Couch to 5k

One of the things I love most about running is how accessible it it. Coming out of a bit of a hiatus and getting back into lacing up running sneakers can be a challenge for anyone. But when you pair it with  a really great plan (like the Couch to 5k training plan) and a cheerful friend to join you, you're much more likely to set and complete a goal.

So, yeah...that's where I'm at today. My sister and I are on Week 2 of the Couch to 5k plan and I find myself back at the beginning. And loving it. 3 days a week - 25 minutes a day we meet up at a location near our homes and run/walk. The minutes tick off quickly as we chatter away and catch up and I manage the wrist stop watch while she manages keeping count of how many times we've run or walked.

We plan on signing up for a 5k near the end of Summer, beginning of Fall once we've completed the 9-10 week plan (we're doing Week 1 twice).

I refuse to feel the lurking shame of having to cancel the sprint tri I signed up for this past winter that occurs this month - due to not having trained properly for it. Or being back at the beginning of building muscle, ligaments and strong bones after having run a marathon just a year and a half ago. Or any of the other host of negative emotions/thoughts that can accompany returning to lacing up regularly. After all, what good can come of beating myself up about this? Other than feeling defeated and sad. Instead of strong, confidant and positive about being off and running again.

Here's to health, saying "no" to the couch and "yes" to another day to fill your lungs with air and exhaling slowly!

running again

went for a slow 2 mile run a couple days ago and a 3 mile run today. taking it easy and layering the runs in between strength training, icing the tibial tendonitis area on my left foot when needed, ibuprofen (also only when needed), swims at the Y & a handful of bike rides.

thankful to be running again. it's such an easy & fulfilling way to get exercise in - all while enjoying a bit of sunshine & fresh air.

so much of getting into my sneakers & out on a run or even in the pool, or clipping in for a bike ride for that matter, is mental. making the decision to work out. choosing to make the sacrifices necessary to squeeze in time for something that is good for me. working hard to overcome all the arguments that i don't have time, i'm not "up" for it, i'll do it later (that rarely happens), on and on it goes. sometimes i just have to start telling myself what to do "go get your sneakers on, girl. open the front door. go outside. do it now."

it reminds of of how i talk to my soul in the same fashion. david did it too in the psalms "why are you downcast within me, oh my soul? put your trust in God."

self-talk. the good kind. the kind that directs our hearts to a better place. to a place of trust in God's goodness.

because He is good. i felt it this morning on my run. wrapping up and heading home, the sun finally came out and shone directly on my face. ah, now that's reason enough to make the sacrifice to lace up and get off and running.

Fall!

It's Fall in NY! Okay, not technically until the autumnal equinox on September 22nd - but it sure feels like it's here already where I hang my hat.

Always really enjoy this time of year. The Fall colors painting themselves on the Adirondack, Bershire & Catskill mountains, cooler temps, apple picking, apple cider & cider doughnuts - c'mon, no matter how healthy you're trying to be - you've GOT to have at least one cider doughnut this year. Doctors orders.

Personally also feeling gleeful about how much better my foot is feeling and enjoying some saddle time lately.

I'm signed up (along with my daughter) to ride in an event to end child sex slavery & exploitation with Love 146 in Saratoga, NY on September 22nd. Going the distance (for me anyway) at 30 miles & Little-Miss-No-More-Training-Wheels is going the distance in the 1 mile Kids Ride.

Got in a couple rides last week and am up to about 20 miles. REALLY enjoying covering ground on the bike & working hills with a friend or family member in tow. Okay, maybe not completely loving the hills...but am definitely enjoying the overall experience of exercising in the cooler fall air, seeing the speed ramp up on my Garmin 210 as we pedal along and, my word, going downhill on a bike is ridiculously thrilling.

Look who's back in 2 matching shoes! 

My follow-up podiatry appointment today went great & the forced rest seemed to do the trick. I'm still limping around a little & my foot feels sore if I'm on my feet for too long, but at least I can get around without the aid of crutches or the dreaded boot. Woohoo!

I can continue to swim & was told I could do some light cycling as long as I keep my RPM's up there and cease if the pain returns. No running for awhile, but I can walk :)

If anyone in the Capital District needs a podiatrist, I highly recommend Dr. Ginsburg & Dr. Mason . They're sports medicine focused & excellent.

forced rest

Got the boot (literally) from my podiatrist.

That nagging foot pain that came and went through the last 5 months turned out to be an overuse injury/stress fracture.

No biking or running for awhile, but I can swim. Thankful for that...

Back to the doctor in 2 weeks and we'll see where this goes from there. Hoping for a quick recovery.

Musselman Race Report

Short version: Dad & I finished our first triathlon! We swam .5 mile, biked 16 miles, ran a 5k and crossed the finish line together with huge smiles on our faces. Our total time spent racing and in the 2 transition periods was 2 hours 49 minutes & 24 seconds. We cracked our goal of finishing in under 3 hours and since this was our first sprint tri, we both set a personal best. :)

Swim = 21.50 

T1 = 11:03

Bike = 1:24:43

T2 = 9:09

Run = 42.39

Total = 2:49:24

Long version: Sam, the kids & I packed up and headed out to Geneva on Friday afternoon. Had a plan to stay at a hotel that night, race on Saturday & camp on Saturday night so we could be in town to see my brother & sister in law race in the Musselman half ironman on Sunday. The kids were excited to see their cousins, stay in a hotel, go swimming & listen to books on CD for as much as possible for the 3+ hours on the road. Pulled into town and checked into the hotel. Got the kids & all our luggage settled into our room (including the bike). There were a LOT of athletes & their families in town for the weekend. I loved how friendly, upbeat, healthy & excited everyone was for a race weekend! Such a great environment...

After we were settled in somewhat, I met up with Dad and we did a short bike ride down to the swim start. The ride took us along a pathway right from the hotel where we were staying that was right on Seneca Lake and down to where all the excitement of the start & finish of the race would be the next day. It was so beautiful. Hot, but the lake breezes felt great & it was nice to stretch our legs after the long car ride. Dad led the way & had a great feel for what the course would be on race day. He showed me the race start where we would get in and later on further along where we would get out of the water - EEK! - okay, now I was getting a little nervous! 

We biked back to the hotel & met up with my brother & sister in law & we all piled into Dad's car to get over to packet pickup. Okay, for the record...I love packet pickup! It's so exciting to finally get your bib number, all the goodies they hand out to the racers and The Race Shirt. Got through packet pickup and I looked around for a few more items I still needed for my bike (pump or co2, saddle bag to hold my bike tire tube & a second water bottle rack). The bike company that was to be set up at the expo wasn't there yet, so we decided to go find them. It was a great bike shop called Geneva Bike & I found all I needed there. Headed back to the hotel to find the rest of the family...my mom was there, my sister, Sarah, her husband, Kevin and their 4 kids, my sister, Rebekah & one of her daughters, my sister, Mary & her 2 children all the way from India! My friend & coworker, Sharon Strodl & her husband were due to arrive the next morning. Sharon's now raced with me in my first 10k, half marathon & now first tri. Wow! What are we doing next, Sharon?! ;-)

Had a great quiet time in the hotel room & ate a pre-race meal that Dad had put together of a yummy chicken macaroni salad, Ritz crackers, cheese & a Diet Coke. Repacked my transition bags all into one bag to bring to the race start in the morning. Got my bike all geared up and ready to go & laid out my clothes for the morning. Took a relaxing shower and rested up some before Sam & the kids got back from having pizza. Went down to the hotel pool with them for a bit to watch the kids swim & headed back up to the room around 10 to get ready for bed. Everyone else fell asleep and I lay there staring at the ceiling, going over details of the next day, thinking through all the conversations I'd had with my sisters & family that day, praying for folks who came to mind...this went on and on and on & I could not settle down to sleep. :-/ Got up and took a couple ibuprofen and finally fell asleep around 2am. 

6am. Got up & started trying to get down a banana, plain bagel & some greek yogurt with raspberries. It's hard to get food in your stomach that early when you're not used to it! But I knew I had to get it down. Those carbs & bit of protein were all I'd have in my system to get me through the whole race. Dad had written out a whole nutrition plan for us and he'd prepped my water bottles for me with an electrolyte mix that I added ice & water to that morning. Cliff Bloks were all stowed in the Bento bike bag. Sam got up and made some coffee in the hotel room coffee pot. I continued to get dressed quickly, eat slowly & we started waking up the kids. Katie popped up and said to me "How's my little athlete?" :) Ahahaha...made me smile and laugh. We picked up the room, packed up our bags and all herded down to the hotel lobby to meet Dad. Checked out of the hotel room, loaded up the car - my brother met us there and installed the 2nd water bottle rack & checked the pressure in my tires - they were low and he added some air. The plan was that if I blew a flat tire on the ride, Dad would change it for me. What a princess athlete I am, eh?! I should have super glued a tiara to the top of my bike helmet. 

We headed to the race start and parked. The sun was shining bright & average temp was about 78 degrees and climbing. Grabbed our bikes & bags and proceeded to find the transition area. Along the way, my brother was instructing us to find the body marking people and head straight to the transition area to get our bikes racked & our transition spots set up. The body marking people were basically a group of folks with indelible markers that wrote my race number on my left arm, left leg & my age on the left calf. Made our way to the transition area where Dad & I split up at this point. His number & transition spot were a ways from mine. I had trouble finding my transition spot. The numbers were all out of sequence. I found the place where my number should be in between 1581 & 1583 and proceeded to set up my area & rack my bike. Eventually a race official came along because someone questioned the numbers being out of order...the official went and checked and came back telling me and 2 other racers to move our bikes up and over 2 whole lanes. We were in the wrong spot! Yikes! I moved to the spot indicated and found my sticker with my number 1582 on it set up for a second time but this time in the right place. 

Dad came over at this point and we took our wet suits, caps, swim goggles & ear plugs over to the swim start. We were in Wave 7 and had red caps. All the waves of swimmers had different colored caps and were separated by age group. We were in the last wave because we had signed up as Novice. It was a great wave to be in! The race started and wave after wave entered the swim corral and entered the water. As we watched, we found our family & friends, chatted it up and tried to stay relaxed.

Finally our wave was called and off we went into the water! We picked our way carefully over the sharp mussels in the water and made our way to the buoys where our wave was being held. We had to tread water for a bit until our wave began. The countdown began and we were off! Swimming in our first tri! We had decided to each swim our own race & meet up in the transition area to begin the bike & run portion together. We swam straight into a canal and before I knew it I was passing the first buoy! woohoo! First hurdle done! The water was deep, murky and I could see lots of different types of things growing in the bottom of the lake. I tried not to think about all the episodes of Swamp People that Sam & I had been watching lately. :-/ And had to keep shaking seaweed off my arms, legs and even around my neck at different points. Was super thankful for the 2 open water swims I'd had with the Bethlehem Tri Club earlier that month...otherwise I would have been really freaking out at this point. I kept steady with my strokes and just tried to plow my way through the water and get that swim over with! I passed other swimmers and got kicked a couple times - kicked back and just kept going. Passed 2 more buoys and followed the kayakers directing us to turn left. Kept going straight and it felt like I was really flying. Tried to focus on the beaming sun as it glinted off my mirrored goggles, on the green treeline & blue blue sky...kept moving along and before I knew it, there was the turn off and a race volunteer telling me to keep swimming up to the end point and more volunteers telling me to follow the ledge up and out of the water, up a carpet and into the area where I would run into transition. It was done! The swim portion was over! I couldn't believe it. I was grinning from ear to ear and just so elated that the hardest part of the race was over for me. 

Headed into transition & stripped off my wet suit. Started to prep for the bike, took my bike off the rack & looked over to see my dad entering transition. He'd had a great swim also! We got ready and started out on the bike portion. Our family had cheered for us at every point along the way. Out of the water, into transition & now out of transition and out onto our bikes. We had the best cheering section ever! Mounted our bikes and the designated spot and started to make our way into the 16 mile course. Dad took the lead and I followed behind him. The route took us out onto the main highway out of town and we followed it out almost a full 8 miles. Up hills, down hills, through beautiful countryside, the lake views were amazing. I tried to get down my bottle of electrolytes, but by that time in the hot sun the liquid was very warm and did not taste good at all. I finished most of it and started in on my pack of Cliff Bloks followed by water. I tried to pace all this over the entire bike ride and maintain hydration. It was getting hot out! We reached the 1/2 mark and a volunteer called out to us "Welcome to the Fingerlakes!" Headed down to the lake and past more lovely farm land, took a right and headed back into town. I chattered away endlessly to my dad (I had him all to myself!) and we had a great time making our way through this adventure. A couple groups of spectators closer to town had cow bells and I would call out, "That's my dad up there! Isn't he great?!" and they would cheer louder and yell "Go Dad!!" The closer we got to town, the more spectators there were and the race support was awesome. We headed to the transition point yet again and there was our family. Woohoo! Changed out one last time and prepped for the run. Hit the port a john in transition and headed out for our 5k. One last sport! 2 done and 1 to go!

We carried water through the run and found a comfortable pace to stay at. We stayed at a good trot through the whole 5k. Towards the end, I started counting the lovely willow trees providing some shady spots along the path that were on our right near the lake and making up little songs about willow trees. Dad humored me by coming up with a few lines too and we definitely were getting to the bottom of our endurance levels near the end. Saw the tents come into view and the blue border finish line getting closer and closer. We grabbed hands, raised them high in the air and there it was...The Finish Line...cheering family & spectators - over the finish line we went! My son ran along with us yelling out "My mom's a triathlete!" over and over. So funny & awesome :)

It took me awhile to cool down & get my legs back under me. I was pretty dehydrated at this point and could feel my muscles starting to seize up. Much water, ice, a cool shower in the park bathrooms & some chocolate ice cream later...I was finally starting to feel like myself again. 

Recovery went well from that point on & I really had no major issues with recurring pain or injury afterward. My foot even feels great! Thankful for that... I was also super thankful when my loving husband decided to bail on the camping out adventure we had planned on for that night and sprang for air conditioning & a soft bed at a hotel that night instead. Boy, did we all sleep good that night! 

Woke up and headed back to the park the next morning to watch Jeremiah & Sara compete in the half Ironman. They both did amazing and it was a great race to watch. Super proud of both of them.

Home now and searching around for what's next on the horizon. Now that I have all the gear needed to do this sport and knowing how doable it all is, I want to get another race on the family calendar! I'm pretty sure Sam is getting ready to join me so that we can do this next race together. Right, babe? ;-)

Taper week

Thankful to have gotten in a couple open water swims at Warners Lake with the Bethlehem Tri Club & these guys over the last couple weeks. My brother is in the green cap and my dad is in the white cap.

Tapering down this week. Short swims, bikes, & runs with a rest day Thursday.

Also trying out a couple pieces of new gear this week. A new pair of Speedo Vanquisher goggles that Sam & the kids got me for my birthday, a couple articles of clothing & a Bento gel box for my bike.

Only 4 more sleeps until the big day. Getting a few butterflies every time I think about racing on Saturday - excited butterflies, not really nervous ones...those will probably show up when I get my first look at Seneca Lake on Friday. Eeek! ;-)