Step Away From the Cake

You're Spain! You like rain on the plain, as well as interesting architecture and a diverse number of races and religions.  You like to explore a lot, but sailing, especially in large groups, never really seems to work out for you.  Beware of pirates and dictators bearing bombs.  And for heavens' sake, stop running around bulls!  It's just not safe! Take the Country Quiz at the Blue Pyramid

This morning's run with the marathon training group was so incredibly awesome I still can't get over it. Since my 30k debacle I've been playing with my nutrition and I think I've finally got it wired. When I was at the running store a couple of weeks ago I noticed this new addition to the gel rack and had to try it. These are the best things since sliced bread. They are gel like and slightly chewy like a gummi bear. They taste great, not too sweet, and go down easy - not like gu at all. The package directions say to eat 3 at a time but I found that too much. I eat one about 45 minutes out and then 1 every 1/2 hour and I have energy to spare. They are great.... Okay, back to my run. When the alarm went off at 4:30 a.m. the last thing I wanted to do was get up. I've been so tired this week and the thought of getting up early AGAIN was almost too much. But, I forced myself out of bed and got moving. I loaded up my bottle and pouch and headed out. Oh yeah, in my n

This has been an absolutely brutal week but the worst is now over. Monday was the tough run and lack of sleep due to scared puppies. So Tuesday I was tired and sore and decided to take the day off - no problem. Tuesday night was WW and that was not good. Wednesday morning I just could not drag my butt out of bed and last night I had a business meeting that involved lots of pizza and beer. Yes, I overdid it. I ate way too much pizza and drank too much beer and to top it off I even had dessert. I literally had to unbutton my pants on the drive home I was so full. That lead to me not being able to get out bed again this morning. I must say though now I feel better. I've got all light food to eat today to try and make up for yesterday. Tonight I get to go straight home, walk the dogs, do the ellipitcal for awhile, have dinner with the hubby and relax. I plan on being in bed early and getting up tomorrow and running. It's been rough I'm just glad it's over. "

This was the beginning of sunrise this morning. And this was it when the sun finally came out of the ocean. I have a tendency to forget how lucky I really am. This morning was so beautiful I needed to take a moment and remember. It's been a rough week and I'm really tired. I couldn't get out of bed again this morning so I didn't get my workout in. I was feeling so down on myself and then I walked the dogs and saw this. Okay!! That kind of puts things back in perspective for me. So being tired and sleeping in is not the end of the world. Clearly my body is telling me something. So tonight I get a good night's sleep and start over in the morning - it's not the end of the world and in the overall scheme of things it's a very minor blip.

So this plan called for me to exercise every morning as well as my marathon training 2 nights a week. So let's see, Saturday we had a pretty hard 2.5 mile ( edit: it was 2.5 HOURS not 2.5 miles - oh my god!!! ) run even though I felt pretty good after. Yesterday morning I got up and did 1/2 hour on my new elliptical machine and could really feel it in my quads. Last night we did a pretty hard 1.5 hour run almost 1/2 of it being on sand - UGH!!! So when I got home last night I was tired. Then, after going to bed exhausted at 9:30, a torrential rain started around 11:00p.m. - that woke me up. I was just going back to sleep when the thunder and lightining started. Please note, my dogs are petrified of lightining. So at midnight we had 2 very large dogs trying to share our pillows with us. The lightining lasted till about 1:00a.m. but the dogs didn't start to calm down until almost 1:30p.m. and it took till almost 2 to get them down to their usual sleeping spots. By this time I wa

UGH!!! I hate when that happens.......... Okay, so today begins the Big Training Plan (heretofore known as BTP). Over the weekend I worked out my schedule and have set a training/racing schedule that will take me up to the Honu Half Ironman in June. The first phase of this starts today. During this phase I will focus on 2 things, losing some weight and building a solid training base in running, biking, and swimming. I've got about 7 weeks until the Honolulu Marathon so that will be my running focus. I will be swimming 2 days a week (at least) to build my swimming back up. I will only be biking on the weekends due to darkness and weather but that's okay, biking is my best leg. I will also be doing core training to develop a strong, solid core for all these activities. And I'm back at WW with a vengence so I'll be losing weight. My weight goal is 15 lbs by the time I return from vacation on January 5th. Phase 1 of the BTP will last until I leave on vacation Decem