Triathlon By The Numbers

Subtitle: I heart tracking data.

Weeks of training: 15

Number of (swim, bike, run) workouts: 62

Total number of minutes spent swimming: 641

Total number of minutes spent biking: 1,974

Total number of minutes spent running: 481

(Hmmm...I wonder which one I like to do the most...)

Number of cross training workouts: 5 (2 yoga classes, 2 weight lifting sessions, 1 stand up paddle boarding session)

Pre-Training Weight: 150

Post-Triathlon Weight: 156

Pounds gained/lost: +6

Pounds of fat gained vs. pounds of muscle gained, judged by the way my jeans fit after putting them on for the first time in 2 months: 2 pounds muscle, 4 pounds fat

Total calories burned due to triathlon workouts (according to Daily Mile): 33,962

Number of beers to equal 33,962 calories (150 cal/beer): 226.4 Beers

Ounces of Brie to equal 33,962 calories (95 cal/oz): 357.5 oz of Brie

Pints of Ben & Jerry's Half Baked equal to 33,962 cal (1,080 cal/pint): 31.4 pints of Half Baked

Longest Run: 4 miles

Longest Swim: 1 mile

Longest Ride: 25 miles

Total Miles Ran: 46 miles

Total Miles Swam: 13 miles

Total Miles Ridden: 303 miles

Total Miles: 362 miles

Worth it?: Every Second!

Work to Workout Quick Change

Sometimes, I want to leave work and be sweating it up as soon as possible. One easy way, make workout clothes part of your work ensemble. Here I am, in one of my more stylish work outfits (we are a very casual office)- a navy cardigan, black top, and lacy skirt. However, the black top, which is mostly hidden by my cardigan, is a Prana workout top, and (like most days) I am wearing a sports bra.

Two easy steps- remove the cardigan, switch the skirt for shorts and bam! I am ready to go.

My parents left early this morning, so I skipped out of work a little early yesterday. We headed to the beach and rented a stand up paddle board. This was my first time going stand up paddle boarding, but it wasn't too difficult to get the hang of. It was a little bit windy though, and I definitely fell off once when a giant boat wake crashed by.

I did achieve my summer goal of doing a yoga pose on a stand up paddle board!

From here.

Although my poses were more in the Savasana and Uttanasana realm of difficulty, than the ones in the picture above

Three Things Thursday - Question Edition

1. What should I do with my hair? Should I get bangs?

Right now my hair looks like this, but it's kind of a bizarre reddish color (thanks box dye!):

While sometimes I really like how I look with bangs,

My last haircut...not so much.

I have not got my hair cut since September because the last one was so bad. I'm now a little gun shy.

So what should I do? Bangs? No bangs? Embrace the whole magenta-hair-thing and dye my hair pink?

2. What should I bring to Orlando with me?

Besides Everclear.

I'm going to Harry Potter Land with the BLs for KJW's bachelorette bacchinalia. What do I bring? My family is not amusement park people. Or really vacation people. We went to Disneyland when I was four, but I literally don't remember anything about the trip other than sitting outside of Space Mountain because I was too small to go on it. I've also never been to Florida.

What do I bring? What are some amusement park essentials?

3. What are some good exercises that I can do throughout the day?

I am inspired by Rose's EXTREME OFFICE WORK OUTS and I want to start incorporating them throughout the day.

What should I try? Squats? Lunges? Bicep curls with my coffee mug?

Three Things Thursday

It's snowed more than 2 feet in two days. Again.

1. There is a giant cornice of icy death hanging from my house, and it scares me. I am going to make Dan take care of it when he gets here tomorrow. If he gets here. There is a serious blizzard right now. I tried to drive the three miles to Katie's house, and I didn't even make it to the end of my street. Scary!

2. My car survived its first slide into a snowbank. Way to go, Strawberry! I also managed to put my chains on with only some "help" from a drunk guy who took way longer to get his chain on than I did. We had our work retreat at my boss's house out in the boonies, and getting there was quite an adventure. I rewarded myself with lots of delicious cookies and a brownie.

3. I now own two snowboards, a set of bindings, and a pair of boots. Unfortunately, the boots are too small and the bindings are so old that they need an adaptor before I can put them on either of my snowboards. Guess I am renting again this weekend!

We had a snow day at work today, because of the impending snow doom, so I headed into work at about 10, picked up some stuff and went to the gym before the snow got too crazy. I spun for 70 minutes then lifted. I lifted after I ran on Tuesday, too, which is good, because with the craziness at work lately, I'd kind of fallen out of the habit. It's way easier to just get in a run or a spin class and ignore strength training when I have limited time. But now I'm back on the strength training wagon!

At this rate, I won't be able to ride a bike in Tahoe until July, but at least I'll be strong!

I might hurl

Slightly more than 24 hours until the 6th Annual Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival.

Ack!

Ack! Ack! Ack!

Everyone out there who has planned an event knows how I am feeling.

Hopefully, after tomorrow, life will slow down a little, and I can get back to my normal schedule, including working out and blogging. I did manage to fit in a 3.5 mile run yesterday, which I desperately needed.

Dan and another friend are coming up tomorrow, so when I finally escape work tonight (after a 6:30 pm meeting), I need to clean my dirty, neglected apartment and do 3 weeks worth of laundry. Maybe shave my legs.

But if you are in the area, come check out the Film Fest! I've worked really hard on it, and I am so excited about how it's turning out.

Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival

MontBleu Resort Casino Spa

Stateline, NV

7 - 10 pm, doors open at 6:30

Here are some scenes from the movies we're showing:

Scattered Fluries

Nico's Challenge

1% of the Story

Eastern Rises

Better Bones & Gardens

The Windmill Farmer

Oktapodi

Work, Spin, Work

According to the handy (scary) little countdown clock on the Film Fest event page, there is exactly 3 days, 23 hours, 52 minutes until go time.

AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!

That's why today, I left spin class and went back to work. Well, technically, "back to work" because I'm working on a laptop on my kitchen table. But still. More work.

At least it's fun work. I'm making the playlist that will play before and after the films and during intermission. Unfortunately, my music taste tends toward 80's/rap/Lady Gaga, which I don't think goes all that well with the Wild & Scenic theme.

What music do you think works for an environmental film fest during the filtering in/intermission/filtering out portion?

I don't care if it's 10 degrees out, I'm eating a smoothie!

In other news, I'm obsessed with my new blender. Tonight's dinner smoothie was almond milk, frozen peaches, frozen strawberries, a banana, and a ton of spinach.

However, the smoothies + the cold temps = me being way too cold. I need to figure out more things to make with my favorite new toy. Maybe edamame hummus? Maybe many kinds of hummus?

I was definitely feeling my major butt bruise from snowboarding on Saturday in spin class today. Ouch! After spin class, the room where I do my strength/core was packed, so I hopped on the elliptical for 30 minutes, hoping it would clear. By the time the room had emptied a little, I was so hungry, I bailed on lifting, and just went home so I could make a smoothie. Definitely the right decision.

Snowstorm benefits

1. I get to work from home. This means I cracked a work from home lunch beer at exactly 12:01.

2. I get to make my Save Servce! calls from home. Don't cancel AmeriCorps!

3. Watching the pup porpoise through snow drifts bigger than she is.

4. Since I flaked on going grocery shopping before it hit, I am being creative with my cooking. I made a version of this recipe, from Melissa Nibbles, except I used rice instead of pasta and my frozen vegetable mix is 90% carrots because I had already picked out all of the broccoli and cauliflower and added some garbanzo beans. It was delicious, filling, and I have leftovers. Those are my three main requirements for cooking.

5. When the snow finally stops, snowboarding will be super fun!

Three things for Thursday

1. Dan was supposed to be on his way up here right now, but plans fell through, and he is not coming this weekend. He better get me the blender I asked for for VDay. But, on the bright side, I will be going to Santa Barbara next weekend! And my friend Katie is coming with me, so I don't have to drive by myself. Time to make some mix cds!

2. I finally decided what to name my car. Her name is Strawberry. Incidentally, strawberries are also the food I could eat the most of in one sitting. I ate two pounds in about an hour driving back from Mammoth last summer.

3. Tickets are now on sale for the 6th Annual Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival. You can go here to buy tickets, watch video clips, and learn more about the Film Fest. If you are in Tahoe, you can also buy tickets at the Alliance, MacDuff's, Patagonia, Gaia Licious, Tahoe Rock Shop, and Sierra Ski & Cycle Works. This is the first event I'm putting on for work, and I'm really excited about it! We have awesome films, a great venue, cool giveaways, and it supports a great cause. I hope if you are in the area you can make it! March 11th, MontBleu Casino, 7 - 10 pm. Kids welcome!

Since I was planning on having visitors this weekend, I also planned to do a long work out today just in case I had a little too much fun this weekend. I planned on going to spin, doing some lifting, and then going to yoga. However, after the elliptical and spin class, my knees were majorly complaining. Stupid stair climber. No more for me. So I decided to head home and ice instead. So now I am finishing off my toffee with frozen peas on my teas and tea in my hand. Lovely evening.

Does anyone else have Lincoln's Birthday off tomorrow? I do. Getting all of the holidays off is one of the benefits of nonprofits I have to say. I'm planning on sleeping in, addressing my floordrobe situation, making soup, and taking a long walk, enjoying the sun and the bare roads because SNOW is in the forecast.

Happy Birthday, Lincoln! Thanks for the day off!

I heart Netflix!

I have to hand address 600+ envelopes for work this weekend. I am going to watch hours of my guilty pleasure shows (Secret Life is the definition of guilty pleasure. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I watch it in a public forum) and eat delicious things.

I just keep telling myself, "At least I get comp time. At least I get comp time."

Hopefully, I'll be able to fit a run (outside?!), spin class and pilates (first time ever!) in there somewhere.

The reason that I have 600+ envelopes to address is that we have our first big mailing of the year going out on Monday. And, apparently, potential donors are more likely to open a letter if the address is hand written. I also got to print out all 600+ letters today so our executive director could take them home to sign over the weekend, and, of course, our brand new fancy printer/copier/scanner decided to stop working. And the mail merge didn't work the first 6 times I did it. And the printer didn't have our letter head done until the afternoon. And my boss was gone, so there was no one to answer any of my questions.

It was a very stressful day, but I succeeded, all 600+ letters got printed and we're ready to go to the Executive Director by 4! So I let myself go early (benefit of the boss being gone) and made it to the gym in time to get a parking spot before the post work rush that always makes parking a fiasco.

Nothing too exciting at the gym, I just ran for 23 minutes (hill workout) and lifted focusing on my legs and back. I'm definitely getting stronger which is always exciting.

Tonight, 30 Rock on Hulu, tea in my mug, and brussel sprouts on my plate. Perfect Friday night?

Mug intervention

New blog layout! Super exciting.

It's only a couple of days into February, and I did not start off the month very well on my fitness goals. Usually, I go straight from my office to the gym, which makes it that much harder to skip, but on Tuesdays, I usually go home and eat something before yoga. While living literally a stone's throw from Lake Taco has it's advantages , it is usually about three times as windy at my house than it is at work. By the time I got home, got into my yoga clothes, and ate some delicious hot soup, the wind had really started whipping. So I made the executive decision to sit on my ass in my yoga pants and watch Going the Distance. Normally, I dislike both chick flicks and Drew Barrymore, but I loved this movie! I love pretty much anything that features my secret boyfriend Charlie, but aside from that, I thought it was really funny. If you've ever been in a long distance relationship, you'll really appreciate it.

Yesterday, I did my short run that I skipped on Tuesday, and I did it a little faster than I normally run, which was great. Then I did 35 minutes on the elliptical, making up for missing my swim? Maybe? At least I use my arms on the elliptical? I did arms and abs as well, including the crazy plank which was hard.

I've started using the notepad app on my ipod to track my workouts, so if it takes me a couple days to get to the computer where I keep my spreadsheets, I don't have to try to remember what I actually did, mileage, weights etc.

So remember yesterday when I said that I had four mugs at my workstation? Actually, it was worse. The quick glance around that I took did not reveal 2 mugs that were hiding. That means I actually was hoarding six mugs. Six. Luckily, they were all clean. No gross moldy mugs hanging around.

Our office is across the street from a slightly sketchy thrift shop. Sometimes we take breaks and walk over there to see what exciting things we can find. It's where I found my awesome ski suit. I totally scored there today. Not only did we find a file cabinet for my new intern ($5!), I found a

couple of cute jars for my tea and quinoa, so they don't have to hang out in my cupboard in the bags they came in, constantly threatening to fall out and escape all over my kitchen floor. I also found a new travel coffee mug, because I stupidly left all of mine in my storage unit in Seattle, and, while I have not yet spilled coffee from a regular mug while driving, it's only a matter of time. I also bought a mug. My mug looks like the one above, but it says Lake Tahoe instead of Florida, and it has pine trees instead of palm trees. It's amazing. Hopefully, having one mug that is mine will prevent me from hoarding the office mugs.

January Totals & February Goals

January was the first month I've really worked out consistently since moving from Seattle in October. I did a fair amount of biking and other active things all summer, but the move and especially the couch surfing/temporary homelessness involved really affected my being active. I started working out again in mid-December when I was no longer working two jobs, but implementing my triathlon training plan really made me buckle down and get committed to working out. How did I do?

First the bad:

I swam 0 yards in January. Big fat zero.

That's not gonna work. I have tons "reasons" (oh, there's no pool at my gym...it's so cold...blah, blah, blah) but, really, they're just excuses. I totally should have made it to the pool.

Now the good:

I ran 25 miles in January.

While many runners have weekly mileage higher than that, this is awesome for me. I haven't run regularly since moving away from Bellingham and the ultimate running trail, Lake Padden. I was also still adjusting to the altitude change, though now that I've been here for 10 weeks, I probably can't use that excuse anymore! While my miles may be slow, I got them done.

I biked 196 miles in January (estimation).

I did all of these miles indoor on a spin bike, so this is just an estimation. I found a spin class that I love, and an instructor that always pushes me. I tend to bike more than what my training plan calls for (making up for those missed swim minutes!) because being in shape for mountain biking season is my main motivation for working out. Training for the triathlon is mainly to help keep me on track.

I started going to yoga once a week.

I have bone spurs in my lower back, (Everyone! If you have back pain, get checked it checked out stat. Don't ignore it and develop bone spurs!) and they barely bother me at all when my core is strong and my muscles are stretched out, i.e., I go to yoga. So good for me, and my preventative care.

I started strength training again.

Strength training is great. I can feel the difference in almost every aspect of my life!

February Goals:

1. Go swimming. At least twice a week. Starting Wednesday (aka tomorrow). If I don't, everyone has permission to yell at me.

2. Keep up the good work with running. Run at least half my miles at 10 min mile pace.

3. Keep up biking. Bike outside at least twice this month. Even if that only happens when I go to Santa Barbara.

4. Try out pilates. There is a pilates class at my gym that I haven't gone to yet, mostly because I am nervous. Get over it, and go to pilates.

5. Up my yoga to twice a week. Or do some combination of yoga/pilates twice a week.

6. Do something fun outdoors in the snow at least three times this month. Whether it's cross country skiing, snowboarding, snow shoeing, etc.

So there they are. My goals for February. I decided to write them down so I can hold myself accountable more easily.

Excellent Suggestion

DJ Spinderella suggested that I make the elliptical more entertaining by bringing my step-dog along. Great suggestion Kelly.

Free food and mixing up my work out

Work has such a different feel when most of the office is gone. Last week, all the senior staff (ie bosses) were gone for half the week. Party in the office! Today, other than me, all of the younger staff is gone. Party in the office! Just kidding. Though the executive director did take me out for lunch. Got some delicious tomato basil soup from my favorite soup place, and even resisted the urge to bread bowl it up. Which was difficult. I ended up spending the whole time talking about my thesis project that I did before I came to work for the Alliance, which was fine because I can talk about that topic forever. Seriously. Ask me about the environmental impacts of nanotechnology, and I will tell you way, way more than you would ever want to know.

I know a strong core is important for just about everything, but I get so bored doing core workouts. Partly that's my own fault for doing the same things over and over, but I am so sick of planks and the few other things that I do. Does anybody have any good suggestions of core exercises that I can do and vary my repertoire?

Note to self: be more organized

Since this fine specimen of humanity is coming to visit me, and I happen to have two free lift tickets to Sierra-at-Tahoe, I'm taking tomorrow off work to go skiing.

Woo!

However, that means that I have to finish my section of the mid-year report today. Have I worked on it? Not very much. How not very much? Well, I couldn't find my notes on which sections I'm supposed to do. Ooops.

I searched all over my desk. I looked in my filing cabinets. I looked in that wire stand up paper separator thing that I haphazardly shove papers in. It's nowhere to be found! Mind, I only have a vague idea in my head what the notes actually look like. I start to worry that maybe I recycled it. This is not the end of the world, as I have yet to actually recycle any of the paper in my recycling box.

After exhausting all other options, I sorted through the whole box of recycling. As I said, I have yet to remove any of the paper in the two months I've been at work. It was kind of a nice little time capsule of my time at the Alliance. But, alas, no notes.

I give the the file cabinet a fourth and final shot. What? What's this? My notes! Right in the file folder they're supposed to be in.

Well, I'm glad that my recycling box is now well organized.

Work out:

- 30 minutes on the elliptical. I got so bored! I wanted to do some kind of cardio that used my arms, since I was supposed to be swimming, but I really did not enjoy the elliptical, and I had a really hard time getting/keeping my heart rate up. Does anyone have any tips to make the elliptical more fun/a better cardio work out?

- 20 minutes on the spin bike. I didn't wear my clipless shoes and it really made a difference.

- Lower back work. I need a stronger core!