Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Training While on Vacation!

Hi from Rainy/Sunny/Rainy Dartmouth Nova Scotia!

It is time for update of my training!!

Friday-Hot Yoga
Saturday- Swim (350m), Bike 10 km
Sunday- Rest Day
Monday- 40 min Run
Tuesday- 20 min Run, Body Pump, 1.5 hr Rollerblade, 400 m swim
Wednesday- Hot Yoga
Thursday- 30 min Walk/Run
Friday- 10 km Bike, 15 min Run
Sat- 400 m Swim
Sun- BRICK (10 km bike, 4 km walk/run)
Mon-15 min Run/ 25 min walk
Tues-30 min walk/run, weights, Body Flow
Wednesday-450m+ Swim

Two weekends ago (last minute plans) I went up North for a friend’s stag/doe and we made a road trip of it stopping at Sauble Beach. 
Source

It was totally worth the drive, gorgeous white beaches, and super warm water! Sauble itself is such a cute town, and for supper that night I had a delicious fish taco and some roasted corn on the cob from a hipster food truck. The Stag and Doe was a lot of fun too..stayed up way too late, but overall a good time!

Knowing that we were not going to able to fit in a workout Saturday or Sunday, Mike and I decided to get up super early on Saturday before we left to fit in our own Try-a-Tri. At 6:45 we got up and did the swim, then hopped on our bikes for a 10km loop. Mike has a road bike so he bikes faster than me, but I thought the understanding was we would just do it in our own time and then meet back near the apartment. At one point in our route the path splits in two and rejoins, and we both took different ones. I assumed Mike had just booked it home, meanwhile he had stopped to wait for me. So I arrived to the apartment, and no Mike. I waited for a while and then headed back down the trail to find him thinking something had happened to him and/or his bike..he also assumed that I was injured/stuck, and came looking for me…long story not so short after an extra 15-20 mins of biking we finally reconnected, but by that point we had no time to do the run, so the run was pushed until Monday night when we came back.


Monday’s 40 min run was the longest I have ever ran (Walk/ran) in my life! I did 10 mins of running, followed by 1 min walk/3 min run for the rest of the time..it felt awful/awesome all at the same time. Tuesday I had planned to do the run/body pump/swim, but my friend Brittany asked me to join in on a rollerblade (yes it was 35 degrees in TO yesterday), so I did it ALL! The 400 m swim was painful, but awesome. Waking up Wednesday morning at 5:45 to go to Hot Yoga was slightly more painful..With all that extra working out, I treated myself to ALL YOU CAN EAT SUSHI on Wednesday night om nom nom. Thursday I did a 25 min run, and packed to go on vacation! 

I’m off for two weeks! Currently on a road trip back out east to see my family/Mike's family.Typically vacation for me means 0 exercise and lots of snacks, but not this year! I am taking full advantage of the opportunity for some open water swims, and we even brought our bikes with us. 
I went for a swim before the storm hit!
For the road we also packed a ton of healthy snacks for the road to avoid the temptation of McDonalds and Chippies. 
Mmmm snow peas!!
So far we have been sticking to the plan pretty well. Obviously on vacation there is a little more calorie intake (pie anyone?) but there is more free time to work out! Today I went for a swim at the local pool, and realized that my condo pool is definitely not 25 m, so I am way behind on my swimming training! Yikes!

One thing I am noticing though, is I am hitting a wall with the training. Running more than 30 min is hurting my soul, more than 10km bike is painful, and swimming without stopping is becoming an issue as the lengths go up. I don't know if this is normal and I just have to work through it, or maybe it is my sign to just do a try-a-tri this year. I am going to push myself for the next few days and see how it goes, and then make a decision what race to register for. 

Is hitting a wall normal?? Anyone else exercise for pie?


Thursday, July 11, 2013

Thursday Triathlon Training Tidbit






I’m on Week 4 of the training plan!!

Recap Time:
Saturday- See last Blog Post
Sunday- 10 km Bike IN THE RAIN
Monday- Rest day and Toronto Flooded (We are ok, my building was ok, my work was ok)
Tuesday-300m Swim AM, 20 min run+ Body Pump PM, 30 min walk after the gym
Wednesday- 10 km Bike IN THE WIND
Today- Attempted to Swim in the AM, pool was closed for maintenance. In the PM I went and got my Hair did, and then came back to the apartment and did a 25 min run and 30 mins of strength training. And I ruined my hair.

Before Hair Cut

After Hair Cut (Before Gym)
Two realizations


1. Back when I was trying to lose a little weight it was my goal to work out 5 days a week. I think I actually met that goal maybe twice..so far with this plan I have been working out 5/6 days a week and not even realizing it. Yay!!

2. I think I could do a try-a-tri right now (375 m swim, 10 km bike ride, 2.5 km run). I am going to test this theory on Sunday with my own try-a-tri (including biking/running in wet gear to get used to the idea).


Food stuff:
Since I am working my butt off, I have decided to also watch what I eat in order to maybe lose a few pounds..nothing major, I still want to fuel my body for training!

Both Mike and I (and apparently 90% of our friends) are using myfitness pal to track calories. My first week I was way over (it included Canada Day weekend), but the past two weeks I have been doing really well. The days I don’t exercise I have a really hard time keeping it in my limit, but the days I do exercise (Tuesday’s and Friday’s especially) I can pretty much eat what I want. Keep in mind when I say I eat what I want I mean healthy food with a treat or two, not a big mac and fries..nom nom.

My food for the day looks generally looks like this:
Bottom right  (Clockwise): Breakfast- Eggs and Swiss Chard, Lunch- Chickpeas, Brown Rice , Zucchini and Garlic Scapes, Snacks: Cucumbers, Almonds, Yogurt, Carrots and Hummus
                   
Not pictured glass of Milk in the AM, Fruit and obviously supper which is normally some sort of protein and veggies. Drinking milk in the morning is a new thing, but I realized I was really low on Calcium and was getting sick of drinking water. Double win.

This all being said, on evenings where I do come home after working out (like Tuesday for example) I am so HANGRY (Angry because I am so hungry..grrr). And I still am craving junkfood a little...but this poster in my gym made me laugh..


Thanks gym for praying on me at my weakest moment..but no I didn't go get anything from the vending machine :P. 

Time to head to bed..Hot Yoga in the AM!

Anyone have any healthy snack ideas? Anyone else get a hair cut/style only to go ruin it :)?

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Training my Butt Off!!


Hello homies..guess what??...It is two blogposts in 1 week!!

As mentioned before, I am a crazy cat and decided to run a triathlon at the end of the summer…

I am going to do a Sprint Triathlon, so that means 750 m swim, 20 km Bike, and 5 km run. After getting my bike in April and realizing how much I enjoyed it, and then doing a 20 km bike ride for fun, I realized that I could do the 20 km Bike + 5 km run with some training…and I always have loved swimming/the water, so why not!!

Since I had decided to do this right smack dab in the middle of tutoring time I didn’t have time to start training, but I had time to start researching, and I found a good plan online, it is a 11 Week Training plan, which worked perfectly with the timing. I also added some strength training and some hot yoga so my ideal schedule would be:

Monday: Rest Day
Tuesday AM: Swim
Tuesday PM: Run/Body Pump
Wednesday: Bike Ride
Thursday AM: Swim
Thursday PM: Run/ Body Pump
Friday: Hot Yoga
Saturday: Long Run
Sunday: Long Bike


I started on June 18th with a quick 15 min walk/run, then body pump, and after not doing anything except for biking and hot yoga for a long time I couldn’t walk for two days. It got better.

Swimming is my new favourite  I typically go for a swim in the morning (benefits of living in a Condo) and I find I don’t need any tea or coffee when I get to work, it really wakes me up. It is also super easy to roll out of bed, put on a bathing suit and walk down to the pool. Also, at 6:30 in the morning, the pool at the building is completely empty!
I could get used to this!

Swimming also is the most terrifying part of the training. I know that if I get tired with the running or the biking I can take a break, whereas if I take a break from swimming I drown. Which is why I want to really practice that part. I also have been doing lots of research about swimming learning about sighting (for open water swimming) and getting used to getting kicked in the face during the start (Mike is also practising swimming, so he swims in front of me for practice). So far 200 m/300 m is pretty good, but I still need breaks, still have a ways to go to build up my cardio for swimming!

Having this goal for the end of the summer is really motivating me to stick with it. I have shuffled around the schedule a bit, but overall in the past almost three weeks I have only missed 1 “long” run (20 minutes) and a few BodyPumps. In order to be prepared for the summer, I put all of the work outs from the training program on google calendar, and if needed I can move them around, but I can’t delete them. I also put them on that day, and then schedule the exact times week by week. What this means is sometimes I need to be a bit creative, yes I was at the gym a few Sundays back at 8:30 am because that was the most convenient time, and the past weekend I made myself go to bed at a decent hour on Saturday to go to Hot Yoga on Sunday AM. Who am I??

This morning I went for a 30 min walk/run, and THEN went to the gym for an hour (to make up from a missed BodyPump on Thursday). I made up my own total body workout based on BodyPump moves: 

Every exercise x 10...
Squats with Weights (10lbs), Normal, Bottom Half, Wide
Biceps: (7.5), Normal, Bottom Half, Bicep Row
Triceps: Tricep Extension (7.5) Dips(no weight)
Back: (20lb dumbbell) Dead lift, Wide Row, Clean and Press
Chest: (20 lb dumbbell) Bench Press, Lower Half Bench Press, (5 lb free weights) Flys
Lunges: (No weight) Normal, Bottom Halfs, Lunge with Knee Lift
Shoulders: (7.5lbs) Kneeling Upright row, Rotator Raise/Peck Deck
And Repeat! 
Then I ended with 6 core exercises (10 reps each), which I cannot remember :P.
Oh and stretching..that is important..

And then I biked home. Whew. No wonder I am tired haha!
Yes Mom I typically wear a helmet while biking!
I hope to do a recap every week in the week past in Triathlon Training updates..mostly to keep me accountable!

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

June Recap in Meme Form!

IT IS SUMMER TIME!!!
It has been 30+ degrees all week in TO, and I am loving it (a little rainy and thunderstromy, but that is ok!) (I started writing this post on the weekend..now it is about 18 degrees...cursed :P)

After finishing up with all of my tutoring students, and moving to a job with less crazy hours, my schedule has freed up just in time for the nice weather..lovely how that worked out!

In the past little bit my free time has been full of Potlucks, Biking, Adventures, and TRIATHLON TRAINING.

Also also...I took no pictures of any of these things...FAIL! So I will describe it in MEMEs!!

The last weekend of May I volunteered with the World Partnership Walk, and spent a warm Sunday morning telling people all about the event. This was after a late night out with my friends, but I managed to make it through the morning (Coffee, lots and lots of coffee!) Mike was awesome and volunteered too!

I may have been the ESPRESSO one!!
Another adventure was paintball…never again. It was a groupon, and I realized spending an afternoon shooting people in a dim lit arena thing, not my idea of a good time. It was also painfull..I got hit in the head and and had a headache for the week. Luckily we only spent about 15 bucks for the whole afternoon. I think laser tag sounds more fun.

This Paintball seems less painful

What was way more fun than paintball: A weekend escape at the Cottage. Some friends and I headed up to my families’ cottage in the Muskokas and spent the weekend relaxing, swimming (it was really cold), and playing hide in go seek, yes we are all in our twenties, yes it was awesome.





Some food highlights from this past month: 2 epic potlucks…

1. Slider themed potluck, everyone brought a different kind of slider..I made chickpea sweet potato burgers from Clean eating magazine, and they were delicious!!

2. Bacon potluck, everyone had to bring a dish that included bacon, we had ceaser salad, bacon weave quesadilla, bacon and cheese biscuits and pork back...and bacon ceasers!!! (Sodium overload!!)



Some exercise highlights:
I got two weeks out of the 11 week training program done pretty much exactly! Finally back on track with going to the gym/working out 5 days a week+!! I will go into more detail with the training program in the next little bit, because over the summer I want to blog at least three times a week, and actually take pictures just not leave memes :P.
Do it!! All the Comments!

What is your favorite meme?? What is your favorite BACON/Potluck idea!?