Summer has Arrived

Phoenix was being gracious for a while...we had a much cooler spring than last year. And by cool I mean under 100.

But now summer is here with a vengeance! 110 the last couple days. Which means even though I started workouts yesterday and today at 0500 it was already 80 and climbing. I will still take dry heat over humidity any day but the sun is just HOT. Yes may seem obvious.

Yesterday's workout was 50 miles on the bike followed by 4 mile run and today I ran 9 miles and cooled down with a 40 min spin on the bike. Hard to believe I'm half way through the training and scary. It's possible that I started crying yesterday towards the end of my ride. Not because it was hard but more just because I'm exhausted by the journey. This will definitely be a ONE time race for me. Training on top of my 60-70 hour work week has been all-consuming and is taking away from other things I would normally be doing.

But I am also really enjoying the training -- it's been fun to have challenging training goals instead of just going through the motions. And now the challenge becomes finding enough "cooler" hours to train during before Steve kicks me out for consistently moving our wake up time earlier :)

New Job, Engaged, Moving?

Busy times = no blogging. BUT the training has continued! And is going very well. A highlight was running a 1:42 half marathon a couple weeks ago -- a PR by about 5 minutes. I am competing in the Armed Forces Triathlong Championship in a couple weeks. I fear that I will finish last. But Kathy has assured me that I will at least beat a couple Canadians.

I have started using Steve's indoor trainer to bike a lot more. When I get home from work late it's a lot easier to hop on my bike and pedal in front of the TV than worry that I won't be as alert to cars/they won't see me in the dark.

Steve and I got engaged (yay!) and thanks to all the training I won't have to worry about getting in shape for the big day -- assuming I don't become a couch potato after Nov.

Possibility that the AF is moving me to Rome, NY in a couple months. I am upset/frustrated/angry but I'll leave it at that until it's a done deal :)

Little Stress Monkey

Work is making me a little stressed lately. Which has made my workouts even more enjoyable/important. This morning was a 1:15 minute run (lap pace 8:40) followed by a 40 minute easy bike. It's officially summer in Phoenix (we bypass spring all together) -- up to 90 today. But was really nice for the morning run. I'm going to stick with doing my Sunday workouts near home since it's a) feasible and b) provides a nice break from having to drive for either my morning swim or to a locale with enough mileage for biking.

Best part of Sundays? Yummy food. Homemade biscuits and eggs w/spinach and feta for bfast. Afternoon banana smoothie. AND a grand finale of chicken stuffed with olive tapenade and feta with green beans and blue cheese mashed potatoes for dinner. Mmmmm bf who cooks :)

AWOL

As I've been agonizing over my AWOL airman I am court-martialing over the past couple weeks I've also been AWOL from my blog (but not working out!). Luckily no adverse action.

Today was the first day I could feel the temp rising out here in the desert for the Sat long run. Steve-O and I bike 2:45 and ran 30. Bike effort felt really good and even when we were misled by google maps, we managed to make it back to the start -- like most things in AZ at some point they ran out of money during road construction and many roads dead end where you wouldn't expect them to and google says they shouldn't. So we never quite made it to Verrado on our loop back from Estrella, BUT I think that might have been ok b/c we were pretty tired on the run. Nonetheless 30 min run at 8:02 pace which I'll take any day.

Did not feel hungry during bike which is sometimes my downfall. I attribute it to Grimaldis with EXTRA SAUCE last night topped with cheesecake (really good) and the Clif Bar I had prior to race. I saw some "Think Thin" bars on my boss's desk the other day and checked them out -- as many calories as a Clif Bar and others which makes me think that those trying to lose weight prob shouldn't be eating them.

Considering during the Half Ironman in Show Low in June for training...

First Week of Soreness

Rest of the week's workouts:
Wed:
- 30 minute run
- CrossFit- 4 rounds of 400 m run and 30 one armed snatch
- 55 minute bike

Thurs:
- 40 min run

Fri:
- Swim- 400 m swim, 200 m kick, 300 m pull, 2 x 1000 m swim @ 75% but only made it halfway through the second 1000 b/c had to get to PT. Overall felt pretty good though.
- PT- 20 min run, 10 min rounds of kettle ball swings, pushups, situps, mad russians. That's right 30 minutes of working out. I am soooooooo hard on them. Rumor has it 20% of base that took PT tests in Jan/Feb failed. Seriously. Oh did I mention I'm in the military -- but you know the chair force -- so grain of salt.

Week 4 of my official training schedule and starting to feel it. We'll see how the weekend brick workouts go.

Today's workouts:
SWIM 0:45
WARM UP
200 Swim - 200 Kick - 200 Pull - 200 Swim
-- the 2nd swim should be faster than the 1st, at around 75-80% intensity
MAIN SET
5 x 300 w/20 sec rest after each
-- each 300 performed as (100 freestyle - 100 IM - 100 freestyle)
(ALTERNATE MAIN SET: 5 x 200 w/20 sec rest, all freestyle)
COOL DOWN
200 easy, holding perfect technique

BIKE 1:10
WARM UP
15:00 spin, using a gearing pyramid to elevate your HR intensity gradually. (This is a 5:00-4-3-2-1:00 pyramid.)
MAIN SET
This set is designed to help you boost your aerobic capacity. It's very important that you hold the HR intensity at or under the 75% target.
4 x 8:00 @75% w/2:00 recovery @60% after each
COOL DOWN completely by spinning consistently at 90 rpm, allowing your HR to get back under 60% by the end.

It was raining for the swim this morning which ironically seemed to keep people away from the pool. Just me an an older gentleman (read: grandpa type it's AZ people) with an aquajogger belt. He looked kind of like the old guy in "The Holiday" chick flick. Anyhow we managed to share the Olympic size pool. I am terrible at just kicking with the kickboard. It feels like it takes forever to get to the other side. On my pull I feel a little wobbly but it's good. Like I told my Airmen when I distributed the "Project 2.4K" schedule the other day, when it comes to swimming I need someone giving me workouts or I'd just float back and forth with a dacquiri.

Bike workout was done on a stationary at the gym. ESPN, American Idol, and oh yes of course Fox News to keep me company.

Spring Training

My parents were in town for some spring training games but still managed to fit in some quality training. And I must say I think I'm in better shape than your average MLB player -- ok not saying much, I grew up on baseball but still probably a sport more based on skill than athleticism. Sat I biked 2.5 hours and ran 30 minutes. Sun I ran 55 minutes and biked 35 minutes. And yet my pace for my run on Sat was 8:20 and 8:50 on Sun. I actually felt very good coming off the bike on Sat. I need to start finding some better biking routes in SW Phoenix b/c my standard is getting a little tedious. It was nice to only bike 35 on Sun. Passed what I thought was a new coffee place, "Over Coffee." But turns out people were over it -- closed in Feb.

Macy's was having a great sale on workout gear -- 50% off a lot of great stuff -- new sports bra and two pairs of capri running pants all for less than $50.

My Mom tried to snap a pic of me in my biking gear -- I think she was just happy that I wear a reflective vest.

Like most offices of women, there seem to be at least a few in mine perpetually on a diet, which inevitably leads to a lot of diet talk, frequently right outside my office. Luckily today I had some Irish Soda Bread from Wildflower to reach for. Delicious. Which reminds me of my trip to Dublin a few years back when we spent the whole weekend searching for soda bread to no avail. I still don't understand.