july training numbers and other crap

finally i am ready to blog about my training. why now you ask? because for the last 3.5 months, my training has been just okay but not at a level that is worth putting in print. ok, wait, not all of my training has sucked, just the running wasn’t where i needed or wanted it to be. you can’t force recovery from an injury, you have to let it happen and take its course, which i think has finally happened. one of my favorite quotes found in a book called The Lore of Running by Tim Noakes, MD, is:

 “Finally, remember that God heals and the doctor sends the bills. Give nature every chance to do her own good work.” 

~Tom Osler (1978)

sometimes with certain injuries, medical intervention is definitely warranted. with a little A. R. T., and working around certain activities that hurt, i was on my way to getting better. i want to be real clear on something before i move on because frankly, i am tired of thinking about and talking about this stupid ass (pun!) injury (located at the glute/hamstring insertion). IT WAS NOT CAUSED BY RUNNING!!!! it was a fluky incident and i have learned to just trust myself from here on out when it comes to my training. i am my own best coach and i shall remain self coached. that is all i have to say about that from here on out and i hope to never revisit this kind of injury again because it really scared me and in the end, cost me money that i would have rather put into races or in the bank.

moving on to this month’s numbers. can you believe july is over? almost 3 months of solid training to go and i am so ready.

7/1/2011 thru 7/31/2011

biked: 1,182.83 miles

ran: 81.51 (2 long runs in there – a 14 and 15 miler)

swam: 19,312 meters (will be bumping this one up going forward)

overall, i think i had a really good month. looking forward to the longer bike rides and the long runs coming up. i am following my plan from last year because it worked very well for me. i just started scouting out the different places to stay in PCB (panama city beach) for ironman florida. it sure is nice to have a blogger buddy (Chloe at running with a bottle of wine blog) who lives right there for good advice about where or where not to stay and she did IMFL last year. i’m also scouting out as many IMFL race reports i can get my hands on, so if you know of any in particular that you think i should read, please let me know. i already know a couple that i need to go back and read. i also found a great breakdown of the bike course and i will be printing that out and saving it in “THE” folder. i had a special folder last year when i was getting ready for the great floridian 140.6 that i kept important reading material in, like race reports, the endurance nation 4 keys to a successful IM (brilliant article by the way) and other informative items related to the event. yeah, i’m organized like that!

speaking of other blogger buddies …these last few months have been special. i have met 3 local triathlete/bloggers IRL (in real life). one is Beth, the Discom-BoB-ulated runner, who i already mentioned in a previous post. super cool chic! the latest run in was literally a run in. actually, i ran them down before they were about to walk into LA Fitness.

meet JC (not to be confused with my JC). funny story how we connected. a park that we train at gets flooded every now and then and i did a search on twitter to see if anyone had posted a pic of the area that gets flooded before i headed out there to then have to turn around a come home. low and behold, there was a picture posted by JC. then i saw where he had a blog and the rest is history. Click HERE to visit his blog called The Fat Slow Triathlete.

and meet Jennifer, JC’s training partner. they both just started doing triathlons this year and are progressing very nicely. they both have worked very hard to get where they are in their training and put in the training time. i have the utmost respect for pro triathletes but it is the mere mortals that inspire me everyday. Jennifer also has a blog. Click HERE to read her blog called Run, Run, Bunny Run.

i got some awesome news this week that tickled me pink and really motivated me …not that i’m not already motivated enough. Colleen at IRONDIVA posted on my facebook wall that she and Mandy (aka: Caratunk Girl) were coming down to PCB to cheer their butts off at IMFL. needless to say, that totally made my day. these ladies, both Ironmen, are awesome and i can hardly wait to meet them. also, there is a rumor that Mark (aka: tri dad of five) will be there to cheer as well. this could be an epic blogger meet up. let’s see, who else will be there? Heidi from the blog TriAngel will be there because her honey, Scott from Enjoy the Ride blog, will be racing. Also, Chloe from Running with a bottle of wine (already mentioned above) will be out there leading the party. Joe (aka: Rock Star Tri) will be racing too. who else is coming??

last but not least, who can help me out here? i’m having serious issues with BLOGGER. the main one is that every time i sign in lately, i get this strange error message:

and i can’t really do anything like change the design or add a function because the page layout is a hot mess. is it time to make the switch to wordpress? i admit that i’m scared. i’ve tried to migrate twice to wordpress and every time i get to the part where i have to push that button to finalize it, i cancel it out.  i don’t want to lose everything. i’m no dummy when it comes to this kind of stuff but i don’t understand the part about backing up this or that just in case, so you don’t lose your old posts/comments. clueless! i’d be devastated if i lost all of that. if anyone can help a sista out here, holla.

much love and peace out!

run girl run

i knew from a very young age that i was born to run. i’ll never forget one time when i was about 8, i went to a local nursing home with my dad to visit someone and i was scared to go in so i stayed outside and ran up and down the side walk as fast as i could. there were a couple of residents sitting outside and they kept yelling at me, “run girl run!” i ate that up and ran faster. i was also the kid who when she got a new pair of running shoes, slept with them on her feet. not much has changed here 30+ years later.

i was recently contacted by Leslie at Onlineshoes.com to see if i’d like to try out a pair of the original barefoot shoes otherwise known as Vivo Barefoot running shoes.

how cute is this? they come in a really cool box and individually wrapped.

out of the box! the lining fabric of these shoes is made from 50% recycled plastic bottles.

although i am not a true barefoot runner or even close to being one, i have read a lot of research that supports this movement and it makes a lot of sense to me. since i am in the midst of training for ironman florida, i am not allowed to try any new things that could lead to injury, so i was careful to not overdue running in these shoes, however, i did get to do a handful of 3-4 mile runs in them and i loved them.

running barefoot is a skill. if you aren’t used to running in minimalist shoes such as these Vivo Barefoot's, then you should start off conservatively and keep the mileage short and on softer surfaces before building up your miles and running on harder surfaces. the sole is an ultra thin 3mm, puncture resistant surface so there is a good amount of protection for your foot just in case you step on glass or rocks. i ran on the treadmill, golf course, and trails and they felt awesome. i can’t wait to put some more miles on them once i get done with my “A” race in november.

did you know that your foot has 200,000 nerve endings, 28 bones, 19 major muscles, 33 joint centers and 17 ligaments. that’s a lot of anatomy for just a foot! also, did you know that your foot and your brain work together? 70% of your brain’s information for movement comes from the nerves on the soles of your feet so the more you can feel the ground, the greater your body’s understanding of its surrounding environment and natural movement. in other words, the more you can feel the more you are one with the universe!

thanks again to Lindsey at Onlineshoes.com for giving me the opportunity to get my hands on these very functional shoes, that by the way, look great with jeans on too. please take a minute or two to check out their line of available Vivo Barefoot shoes. i have bought several pair of running shoes from them (K-Swiss Keahou II most recently) and have never been disappointed. what’s not to like when shipping is free, exchanges are free and you get 365 days on returns?

happy running my friends!

much love and peace out!

convenient nutrition is not an oxymoron!

i’ve had quite a few people (some triathletes and some coworkers) ask me lately about what i eat. this happens a lot and i’m pretty used to it. if i think they REALLY want to know for their own knowledge, i’m usually more than happy to tell them and help them the best i can. ultimately, i cannot do it for them, they have to want to eat healthier for their own reasons not mine. also, like with training, you need to fuel yourself for whatever it is that you do. so if you just workout a couple of hours a week, then you are not going to eat like someone training for an ironman.

remember, i like to keep it real here at 140 point 6, so before i go any further, let me just say that i am no saint in the nutrition department. i would say that i eat very healthy 93% of the time and the other 7% of the time (usually on Saturday night), i may eat a pint of ben & jerry’s ice cream all by myself. ok, you can pick your jaws up off the floor. overall, i truly believe that you cannot put crappy food in your body and expect to feel good. here is the analogy i like to use when i’m explaining this to someone: you don’t put 87 octane gas in your ferrari or corvette and expect it to perform the way it was meant to. the proof is in the pudding (i have just been full of puns lately). when you start making a conscious effort to eat better, you WILL feel the difference guaranteed. i hear some of you saying, “but this takes too long, it’s easier to just grab whatever is there.” and to that i say, you would be wrong! i am the queen of NOT cooking but i do buy things that i can put together quickly and it is still healthy.

i would like to say that i recently came across a fellow blogger named Crystal Krebs but it wasn’t all that recently, i have just been a slacker when i comes to blogging and i’d like to apologize to her since she was kind enough to send me a bunch a goodness to taste from Rokit fuel awhile back. 

this was one of the two Rokit Fuel prototype sample bars that Crystal sent me and it was by far one of the best nutrition bars that my lips have ever touched and VERY filling. i do love me some bars because they are so convenient. we may need to have Crystal tell us what this yummy prototype bar had in it. whatever it was, it was chocolaty (can’t go wrong there) and i think it had raisins in it too. it had a lot of stuff in it and it blended well as my taste buds let me know.

Convenient nutrition is not an oxymoron! you will see this on their products and to me, it speaks volumes.

Crystal also sent 3 different flavored cereals. they all were very good. Pumpkin Chocolate was my fave and the J-man loved this one the most too. there was also one called Chocolate Dream and the other was Cherry Almond. you can make them with milk or water. we opted to use half water and half milk. once again, a quick and easy alternative that only takes 60-90 seconds in the microwave. the nutrition on each one was different but not by much. overall, they average out to 350 calories each. the main ingredient is rolled oats and here are just a few of the many wholesome ingredients each one contained: gotu kola, maca root, chia seeds (guaranteed to make you grow hair), pure cane dark brown sugar, amaranth, milled flax seed, sesame seeds, bee pollen. good stuff! by the way, there is a warning on the label and it reads, NOT FOR WUSSIES*

*Wussie (noun) A persons whose pursuit of excellence is eclipsed by a total lack of discipline and drive.

a close up of the NOT FOR WUSSIES warning

on each container, there is a really neat faded out background with an image on it. the image is of a sponsored Rokit fuel athlete and on the Chololate Dream container, the image is of Crystal rock climbing!! how cool is that? you can find Crystal’s blog right HERE!

additional info on butt-kickin’ fuel for the body. click on image to enlarge.

comparison chart. Rokit fuel vs. the “others.”

so remember, no excuses* when it comes to putting the right fuel in your awesome machine. your body really is a temple and should be treated as such.  

*Excuses – Sorry ass reasons to justify failure.

(i made that definition up back in my personal trainer days)

go say hi to Crystal the rock climber and athlete extraordinaire and the Rokit Fuel website noted above. you can also find them on Facebook by clicking HERE!

much love and peace out my peeps, i miss you all. sorry i’ve not blogged in almost 3 weeks.