We're here to pump YOU up.

(Originally wrote on 7-Jun)

Where have I been for the last week? Good question. Aside from taking some much needed time off, Pete and I decided to just do some massive training. There are 32 days remaining until the race. We have both set personal goals for the race, which I'm not quite ready to share, but will at some point. My goals are specifically around my own times. Last year's times showed how conservative I was with my energy. Since I had never done a triathlon before I didn't know how much to push myself. My swim time was good, but I know I can knock five or six minutes off. My bike time was so slow because I was afraid I would burn myself out and not be able to run. My run time was laughable because I hurt the muscle behind my knee leaving the water and running up the sand.

As I think about these goals, I'm also thinking about what I can do on a daily basis to make sure I meet or exceed those goals. Food has become a main focus of change for this last month. I'm trying to be smarter about the food I'm eating, portion size and when I'm eating it. I have a fairly healthy diet to begin with, but for me I need to replace nutrients that I'm depleting. A good friend reminded me (today) that I should be taking supplements, including fish oil... duh. Yes.

Some of the interesting changes in training this year have been in how hard I push myself. Pete has been a great influence. The biggest difference is how we are ending our workouts. For instance during our run we are ending with negative splits (faster and the end rather than slower). This is really teaching me how to finish strong and push harder. And its working. Last night we did a series of hill repeats. We ran out to Lake Harriet and along one of the side streets there is a nice steep hill (hard to find in Minneapolis). We ran up and down the hill six times, just kept looping. At first we were going to do four and then Pete (bastard) changed his mind and decided we were doing six. We did the six repeats and then headed home, still running. For the last 1/8 of a mile or so we picked up the pace, quite a bit in fact, until we arrived at our starting point. I swear a little bit during these negative splits, but man I can really feel the power in my legs. We've been doing these negative splits for all of our runs, whether we're doing drills or just a long easy run. The last long easy run, the negative split at the end was closer to a mile of increased speed... holy shit. I like it. Tomorrow I'm going to see Miss Molly for some sprint drills. I'm looking forward to seeing her and to work on speed. She has been kicking ass with her own run times lately. One of her more recent runs was six miles at just barely over an eight-minute mile. That kicks ass!! So sprints tomorrow with her will be great. Last week really made me feel like I was back in the game. Not that I was really "out" of the game per say, but it was the right kind of push at exactly the right time. Here's what we did:

• Saturday 29-May: Swam in the morning followed by a run (can't remember the distance, maybe 3?)
• Sunday 30-May: 50 mile ride (w/Marie. Pete then ran 2.5 miles immediately following the ride and Marie did just over 4 miles. I took a shower)
• Monday 31-May: Shorter run of 2.5 then crazy ass strength training and core with P90X
• Tuesday 1-Jun: 42 mile ride down along the Cannon River Trail, love that trail.
• Wednesday 2-Jun: Recovery Day! Ran two miles then walked about 4 miles
• Thursday 3-Jun: Double brick; Ride 7.5 miles, Run 1.2, Ride 7.5 miles, Run 1.2
• Friday 4-Jun: Rode only about 4 miles, then took the damn day off
• Saturday 5-Jun: Ran around Lake Harriet 4.5 miles with the last mile ending in a negative split... wowza
• Sunday 6-Jun: Swam 2,000 meters or so then rode 32 miles

It was really a big week for riding. Because bike rides are so much more time-consuming its tough to do during a work week. All told we did over 140 miles of riding. Our average speed increased every time we rode... oh, and I bought a new bike. That's right folks. My seventeen-year old Specialized Allez has been retired to live out its days as an around-the-town bike. I have upgraded to (drum roll) an actual triathlon bike, a Quintana Roo Tequilo. I ride a 48cm still, since I haven't grown taller despite by best efforts; however the wheels went from 700s to 650s. I won't go into the long boring details of how this bike is different than a traditional road bike, but there are some differences, and so far I'm liking them. Half of our rides last week were on this new bike and boy could I feel the difference. The folks out at Gear West (thank you Drew) were really awesome. I spent nearly half a day there getting fitted, test driving and being a general pain in the ass customer. But it was totally worth it.

(picking back-up 11-Jun)
I could start by adding several quotes by the Dali Lama, but I won't. This has been a week of challenges on a number of levels. Searching through mass amounts of frustration, confusion and disappointment only to find myself right back where I started. I'm learning and growing. But all-in-all I'm a happy girl. What did I just say? Doesn't matter.

Celebrated my 5th year with Modern Survey.
Molly celebrated her 6th year (on Monday) of being cancer-free!!