Not bad for a sick day...

So....being the new triathlete self that I am these days, by about 2:45 I was bored of being sick, and I was feeling somewhat better...I was at least able to eat lunch and not feel nauseous after, so I took that as an improvement. Judging by the length of this sickness and how I felt, I would say it was a minor case of the 24 hour bug. Anywho, back to 2:45, I was bored with being sick, so I decided I would go running and see how I felt. I was feeling ok, but felt weak, probably since I haven't been eating too much the past day or two. I decided I would run the flats and the downhills and I would walk the uphills. This worked well, and I ran the 5k course I have been running lately in 38 minutes. This is not bad at all considering I probably ended up walking about a mile of it. My walk was very slow too, It was by no means a power walk! Haha. Anyway, time to go relax now.

sick day!

I stayed home from work today. After feeling really nauseous and sick all day yesterday, and not falling asleep until really late because of it, I just decided why torture myself and pop pepto bismol just to get through work when I still have about 5 sick days left for the year? So, I stayed home. I ate a yogurt when I first woke up around 7, then started feeling nauseous again so I went back to bed. I slept until 10, woke up, and felt hungry. I ate an english muffin with peanut butter...felt ok, still kind hungry, so I ate a banana. That was about 20 minutes ago and so far I feel ok..not nauseous yet. Let's hope I am getting better. I really dont want to miss another workout today, so I am hoping this was some sort of 24 hour virus and that I will keep feeling better as the day goes on.

Bryan posted something really inspiring today. His post is all about enjoying the experience of triathlon instead of thinking of the actual race as a destination. He talks about how when he was preparing for Ironman China, he didn't drink beer, he didn't eat crappy foods, he trained a ton, and then he had the worst race of his life because he got a virus/food poisoning and had to DNF. Then he trained for IMSG, and he drank beer, ate some crappy food, trained less and enjoyed the experience, and the race was amazing! He talks about how he feels like this was a good lesson for him to learn, because now he knows to enjoy the experience and not just think of the tri as a destination. If you want to check out his actual post, where this whole thing is written much better, check it out here: http://trainingpayne.blogspot.com. Bryan is probably going to start thinking I am stalking him because I keep mentioning him in my blog and saying to go read his post. I hope you don't mind Bryan, I just find your blog inspiring and want to share it!

Anyway, my plan for the day is to relax for a few more hours...see how I feel. Then if I feel ok I plan to either take a slow jog or slow bike ride. I also have aerobics tonight, so if I don't feel good enough to workout earlier, at least I will get some exercise in aerobics. Let's hope this goes as planned!

bummer....

So, I had to cancel my training session today. I just feel sick. My stomach has been bothering me since last night...I have been able to eat a little, but I pretty much feel constantly nauseous, and I didn't wanna toss my cookies in front of the trainer! Haha...but I was totally bummed that I couldn't train. I guess this will force me to take a day off this week though, as the rest of my week is pretty jam packed with exercise...tomorrow is either a bike or run and aerobics, friday is a long bike, saturday is early morning swim at walden pond, sunday is the MOM's run 5k road race....so I guess perhaps this is a good thing??

Eeek...I have to present tonight in class and I am FREAKING OUT...I have no clue what to say about this stupid paper I wrote. Ugh!

BRICKS!!

Well, the water boil order was finally lifted...yay for clean water! I mean come on...I live in Boston, I love that dirty water..haha...but clean water is nice! So, today was my first BRICK workout...it was awesome! Unfortunately I spent the ENTIRE afternoon after work online looking for bikes on craigs list...haha...so by the time I was ready to work out it was about 5:15 and as I was putting on my shorts the clouds rolled in and it started thundering. Sweet. So much for a nice outside brick workout. I was kind of dreading going to the gym, yesterday it was so hot in there and I was really looking forward to working out outside today. I guess that will teach me not to spend all afternoon searching craigslist :( But anyway, triathletes must persevere...so I headed to the gym to cycle and run on the machines.

I started feeling kind of nauseous when I was cycling..I ate a Luna bar about 20 minutes before the gym...not sure if this is the culprit or not, but I just kept on going, taking deep breaths whenever I felt nauseous. The ride was actually awesome despite feeling kind of sick the whole time. I was sweating like crazy, working my legs hard, but still keeping my heart rate totally aerobic. It was great! I rode 8 miles in 30 minutes...not bad for me.

Then I hopped off the bike and headed to the treadmill. I ran for 10 minutes like my training schedule said, then I walked for 20 minutes. I wasn't so nauseous anymore, but I was having stitches in my sides while I was running and walking. I don't know why, probably gas...haha...but I realized something while I was walking. My mentality has COMPLETELY changed. Two months ago I would have said "ugh, I don't feel good, I'm going home to nap." Tonight I said, "shut the hell up Lauren, a few cramps is not the end of the world, keep moving your ass!" It's pretty crazy that someone's mind can transform like that so quickly...pretty awesome too!

I also noticed how much my running ability has improved. I have gotten to the point where I can monitor myself while running. By that I mean that it used to be that when I was running, all I could think about was how much this sucked. I have noticed lately though that I am thinking about my heart rate...is it stil aerobic? Do I need to control my breathing? I'm also thinking about my form...are my shoulders relaxed? Am I trying to keep my feet hopping off the ground as quickly as possible? Am I "sticking my butt out" and relaxing my back? It's pretty neat to be able to think about all this stuff while running...definitely an improvement.

I also am able to push myself to run harder. Despite my cramps today I pushed myself to run a few intervals at 6.0 (which is the pace of a 10 minute mile...fast for me), and I ran the last 30 seconds at 6.2. I was proud of that.

During the walk I got super bored. My music just wasn't keeping me occupied, so I started playing with the incline on the treadmill, increasing it by .5 every 30 seconds. I got up to an incline of 9 before my time was up. It kept me occupied and gave my glutes a nice workout. This is another change in my psyche...the fact that I am bored walking is pretty cool.

My stomach is still not feeling perfect tonight...just kinda crampy, but I am proud of myself for still getting a hard workout in. I was soaked with sweat after my workout, and that felt damn good! Tomorrow I have personal training...yay!!

I am actually excited about a running race....

....which is weird since I usually hate running. I am actually enjoying running lately..well, not today because for some reason my legs felt like they had lead in them. I think it is from A) being tired because yesterday I put all three events together in a hard workout, and B) it was a billion degrees today and my body isn't used to the heat yet. Every step of my run today felt like I had to tell myself "step" "step" "step". Even just walking, which I eventually ended up doing, was hard. I just had no strength in my legs. I guess it's to be expected, I am training hard 6 days a week and yesterday was a super hard workout. I am really getting sick of this water boil order...it's just an extra problem to deal with. Making dinner tonight was difficult, and doing the dishes is even worse. Anywho, I'm tired tonight and I don't really feel like writing too much...more tomorrow!

I "tri"ed today!!

Ok, I know the "tri" jokes are getting old, but I just think it's hilarious...more proof of my turning into a complete dork. Haha. Anyway, I wanted to update about my early morning training this morning.

I took tylenol PM last night at around 8:30 because I didn't feel tired but I knew I needed some sleep if I was going to be able to drag my butt out of bed at 5:15. Well, in what seemed like 5 minutes, my alarm went off. Let's just say the tylenol PM was still pumping through my body...it was kind of a hazy wake up. After getting dressed and eating a bagel with PB, I headed out to Walden Pond. I brough along my bottled water, since I couldn't prepare my own bottled water because of the boil water order I just had to make sure the water bottle I bought fit in my cage on the bike. Luckily it did. I got to Walden around 6:30, thinking other people would be early to set up too. Turns out this wasn't the case.

I was the only one there for about 10 minutes, then this other guy came, and we chatted a bit while we waited. After driving around to about 3 different parking lots while adding more people to our group, we finally found the right parking lot and headed down to the swim start. Luckily the leader of the group, Barry, had an extra wetsuit that I managed to pull onto my body. Barry is much thinner than me, so it was kind of a struggle to get the suit on, but once it was on it felt very comfy, and it kept me warm on the swim so I was happy about that!

So after I got the suit on and had Ruben help me set out my transition area, Barry explained what we were going to do. He had set up bouys to make a short course...only about 200 yards. The plan was to do the swim three times...the first 2 would be practice and to get used to the cold water...the third was going to be the "real" thing...well, as real as you get when it's just practice.

We all put on our double layers of caps and headed into the water. Barry yelled go, and we all went running. This was my first mistake. I dove forward and started swimming. No sooner had I put my face in the water and taken 2 strokes than I started feeling like I was hyperventilating. I wasn't expecting this...when I swim in a pool I am completely calm, in fact I love the swim so much because I feel so relaxed during it. I knew open water swimming in a group would be different, but this scared me. I struggled through the first swim, stopping to tread water several times, and focusing much more on just breathing than on my stroke. I ended up near the back of the back, and when I climbed out of the water it took a few minutes to get my breathing back to normal. I talked to a couple people about this sensation, and the consensus was that this is normal, it happens to most people most of the time, and the cold water certainly doesn't help. It also didn't help that that was my first open water swim and my first time swimming in a wetsuit. Let me just say I am SO GLAD I had the chance to feel that before the race. I think I would have freaked out if that happened in a race and it had never happened before. Now I know to expect that feeling.

The second swim was a bit better. Some people gave me suggestions for things to do if I feel panicky or short of breath. They suggested rolling over on my side or back and looking at the clouds for a few strokes, this is supposed to be calming. They also said I should sight for 4 or so strokes, which is good to know, I was only sighting for 1 or 2 strokes. One person gave me the best suggestion, she said to go when I was ready. Since my goal in the triathlon is to finish, the 20 or 30 seconds I might wait while the pack thins out is not going to be a big deal. I did this on the second and third swims and it was much better. When Barry said we could go, I just kind of started to slowly wade into the water. I took a deep breath and then started swimming when most people had already gone and I felt comfortable. This was MUCH better. I still felt a bit panicky and short of breath, but I rolled to my side and looked up at the clouds, taking long, slow breaths and letting my stroke extend. This time I practiced taking my wetsuit down to my waist when coming out of the water. Getting it back on while still wet was NOT easy!!!

The third swim was great...I still had that nervous, panicky feeling a bit, but now I knew to expect it and I knew what to do about it. Just knowing that I could deal with it made it feel less scary. The swim was 200 yds....so about 600 yds all together.

I practiced everything I remembered from reading about the swim and I talked to myself (silently in my head! Don't worry, I'm not that crazy girl chatting with herself!) ....swim until your fingers brush the ground...pull on the neck of the wetsuit before standing up to let in water...stand up and start run/walking to the shore...while you walk/run, pull the cord on the wetsuit and start working your arms out and pull the suit down to your waist. Pull off goggles....pull off cap...run to T1 area and throw down goggles/cap. Pull off wetsuit (which, by the way is hard to do because when you come out of the water you are dizzy...so standing on one foot is NOT easy!)....throw wetsuit down (not on towel!)....step on towel to dry feet...grab other towel and quickly dry legs and body...pull on bike shorts....decide not to wear shirt, throw shirt on ground...pull on socks and shoes...tie shoes...put on helmet, decide not to wear sunglasses, take quick sip of gatorade....pull bike off rack and run up the HUGE hill to get to the road!

The bike was pretty good, it was challenging to get my heart rate down after running with my bike up the big hill to the road...we were down by the swimming area of the lake and there is a big ramp to take you up to the road...it was actually a relief to get on the bike and start pedaling, it felt at least like I could get in a rhythm then. The hills on the bike felt huge...and they really weren't huge..but I think that since my heartrate was so high to begin with and I had a little trouble bringing it back down, that the hills felt huge. Right before the turn around there was a huge downhill though, so that was really nice. I made sure to remember to drink water on the bike. Even though today's ride was short, and I would have been fine even if I hadn't had anything to drink the whole time, I want to get in the habit of drinking while I'm riding so when the real thing comes I will be ready. The bike was about 5 miles.

I hopped off the bike at the bottom of the hill, where Barry had drawn a dismount line. This is really important because in the real tri, if you pass the dismout line while still on your bike you can be disqualified. I jogged/tripped/shuffled my bike over to the rack and started T2.

T2 was super quick..I racked my bike...took off helmet....sip of gatorade...grab my visor, and I was off....I jogged/walked up the huge hill again to the road, and then started jogging off on the run. I put my visor on while I was running to save a little time. The run was hard...even though it was only 1 mile. I got a cramp in my right side again...I don't know what is causing this, but it has happened in the same spot the last 2 times I have run...not fun! Anyway, I walked a few times...but only 5-6 steps each time....I think it was the slowest mile I have ever run...it took me about 16 minutes, but that's ok, I finished it and that was my goal. I felt so good when I ran back down that bastard of a hill and into the transition area. Everyone in the group was so supportive and they were all saying I did a great job. I felt awesome afterwards!

The whole thing was a great experience, and I am really looking forward to our training ride/social on Friday night. I'm really glad I joined this group. I am proud of myself for doing that today, because I haven't even done a brick workout yet. A brick is when you do two events or three events together...so far I have just been training each exercise separately...so it's pretty good that I put them all together and managed it without feeling too horrible!

I came home and took a nap....and now I am gonna put in my AC and then get to work on some homework and job search stuff. I think I need to go to the store too at some point...boo.

Contaminated water...and a practice Tri

Before I start talking about my training...let me just say I make a damn good date...I buy snacks at the movies...I let myself watch the movie without worrying about trying to hold my hand or makeout during the good parts...Don'tcha hate that?...and it wasn't awkward at the end of the night...I just took myself home :) Hahah..anyway...I stuck to my goal of getting up early this morning to go swimming...ok, so it wasn't THAT early, but 9:00 is early after being up past midnight on a hot date! So I got up, and went to the pool. I ended up doing my whole swim in the morning because I just didn't feel like going back later in the day...it was so beautiful I wanted to be outside. So I did my swim, and then I heard this guy in the next lane talking about something to do with triathlons...and seeing as I am now obsessed, I asked him what he was talking about....talk about nosy, huh!? Haha...he told me about this club online called meetup...its like an online place where you can join clubs for things you are interested in near you. The one that he was talking about was called Triumph Triathletes...and it's a place where triathletes near Boston talk and meet up to train together. I was super excited, so when I got home I joined the group! Turns out, tomorrow there is a training for the whole sprint triathlon experience at Walden Pond at 7 AM. We will practice swimming, transition 1, biking, transition 2, and running...so basically the whole tri. I might not do the swim if I can't find anyone to lend me a wetsuit, because the water in Walden is about 57-60F right now, which is waaaaayy too chilly for not having a wetsuit! But that's ok, if I don't swim I will still do the rest. It will be good experience to get up super early and go through the whole process. I'm pretty excited. Now let me move onto the not so exciting news...there was a huge water main break in Weston, and so all of the surrounding areas are in a boil order for their water because of possible contamination. Of course the water main broke around 11 this morning, and I heard about it around 4:30. This is after I had been drinking tons of tap water that I had packed in my water bottles for the day....awesome. Let's hope I don't get sick...that would just suck. I'm trying not to think about it...I'm trying to focus on the excitement for the practice tomorrow...and also I have been watching Bryan Payne on Ironman St. George everytime I was home today..now I'm excitedly watching the finish line because I saw that he passed the 20 mile point...so I think he should be crossing the line within the next hour or hour and a half! Exciting! Anyway...I'm gonna go pack my bag...then watch Bryan finish the IM and then head to bed!! I'll blog more tomorrow about how the practice went.