Trainer Day!

Met Nicole bright and early this morning for our monthly training session. This month was a nice little surprise - as the past 2 months I've held pretty steady on my measurements, etc.

I was down 5 lbs and 1% body fat this month....so was happy with those results. Additionally, my ab measurement is almost to the lowest that it's ever been - and we're talking bridal bootcamp time was when I hit my bottom for that guy - almost 4 years ago! Based on last year's measurements at this time, I'm down 2%. So still ahead of the game, in my opinion.

I'm still aiming for dropping another 3-4% body fat by the start of race season / early summer. That would get me sitting pretty good for my heavy Ironman training and going into IM Wisc. My workout this month is focused on power. Short, heavy sets to focus on building up some explosiveness. We'll see how that goes.

LSD Run - Complete

I met up with Noelle today at the dam for our LSD (long slow distance) run for the weekend. I was hoping she would be able to run with me, as I decided to sleep a bit in this morning and do the run in the afternoon. So we ended up running 16 miles total - did 2, 8 mile out-and-backs, which ended up working out pretty well. Felt pretty good on the run, was a smidge chilly on parts of the trail when the wind picked up - but pretty decent out all-in-all. Am very happy all the snow and ice is gone, makes these runs much, much better. So glad it's done, though. Now, I'm heading down to uptown to have dinner and hang out with Heidi for the evening. It's 'girls' weekend, which has been few and far between lately with training. So will be fun.

Week 2 - AM Workouts

Today I got up bright & early to go swimming - AGAIN! That makes 2 weeks now that I have officially woken up and done morning laps. This might become a habit, I'm not terribly sure yet - but maybe. I still don't like mornings and I don't like getting ready at the gym. My hair always comes out frizzy. Oh well...

Had a good spin last night. Tried to keep up with Ironman Jim on the stairs and did alright for some of the set, then dropped off the last half of the set to get my back massaged by Suzie. Ahhhh...much needed. She's coming over on Sunday for another massage, so that is good.

One thing I hate about all this training? Clothes....specifically jeans. I had to try on 4 pairs of jeans last night to make sure I packed a pair that fit in my gym bag (because there is no going back to the closet when you are in the gym locker room, if something doesn't work so well). My jeans are all either too big/baggy/sloppy - or some are too tight in the thighs (Thanks Jonny J!) due to lovely spin workouts I've been putting these legs through. I cannot understand how there is not one pair of jeans in my stack that remotely fits me like they used to. Even last season! I think I just need to do some good Spring shopping - great excuse, right?

Nightmare on State Street

So, I'm hoping it was the Tylenol PM talking...but I woke up this morning from a nightmare regarding Ironman. I'm going to have to chalk this one up to my first panic attack (subliminally via dream). Will need to get that counter up on the blog here soon. Grrr...was hoping that may take longer to implement - but it's creeping up fast!

 

Anyways, I dreamt that I showed up for Ironman the morning of the race. I had my wetsuit on with a hole in the arm - it was terribly hard to put on and I think I had it on backwards even. I was trying to go through bags and totes of stuff that I got for the race, but couldn't find ANYTHING! Then I was getting wisked off to the swim start and I had no wrist band, no special needs bags set up, no nutrition, and no bike helmet or sunglasses! I had been absolutely unprepared and they were wisking me into the water in my tore up wetsuit! I think I ordered one of my friends to run down the street to the bike shop and buy me a helmet & sunglasses - was so completely insane! My alarm went off then and I had to get up. Needless to say, I will probably have some sort of project plan, itinerary, and lists galore when I do finally get to this race (as anyone who knows me....should expect nothing less). But this was sure a goofy dream.

Yum...Caffeine

No...it's not from Diet Coke! But I did consume my fair share of coffee today. With a crappy night of sleep under my belt, the typical morning thermos of coffee on my commute to work just wasn't enough. So I had to swing into Caribou before hitting the office for a large, light roast. Then, with the crappy, rainy weather out...at lunch I had 2-3 (small) cups of coffee with my salad. Then...around 2:30-3:00ish I was starting to crash - need one more cup of coffee from the break room. I don't know what got into me today!?!? Well, needless to say with this consumption under my belt, at spin tonight I was either going to have a good day - or a really bad day. Fortunately, it turned out to be a good one. I felt pretty strong holding most of our fairly long sets at close to 225-250 watts - consistently. Goal was not to dip below 200 during these 20-30 minute sets and I think I hit that pretty good. Must have been all the caffeine I consumed today! (Not to mention the Cafe Latte flavored Perpetuem that Ironman Jim let me try during class) Bring on the joe!

Ah...Saturday Runs

Last night, Jake and I went to a birthday party for a couple of his co-workers. I had a good time, tossing back a few Bud Light Limes. Yum!...but, had a long run in the AM - so had to be pretty good. Time flies.

So I got up at 6:00 AM and met up with Noelle at the dam at 6:30. I'm impressed I got there on time and not feeling too bad (according to Jake's PBT, I was at a .109 last night. Good thing I wasn't driving! ha ha). So, we proceeded to run - went all the way out to Elm Creek and back and then did a little loop around the center for a total of 14 miles. I was supposed to do 15-16, but we decided that was close enough. Was nice to have the run done and over with early in the day.

Now, off to do a little work this afternoon and then Jake and I have a banquet tonight that we are going to with his Chief and wife.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Yesterday was SOOOO beautiful out! Mid-60s is something that I've totally missed. I cannot wait until this weather is here to stay. Not holding my breath just yet, though. I am a Minnesotan and I know how this state works. I had a great spin last night - we did some wattage sets with decent recovery sets in between. (I HATE it when we have only 30 seconds to catch our breath and then are expected to punch out another high wattage set like its nothin!) Motivational Ironman Jim got me up to 325 Watts on one of the last sets - which is crazy for me. Now if only I could hold that longer...will keep trying. 

Today, Ironman Jim and I went on a Shamrock shake run for work and hauled 16 McD's shakes back to the office. It took a little while for them to make them all up - but boy were they good! Yum! Was craving one of those since last night... Then I had class tonight over in St. Paul. Luckily it got out early so I had a bit of time at home tonight. Think I'll watch a little TV before hitting the hay.

Nutrition Seminar

Today, I met up with Noelle & Cindy in St. Paul at the P2 training facility that Noelle trains at. There was a 'Nutrition' seminar that was being put on, so Noelle invited us to attend with her. We got down there and I was introduced to the P2 coach and as I told him my name, he looked at me and said... "Jen Rehling, name sounds familiar...I'm pretty sure I've seen that in a few race results". So, that was nice to hear that my name is recognizable in our little 'triathlon' community. In the back of my head I was jokingly thinking..."yeah, probably in the 4th place slot!" ha ha!

 

So we listened to this Nutrition spheal for endurance athletes - was interesting, as the speaker was an Olympian at Beijing this year. I don't think there was anything earth-shattering that was presented (we've all heard most of this before). But is good to keep this in mind on a consistent basis during training, in my opinion.

Now it's back to school work for the evening, as I have a paper due on Tuesday that I should really get a crackin' on. Fun fun!

Blonde Moment

So, I like to think that I don't have too many of these...but had a total 'blonde moment' last night at spin. I went in early for Jonny J to put in my ceramic bearings on Pink Lightning. I got those all installed, got my bike all setup on the trainer and got ready to spin. I hopped on the bike and started pedaling and OMG! Boy did my cranks just fly! Felt like nothin! These bearings are sure worth it!

So I yell over to Jonny, "Hey, these things are AWESOME! I can't believe how smooth these are!!!" He looks over to me and then down to my trainer. "Jen, it might help to put some resistance on there..." He comes over, puts my resistance on. "Now try it". Well, needless to say - it was a bit harder to spin with the resistance in place. All-in-all the ceramics worked just fine last night - had a nice hard workout.

It will be interesting to see how everything flies when I can actually get the bike out on the open road this Spring. I guess first we need all this snow and ice to melt...which I'm not holding my breath on just yet.

Getting Ceramics Put in Tomorrow!

Well, been keeping up good with the workouts this week - since last week was a bit lax due to work constraints. I ran 5 miles last night and then did my weights. Tonight I plan to do another run on the dreadmill (run club is cancelled due to the cold weather) and then hop in the pool for a nice little swim.

Good news from the 'work' front - today I got 6 (count 'em...6!) requirements documents signed off (4 formally, 2 informally). This is huge on my task list, so feeling good about that.

Tomorrow I get my ceramic bearings put on my bike by Jonny J. Gotta get Pink Lightning all polished up tonight so he doesn't yell at me during this little maintenance project. Supposedly, by putting in ceramic bearings I will "immediately notice an increase in speed and smoothness". Or, according to Ironman Jim, it will at least give me some mental advantage - ha ha. I'll keep ya posted after the transition and see what they are all about. Maybe it will help my darn wattage spin workouts - Grrr... those are hard!

Great Tunes!

Yesterday I spent most of the day working (yeah, I know...what else is new?) but then got to the gym with my hubby in the evening. I had a really good workout and I'm attributing it to my newly downloaded songs on my iPod. I think I've been getting too used to my old songs, and now that I had a few new songs with great beats - I was just pumped up. Here are my notable songs on my new playlist that I'd highly recommend for workouts:

• Gives You Hell [All American Rejects] * my new fav song
• If U Seek Amy [Britney Spears] - no, I'm not a fan....but good beat
• My Life Would Suck Without You [Kelly Clarkson]
• Poker Face & Just Dance [Lady GaGa]
• Unbeautiful [Lesley Roy]
• Don't Trust Me [3OH!3]

After a quick run for warmup and my weight set, I hit the pool and had an awesome set (again attributing to my new playlist, as I was singing these songs to myself as I was doing my laps). I pulled out a set of 4 X 200s with some pretty decent splits for this time of year (averaging a 3:15), which I was not expecting since I've been a bit negligent in my swimming workouts the past 2 weeks:

• 1st 200: 3:18
• 2nd 200: 3:16
• 3rd 200: 3:14
• 4th 200: 3:12 *Hey! They all got faster....sweet!

Tonight is a spin night - so looking forward to that.

Watch for Ice!

Sorry, have been negligent in my blogging this week - been a smidge busy with work. Luckily it's a recovery week for me, so the couple workouts I had to 'miss', I'm going to forget for now. Last night I had another massage with Suzie, went pretty good - had to cringe a bit during some lower back work and of course my gluteus medius that has been acting up. Is starting to get better though, so that is good. 

 This morning I met Noelle at the dam an hour before run club to get in some miles (did 4 miles). There were a few 'ice patches' that I was not a fan of...and I had a few wobbles that I had to catch myself on. On our run back to pick up the run clubbers we had to 'skate' over an ice patch on the trail and Noelle decided to go 'wide' towards the ditch to get around the ice. Well, she broke through the ice and ended up getting her feet soaking wet! Luckily we only had a mile back to the car and she had an extra pair of socks and shoes that she slipped on for the rest of our run. I ended up running another 9 miles after that for a total of 13. Corrine only had to run 6 miles today but kept on for a bit longer to help me get mine in, which was great...then I don't have to try to get in a few more miles tomorrow. I was supposed to do 14 miles today, but in my book that's close enough. This run was a TON better than 'track & treadmill', however there was a bit of ice out there that I'm still leery of - so paranoid! Now, it's a day of laundry and work / homework. Story of my life!

Day with the trainer...

Met with Nicole (my trainer) this morning for my monthly workouts. Measurements were better this month than last... could actually get the calipers on my thigh since I didn't spin the night before (super hard). Am down for body fat by almost 1% and am told that I need to focus more on my 6 meal a day diet to get things cooking for next month's measurements. On a good note, I checked and am down almost 3% body fat from where I was last year at this time...so at least I have that going for me.

 

So now, it's getting more strict with the diet and keeping the weight training up as much as I can. Tonight I spin, which after this morning's workout....I'll definitely be tired.