forever seeking balance

You cannot afford to wait for perfect conditions. Goal setting is often a matter of balancing timing against available resources. Opportunities are easily lost while waiting for perfect conditions.
~ Gary Ryan Blair

this week, training week number 12 out of 20 for ironman florida (whaaaat?), has been a very interesting one in the training department side of my life. as most of you already know, i tend to weigh heavy on the bike mileage, a nice moderation of miles with the running and a little skimpy on the swim. this week, i confessed to all of my friends on daily mile that i hadn’t swam in 3 weeks (hangs head in shame). i’m not even sure why but i have a theory or two. first one is that it isn’t nearly as convenient (or as fun) as cycling or running. with cycling and running, i can leave right from my front door. no getting in the car, packing a bag, etc …the second theory is that the times i have skipped out on swimming for a couple of weeks, i’ve never taken a step back. in fact, i feel like i improve. go figure! however, as true or not the second theory is, i am not letting that interfere with my training balance anymore. i mean it!

i have to thank my blog buddy Summer at the blue line runner for giving me the kick in the ass that i needed. kind of a funny story how this all came about but she couldn’t have texted me at a better time. as i’m sitting at work on wednesday, i get a text from Summer saying, “I’m going to tell you that I AM making myself swim today so that I can be held accountable. I have zero swimming motivation and it’s making me ill” imagine what a hypocrite i felt like when i read that text. long story short, i confessed to Summer that i hadn’t swam in 3 weeks and we came up with a plan to hold each other accountable from here on out. i’m happy to report that we both went above and beyond the call of duty with out training this week. it does help tremendously to have someone you know isn’t afraid to call you out if you aren’t holding up your end of the deal. we should all have a buddy training system like that.  anyway, we promised each other that we would not do any less than 2 swims a week from here until our respective race. THANK YOU SUMMER!

i have so much fun posting my workouts on daily mile. the people on there are awesome motivators! here are just a few fun excerpts of my daily mile training log from this crazy “seeking balance” week:

i ran my long run around my 0.47 mile neighborhood. did i go stir crazy? no, i did not. i turned off my brain and turned up the kickin’ tunes. it was actually kinda nice as i had my little aid station set up and could access it any time i needed it. i felt like i did last year around this time …healthy and running strong with no pain whatsoever. i’m so grateful that my hamstring healed.

making up for lost time here. just needed to prove to myself that i can still do the distance on any given day. i felt strong, smooth and even more confident.

i’m not sure which is more crazy, running around the block for 17 miles or riding the trainer for 51 miles. i think the trainer is the toughest mentally. i had to get this done just for sanity’s sake. i tend to get super irritable when i my planned workout goes down the drain which happened this morning with all the rain. in order to not be a miss pissy pants all day, i sucked it up and did my 51 mile ride on the trainer from hell. i’m sure the j-man appreciates that i did it.

overall, it was a great week. i found balance again and intend to keep it until race day gets here which is now 69 days away. i have a fast, flat century on the schedule for next sunday called the Bok Tower Century. it is part of the tour of sebring that begins on friday.

some odds-n-ends ….i re-did my music playlist so all of you music hounds, pump up the volume!! i was tagged by Jenn at Junk Miles to post 7 past blog links under certain categories and i left my list of links on my desk at work so that one is coming up next time. should be a fun one!

much love and peace out!

lots of random thoughts

oh my goodness, this is post number 200! I wanted it to be special and thought I would have my 100 list of ‘all things kc’ ready to go by now but I have only come up with 26 things so far ..insert big sigh here. would you settle for just a regular post with lots of randomness? ok, here goes:

• i used to blame the IM training for my lack of blah-ging blogging but now i am starting to see that the training is only part of the reason. throw sitting at a computer for 8 hours a day into the mix and the last thing i want to do when i get home is sit at the computer. plus, i find writing about my training, other than my daily training entries on dailymile, to be boring.
• as for the boring IM training, it’s on track! i’m in the thick of it right now and as timing would have it, most of my long runs and rides have been done and will be done in upper 90 – 100 degree weather. since I have no other choice, i don’t fret about it. thankfully, I have trained for many fall marathons where most of my long runs were done in the summer months. first words out of my mouth at 4am are, “suck it up buttercup!”
• it saddens me to see people eat themselves to death. see, i told you this was going to get random. as i was running this morning, my thoughts somehow settled on some wonderful people, who i dearly love that have allowed food to rule their lives. food …an inanimate object or substance that has more power over them than they have over themselves. how or why this popped into my mind at 5 in the morning, i have no clue. i pray they see the light before it’s too late. 
• speaking of marathon training earlier, raise your hand if you have ever heard of the religious sect named Sri Chinmoy? i read about them a million years ago in an article in runners world magazine. it’s this cult that runs 20-50 miles per day and here is the kicker, they run these long runs around 1 city block, over and over and over again. anyway, i have yet to tell anyone (except for 2 people) my little secret …the one about doing my long runs around a 0.47 mile block (actually it’s a loop)… so the last long run was 16 miles. what’s great about it is that i have an aid station at my mailbox whenever i need it! i wonder if my neighbors think i’m crazy?
• i love my ISM saddle. when i first got it, i wasn’t sure. i left it on for 5 weeks, then decided to put the other seat back on to compare. the ISM saddle wins! it took a little longer to “break in” than i thought it would though.

• i have a whole new respect for open water swimming. did you read about Diana Nyad, the women who was attempting to swim 103 miles (from Cuba to Florida) without a shark cage protecting her? well, she didn’t make it BUT, i think she is an incredible athlete and she is 61 years young! there are just too many variables out of anyone’s control when it comes to open water swims, especially in the ocean. unfortunately, she was blown way off course and the conditions were just not on her side. i bet she could swim 103 miles in a pool though!
• while we are on the OWS subject, i had the pleasure of hanging out with my buddy Beth (aka: discombobulated running chic) at the beach a few fridays ago. our plan was to get to the beach around 10, walk down a mile, swim back and then chill out on the beach and work on our white bellies six pack abs. we had a good swim, although we felt like we were swimming on a treadmill. i thought for sure i was at the halfway mark and we both looked up around the same time and said, “dang, that’s all we swam?” not very encouraging. i had a great swim and felt like a natural out there. i’ve come a long way in 18 months and it feels good to not be a nervous ninny in the water anymore.

     who has the whitest feet of all time? that would be me!

• after out OWS, we had the best lunch ever. there is this awesome, awesome, awesome italian market in st. pete that is a must visit if you are ever nearby. it is called Mazzaros and it is to freakin’ die for. i swear. thank you Beth for taking me there. i did notice we were the youngest peeps in there. we sat out on the patio and ate lunch and chatted out heads off. here are some fun photos we took at the market:

i felt like such a silly tourist!

the other silly tourist striking a pose!

my new car! check out the pig on top and those horns are awesome. it just needs a paint job. 

the other car, a cute fiat. that is a great clown car!

 

can’t go to Mazzaro’s and not pose on the vespa …someone had to be the guy!

• football is back!! whose excited? GO BUCS! nuf said!

well, it’s time to wrap this party up and say peace out and much love! have a happy and safe weekend out there!