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!