by-week basis. This week, carbs get cut back a little bit. This is gonna suck. If I'm crabby or sleeping this week...you'll know why.

A Sign Of Things To Come?

So dad found a picture from the old albums last week of me 'back in the day' with my first 'big girl' bike... It's not hard to believe that the bike was pink. Duh. But check out the name of the bike - Sweet Thunder! I almost died laughing when I saw that.

Who would have thought that years (many years) later I'd be riding "Pink Lightning" in all my races and training for an Ironman? Kind of ironic.

Tonight I ran for the first time with run club outside for a looonnngggg time. And due to the icy conditions, I proceeded to bite it at the first corner on a patch of ice. Luckily, no major damage... just a sore, stiff neck is all I can tell right now. Then after the run, I went and swam with the tri swim group again. All went well, except for the gallon of water I inhaled coming off the wall on the breaststroke due to an incoming wave. I think I coughed for the rest of the hour trying to get all that water out of my lungs. Aughh. Oh well....gotta love swimming!

Reno Recap...

Well, we landed in MSP this morning at 6:00 AM to -6 below temps! Gotta love Minnesota! This weekend was a fun trip, here's a little top ten recap:

1. Spent quite a few hours in the hotel gym, being a good little future-Ironman. Totals: Ran 10 miles on super bad treadmills, lifted twice, and did a 2 hour spin session.

2. Took in a massage and a pedicure on my birthday. My 3 yr old Niece in Alaska was busy hunting me down in Reno and had a gift certificate delivered to my hotel for my pedicure. She must read my blogs...and knew my feet were bad!

3. Looked around the Safari Club International convention - tried to keep the boys in line. I think they are talking smack about an Australia hunt in 2010 - which is fine by me (my dream vacation)!

4. Jake almost won me a rabbit/coyote fur coat on a silent auction - so close! Can we say, pretty much every female at this gig had some sort of fur on? Interesting crowd.

5. Made donations to the casino, but... Sunday killing time at a slot machine at a bar. I hit $140 on a dollar Keno game! 7 outta 10 hit. Can you say, "Cash out?" (I was the big winner of us all)

6. Had fun at a 'dueling piano bar' for a couple nights - was the place to be. They sang Cecelia to me on my birthday.

7. Met John Michael Montgomery - who sang a concert at the dinner/auction we went to on Friday night. Oh those songs took me back to C-town, back in the day!

8. Read an entire book in about 1 day flat: Michael Phelps, No Limits. Great book, I highly recommend it.9. Drank some sort of formerly banned licorice-flavored alcohol drink called absinthe. Recently legalized in 2007...was used by poets and artists (Van Gogh) and was said to be hallucinogenic with a super high alcohol proof. I didn't hallucinate - but I only had 1/3 of a glass (shared with Jake and Cory)...maybe next time.

10. Had a great dinner on my birthday and got to spend 'quality time' with my hubby all weekend!

Getting Ready For Vacation?

So, does it always seem that in order to take vacation, you have to cram in all the stuff that you will be 'missing' in the 1-2 days before you leave? Or is it just me? I'm thinking that I need to log off for the night and start 'er up again in the morning. I'm going cross-eyed trying to write up these specs.

Jake and I are heading to Reno on Thursday for a Safari Club International convention that he is going to be working a booth for our "South African" friends over the weekend. I am tagging along to take a few days off over my birthday weekend, just because I can.

Current plans for myself include lots of time at the hotel gym (gotta get my workouts in still), an appointment on my birthday at the spa for a massage, time to read (for pleasure!), and who knows what else...oh a manicure/pedicure might be nice! We shall see. But for now, it's upstairs to start some packing. No idea what to pack...good deal I did laundry yesterday.

Weekend in Crosslake

Just got back from up North at our company's yearly kick-off weekend in Crosslake. Jake and I went up Friday, which included a pub-crawl around to the local establishments in the area. I think we crawled back to our rooms around 4:00 AM, so was a pretty late night (but typical for this weekend).

On Saturday we had a 4 hour company meeting and Jake got to go take a nap (he sucks!). Afterwards, we all met up again and had a wine tasting before the dinner, year end slide show and awards. I ended up receiving one of the year end awards that is given out to a handful of employees, called the President's Club. I got a great little trophy/award, extra lodge dollars for up in Crosslake, and we get a dinner at Manny's with all the President's Club recipients and spouses later on this year. 

After that, we went back to the bar where there was a band and hammerschlagen...which is a game where you try to hit nails into a log - first one to get your nail flush - wins the money in the pot. (Can you say Minnesotans are a bit strange?)

Today we headed back home and picked up Ruffles and Mom & Dad's - now maybe a little cat-nap before heading to the gym tonight to make up for lost workouts from this weekend. Not looking forward to that, but has to be done. Right? And another week begins...

Oh Yes! They Are Mine!

My Zipps came today in the mail! Luv Em! Minor annoyance is that there are some extra 'stickers' for this race shop on the rims that I may have to try to soak/remove (very carefully!)- but other than that no major issues with the look of 'em. Now, we'll have to see how they run this spring when we get 'em out on the road on Pink Lightning! Yeah!!!

First Day Back In the Pool...

Yesterday I did my first day back into any type of body of water since I exited the swim in Lake Michigan (Chicago) back in August. Needless to say, it's been a while. I started the evening out with weights and a broken 3 mile run at the gym. Then I left and went to meet a group at a community pool not far from my house that are actually a 'triathlon swimming' group. I was told of this group by Sara, a triathlete I met last season in some of my races that is also from Andover. She swam with these people and told me to try it out. So it did....ends up there are a few people in there training for IM Coeur d'Alene in June, as well as some Half IMers planning for Vegas in April.

Swim wasn't too bad - we did about 1700 yds in an hour session, with a lot of drill work and a few 100 and 50 sets to get some baseline interval times. I can definitely tell that I am rusty. But all-in-all, was in one of the faster lanes and keeping pace decently with the others who have been swimming for a while.

I think I'll try to continue to swim at least once a week with this group - for motivational purposes mostly. Swimming solo at the gym pool really sucks. And it is hard for Noelle and I to coordinate schedules to sync up consistently... so we shall see.

Got My Zipps!

Yesterday I got a great deal on those race wheels I've been whining about for months now. Zipp 808s (Clincher). I found a pair on eBay that was listed and contacted the seller to see if he would go lower than the minimum price he was asking. He said if they didn't sell - he'd take my lower offer. And.... they didn't sell!!! So, they should be in the mail today and coming home to meet Pink Lightning! Am so excited!

Training Plans a Plenty

Today I spent most of the day kicking this cold on the couch with my training books sprawled about me and Ruffles napping on the ottoman at my feet. Was quite the task, but I think I'm about 80% there - at least I have things lined up for January through the Half Ironman in June and am pretty close with the remaining weeks of the summer up to the big day. I think I need fresh eyes on the plan tomorrow, cross reference my books/plans I have, and maybe some QA from my Ironman-friend veterans as the season evolves to make sure I'm on track. But it looks like I'm gonna be a busy girl...

Home From Work...

All week, I've been feeling something coming on - but wasn't sure if it was the 80 degree temps that the office I've been working in or my actual body temp. I was feeling pretty woozy last night spinning, so I decided to take 'er a bit easy today and do a partial sick day from work. (Partial = I have a conference call and some documents to review...but can be done from the couch). Note: I don't feel as bad as the picture - just thought it was cute (don't worry mom!).

So this weekend is probably hanging low and finalizing up some of my training plans while I'm on the couch. That seems like a good use of my time...

Vikes will get to the Super Bowl when Pigs Fly!

OK, so the Vikings didn't let me down... as I had no hopes for them anyways. It is far better for them to get knocked out in the first round of the playoffs then make it 2-3 games in (remember 1998-99 season? Aughhh!!!!)

We picked up our South African friends at the airport and promptly introduced them to "real" Minnesota. We went downtown to see if we couldn't nab some cheap tickets for the game off the street. (it was pretty chilly out and I thought those two were gonna shrivel up and die right there!) After failed efforts (people still selling seats for $150 a pop) we decided to hop the train down to Sneaky Pete's and watch the game at a sports bar instead. It was fun, and the crowd was rowdy - so we got to introduce MN football to these two rugby fans.

Now to the flying pig part of my blog title... I signed up today for the Cincinnati marathon called the Flying Pig marathon. Cindy and Noelle and I are heading out there the beginning of May to get into our race schedules. Should be fun... but training for it starts shortly!

Today marked the first official day of my training diet too - I'm on par for meal #4 (or is it #5?) in about 15 minutes. I have to set reminders in my Outlook to remind me. I'm sure I'll have more to say about this new diet by the end of the week. Ha ha!

House Guests & Vikings

Today Gerard and Linda get in and are staying with us for a week. Gerard is the guy we stayed with in South Africa in 2007 and Jake went again in 2008. We plan to pick them up at the airport in a few hours and then attempt to go down to the dome and see if we cannot find some decently priced tickets to the Vikings playoff game. Otherwise, we'll be heading to a sports bar to watch (are they blacked out?... haven't heard the verdict yet). As always the pessimist with these guys, I hope they prove me wrong and move along in the playoffs. I doubt they will. :)

Yesterday I had lunch with Cindy & Noelle to wish Cindy good luck on her first marathon coming up in a little over a week out in California. She's gonna rock. Was good to see them again, has been a while since we've all hung out. At lunch we also did some planning for summer races and training weekends, which was good. I think I have most of my stuff all planned out now. We shall see.

Happy New Year!

Last night, Jake and I went over to a NYE party at Jerel & Andy's. We had a good time hanging out, playing Wii and Rock Band, Golden Tee, and doing stupid dog tricks with the pugs. I hope they don't get sick from all the peanuts I fed them! It turns out I'm quite the Wii drummer....who knew? (We'll definitely say that I'm not going to go into the singer business anytime soon for that game...pretty bad! Right Noelle?)

Today, however, starts the new year. As promised, my New Years resolutions...which seem pretty similiar to Cindy's that I just read on her blog (funny how that happens!).

1. Try to spend more time with my husband (which I'm told is going to be quite the task in the coming 8 months, from Ironman veterans)
2. Drink more water!
3. Get more sleep...zzzz (or figure out how to get more sleep when I lay in bed wide awake)
4. Train safe and avoid injury this season
5. Finish my Ironman - just get my butt over that finish line in under the time limit
6. Do more planning to avoid stress (I know, doesn't seem possible for me to do more planning, does it?)
7. Learn to say 'No' more (up until Sept)

Hope everyone has a great new year!!!