When three is just too much

Sometimes I think to myself, gee, life would be easier if I just chose one sport and decided to work at that one and get good at that one, whichever that one may be. I wouldn't have to split my time between three sports and be running around all the time trying to get to the pool on my bike (which hasn't happened more than once since I've started working) and for that matter, I would have a lot less crap to carry. 1/3 the crap, to be exact.

But no, that would make life boring, I guess. It would be easier though if it wasn't scary to me to ride my bike when the roads are icy. Then I could get it all in and use bike commuting as a workout, too. But no. I'm either a chicken or smart and don't think it's a good idea to ride on icy roads with cars that may or may not be in control of themselves. It's not me I'm worried about. So I'll drive and make my own time all that much less and get myself sick by trying to do too much.

So I'm spending the day in bed today because I got myself sick because I wore myself out and people at work come and cough on me. Oh well, at least I can listen to music at home.

Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug

The last two days have been rougher than normal. I keep trying to figure out ways to ride to work. Only problem is, they don't plow the bike paths on my usual route that I chose because it wasn't as sketchy to ride the bike paths alongside the road rather than on the road with drivers, so I liked it. Doesn't do me much good if the 9 inches that fell last Friday is on it and has done the frozen/melt thing and has become the bumpiest thing and still deep as hell for bike tires to go through. Even mtb tires. Tried riding to work Thursday morning only to get to the point of mostly no return and panic that I probably wouldn't be able to ride that hard of a route home in the dark (I have lights, but still) on worse bike paths going the other way and with noone to call because Casey wouldn't have time in the evening to pick me up. I called him and went in late to work.

I got rear-ended on Wednesday, so now I have car repairs to deal with too. Not hurt though.

And to top it off, my period is trying to kill me. I know, probably TMI but I haven't had cramps that have made me cry in ages, and I'm just exhausted today because of them. IBprofen usually does the trick, but it doesn't seem to kick in as fast as it has in the past. Maybe it's just old IBprofen. Couldn't seem to drag myself outta bed this morning to do anything.

But the good news is it's Friday and the weather should still be clear enough tonight to go for my run after work with my four legged running buddy and make up what I missed this morning. I sleep better after an evening workout, anyways.

learnin new things...

So since this is my first winter in a "real" cold climate, I'm learning new things every day as it gets cold and I have to train in it.
Lesson #1: 9 inches of snow isn't a big deal here. Woulda been in NM...just sayin'
Lesson#2: Cleo doesn't seem to care how cold it is. She still wants to be outside, and doesn't mind running when it's 4 degrees out.
Lesson #3: Going outside into really really cold weather after being inside all day makes me sneeze. No joke.
Lesson #4: Frozen eyelashes. Weird.
Lesson #5: Frozen sweat...not too cold, still weird.
Lesson #6: 800 fill down jackets actually make sense here. Not in NM (shut-up Casey!) and same goes with scarves (like the 50 that I have...)
Lesson #7: Covering your face whilst running doesn't help much when you humidify the scarf which then freezes.
Lesson #8: Deep snow = slow dog = quite funny when she tries to go as fast as she can.
Lesson #9: Biking without toe warmers is a BADDDDD idea...think running alongside bike to keep them from getting frostbitten and being only slightly successful.
Lesson #10 (because I was just SO close!): It gets worse. They're calling for lows in the single digits now, and possibly negatives next week. EEEEEEEEEEEKKK!!! I'm told I give a heavy sigh every time the weather is on now. Seriously. Can you blame me? I'm running away to NM in January. Maybe I'll come back. Maybe not. We'll see.

mmmmffffff

Finally hit the lack-of-sleep-plus-training wall. Knew it would hit pretty quick, I really need more sleep when I'm training a lot. So working a lot and training a lot means no sleep. Don't know how people function on less sleep than 7 hours, I simply can't. Sad, I know. But today I got enough training in to allow an early sleep night so I can get it in tomorrow with *hopefully* more energy. Gonna bike to work tomorrow morning since they're threatening 1-3 inches of snow late tomorrow night.

Here goes my first Illinois winter...Did I mention I'm from NM where the snow is usually an inch at a time and hardly sticks around for more than a day????

Mountain biking with a dog!!

We went mountain biking out in the one spot here within driving distance. I'm not super great at it, but I'm not awful, either. Only fell four times this time. Aided by slippery conditions, of course.
Casey's been testing Cleo out on bike rides, seeing how she does, seeing if she'd follow him. She seemed to be doing pretty well, so we took her out to Kickapoo with us to get her exercise because, after all, she is a high-energy breed. So we just let her follow us off the leash while we biked. At first she was darting as fast as she could back and forth on the trail, so so so hyper and excited to be out and running willy-nilly (we did tell her to pace herself, but she did not listen). Then she settled into running with us, occasionally going off trail but coming back pretty quick. When Casey would get ahead too far and she couldn't see me anymore since she mostly stayed with him, she'd come running full speed back till she saw me, halt, turn and run as fast as she could the other direction. Making sure I was still there and still coming. Eventually she got so tired that the best she could do was trot on either back wheel. There's something she likes about the right side of the back wheel.

She slept the whole way home splayed out on the back seat, and now whenever she gets up to move she looks like she's quite stiff. Poor baby. She reminds me of Aussie, the 16 year old dog I grew up with that we had to put down this summer because of the way she's walking like a 16 year old right now. Gave her a full can of soft dog food after all that energy expenditure and she scarfed it no problem. Hopefully she's not too stiff tomorrow. But I'm sure she'll sleep well tonight.

It's been a busy last two weeks

I started working a temporary full-time job a couple weeks ago. What that means is I'm going to be really really busy for about two months. I'm basically forced to work full-time hours because jobs around here have been quite hard to come by, especially part-time. I'm not having as hard of a time with it as one of the women I work with, who's taking it entirely too seriously. It's grading a standardized ESL test for kindergartners, so that means we have to decide if their writing is right or wrong. I basically grade on what we're told, and don't worry until I'm told otherwise. She's over analyzing every single thing. Kinda funny, but kinda not...she gets me in trouble by asking me all the questions...

I've got my training plan for the next few months mostly set out. VERY exciting for me! In the immediate future it means three weeks of HELL. Wouldn't be that way if I didn't have to work full time, but it is what it is, and it's do or die for this season. I'm going to have a few weeks of no swimming though. Thanks UIUC rec center. You SUCK. I've never had a gym place close for weeks at a time before. So that means pull-ups/stretch cords fest and lots of running/biking those weeks. I'm still hoping that I can organize myself well enough that I can make the crazy night mtb rides because that was so much fun. And hard, which I need since I'm not great at going hard on the bike.

Since I've only been able to find temporary work, I can't afford my coach. So that means I'm mostly on my own (which is why I've been working on setting my training plan out on my own). Though, on one hand it may be the best, on one hand it may not be. I have lots and lots of books to help me out with it, so I'm confident with what I have down so far. And I have several people who I can ask questions. The way I see it, if this works, then I really should be looking more seriously into coaching certifications. If it doesn't, then I shouldn't haha. I have thought a fair amount about doing coaching stuff; I think it would be fun. Along those lines, though comes more schooling...again, not sure I want to do that...give me a couple years and we'll see.

First day at work

It was a long day. Grading kindergartners is the most mind-numbingly boring thing you can choose to do for 8 hours. It's not cool like being a teacher where you get to teach them. No, it's marking things wrong for stupid nit-picky reasons that you don't make up. And then doing that for a whole day. At least there was some comic relief. Like the nice pictures that they drew. And my favorite answer of all time(or today, however you look at it): wtf.

Because that's what I was thinking, too.

Back to it tomorrow. Gonna ride the 9.25 miles to work tomorrow morning because I can't stand getting paid $10/hr and throwing it out the window just to get there. Gonna get me some beastie bike legs this winter, that's for sure.

Interesting Weekend!

So on Thursday, I did some stuff around the house, then just for giggles I checked the jobs online to see if there was anything worth applying for, and surprise! There was! So I got my resume together, cranked out a quick cover letter, and decided I might as well get dressed if I'm going to go over there and hand this thing in. So I did, took their little are-you-a-competent-human-being test, which consisted of putting things in alphabetical and numerical order as well as copying some words, I can only assume for handwriting skills (or maybe for actually reading what you're copying...?), and I passed with 100% on everything. Yay! Like it was that hard...but I guess if they have to give the test then there are people who can't do that. The interview went really well, and it seemed like I got the spot. Then now I'm not so sure because sometime that evening - my phone didn't even ring - they called and wanted me to come in Friday morning and "get my feet wet." Which is totally awesome, but I was heading to Chicago early Friday morning, so I'm hoping that I get an answer here soon about if they want me to come in today (Monday) because I'd had that trip planned for two weeks...arrrgghhhh just call back already!! I hate the waiting game!! :(

Friday morning I went up to Chicago to meet with coach and get some tests done: VO2 and FTP. They, well, went fine I guess. They hurt, as they should, and I hit a new highest heart rate. I'm fascinated by the differences here with more oxygen than Abq had. The highest heart rate I can remember hitting in Abq was a good 10 bpm lower than this one. Though, to be fair, I did hardly any testing at all there. With the test on Friday though I didn't go fully anaerobic like the test wants you to, which means that 1) I have good aerobic base, and 2) I need to train that anaerobic stuff more. Thinking about why I'm like that though only makes sense to me if I consider that doing anaerobic work at 5500 feet elevation is a LOT easier to do than anaerobic work at 600 feet elevation (meaning it's easier to GO anaerobic). Because there's no oxygen there, what would be aerobic at 600 feet is anaerobic at 5500 feet.

But the body knows the pace/effort, not the oxygen saturation of the air.

So I still only go as fast as I did up there. So the workouts that I would do at elevation would easily be counted as anaerobic there, but since there's oxygen here, it's nearly impossible for me to go anaerobic. Basically my body has been forced to become so efficient aerobically because I've been at 5500 feet my whole life. At least my heart rate is finally responding though. For the first three weeks here I was 20 bpm lower than I would have been in Abq, and now I'm just a little higher. Because there's more oxygen. Interesting stuff, though. I really should do something in exercise science instead of engineering, right? I mean, this is the kind of stuff I ponder over most of the day...

Did a test on Saturday to see if I am making up this gluten stuff. Just to see how I felt. I felt pretty awful on Saturday because I had gluten Friday night (it's hard to eat well on travel) and I did the tests Friday/Saturday. So I decided to test and eat gluten again Saturday night to see if it could be for sure the cause of feeling awful on Saturday. We went and got BBQ...mmm so so SO good. Gotta say, I do miss being able to go out if I don't feel like cooking. But sadly, the body aches that plagued be on Saturday stayed with me all Sunday morning, and through the afternoon. That's what I use as a gauge since that's pretty immediate. It feels like I've got a skin-crawling fever, basically. But I don't have a fever. And I'm really tired. I think that that's my answer. I come from a gene pool of autoimmunity, and it seems that I found the trigger. The ache is gone; didn't have gluten all day Sunday, and not too keen on eating gluten again if it makes me ache like that.

Now, if only that one job would just call back!! Still waiting...

Wild Night!!

So I'm super stoked I've found a group to ride with, especially that they're crazy enough to "mountain bike" around town at night with lights in places I am very sure we weren't supposed to be.

Started out with the only way to get more than a ten second hill in this place: by racing up a parking garage. I was getting dizzy by the time we reached the top. Then a couple of the guys decided to ride the elevator (???) down. So I started the suicidal decent to try to beat them (fail) but I did hold off the guys chasing me down and made it very nearly first down. That was fun.

Then it was a series of parks, alleyways, construction sites (I think, as it was pretty dark...), as well as some type of lumber yard that they kept swearing "the trail's over THERE!!" Which it never was. But it was fun, and we almost ran over a few deer.

Then there was the race around the horse track...yeah fun stuff.

clean house and a job

...and actually the cookie like things came out pretty good. Guess they just had to be given time to cool enough.

Yesterday was a huge cleaning fest. I came to the conclusion Sunday night that I'm allergic to dust (not really, just really really annoyed by it because it clogs my nose). I vacuumed, detail-vacuumed, dusted, swept, shook, and wiped. It took all morning and part of the afternoon. It was great after that because I couldn't see the mystical dust cloud in the sun rays coming in the front window anymore.

Then I called my grandma. Haven't talked to her since I left Abq. I didn't realize how much I missed her. It was great, we talked for an hour before reluctantly going about the rest of our days. I desperately needed a shower before heading to the running/triathlon store to see if I could sweet talk them into giving me a job. No luck again. Still, it felt like a productive day.

Then this morning I got up and ran before my 8am training for my scoring job. I love daylight savings being over. I for one love having light when I wake up, not when I go to sleep. That just makes more sense. The sun wakes you up, after all. And I hate training early mornings in the dark, but I have no other choice a lot. In some capacity I wish I could move to Arizona. Just for the no-daylight savings perk.

I'm going to be scoring a standardized exam for ESL kindergartners-1st graders and let me tell you, it feels mean. I mean, if I had a child copying a word 'as written' from some typed list, I wouldn't mark it wrong for making the first letter capitalized or not, when it may not be that way in the example. To me, just writing the stupid word legibly is pretty good. But I don't make the scoring rules. Those are apparently political decisions. But sadly, drawing pretty pictures isn't the correct answer either.

...and the turbo oven strikes again....

I was attempting to bake granola-like gluten free snacks for my rides...they came out a bit burnt. I think they're still edible, but you know, when you're out on the bike for hours, you want something that tastes amazing. Not just edible.

Oh well.

This is the oven that's 20" wide and 75 degrees hotter than it says it is. I was going to post the recipe if it worked, but it didn't. So I'll have to tweak and repost.

I encountered dogs today on my long ride. They were coming up to me with a "Dude, what's THAT!!!" attitude. Don't think they meant any harm, but I still stopped and yelled at them to go home. Which they did eventually. I just didn't think it was a great idea to let myself be surrounded by strange dogs out in effectively the middle of nowhere.

After that it was tailwind all the way home.

I am so so lucky.

And I really am. I've got Ellen on while I'm waiting for my eggplant to weep (...poor eggplant), and she has on her show a woman who's got student loans that she hasn't been able to pay off for the last year while she's been looking for a job (with no luck, obviously) and has gone through all her savings and just moved back in with her parents.
I still have some (really, not much) money, but no debts besides what is on my credit card (and that I pay off every month, no compromising) I bike nearly everywhere, which is FREE, and I have people who love me and support me. And I have at least some work coming for the next couple months.
I'm broke, but not that broke. I'm so lucky.

CX...ouch!

So met up with the WildCard Cycling guys tonight at a park. No it's not how it sounds. They put on an unofficial cyclocross race. SHEEESSHH!! And I raced. Ok, more like fell off the back and got lapped, multiple times. But I'm not the one(s) who cut the course, either. I did say it was informal, right? And I was on my old mountain bike. And I'm not super good at the whole jumping over barriers with the bike thing. I gotta say though, I DID get first in my category. First out of all ONE women (including myself) that raced. I didn't quit and I hurt the whole time. All that after I lifted weights earlier, too. They had a tall mound, these are usually called hills, though this doesn't quite qualify as one. It was, however a mound of torture. Just tall enough and steep enough to hurt (like REALLY BAAAAADDD, worse the tenth time than the first few), then the course they set up was down the other side of it halfway and turn back up, and then back down a single track. Lost traction going up on it every time. Didn't fall though. And perfected the slow tight turn that I have troubles with 99% of the time. And the more tired I got, the more I didn't bother to touch my brakes haha. Didn't want to waste the energy. Finished up, rode home with Casey.
Now I'm going to lay on the couch because I can't move.

Finally, I am not sick anymore. I was sick for a week. Not really sick, mind you, but enough sick to just feel like crap. And interrupt my last week of "not really training training." Which is to say, just getting out and training because I'm bored and feel like it. So instead of training, I bummed around the house, looked for jobs (still) and cooked. Because I didn't want to drive anywhere because it costs money and I didn't have the energy to bike anywhere in the cold. Stupid cold. At least now I'm done with being sick and I can go out and train this week, the first week of real training. This week marks the start of my self-defined training schedule that will lead me to World Domination!!!! BUAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA!!!

Ok, maybe not.

But I at least have it mostly laid out so I know what races I'm planning on doing and I know how I plan on going about training for those. First off is 70.3 New Orleans. No I'm not signed up for it yet, that will come when I get my first paycheck. But I'm definitely going to do it, and my bff is meeting me there (YAAAYYYYYYYYY Cathie time!!) to sherpa and then hang out with me afterward. I'll be limping around sightseeing in New Orleans.

First off in my training week: recovery day yoga. Mondays are recovery days, so here goes the yoga....

Blustery days are good days to be sick...

Of course, I'm not smart enough to not try to go out and go run in the weather, furthering my crappiness feeling, and making me spend the rest of the day on the couch. But it's oh-so-cozy to sit curled up under a fuzzy blanket with hot tea while the wind goes crazy outside. I even learned something whilst on the couch: Kit Carson isn't just the name of a park in ABQ. He was a frontiersman and instrumental in "conquering" the wild wild west. He had two wives in his lifetime, one Native American and one Spaniard (not at the same time) and was multilingual without being literate. He was also instrumental in the Navajo Death March to the Bosque Redondo in NM, and was exploited (in my opinion) by the US Army for his knowledge of the language and culture of the Native Americans in order to control and move and to ultimately destroy the livelihoods and homes of the Native Americans, killing thousands. In order to "civilize" the west. The history of the good old USA is a bloody one, that's for sure.
Happy conquering.

Windy!

Here in Flatlands USA there's wind (surprise, surprise!). My ride yesterday was not terribly long, 3 hours, but the vast majority of it was into the headwind. I think the weather said that we had like 30 mph winds...so needless to say it was super slow one direction, and FAST the other direction. On the way back (I very smartly rode first into the wind, then turned around hehe) I was cruising quite fast, I didn't have a computer on my bike, and as soon as I started coasting I could feel the wind coming from behind, meaning it was still going faster than I was. So cool! Mostly because it was a great way to end a ride :)
My weekend overall was a bit lacking because Casey literally did homework ALL weekend. Boo to that. I'm always impressed that he can just keep working like that, though. I would have had a breakdown long before him. I'm just not that good at doing stuff I don't get, don't like, and don't care to.
Which is why I'm not doing it.
On the other hand, I'm stoked to start my official base work for next season, all in prep for 70.3 New Orleans in April, especially once I get over my cold (that I'm totally blaming Casey for) that hit me last night. Sniff.

FIT Time Trial

So I know this is a few days late (as in like 5 days) but somehow time just seems to get away from me. Saturday I went and watched the Fighting Illini Triathlon Team do a time trial of sprint/Olympic distance triathlon. The swim was in the pool, transition was out the nearest door, bike was out on the road, and the run was somewhere in the opposite direction of the bike direction (I didn't do it so I barely glanced at the courses). I just went to play with my camera. There was only a small handful of people doing the race, maybe 10? And of those I think 4 started the Olympic distance, while one flatted out of it. The swim start was at promptly 11:10 a.m....

...and continued for either 500 yards (maybe it was 750 or 800, I don't remember) or for 1650 yards, depending on the distance chosen...Then the transition zone was pretty informal. Especially since one of those not racing decided to "help" one of the guys who was by tinkering with his T1 setup:
Pool to T1:T1:
Out to the bike!While everyone was out on course, there was a floor show by the shirtless wonders...
I swear, any chance these guys get they're either A) shirtless B) in a speedo or C) both. And then there were the pictures that were simply taken for entertainment. There are a lot more racing pictures, too. A few are below, and more are on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aubrey_b-p/

I'll get out for a run here when Chuck and Kory are done installing our new front window...yippee!!

Happy Thursday!!

I'm Glad the Weekend is Over

Which is weird, I know. It's not a normal thing. Saturday was fun, we went mountain biking (and then spending the afternoon in the kitchen was cool too), but Sunday was, well, just weird. We woke up late, which is supposed to be nice, but to me it feels like I've wasted all day when I don't wake up till 9. I'm used to being out the door by 5:15 during the week, so my sleep in time used to be anytime past 6, and which usually fell sometime around 7. Which still left the vast majority of the morning to feel like I've gotten something done before the day was half over. Sleeping till 9 just doesn't do that. So Sunday I slept in late, took like two hours to get breakfast, which included another attempt at GF pancakes (and they came out pretty darn good, thank you very much), then laying on the couch for another few hours reading a Nora Roberts novel. It was a LOT of lying around and took most of the day. Thought briefly about going for a run/bike/swim/anything and didn't do it. It is my break time, after all. Then, whilst Casey was being productive in his way with homework and laundry, the dryer broke. Again. It faked us out before, but somehow managed a few more loads then quit again. We proceeded to disassemble the thing, thinking that maybe something was blocking the drum from spinning, only to find a whole bunch of lint. My nose is still plugged up from it, too. After some "diagnostics" which really was just cleaning out the darn thing and seeing if the motor worked with the load removed, we realized that it was in fact the motor that was dying. I began the task of figuring out how to take the dang thing out, and Casey went back to homework. I learned that if the fan and the motor of the dryer are "married" long enough, they will NOT come apart. So Casey came back and destroyed the fan so the motor would come out. Now after some searching, I realized that the most expensive component of the dryer to die happens to be the motor itself. Awesome. We did, however manage to find an awesome site that we could find a motor, fan, drum seal (because the old one has disintegrated completely), and belt for $103. Which is less than Sears wanted for just the motor at ~$110. Take THAT Sears. Now we'll be totally set if I can put it back together.

Got a bunch of strength/speed/etc testing planned for this week. After that, I guess I gotta get down and set up the plan for the 1/2 IM I'm gonna do in the spring. At least it looks I'll be able to go visit NM in January and possibly get some serious mileage in down there, on dry and warmer roads. And maybe some hills too! I'm really missing my old training groups at the moment, and definately the mountains, but that's ok. The weather here has been pretty good so far.

Call them Chimlirellenos!

So since leaving NM I've craved numerous items featuring the green/red chile that is so common (and OH so good!) in NM. The closest thing I've found here is the poblano chile, which is, to me, not even the same, but I found these yummies at the Urbana Farmer's Market for 5 for $2, and decided a relleno attempt would be good. Which was tonight. Now I can't have gluten so the batter was going to be different than traditional, and in this case it ended up being corn. It was kind of some of this...some of that...little more of this...ended up with 2 cups (??) worth of masa mixed with three eggs and enough milk to make it kinda runny. Filled the peppers with shredded chicken (not a traditional relleno, at that point, more like a chimichanga), jack cheese, then covered them in the batter and fried them.
They were dense, and I mean super dense. One filled me up along with the random Spanish rice I made for the side. And I made one MELL OF A HESS!! Casey was sweet and helped me clean up (OK more like cleaned up for me while I floated and tried to help with the gimpy thumb that I burned the crap out of trying to fry stuff).

But it turned out good. And there's three left :)

Two cool things(I'm sure having fun with lists lately):

1. Found a cycling group that rides through the winter here: www.wildcardcycling.org. Casey did an informal cross race with them last night, so I went running where they were riding and chatted with the Manager of the group. Only downside: I'd be the only girl. Sigh. I'll take what I can get though.
   
2. Successful gluten-free pancakes!! Up until this time, they've been more like pancake mush...

Yeah...

I haven't been very good at updating. I want to say it's because I've been busy, but I guess that's not really an excuse lately. Mentally busy then? I have been doing a lot of pondering. I by a lot I mean a LOT. Still thinking some things over too. What I have decided:

1. I WILL be an elite by the end of next season, if not sooner. This means a rough winter, as I'm starting a 40 hour job here somewhat soon, it however only runs for 8-10 weeks. So I can suck it up for that long. But it's November thru January-ish, so training is going to be in the dark and in the cold...yippee. I'm taking this year off school/career/whatever isn't conducive to training so that I can do this. So I'm gonna do it.
   
2. I am not going to stress over whatever anyone else may or may not think about me. This seems obvious, but I do it a lot. Ahem, ok, USED to do it a lot. It tends to really mess with your head when you do that.
   
3. I am going to get on the making jewelry thing that I've thought about doing for, um, 8 years now? I've seriously have been making jewelry for a really long time, I just never have done anything with it. This will give me an outlet without the accumulation.

Things I'm not sure about:

1. Should I take the GRE? The deadline for the paper test is this week, so I gotta decide soon. But the thing is I'm not considering grad school at the moment, and I don't see that taking it would do much more than keep that door open for the next year. But if I'm not even considering grad school then there's no point in taking the test until I am considering it. Right?
2. Should I pay for yogatoday classes? Ok that one sounds silly now, but I'm on a tight budget and even though it's only $10 a month, it's another $10 out the door. But yoga on my own usually consists of a few sun salutations, stretching my hips and calling it good. And it's not enough and I know that. So classes push me, and that's a good thing. But it's money.
   

There's more to the list, but sitting here makes me realize that maybe I do have more of a grasp on things than maybe I thought I did.

I'm getting used to riding among the corn and the flat here. The wind doesn't bother me. I am from Albuquerque, after all. That place is more windy than I've seen here. You give me 20 mph winds and I laugh. Give me the 40 mph winds with 60 mph gusts that I'm used to! Bring it! Now the cold is something I'm going to have to get used to I'm sure...

New Home!

So I made it to Illinois...busy setting up house...it's MUCH more humid here than back in New Mexico. Gotta say, it's not really that bad, I've kinda just gotten used to, um...dripping. Everything I do I'm sweating lol.
I'm taking a break from building my silly dog a fence to keep her in the yard. I'm drenched. Mowed the lawn first, too. That was a lot of work. Double the dripping!
Found the UIUC cross country running course this morning on my run (my first real run here) and had fun on it. And guess what!! There's a HILL!!! Okay, okay, I'm 90% sure it's manmade (because it's a pile of dirt with turf on it...just saying) but still. It's a hill!!
I'm dying to get in the pool and move around though, so that's on tap for later this afternoon. So looking forward to being in the pool after not swimming since last Thursday. And I'm looking forward to hitting the outdoor pool at the ARC center at the UIUC (I'm not the student this time, but that seems the best place to train here...). It seems like quite the nice facility.

That's the plan....now to do another load of dishes dug out of boxes....

It's been what, two weeks??

So since I decided to stop eating gluten, it's been about two weeks. Not counting the accidental gluten ingestion...like soy sauce...but anyways I've noticed HUGE changes. Not like make up changes that the placebo effect could account for either. Like the swelling of my eyes. Totally thought that was a seasonal allergy thing. GONE. Then there's the asthma. Again, thought that was a seasonal allergy thing...GONE. Don't get me wrong, I totally still sneeze, but my eye isn't pinching itself into oblivion anymore and I'm not trying to do workouts and feeling like I'm sucking through a straw.
Oh and then there's the poo...hehe. That's changed too (though for some reason I totally didn't expect anything with that to change) and for the better! Won't go into details because...ummm....TMI?? My under eye bags are significantly reduced...probably because I'm sleeping like a ROCK. I'm falling asleep and NOT moving. At all. Wake up in the same position I fell asleep in, and not stiff from it at all, which means that my muscles are finally loosening up (which means that I'm not hurting).
Oh and that whole energy thing? That thing that I've not had in, well, years really? It's back!! I went swimming Saturday morning, started my warmup, and just kept going because it just felt good. I don't remember EVER doing that. Just cruising along, not worrying about how much or how long I've gone. I think I musta swam for ten minutes straight without being forced to. Again. Never done that. Anything longer than a 400 has been required....
Oh good days :) So excited to see what happens with the last two races of the year now that I'm feeling good.

New Foods!!

So after a TON of research (and I'm sure the people who hear me talk all the time are getting tired of this) I am going gluten free. WHY?? Well, remember last year when I had that thyroid issue? Well it cleared up on it's own (thankfully), but I've still had an achy throat a lot, as well as four colds this year that have taken me out of training for weeks at a time. Not helpful in, you know, improving athletically in any way. And it's not like I wasn't stressed with school, granted, but being taken out with the most recent happening in late June doesn't fall into the stress-cold category, I don't think. So back to the gluten free thing. Having a gluten sensitivity can mean colds and the like, but more importantly, there's a HUGE correlation - and I had found a list of like 5-6 studies illustrating a strong connection between autoimmune thyroid diseases and Celiac (Grave's is an autoimmune thyroid condition) that I can't seem to locate...so this one will have to do for now:
http://nephropal.blogspot.com/2009/07/leaky-gut.html (if you scroll down, he lists the problems that Celiac disease causes)

Not to mention that I'm not the only one in my family with an autoimmune condition, I'm just the only one willing to give up bread to try and fix it, apparently.

One of the drawbacks is that, yes, it is going to be a LOT of work. Can't exactly get a burrito on the way to work anymore. But on the upside, I'm being forced to be creative, try different recipes, as well as eat more nutritiously dense foods. Filling in the gaps with veggies instead of bread is much more helpful in healing and inflammation.

Tried a new recipe today... similar to this one:
http://www.joyfulabode.com/2010/04/22/breakfast-casserole-with-chard-if-you-want/

But I used sweet potatoes, italian sausage (from Keller's Farm Store), and Kale/Chard.

Came out great! Yay for having breakfast for the next few days :) I might just turn into a serious foodie yet...duh duh duuuhhhhhh

My computer's finally back!! Sent it off once, got it back, and it was still broken :( Made me super sad. So I got them to pay for shipping back, and this time it came back fixed...and with a new motherboard...glad I didn't have to pay for that! Yay warranties!

There's an old guy at work who likes to ask me what the day's workout is every time he sees me. So for my off day today, I told him it was yoga. "YOGA????" he asked. "Well, yes, it's really good for recovery and..."

to which he launched into how he would fall asleep if he did it.

Bah...old men with driver personalities....

I love yoga. I really believe that it's something that works. This last semester I made it through all the training and school without really getting hurt. In fact, with not too much of a complaint. Why? Well, I took a yoga class, two days a week, for about an hour. I try to do it on my own, but I'm really not good at "spoiling" myself. As if that really falls into that category. It's more like maintenance, but I don't seem to think like that. Now that I've been done with school for more than a month (that long already??!?!) I seem to be falling apart everywhere. It's the shoulder, it's the IT band, it's the plantar...it's always something. Today, it was the shoulder. I just could not get it loose enough to really do anything in the water, and to make it worse, it started it's little popping routine that it sometimes likes to do. So I had to stop. I got out and went to work, called TRFC to get Carl to work on my shoulders. Carl is awesome. My shoulder stopped it's popping routine, and the foam roller that I picked up on my way home is more awesome than I remember them being. Like really. I'm going to make a habit of that. Between that, my stick, my Aurawave, and my nobby S-shaped thingy, I should be good...oh and my yoga mat. Right. Gotta remember that one.

I had a good run today: 8X400s. The clouds were playing chase with me, and I was wishing that they would come and rain since it was 100+ on a black track...

Cute little prairie dogs on the bike path by Tramway...they like to run right in front of moving wheels...

Oh man, long driving weekend. I left on Thursday for Salina, Kansas. An almost 10 hour drive. Haven't been through Kansas that I can remember before, and it looked exactly as I thought it would. Think Wizard of Oz. Green and gold fields and rusty old farm equipment. Really pretty. Especially for those used to brown landscapes haha.

Spent the night in a KOA in Salina...in my car. Wasn't the brightest idea I've had, trying to save money like that. I sweat the whole night and didn't get much sleep. Stupid, stupid idea. At least I tried right? Oh well. You live, you learn. From Salina I went to Des Moines on Friday for the Hy Vee on Sunday. Beautiful drive through Kansas, though I got really sick of seeing roadkill. Poor animals :(
I went into the race feeling REALLY good. Though for me that's usually not a good sign, so I didn't know how to take it. The morning of the race I got up at 3:40 - for my 6:04 am start. So early. I was all psyched up for the race...only to have them shorten it to a sprint. I understand why - a bad thunderstorm was on it's way, they needed to, you know, not have anyone in the water when it hit, so an approximate 400 meter swim and time-trial style start was what we got. Kinda fun that way, actually. I got the swim done in an ok time, then there was the bike. There was NOTHING there. Oh well. I think the taper wasn't quite right. I think I've had a rough spring for training with graduating and all, so oh well. Disappointing though. 39 something for a 20k bike isn't stellar, or even what I can do (think 32 for 20k in abq - at 5000 feet...with a few more hills...arrgh). Then the run was ok - still not what I can do, but the legs still weren't quite there for that either. So, next big one will be AG Nationals for another try at the ever elusive elite card.

Back From the Abyss!!

Ok ok I know. I'm sorry. It's been since January. So that means a quick catcher upper. Been training and racing a lot. Went to Havasu in March, got 3rd, did a good time too. Went to Collegiate Nationals in April, didn't do so well. Just wasn't there. Did a small, new local race called Coyote Carrera, got 1st overall, felt pretty good, but it's hard to gauge some races. Did the Jay Benson, got 1st overall, and was really surprised that I came out with any kind of time that I can deem good because all week before was spent in the UNM machine shop and computer lab stressing over final projects and write ups. There wasn't much for training that week, either. Then it was time for stressing over final exams so that I could, you know, graduate haha. So I did, and I did it Cum Laude in Mechanical Engineering with a Minor in Spanish. Sweet! I'm really glad to be done, but I'm a little scared, too. It's a big step. I'll finally not be stressing over school enough so that I can train as much as I want, and theoretically, do much better than ever before.

So where am I going from here? Well, first off, I'm working part-time through the summer in my Mechanical Engineering internship that pays well. And I'm training and racing all over the place. Then at the end of the summer, I'm running away with Casey, my love, to Illinois. He got into the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, which is totally amazing, and I'm planning on going out there partly to be with him, partly to live somewhere new (as opposed to the place I've been my WHOLE life), and partly because the triathlon scene there is SO much bigger than it is here in NM. So it's one big new adventure for both of us! I'm excited for that.

Next race is the Hy Vee. I've never done this one before, so it will be interesting, as always. I'm looking forward to the new venue, and I'm hoping it goes well. I'm stuck though in terms of getting out there. I just can't justify flying out there, since it costs just as much to fly my bike there as it does me. Seriously. As long as it costs that much to fly, I won't. Not to races anyways. So that leaves driving. Yep. Me and my lil wagon. We are making the 15 hours to Des Moines in two days and crashing in a KOA on the way. Soo much cheaper than flying! And much more scenic. Wish me luck!

Hangin' in There!

So far so good! I'm surviving school (it's only the 3rd week of the semester) but that's not to say that I won't have at least one melt down before the end comes. Training is going surprisingly well, despite having so much stuff to do. It's all gonna get more complicated and busy from here on out, so the goal is to stay as organized as possible and minimize the freaking out I'm so so good at doing ;) . I have one of the best training partners in the world, she's there no matter what (minus the swimming, but pools don't generally allow her kind). She's always down for a run, no matter how long, and is always up for more play time after! I guess you just can't beat the energy levels of an Australian Shepherd, right? She's still learning the complexities of the bike trainer, like that the pedals go around in circles and it's not a great idea to stick your head in the area where they move...she'll learn.

I decided to finally get my own racing wheels. I have read nothing but good things about the Neuvation C50 carbon tubulars, and I have a set of the M28 Aero 3's for training, which I love. I've actually raced a fair amount on the M28's and even though they're purposed as training wheels for me, I put out my best bike times ever on them, and I haven't had to true them yet. So needless to say I love the wheels, and love that they're not $2000 for a set (try, like, $600 for a set of carbon racing wheels...wow). So between new wheels, training, and tweaking the TT bike position to make it more aero, I should be riding pretty fine this time around! I've been drooling over the amount of carbon in the setup....oooh sexy carbon....haha.

New Training Regime

Well, it's official. I'm trying a coach. From what I can tell a very qualified coach. I need a coach for several reasons, number one being that lately I haven't been able to push myself because I don't know if I'm training right. I will work my sorry little ars off if I know that I'm going in the right direction. It's really too bad that Nuevo Mexico doesn't have much in terms of coaches. I've only found coaches with a level 1 certification, which, by now is about as much knowledge as I already have. So that wouldn't help much. And I'm looking to go pro, which means ITU style racing: fast swim, draft bike (but still important), and run as fast as you friggin' can off the bike. I'm sure I have the physical capacity to make it, I just need help gettin' there :)