Classic

Had to quote a very good training friend...who happened to nail it right on spot

"Yes but you know you would trade in the idea of having Mr. Right and the white picket fence for a PR time any day of the week."

A little R & R goes along ways...

Taking this week off was an excellent decision on part, I feel pretty damn good. I'm not sure if I remember the last time I awoke to zero muscle/joint aches/pains.....and mental clarity is at an all time high. What I do find odd is that my hunger hasn't died down...I'm still eating like ravenous animal. Oh well, I'm just going to say I need to store extra fuel stores for IM training, I'll run it off at some point, right? Please say I'm right. :)

My house is packed and I'm currently living out of two cardboard boxes...do you know what this does to Ms. Type A++++++ positive planner? I hate not having choices. I want soup, but the soup is packed. I want to make pumpkin pancakes, the mix is packed. I want hot coco, where the hell is the box with the hot coco?! I am completely out of my comfort zone. And speaking of comfort zones...curve ball was thrown my way. WTF?!

Totally excited for Halloween. I think with enough 151 I might stay warm in what some might call a shred of fabric. But hey, I am rocking a pair of knee high (stop reading mom)
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%^$%# me boots, with wool socks...so hey, got some warmth on the extremities, so I should be good to go. It's going to be a long night. I figure with three hours of sleep, a massive hang over and a wonderful mother to make sure I don't run into the wall too many times I shall attempt to move the next day, or at least try to direct the people I am kindly paying to move my shiznit.

And I'll leave you with a few lyrics of songs in my head, why they're up there I haven't a clue.

*If I go crazy will you still call me Superman?
*Better run through the jungle
*Why do you build me up, build me up, buttercup baby, just to let me down?
*Thunder only happens when it's raining
*You didn't think it was going to be that easy did you? You know, for a moment there, I kind of did..... :)
*Luck be a lady tonight!
*Gotta get some lovin...
*Beyond the sea, and never again I'll go sailin'
*I really want to, come kick it with you, you'll be my American boy
*Lola, lalalalola
*I don't want a beast of burden
*Smile like you mean it
*I want sex and candy

Tonight I said...

F&^# training..in fact that's my moto for the whole week. I'm moving and burned out.....so instead I've opted to spend the evening sippin' on some bad ass hard cider at Mcmenamin watching Tropic Thunder with friends. Was it really funny or was the hard cider making me laugh my ass off? Either way, good times for all.

Another crazy busy off season weekend

Friday night was started off right with drinks and food with friends
*Wasabi martini at The Gotham Tavern. Ick, it tasted like aluminum...but a conversation piece and peaked the curiosity of the group to try it. Traded in for a chocolate espresso martini topped with a cherry. Really how could you mess anything up topped with a cherry?
*Not one, not two, but three haunted houses at the memorial coliseum. The first one, Oil and Gas was pretty scary....although that could be contributed to the alcohol I consumed prior. Lindsay and I held hands, screamed and protected one another from the ghouls. The second house was set up like a museum of gore and oddities. It wasn't really scare at all and that might have been because the alcohol wore off waiting in the 20 minute line. Really? The best part was walking through the pitch black rooms. While we were waiting in line there were these odd characters walking around, they were pretty neat. There was this disturbed looking child with a fucked up doll, a guy in some kind of gas mask and lab coat, a crazy pig faced man....he was freaky until he started dancing, then I couldn't stop laughing my ass off. What took my attention was the hot crazy murderer...or something like that. He was walking around with no shirt on, bad ass abs, and covered in blood and dirt. I could spot those abs from afar and was immediately drawn to him, so of course I ran right over and felt him up. I had to see if they were real or painted on. Would you expect anything less from me? Lol, they were real and that brought a smile to my face. Sadly for me he wasn't interested and walked away in his trance. The third house was the best in my opinion, and that was with no alcohol involved. It was set up like an insane asylum. they had all kinds of crazy characters running around, role playing and becoming very invasive. At one point Lindsay and I found the whole thing so funny all we could do was fall over laughing. I think this annoyed the actors....they didn't stick around too long after.
*Note to self: You can no longer wear *&$% me boots to look cute if you plan on walking around all night. Ouch! My feet hurt the next morning.
*Riding the MAX is scary. A man that resembled a pimp (I'm 99% sure this was NOT a costume) kindly let me know he like my little outfit under my wool floor length coat. Awesome.
*Hot wings and more alcohol to end the night on the right note.
*Once again I got home before midnight so that my car wouldn't turn into a pumpkin
*Failed on the dating goal.....I couldn't get a date with the murderer yet I got hit on by a pimp. My luck, go figure.

Saturday
*Woke up after 6 hours sleep and went running with my coach. Did I drink last night? WTF was I thinking? We ran all over the west hills, but at a slow comfortable pace. Started at Dunaway track, headed up Twilliger, ran off onto random trails that took us up to Council Crest, the Zoo and Rose Gardens and then back down. Council Crest has this neat circle you can stand in the middle and anything you say will echo off the stone walls that surround you. Of course I had to play around and talk random nonsense on it. We couldn't have asked for better weather to run in. It was a prefect autumn day in the NW. Sunny and clear with a crisp in the air, surrounded by the beautiful city inside the forrest with falling changing leaves. Heading back was a bit challenging. I had shared some of my nutrition and found myself bonking with vertigo.....no fun. There were a few points I had to stop on the trail and walk since I couldn't see straight. 2 hours and 45 minutes later we were back. With all the breaks and walks we probably ran 2.5 hours, I really haven't a clue on mileage since it was on unfamiliar running grounds but based off of time and a relaxed pace I'd guess 14-15 miles. I was happy to arrive back at the car eat....props to me for bringing my cooler with food!
*I couldn't satisfy my hunger all day.
*45 minute power cat nap
*Finished my Yam Jalepeno Bacon soup. Turned out to be my favorite soup in the last two months.
*Caught up with friends at Katy's house warming party. Such a cute new home, hope you love it hun! Katy by the way makes the BEST Sangria.
*I ate too many hot wings and red pepper hummus dip. It was time for Kat to step away from the food.
*Of course 47lb cock wine was involved and a wine called Black Mate. I bought it because it was national Pirate Day, what that means I don't know, but at the time it intrigued me.
*Pb cookies and cherry chip cupcakes, so freaking good! I love the off season!
*Lindsay and I ended up at Dirty dancing the night away.
*One too many Black Opals. Train hard, party hard, right?
*Hehe, pole dancing with an oh so hot soon to be fireman. Did I mention I got to see more abs? This had to be my lucky weekend.
*Ugh, driving home at 5am. Shouldn't I be out running now?

Sunday
*4 hours later I was up to start packing more and then to take care of errands. Not too happy about this.
*Met up with friends for an easy 40 mile ride. We started at the Lucky Lab in NW and then my route was changed. I had suggested riding the dirty 30 out to Germantown but was convinced to ride up Cornell to 53rd instead. A new hill to climb, cool. Haha, I was actually a bit scared since I had never ridden it before and wasn't sure if my quads have healed yet. Last weekend I still had struggles getting out of the saddle. I climbed 53rd and then Thompson all in the saddle, it felt good. I wanted to conserve since this was just the beginning of the ride and my fatigue levels were high from lack of sleep. We rode Skyline all the way down to Cornelius, again conserved....you know come to think of it the whole ride I conserved. This was probably the easiest 40 miles I have ever done. I guess I can thank riding with two bad ass boys to draft off the whole time. Thanks fellas. I swore I was going to get blown right off of skyline, the side wind was scary and the hangover wasn't helping anything. Speaking off wind, you can always count on it at Sauvie's Island. Again, thanks boys for pulling me along :) You made me a happy Kat and in return I shared my H2o and nutrition. Did I mention I had a nice view of piston pumping calves? Mmmm, yummy. At the end of the ride we went up Vaughn and I decided to test out my quads. I was able to climb out of the saddle without any sort of muscle fatigue. Booyah, quads are healed. I think next weekend is going to call for a hilly ride. Bull Run maybe? :)
*Another beautiful fall day and great training....or just keeping my fitness up.

Here's the power wattage data - Keep in mind - 4 hours of sleep and a massive hangover
Max Speed 33.18/ Avg 14.79
Max Cadence 128/ Avg 58
Max HR 182/Avg 141
Max Torque 43.95/Avg Torque 7.66
Max Power Watts 826 (no shit!? this can't be right)/Avg watts 122
Max Power /kg 13.9/Avg 2.05

I'm tired....and now need a weekend from the weekend.

More on life

Sad note: Today I spoke with the head nurse at OHSU. I'm trying to figure out this egg donation thing. After a long talk of my lifestyle and the process that would happen I've opted not to donate. The nurse said that with my weight/ body fat % and regular monthly cycles (which barely exists due to the high amount of exercise) there would be less then a 5% chance of the hormone/fertility growth medication to actually work. She asks all the donors to reduce exercise to light or none at all during this time to help with fertility stimuli. Plus with the amount of training I do the side effects had a high chance of being worse. So blah, although I care I can't share.......this sucks.

I did happen to have a really great day at work. I'm starting to get into the product creation phase for our website. This is so much fun. I get to use my creative technical analytical side to break down athletic apparel. It's amazing how many features and benefits a garment can have.

I've been testing/running in my new Zoot shoes and I have to say I love them. Here's a link
http://www.zootsports.com/race/
I have the ultra tempo. It provides a minimal amount of stabilization support in a race shoe. First off I've NEVER been able to wear a race shoe. I've always needed some heavy clumpy shoe to help fix my pronation. Either I've improved my run form so much or Zoot make a badass shoe that compensates while staying light. I think it's a little bit of both. I've done 3 runs now in these shoes. First run was a 7 mile hilly run on the roads....worked out ok. Second run was a 6.5 mile tempo on the treadmill. I was nervous about this one, I usually get some kind of leg annoyance on the stupid boring machine, but not in my Zoots. 3rd run was tonight 3 miles sock-less. This also made me nervous. In the past I've been prone to blisters. Zoot has made these shoes with a breathable anti-microbial mesh liner inside, anti friction liner, water drainage holes in the bottom and connected tongue to shoe with quick laces. 3 miles and no blisters. The next test will be a 10k sock-less. I'd like to test these up to a half marathon. I couldn't see doing IM in them but a 10k and possibly a half marathon. They're much lighter and nicer to run/race in then my normal training shoes.

Met up with a friend for an easy 3 mile run to end the evening. It was good times, lots of catching up to be done and sushi to eat after. Mmmm, I <3 sushi!


I'm going to bed now, and my nose is could yet again. Did I mention I didn't defrost from my morning run until 12:30 this afternoon. I HATE being anemic.

Brrrrr. Fricken-A

It's bloody cold. Got up and started running and immediately wish I had hit snoozed and slept in. Brrrrr, jack frost has arrived too early! Hit me in the face with 35 degrees. My lungs, nose and fingers hurt. There wasn't much I could do about my nose and I was wearing gloves for my hands, the only solution was to pick up the pace and get my core heated up with high powered energy. Within 15 minutes I had feeling in my hands again and my body was warm with pumping blood.

6.2 miles/8:25 pace.

I'm running tonight with a girlfriend, looking forward to the company.

Back in the pool

250 Warm up
1 x 200 fins
6 x 50 drills; A-ok, Fist, Claw; rest 10
3 x 100 paddles
1 x 200 fins

6 x 200, rest ; 20 between each
#1 & 4; be speedy on the first 100, then easy (positive split)
#2 & 5; be speedy on the middle 100 (even split)
#3 & 6; be speedy on the last 100 (negative split)

100 easy

Cool down
25 x 5 pool wall dips
50 x 5 pool wall dips
50 x 5 pool wall dips
50 x 5 pool wall dips
50 x 5 pool wall dips
25 x 5 pool wall dips

Total yardage 2800

This was challenging for me today.