For every uphill there is a downhill...

Alright, I took a few weeks off from writing because I needed to get out of my head for a bit. I've been having some issues dealing with some overwhelmingly heavy topics: money and time being at the top of that list.

I'm not giving up. I can't. It's just not in my blood. I do feel like my passion at this very moment is not at the level it should be because I have the whole time and money thing hanging over me, but I have a spark.

Saturday (tomorrow) I'm doing my first open water swim since 2012. My first race of the season is just two weeks away and getting in some open water is a really high priority.

Fingers crossed my wetsuit fits... It's been folded neatly in storage for quite some time.

But I'm getting ahead of myself....

Monday afternoon, I went to the pool for a swim. I managed about 1000 yards and felt a little sluggish. When I get stressed I stop eating and let's just say my stress level has been a little higher than normal.

I went home after my swim and had some food. About an hour later I decided I had some extra time so I drove to the park where my race will be held and drove the run course. I knew it was not going to be a flat run, but I did not anticipate how un-flat it really was.

I spent about 10 minutes sitting in my car gathering the courage to get out and start running. I thought to myself, "I'll never know if I don't do it."

So I got out of the car and started running very, very slow. The first third of the course is all uphill. It starts as a slow uphill grade and gets steeper as you climb. The middle third is pretty flat and runs along a lake. The last third is down the hills I climbed in the beginning.

I finished the run in 35 minutes. My toes hurt a bit from the steep downhill, and I will admit to walking a total of about 2 minutes.

This run helped reignite the fire. I'm ready. I know I can do this.

After the open water swim Saturday, I'm heading out with some friends who are racing with me to ride the bike course. Depending on the weather, I'm hoping to ride the course twice. Once to get a feel of it and a second to really get it.

Honestly, I don't know about you, but how often do you get to train on the course you're planning to race? Not very often in my experience, so having this course about 5 miles from my house is great.

Sunday I'm going out to run the course again, adding two flat miles at the end. After that, I'll probably head out a few more times and start my taper.

May 17 - countdown begins!

Steelman Olympic distance race report

The sun coming up over Lake Nockamixon.

Knock-knock. Anyone there? Yes, I have been MIA for the last two months because, I will be totally honest, I have a lot going on in my life right now. Most of it I can't write about, which absolutely effects the stuff I can write about and makes the stuff I can write about far less interesting. At least to me. BUT through it all, I managed to get in one final triathlon this season: Steelman at Nockamixon State Park in Quakertown.

Let me start by saying the two months since doing Eagleman my training has been less than stellar. In fact, I can honestly say I've been in the pool maybe twice and been swimming at the lake twice. That's a grand total of four swim sessions in two months. I've ridden my bike a little more frequently, once a week on most weeks, and I may have logged 15 - 20 miles running. Seriously, I was behaving as if this race wasn't going to happen.

Yes, every picture I have is before sunrise because I got to the part before 5 a.m.!

But as I stood among 2,000 athletes ready to start a race they actually prepared for, I completely questioned my sanity. I tried to remind myself that I did finish a 70.3 two months ago. I can totally do this distance. But the buoys looked so far away. Everyone around me was smiling in anticipation. I was shivering with fear. In fact, I spend the whole weekend fighting off the fear that something terrible was going to happen to me during this race. I was going to a race with no one. I had no support with me. Just me. Alone. I wrote my kids a note in the morning reminding them that I loved them, just in case.

Clearly, I was feeling out of my mind.

See those buoys? Can you see them? Look how far they look?

Swim:
Back to the water's edge. Lake Nockamixon is actually a really beautiful lake, but on Sunday I didn't see its beauty, I simply focused on its size. With a water temperature of 80 degrees, it was not a wetsuit legal race, so I wore my skin suit. We had the option to wear wetsuits, but you'd be disqualified for awards. I sort of wish I had chosen to wear mine. I'm not winning any awards, but I wanted to try without it. In hindsight, I should've worn it. When the gun went off, I started swimming. It seemed to take an eternity to get to the first buoy. The next buoy also seemed very far away. I focused on swimming buoy-to-buoy. One after the other I swam passed them. None seemed to come faster than the next. I got out of the water and saw the :40 min mark and although that time was disappointing, I knew I had no business expecting to swim any faster than I did. My official swim time was :40:03

Bike:
I will admit I heard nothing but horror stories about the hills on this ride. I had no expectations other than to ride as hard as I could. That's what I did. The climb out of the park was tough, but not nearly has hard as I thought it was going to be, and the rest of the course pretty much followed that same line of thinking. There were a few pretty good climbs, but nothing that was insanely difficult. During the first climb out of the park, the little packet in my pocket that held my Enduralytes fell to the ground. Fortunately, it fell right in front of a volunteer who ran to it and yelled what's your number, I'll get it back to you. I panicked for a second worried that I'd cramp like crazy without them. But sometimes you just cannot worry about things beyond your control. So, I just let it go and focused on the ride. My ride time was 1:31:22, that's a 17.7 mph average. I am happy with that.

Run:
I started this run waiting for my legs to cramp. Having no Enduralytes to help if they did, I was just waiting... but guess what. They never cramped. This was encouraging. I felt strong the entire run. It was a beautiful paved, shaded course through the park. I really enjoyed the run. Water stops were frequent and stocked with Gatorade, water and ice. I was feeling so good, I really thought I was going to make the 10k in under an hour. I was close, 1:02:43, but not quite. I finished feeling great. I was a little disappointed to not have my kids meet me at the finish like they normally do, but I was happy to see Joanna there at the end.

I finished this race with the time of 3:19:17. This is 15 minutes faster than my previous best Olympic distance time. Seriously, I cannot believe it. I didn't really deserve to PR during a race I wasn't prepared to do, however, I will take it. 

Overall, I thought Steelman was a great race and we were blessed with beautiful weather. As an athlete who is not finishing in the top half, it was nice to see volunteers at all the stations throughout the entire race. I hate when you're running and you come to an aid station that just has cups and coolers because the volunteers left. It's defeating, but this was not the case at all at Steelman.

I'm glad I did this race. I wasn't going to, but Joanna helped make it possible for me. Thank you Joanna. It was a great race to end a tough season. Oh, and as a side note, my packet of Enduralytes were sitting at my transition when I got back to it. How awesome is that?!

Ironman Eagleman 70.3 Race Report

I've been working on this post for months. The whole reason I started this blog was to write about this triathlon, Eagleman. The race that was going to take me to the next level. Instead, I was humbled by this race and this report is just not writing itself. So, let's start at the beginning.

We had plans to stay at my friend Tammy's in-laws place in Lewes, Del., about an hour and a half away from the starting line. This wasn't an ideal situation, but it was free accommodations and there wasn't a hotel within 50 miles of the race that had any open rooms. But, in an extraordinary stroke of good luck, Joanna had a nutrition client who booked an extra room and offered it to us. So on Saturday, I met Tammy and fellow dailymiler Patrick, in Media to start our trek to Cambridge, Maryland. 

I had no idea until I got here that Ironman was such a community event. Clearly businesses welcomed us.

Once in Cambridge, we went to the race expo and packet pick up. There was a pro athlete forum that was going on while we were picking up our race packets. We stayed just long enough to take a blurry picture ...

Ironmen

... and pick up our race numbers. It was so hot and crowded.

Packet pick up and expo

Next stop was the transition area to rack our bikes and check out the transition area. We did some stalking while we were there... you know, killing time.

Transition area with bikes racked

Yeah, so it's not every day I come within feet of Ironman Champions

After checking into our hotel room, heading to dinner and packing, unpacking and repacking everything we needed for the next morning, we settled in at about 8:30 p.m. for our 4:15 a.m. wake up call.

"Shuttle," AKA school bus, we took in the morning to transition. Patrick is pictured.

I have to admit, I was not nervous about the race. I did have a few moments of anxiety, but generally I felt pretty confident that I was going to conquer this race.

We quickly learned that if Patrick was anything, he was positive.

We learned that for the first time in two years the race would be wetsuit legal, so my confidence was pretty good. The pros started at 6:45 and Tammy and I had an hour to walk around and wait for our wave start.

Transition area set (sort of) and ready to go.

The swim:
At 7:40 exactly, our wave was ushered into the water. As we walked toward the water, volunteers handed us safety pins to put on our timing chips if our wetsuits didn't cover them. I thought this was a brilliant idea since at my last half iron, my timing chip fell off twice during the swim. Anyway, two minutes later, the blow horn sounded and we were off.

Choptank River, not nearly as scary as described by athletes.

I will admit that the stories of jellyfish, sharks and rough waters of the Choptank River (you can't make up that name), scared me a little prior to the start. But I found the waters to be cool and lightly salted. Not nearly has salty as the ocean. I had some trouble sighting because my goggles were super foggy (Patrick, the defogging stuff did NOT work) and the buoys were a little further apart than I'm used to in races. I stayed pretty wide and to the left throughout the swim because I did not want to get kicked in the head again. The first half of the swim I stayed calm and took my time. About half way through I remember that there was no reason to hold anything back today, and I picked up my pace. Before I knew it, I was coming into to the swim finish. I felt strong and ready for the bike. I finished the 1.2 mile swim in 44:49. In transition, I stripped off the wetsuit, took a long drink and hopped on my bike.

The bike:
I pushed the entire time on this ride. The course was completely flat, not a single hill. We road through some scenic parks with a lot of trees. Of course there were stretches with nothing more than an open field, but my confidence was high. I was passing a lot of riders on the course and with little effort maintaining an easy 18-19 mph pace. Around the halfway mark, maybe a little further, I was honestly trying not to look at my bike computer and only watched the time, I hit some headwind that pushed me to a pretty steady 14 mph. That was a little harder to recover from, but I kept pushing. This was about the time I saw a woman throw up twice while riding. My first thought was, "That woman is hardcore." My next thought was, "I wonder why she's getting sick."

The last 6 miles seemed to take forever, but those last six miles is where I started to see the runners. Many were walking. No one looked happy. At the end of that 56 miles, which I did in 3:11, I walked my bike back to my transition spot. I was in no rush to start this run.

Picture of the sun taken by my husband while waiting for me to finish the race.

The run:
After putting socks and sneakers on and taking another long drink, I trotted out of transition and onto the course. Immediately my quads cramped. I tried to ignore it and took two Enduralytes, but the cramps coupled with a shooting pain on the right side of my right foot forced me to a walk. Less than a mile into the course Tammy caught up to me. I think I said outloud, "Oh seriously." She was in good spirits and walked with me for a bit. I encouraged her to keep running. A few feet later I met Dan, an athlete wearing a knee brace. He and I walk about 3/4 of a mile together until the first water spot. He walked through it and I stopped and strategically placed ice in my tri suit and wet my sun sleeves hoping to stay cool. After that, I walked/ran the entire course.

I stopped at every water spot and poured ice water all over myself. The temperature was 100 degrees and there wasn't a single patch of shade anywhere. Patrick described it as a death march and I can't think of a better description than that. I watched seasoned triathletes walking. Men and women who I am sure are much stronger and fitter than I am put their pride aside and simply walk. Where there were neighborhoods, many residents had tents out and sprayed athletes down with garden hoses. If any of them ever read this, THANK YOU!

After the first 6.6 miles, I realized my hopes of having a half iron in the 6 hour time range was not going to happen. I ate a snow cone, and the sugar helped push me the next 4 or so miles.

The last mile and a half was the absolute worst. I felt my body actually falling apart. I had been drinking water and electrolytes and taking Enduralytes like they were candy, but I wasn't eating. I would've killed someone for a pretzel or potato chips. I needed salt, I needed calories. I had three Gus in my pocket the entire run, but I couldn't bring myself to eat them. Probably my downfall. But the heat called for drinking, not for eating. With each step I took, I felt weaker. With one mile left, I choked down a Gu and it only served to turn my stomach.

With 400 yards left, a group of athlete sat in the shade encouraging, no, yelling at us to run. "There's only 400 yards left, one loop around the track. Run! Don't be weak," I heard them shout. So I ran. I ran and I have no idea how I did it. It was the longest 400 yards of my entire life. Each step was filled with pain. Every muscle in my body hurt, my feet burned and I was crying. I saw my kids right at the shoot and I lost it. Crossing the finish line I just bent over and sobbed. 3:09 was my run time. A medic came over to me and put a wet towel on my neck, held me up and asked me if I wanted to sit down. No, I wanted to see my kids.

Hobbling toward the finish line.

The entire time I was walking/running, all I could think of (when I wasn't in shock at how my body felt like it was falling apart) was all the time I had spent training. All the hours, all the effort, six months of training and nutrition and my half iron time was 4 minutes better than the last one.
4 minutes.

After cooling off, eating and pulling myself together, I texted Joanna. I said, "Finished and getting ready to leave. That may have been the hardest thing I've ever done. Wow" She called me immediately. I don't know how I managed to not cry while talking to her, but she was nothing but encouraging. She knew my goal and I failed. I failed. She said, "I don't think you would've finished the race at all if you didn't train the way you did. You can't prepare for that heat. You did the best you could. I am proud of you." Those words meant the world to me.

The truth is that I didn't fail. I finished a race where many did not. I improved my swim time by 11 minutes and my bike time by 7. I took an extraordinary 6+ minutes in transition from bike to run this time and my run time was increased by 11 minutes from the last race. The heat was brutal, my nutrition fell apart and therefore my body fell apart. I have always been my biggest critic and I continue to be that critic.

I did it!

I walked away from the race with a few thoughts: 1) I will never do a half iron again. It's just not my race. Eagleman decided that. 2) I am strong. Those were two facts I held fast for the last two days as I've hobbled from one place to another. I held fast as I suffered through dehydration and the inability to keep food down for the last two days. I held this truth until I thought about my next race. When someone said, "So, what's next?"

Truth is, I will race again because I am racing against myself. Probably not this year, but I will next year. Actually, who am I kidding, as soon as I am able to train again I will probably find a race and shoot for it. I will not let this stop me from doing what I love. I am a triathlete. I am strong. I will reach my goal of a 6 hour 70.3. 

Digging deep to find my game face

Transition setup at Diamondman 2011.

As time ticks on closer and closer to race day, there is a tiny bit of panic brewing in my head. Truth is: I’m tired. Very tired. I feel like I’m at the point where my body is screaming for a day off, but it’s also the point at which I need to listen to my coach the most. I need to trust her. I’ve come this far following all of her triathlon and nutrition instructions and workout plans, now is not the time for me to fall off the wagon. So I trudge on, trying to keep my head in the game and focus on form and technique as the miles get longer and longer.  

Along with this physical exhaustion I’m feeling, I’m having some mental “game day” issues. You see, I have a reoccurring problem associated with “racing.” As race day approaches, I start to distance myself mentally from the event. Eagleman is less than 6 weeks away. SIX WEEKS! I think back to when it was six months away. I was calm, cool and confident. Now, as we get closer, my once cool demeanor is changing to denial.

I can remember specifically standing at the edge of the water before Diamondman helping my fellow athletes zip their wetsuits (by the way, an absolutely fantastic way to distract yourself if you need it) thinking, “I cannot believe I’m about to do this.” What a ridiculous thing to think when I had spent the last 6 months preparing for that exact moment. Even as the race started and I took my first couple of strokes through the water, I could not wrap my head around the fact that I, ME, of all people, was there.

This is where I am mentally right at this moment. I hope it passes.

It's good to know people in triathlon

I've been a bad blogger, a very bad blogger. I haven't written in some time because, to be completely honest, I've been struggling with some mental setbacks. I haven't run more than 12 minutes in a row in nearly 3 weeks and I have a half marathon scheduled for April 29. I've been assured by my doctor and Joanna that I'll be able to run the race, but I'm starting to wonder if it'll really happen.

Shhhh! I snapped this picture while I waited for the doctor. 
Oh, what lovely bones I have...

Last Thursday I went to the Rothman Institute for an appointment to find out, once and for all, what is wrong with this hip of mine. As you can see in the above picture, my bones are fine. But, turns out, I have injured my gluteus minimus because my gluteus maximus is weak. Everybody laugh... I'm a weak ass. But what it means is that I'm not using my rear to its full potential while running.

That's not all... on Friday I went in for a VO2 max test at the Performance Lab (which was a really super awesomely cool experience that I promise to write about before the end of next week) to see if my asthma may be making my smaller muscles work harder. The test showed that my asthma is under control (good news), but my muscles aren't storing sugar for very long. This means that when I do longer, faster runs (bike rides or swims) my body doesn't burn fat for energy unless I'm running really, really slow - instead it's burning muscle. According to the test, I need nearly 200 per hour from carbs while working out. That's two Gu's an hour! From what I can tell, it's a vicious cycle for my body that nutrition counseling and physical therapy should fix.

Thank goodness my coach is also a nutritionist... who knows my doctor who happens to be a fellow member of the Philadelphia Triathlon Club, which takes me out of the translation loop. That's great news, since you can tell I'm terrible at explaining medical garble. 

Ask the coach: Triathlon training cycles

Last week I did not train at all. I had some very important personal issues that needed my complete attention so training was put on hold. Fortunately, it couldn't have come at a better time because last week was an "easy" week.

Joanna has me training on a four week cycle. We build for three weeks and recover on the fourth. I can't tell you how happy I am when I get my weekly training schedule on that fourth week and it says EASY week. By that point I'm spent.

Anyway, the last time I had a recovery week, someone asked me on dailymile what I was "recovering from." So, I asked Joanna to explain training cycles and recovery. Here is what she said:

Recovery weeks are there so your body can recover from the usual three weeks of intensity building workouts. Without the recovery, you can keep pushing and pushing, but your body will crap out on you after about six to eight weeks. OK, maybe not crap out but your body will slow down and you will be very tired. 

Your performance will suffer as your body will not be able to push as hard as you need for any length of time. During workouts your heart rate will either rise really fast and get to its max number when at 75% effort quicker, or you won’t be able to get that heart rate to move up at all. 

You are usually at your best performance-wise after a few days or weeks of rest or easy workouts, which is why we taper for our races. As fatigue goes up, performance usually goes down. But there is that little window where the performance remains high while fatigue starts to fall - that is when you want to race or do your monthly testing to see if you are improving. Then once that fatigue falls, you still have a week, sometimes less depending on the sport, to start that training all over again and build for three weeks until the next rest/recovery cycle.

I usually say you can choose to take an easy week now, sleep in and recover, or you can wait until you have no choice but to sleep in and recover which usually is when you are sick, injured or are so tired that even easy workouts seem difficult.

So next time you see a post on dailymile where someone is recovering, it might not be from an injury but that they are taking a break from the intense workouts so they body can heal and be ready for the testing, racing or another training cycle ahead.

New bike is ready to ride... and so am I

I have been a horrible blogger so far this year. I have lots of great ideas for posts, but there are only so many hours in a day and I can't seem to find the time to write. Between training, work and my family, I have about zero seconds of free time each day. Even as I sit here and write, I have a million other things I really should be doing, but I need to write a bit now.

We are exactly 4 months until my race. 4 MONTHS! When I started training in December, June 10 seemed a million years away. In the last two weeks, Coach Joanna has upped the intensity of my workouts. I believe we are still in the base building stage of our training, so my weekly mileage is still relatively low, but with higher intensity workouts, my body is tired like it's much higher. Add the fact that every single person in my house is sick and I can actually feel my body fighting to stay healthy, I'm whooped.

Here's a little update. A few months ago, I mentioned that my husband was building me a new bike. As of this past Sunday, it's ready to ride and it's gorgeous. I absolutely love it and I cannot wait to ride it.

Unfortunately, it's sitting in the basement mocking me each and every day that I sit on my old bike attached to the trainer. I'm waiting to take the new bike outside to ride it for the first time. So help me out and do a little praying for some warmer, weather in the very near future so I can get riding! 

Racing for a cup of coffee: Using caffeine to improve athletic performance

Today I am sitting at my desk enjoying a fresh cup of Dunkin Donuts coffee. A treat I have enjoyed countless days before today. Today is different. This marks my first cup of coffee since my detox.

I've had this coffee now for about 2 hours as of the writing of this post and as you can see, I'm a little less than a quarter of my way through this delicious brew. Here's the thing, I'm pretty sure I will not be able to finish it.

Before weening myself off coffee, I could easily drink this cup - in a lot less time than it's taken me to get through this small amount. In fact, I'd say I had a full blown coffee addiction. Sure, there were people out there who drank more than me, but I was pretty comfortable with a cup of coffee.

But now... now! Wow, I'm sitting here at my desk and my mind is racing... my heart is pounding... my hands are a little shaky... and, oh my goodness, I hope no one calls me because I'm talking so fast. Or at least I feel like I'm talking fast.The worst part of all of this is that even though I feel like I'm going a mile a minute, I'm tired. It feels almost like my body is exhausted from the effort of racing, which in turn makes me pick up the cup and take another very small sip.

I've read some articles online about the benefits of caffeine while training. So, I am curious about your coffee/caffeine experience. How do you use caffeine to improve your training ... or do you avoid it? 

After 2 week detox plan, I have new view on food

Two weeks ago I started a detox plan with Joanna. I started the plan hoping to give you updates on what I was eating and how I was feeling, but life completely got in the way. Two weeks ago, we also got a new computer system at work so anything other than figuring out the new system and paginating newspaper pages did not get done... but I did stick to the plan as best as I could.

The red/green pepper we found. Cool, right?

The first couple of days on the plan were really tough. I am not a vegetarian at all. I love to eat, but the plan called for all veggies all the time. I was drained. I had very little energy and about midway through my workouts each day my energy level would drop to zero. Around day 5 on the plan my body started to adjust, or maybe it was more like my eating habits started to adjust, and I had loads of energy. Joanna told each of her detoxers this would happen, but to be honest, I didn't believe her. I'm a skeptic, but it happened. I was sleeping better, I was waking up in the morning full of energy, albeit hungry, but not groggy.

Speaking of groggy, let's talk about detoxing from caffeine. Holy crap, what a headache. Let me tell you, it was not easy at all. Not one bit. I work at a newspaper, there is coffee brewing all the time. The smell of coffee is the first thing that I smell when I walk into work every single day. It took a huge amount of willpower to not drink it. I stopped cold turkey. Dear Lord, the headache. I drank Green Yerbe Mate tea, which has caffeine, but it's not coffee. Anyway, it worked as a crutch and as I sit here today, I am coffee free. I will tell you that I did have a cup last Thursday. It was decaf and I only drank half of it and I felt like crap after I was finished. I was shaking like I just finished a pot of coffee. I also made myself a cup before work Sunday night and I had about two sips of it and threw it out.

Some other benefits I've noticed is that I lost three pounds during the last two weeks. I was not starving at all either. I ate a ton of food all the time. My coworkers can attest to this. I probably ate pounds and pounds more food than I ever ate before. My typical day consisted of lemon water and juice that I made from a recipe of fruits and veggies Joanna gave to me, a sweet potato with almond butter (sounds gross, but it is soooo good), some raw veggies with humus or not depending on my mood, a huge salad with homemade dressing, an apple, another veggie meal and dinner.

Clearly I cheated more than once on this plan. I ate a doughnut yesterday, which was delicious and I just couldn't not eat it. I also had a night that I was craving a cheeseburger so badly I was dreaming about it and so I ate one for dinner. During the second week of the plan, I was given the ok to add some animal protein to my diet, so after my workout I'd have either an egg or I once added some ground turkey to some chilli I made. I wasn't starving at all.

Oh, and I can't forget to mention my workouts. After I got through the initial feeling weak phase, I was having one fantastic workout after another. I recovered faster and I never found myself dragging at midday after a long morning workout. 

Over the next weeks, I'll be reintroducing foods into my diet to see how my body reacts to each of them. Overall, I am so glad I did this with Joanna. I can say I learned a lot about my body and how I eat with her help. 

In the next few days, I will hopefully be meeting with Joanna to do a follow up BIA test and, reluctantly, I will discuss my weight and body fat to muscle ratio in an upcoming post. And I have a new video coming that Joanna and I made on cycling. I have a lot in the works and now that the initial new computer system issues are (hopefully) gone, I'll be able to update this blog a little more frequently again. Thanks for hanging in there with me!

Rebooting nutrition plan with two week detox

Beginning Monday, I will be joining Joanna in a 2 week detox plan. I'm not entirely sure what will be involved, but I will be chronicling the process and giving you as much detail as I can as I learn about it. I believe I will be following a modified plan that will be tailored specifically for my needs as an athlete.

What I'm hoping to get out of this is some energy that doesn't come from coffee. I've been dragging a bit recently and I am 100 percent certain it's thanks to the downward spiral of my food choices. For example, at 5 p.m. yesterday, I set out to a late meeting for work and stopped at Starbucks and ordered a large soy latte.

Did I really need the biggest size?

Yup. Getting up at the crack of dawn to work out is not conducive to late meetings.

While at the meeting, I had not one, but three Hershey special dark miniatures. Did I need three? Clearly not, but they were so good.

I got home from the meeting at 8:30 and despite all the sugar and caffeine I just consumed, I managed to fall fast asleep at 9:30. When the alarm went off at 5 a.m., I had no choice but to fall back to sleep. There was no conscious decision to be made. My body needed the sleep. I had slept that night, but it seemed my body was too busy processing the sugars and caffeine to rest.

Today I am so tired that I have no idea how I've made it this far without a nap. I have a bike and swim workout on my schedule today that I will not be doing. I will not benefit from a workout if I'm too exhausted to really do it. Tomorrow is another day.

Basically, I think, the next 2 weeks will be spent rebooting my digestive system.

Here's to a new start... I'm so excited to start.

Keeping your fitness resolutions is easy if you take it slow and make it fun

I don't usually make New Year's resolutions and this year will be no different. But in the last couple of days I have heard lots of people talk about changing their lives for the better. Everything from people promising themselves to exercise daily to changing the way they eat. Personally, I think it's great to make resolutions, but it's way better to keep them.

The thing about resolutions is that those making them step out of the gate with a bang. Food stocked up in their pantry is thrown out. Gyms are packed with people in sweats climbing stairmasters hoping to lose 20, 30, 50 extra pounds. Two weeks later, hunger sets in and a chocolate bar is eaten or exhaustion sets in and the gym membership is forgotten again.

Instead of making a "resolution," a "life style change" is more appropriate. An Ironman isn't achieved overnight. The athlete who decides to compete in any event builds up to the event through smart training, not hard training - especially right away.

Although I am not a professional by any stretch of the imagination, I have some personal experience with lifestyle changes. So here are are my non-professional suggestions for anyone looking to keep their fitness goals for 2012. I also included some advice from Joanna, so her suggestions are included as well. After reading this, please feel free to add, amend or completely agree or disagree with my suggestions. I would love your feedback.

1. If you don't currently exercise regularly, don't start this week. 
Let me explain. I'm not suggesting you forgo your weight loss or workout goals, I am, however, suggesting that you take it slow. Instead of opening a gym membership, go to the your local sporting goods store, buy a wicking T-shirt, a pair of shorts/capri's you can move in and a good pair of sneakers (this clearly is optional, but since I'm a girl, I find that with right outfit, getting out and going is much easier for me, personally). Then go for a walk, swim, bike ride, run, or whatever it is that you want to do. But, here's the thing, do it Every Single Day and only for 30 minutes. You can go outside or walk on a treadmill, both work the same. (Joanna talks more about this below)

2. It's YOU time.
The 30 minutes is YOU time. Don't think of it as exercise or working out, but as time you need for yourself. It's OK if by Wednesday you don't feel like walking, read a book during that half hour, cook or knit or whatever it is that you like to do by yourself and for yourself. Even Ironmen have take a day off. You'll still be using your time for you and you'll be rested for the next day's workout. 
(Psst, hey you moms. This is for you. Being a mom and having children - one or 10 - is no excuse to not give yourself 30 minutes a day. Period. I have two kids. I have two kids who are 14 months apart... and I work full time. You are not being selfish by taking 30 minutes for YOU. What you are doing is being a responsible mom. You are showing your child(ren) what a healthy lifestyle looks like and they will emulate the choices you make. You are taking a few minutes to put your health first because, let's face it, if mom is sick, no one is happy. Don't have a babysitter or not interested in getting up before the sun while everyone is sleeping? Include your child in YOU time. If it means walking with a stroller or using the child care facility at your local YMCA, do it.) 

3. Don't confuse changing your diet with starving yourself.
Food is meant to be eaten. Instead of throwing away everything in your pantry, read the labels of everything in your pantry. Notice that the second ingredient in that can of baked beans is sugar. Or the gravy mix is full of chemicals. My advice is if you can't pronounce it or if it's not found in nature, don't eat it. Taking out the hidden sugars in your diet and replacing them with natural sugars from real foods will do wonders for your energy level, but also probably inadvertently help you lose some weight. And, really, if you want a piece of chocolate, eat it for goodness sake. You aren't going to ruin your goal by treating yourself, but you will definitely set yourself back if you consume an entire chocolate cake because you've been craving something sweet for a month.

4. Stop drinking soda.
There is no soda that's good for you. Need that fizzy feeling? Try seltzer. Diet soda is worse for you than full calorie soda, and that's not saying much for full calorie soda either. Drink more water, especially since you're adding exercise to your life, you will need to increase your water intake anyway. Want something with taste? Make your own juice.

5. Don't go at it alone. Get a friend on board. It's much easier to get up a half hour earlier if you know someone will be knocking on your front door if you aren't there. If you're married or have a family, you will need their support as well. So while you're going through your pantry, explain to the kids why they won't be eating cheesy puffs at lunch, but they will be replaced with cheese cubes ... or whatever. Or you can do what I do and simply stop buying them so the choice isn't there at all. My kids will generally forget that they love Tasty Kakes if there are no Tasty Kakes in the house.

Finally ... (promise)
6. Register for a race.
No joke. Actually register for the event and pay for it. Seriously. When money is at stake, it's excellent motivation to reach your goal. I recommend a local 5K if you're just starting out and, please, give yourself plenty of time to train for it. If you've never run, or you haven't run in years and years, signing up for a race next weekend is a recipe for disappointment.

From Coach Joanna:

Keeping it realistic. 

Forget about what it is you used to be able to do –either last year, or even when you last worked out or exercised regularly. Youare probably starting with a new slate, so try to just think about the goal athand and start slowly. The body can only accept about a 10 percent increase ineither volume or intensity per week, so don’t start from doing nothing, todoing an hour because you will not make it. Instead, try rotating activitiesfor 10-15 minutes each and 5 minutes rest in between while you transition frombike to treadmill to rower, for example. Each week, decrease the rest time by30 seconds. Increase the time doing each workout by a few minutes each week. Dothat until you reach your goal time of an hour. But only add only five minutesfor the whole week, not each time you work out.  After you work up to that hour of continuousactivity, make it more fun with intervals, changing intensity or incline – playgames with the workout. For example, if you’re on a rower, challengeyourself to maintain a certain speed for three minutes at a time. If you’re ona treadmill, try changing the incline for 1 to 3 minutes without changing thepace. If on a bike, try doing hill climbs for 2 minutes at a time, and ofcourse, rest in between.

Keep in interesting.

Keep it interesting by changing the activity either ineach session to start, or every day do something different than the day before. Try the stair master, walk or the elliptical. The challenge is always to find something you enjoy doing, thenmaking it creative and fun to do even though it will still be ‘work’ing out. 

Please feel free to add, amend or completely agree or disagree with me or Joanna. I would love your feedback.