Running in the rain....biking to a wedding....

To set the record straight, I actually enjoy running in the rain. It makes me feel tough. People driving by either look at you like you're nuts (which makes me feel tough), or they give you the knowing nod like 'you go girl, you dedicated athlete, look at you not letting mother nature put a damper on your workout' (which makes me like something of a superhero because dedication is the hardest part of 'toughness' if you ask me).

But yesterday, as I headed out the door on what was supposed to be a 10 mile run, the wind kicked up....and it was cold. And then it started to rain. And every ache or pain that I've had throughout my training this season came flooding back. Even some old favorites I'd long forgotten about. And 10 miles turned into 3.

I'm really hoping it was the weather that brought this on. Last weeks 10-miler went really well. My hip has been giving me problems a little since, but the run itself was good. In fact, a bit into the second lap we passed a little girl running for her big wheel on the loose. She stopped and let us pass, but from behind me I heard "good running." And I thought, ya...it is 'good running'.

But last night that little girl probably would have said something like "mommy look at that soggy pathetically slow grimacing girl out in the rain....what's she doing?"

So we'll call that the low point of the weekend.

On the positive side, I found a creative way to get my bike ride in this weekend....I biked to a wedding. Imagine that, biking for transportation. What a novel idea. It felt very productive, and then didn't make me resent being at a wedding when I should be out biking.

I actually have to thank my co-workers for the idea. When asking what I was doing this weekend they joked "probably biking to Fennimore?" (Fennimore's about an hour by car....so the idea of biking there is pretty preposterous to a normal non-triathlete person) And then it hit me....ya, that's a great idea. Rather than bike around in a circle and then head to the wedding....I'll bike to the wedding. I did have the luxury of a date who was willing to drive the SAG wagon with all my stuff, and a place to shower and get ready once at the destination. So it was a go.

I had to change up the tactics....and get up painfully early...but I got it done. I ended up dusting off the old Gary Fischer Utopia Hybrid (I LOVE this bike. I miss it. I should really ride it more. I am not loving my road bike these days.) and taking the Military Ridge Trail, but I got almost three hours of riding in regardless. And riding is riding as far as I'm concerned. And while the trail isn't hilly, I do think its pretty much up-grade the direction I was heading, which was also right into the wind. So its not like it was a cake-walk.

A few miles into the ride, I realized how relaxing it was to not have to deal with traffic and directions. And having not been on a solo ride all season, I really enjoyed just letting my mind wander. It was a beautiful morning, and there were very few people out on the trail to share it with so I just soaked it all in. Blissful selfishness. I think I really needed that.

I'm like...famous....or something

It seems I've made an appearance on the Saris website. Had I known this would be a publicity photo I would have put on a little lip gloss or something. Nothing like having your post-100-mile-bike-ride picture make it to the internet....but doesn't it look like we just had 100 miles of fun?

As if the cheese and beer weren't enough...

...now we're shotgun-toting rednecks in winter parkas?

I was looking up the date for The North Face Endurance Challenge and found this little gem of quality PR for the state of Wisconsin:

The North Face Endurance Challenge Midwest Regional now has a new date:

Date: Saturday, October 25th

This change was deemed necessary due to the state of Wisconsin announcement that shotgun antler-less deer hunting will be permitted on October 17, 18, and 19. For the safety of everyone involved with The North Face Endurance Challenge, a new date was set.

There's something about the term "shotgun antler-less deer hunting" that sounds so completely barbaric and backwoods that I'm slightly disgusted. Though I am well aware that hunting season is practically considered a holiday around here, it pains me to see it in writing.

And just when you thought you were having a bad day...

This is what greeted me after work tonight.

Ten days the little guy has to wear that. Its breaking my heart. What have I been complaining about? He has been truckin' around the house bumpin' into things...getting stuck on the carpet....getting stuck on the stairs.... So I'm just going to stop complaining and get over myself now before someone makes me wear a cone on my head. Tomorrow's workouts will be running, fuzion, and swimming....all cone free. :) No excuses.....really.

If you don't have anything nice to say....

You know how when you don't have anything nice to say....you shouldn't say anything at all? Well, I probably shouldn't blog today because I don't have anything nice to say. Really. I can't come up with one positive thing to blog about right now.


So if you don't want to be pulled into my downward spiral of negativity you should probably stop reading. Come back and visit later when I have my attitude adjusted and my head back on straight.


If your sticking around for the whining....here goes....


My training sucks. My time management sucks. My nutrition sucks. Everything just seems to be sucking right now. And I guess everything is all intertwined so if one thing gets out of whack, of course it would all be out of whack.


I'm tired. Cranky. Busy. And I didn't work out at all last week. That's right. Not - one - workout. For seven whole days. Am I a serious athlete or what?


It all started out innocently enough. I ran crazylegs in crap weather. Then I went out....on a Saturday night....and drank a glass of wine....and it was downhill from there. Do you see how fragile this system is?


I had called off the Sunday bike ride the night before because they were calling for a chance of snow. I draw the line for hard-core triathlete girl perseverance at snow. So I went out Saturday night and and enjoyed myself. And no, I wasn't nursing a hangover the next morning....but I guess I forgot how great it felt to go out for dinner on the weekend. And drink a few glasses of wine. It felt so good that I wanted to remember what sleeping in felt like. And going out for breakfast. And then I was already on the road to ruin so I decided to catch up on the million or so errands that I needed to run that I hadn't had time for lately because of all the biking and running nonsense. All the while taking note of the blue skies and mild temperatures.


Never believe the meteorologists. They are just out to make your training miserable. They will predict blue skies and it will pour on you in the middle of your 40 mile ride. They will predict weather bad enough for you to cancel your training session only to have it turn out to be a beautiful day. And then the guilt will eat you alive.


Then as if I didn't feel guilty enough about missing my long weekend ride...a number of relatively non-catastrophic but unavoidable events popped up and created enough of a diversion from my routine to completely derail my training for the rest of the week.

And let me tell you, once the peloton of motivation drops you off the back of the pack....you're done. Toast. Welcome to the downward spiral of negativity. We hope you like your stay.

Even when I did manage to get back into the swing of things I had a bad attitude about it. I should have done my long run Saturday, but the weather was crap. Again. And when you haven't worked out for six days...well what's one more?

I knew I had to get up for the MS Walk in the morning on Sunday so I figured I'd just run the 7-mile course and save myself the hassle of a 3-mile walk that wasn't going to help my training anyway. And if there is one shining moment in the past week it was my Sunday morning run. It was such a perfectly beautiful day....and having the water stops was so nice....and they had bananas and pretzels, how thoughtful. I almost had a positive mental breakthrough during that run until I realized I was competing against walkers. Not that it was a competition....because it wasn't. But you know it always is in your head....so lets be real. And at this point I needed to mentally feel like I was "beating" all those walkers I passed. But then when I did stop to walk a few times after passing people they would almost catch me. I'd have to start running again to stay ahead of them. So apparently I'm slow at EVERYthing. Even walking.

Then I promptly went from 7-mile run to 3 hour bike ride with two motivated cyclists not currently under the influence of any negative spiraling action....which only made mine worse. Compounded by the fact that I was busting my tail just trying to keep them in sight on the ride. We ended up with a mechanical malfunction that ended the ride after only 2.5 hours and I couldn't have been more relieved.

And now here I am. Staring at another full week. Wondering if I can get it all done. And trying to get my head in the game with this training. When did it stop being fun and start being a chore? And how do I get back to the fun?

Fun or not, I told myself that this week I was going to stick to the training plan 100%. No slacking. Even if my head's not in the game, my body's going to be. Ok, so now I need to go find my training plan......

Crazylegs Classic

Nothing will confirm your slowness like a race. Especially a race in 30 degree temps and 40mph winds. I constantly find myself crawling out of bed in the wee hours of weekend mornings thinking "why do I do this to myself?"

I don't really like racing. I don't care how fast I am, or how I stack up to my peers. That's not why I work out. And yet I continue to find myself drudging to start lines. I don't understand it.

I also don't understand why I get such horrible nerves before events. I even get the feeling of dread and sinking stomach before some workouts. The last time I had it I said "I don't know why I do this stuff. I clearly don't enjoy it. I need a new hobby, like knitting." To which I got the reply "knitting makes you fat."

Um....actually the two avid knitters I know are quite svelte, so I'm not ruling out knitting as a future triathlon replacement. And last I knew, no one needed to buy $2500 knitting needles and then pay $60 each time they want to get together and knit with a bunch of their knitting peers. Ya, knitting's sounding pretty good right now....

Anyway, back to the race.....I signed up for Crazylegs because 1) it is a long-standing Madison tradition -- in fact, I did the race for the first time when I was 12, and 2) there's free beer and live music at the end -- enough said.

The problem this year...well, there were a lot of problems, so let me start at the top. The first problem is that the race is only 8 kilometers (5 miles) long. (I know...did I just say that...."only 5 miles"....) So someone like me who's allegedly on a training plan, I actually need to run farther than the race. (incidentally, when you tell people at work on Monday that you had to run extra at a race, they think you have completely lost your mind....which is actually kind-of cool)

So once you decide that you need to run farther than the distance that you paid money to run, then starts the logistical planning. In this case, running after the race would interfere with free beer drinking so that option was out.

Instead we arranged to park close to the finish and run to the start. Simple enough.

Ya, well remember this is Wisconsin. A "beautiful spring day in April" here can, and often does, mean 30 degrees with a chance of snow. Race morning conditions were equally as horrible. 30-something degrees and crazy wind.

Ok, I could have even dealt with all that but after running over 2 miles to the start we ended up waiting over half an hour for our wave to go. Brrrrr! Nothing like working up a little sweat and then having it freeze-dried to your body.

When we finally got going it hurt. Nothing was warm or loose on my entire body. Nor did I feel like I ever really warmed up. And the twitchy tendinitis I've been fighting in my foot flared up something fierce. I was considering cutting my leg off around mile 4.

Crazylegs is actually really a fun course....it starts on the capital square, heads down fraternity/sorority row on campus, up the infamous Bascom Hill, along the lake, and then finishes in Camp Randall Stadium.....but I don't feel like I enjoyed any of it.


The finish felt pretty good. And I scored two pockets full of free cliff bars at the end of the race, so that brightened my mood a bit. Any time you can get your entry fee back in post-race swag its a good day. That almost made up for the horrendously long line for beer!

All in all it was a decent workout. And to be honest, if I hadn't paid money to race I probably would have used the weather as an excuse to bail on the workout altogether. So I'm pretty happy with the fact that I got 7.5 miles in.

120 minutes of hell

So again on Thursday, Laura reminds me of this pesky 'schedule' we are supposed to be following. And since denial is no longer working as a defense after last week I concede and meet her at the gym Thursday for another long indoor ride.

You'll remember that last week we rode 60 minutes of spin class and then just kept riding like crazies when everyone else was clearing out and heading home. You'll also remember that the instructor for that spin class was of the mildly annoying variety and had a tendency to break out into song. You'd think it couldn't get much worse, right? I mean a singing instructor has got to be one of the top two most annoying things that can get thrown your way in a pre-packaged average gym-variety spin class....right?

Wrong.

This week started out great (which should have immediately put me on guard for disaster). Laura and I both arrive early and are off and spinning 15 minutes before class (which is 15 minutes less than we have to stay after class -- bonus). We're chatting. Joking about how the normal instructor should be (thankfully) back this week. And in walks this weeks instructor. And don't get me wrong, she was nice enough, and knowledgeable enough...and lacking any annoying personality traits. But instead, she was of the "now you have to stare at my totally buff and perfect physique all class and feel guilty about everything fattening you've ever eaten in your life" annoying type.

So as I'm mentally calculating the amount of Ben & Jerry's calories I've ingested this week alone and trying to convince myself that this will just make me work a little harder, which is good for me.....then the kicker.

The iPod adapter thingey isn't working. No tunes.

Well, all is not lost. I've got my iPod with me for the post-class riding so it wouldn't have been horrible to spin without tunes. But the instructors not really having it. She finds this CD laying around the sound system and decides to just wing it.

I wish I could recap the playlist for you, but I think I was so traumatized I have completely blocked it out of my memory. Never have I been so ready to be done with a class. The CD was clearly from pre-historic times (i.e. pre iPod times -- early 90's, but think bad, early 90s), and back then they must have been under the impression that you didn't need to pedal fast to get a workout.

But we persevered, and managed to complete our requisite 120 minutes of indoor cycling hell. Props to the instructor. She really did the best she could. The whole situation wasn't her fault at all. And the mishap actually made our extra 60 minutes of sucky solo cycling seem almost like fun. So it all worked out.