The 50 Hour Work Week

I just finished reading my last blog....and I decided I'm going to not be quite so negative and hard on myself this time! I just finished a 50ish hour work week....just b/c I work part-time doesn't mean I don't work hard, and yes it means that next week I only have 22 hours scheduled (amen!). When I think about last week in terms of workouts it seems pretty lousy, but when I think of what I squeezed in to a busy work week, I think I did pretty darn good.

Monday: I rode my bike to work. My new commuter bike is sooooo sweet. I'll try to post a picture of it this week. I have it all decked out with a sweet light, a rack on the back and bags to go with, pink handlebar tape. (YES!). Riding to work is definately my new favorite thing, and it's like sneaking in my workout and saving money and our dear planet all at the same time. It is about 9.5 (so I always round up to 10 miles) to and from, and takes me about 35 minutes. I try and leave my home at 6am so I have time to do a quick sponge bath/change/coffee intake before I head out to my peeps.

Tuesday: I met up with the ol' running club and ran a solid 5ish miles. Coach Ray always makes me run hard.

Wednesday: I got to go to my favorite spin class with Ms. Nancy. I always finish this class completely DRAINED. She knows how to work us HARD.

Thursday and Friday: I worked and a I drove there (agh, in disgust!) at this point in the week I just felt SOO tired. Both days I had my swim stuff in the car, just in case I felt like swimming afterwards (duh!). I'm not the type of girl who will just feel like doing something when I'm tired. I have to have it in the plan and not as an option!! I have let the whole month of May go by with options to get out of jail free. I'm still letting myself believe that I'm recovering from Wildflower (which judging by my workouts lately I may still be!) and I'm letting things slide a bit, because TRUELY Ironman training starts with 24 weeks and I'm still 26 weeks out...

Saturday: I met up with the running club again yesterday. Saturday I had planned a long bike ride. My friends leured me out of that journy with a promise of a girls-only breakfast date after the run workout. Luckily for me I chose the run/breakfast b/c it was a very cold/windy/wet morning and I wouldn't have been having very much fun on the bike! I decided of course to push the bike ride back to today (Sunday)......and woke up to pouring rain.....hmmm. Maybe I'll get the trainer out. That has yet to happen, and I do have a running offer so I may skip the ride this week.....and just get a solid run in.

Next week will be the NEW Katy. My goals are to do ALL my workouts so I can check my boxes on my workout calendar! I do have a wedding on Saturday out of town so I may have to squeeze my long ride in earlier in the week? Once I am back on track and I don't let myself slip-up in my workouts it's easier to fight the feeling of getting out of them! As you can see from last week too, is there is no swims posted...hmmmm...I'm having some water phobia! :) I just don't like to get WET! I will probably join a master's swim club (at least for the summer). It would be really good for me to swim with a coach pushing me and with people pushing me. Cuz' I'm just not getting it done on my own.

Triathlete, Environmentalist, Aspiring-Vegan,Gardener, Pediatric Oncology Nurse

So, I've been eating animal products, my flowers all died (with the help of my cat's poo), I ate off of styrofoam plates at work the other day, and I haven't swam in at least a week. Lately I've been feeling like I have a few too many hats on. No, I'm not really vegan...and I obviously don't really aspire very hard...:) or I would be vegan. These things (the things in the title) are all things that I'm VERY passionate about, I just have trouble squeezing them all in. So, because the flowers are all dead (thank you Rocky and Ringo who are probably rolling around on the dead buds as we speak!) I have kind of let go of the gardener in me....although I do feel a strong pull towards taking very good care of my roses...(although I may have pruned them to death as well??). Needless to say the gardening is on the back burner for now. Onto the veganism. If someone were to ask me about health and nutrition I would say without a doubt I believe that veganism is the healthiest way to eat hands-down. When that same person offers me cookies and milk.....I'm gonna eat it.....??? Does that make any sense. My excuses are my busy life...........those who know me may question my use of the term busy in that sentence...seeing as how I may work a certain number of hours per week known as part-time. But...I believe my environmentalism and triathletism create a busier week than it may otherwise seem. Picture, that I ride my bike to work (which I LOVE LOVE LOVE doing)....so I leave my house at 6 am at the latest after packing my lunch and feeling a bit guilty that there are animal products in it. I work from 7am-7:30pm....get on my bike thinking of the styrofoam I used to drink the cow milk. Get home at 8ish....jump in the shower and do it all over again the next morning....so yeah, yeah I only work 2-3 days a week and the other days I should be able to squeeze in yoga, running, biking, swimming, gardening, vegan-recipe shopping, laundry, house keeping with enviro-friendly supplies of course, ?and a little nursing research on the side........maybe my plate's too full....or maybe it's that I'm a semi-perfectionist so I feel like dabbling in things isn't enough....

what I do know is that I HAVE to train. I HAVE to go to work (do you like how that's second?) I really really really want to save the planet because I like it here and I think it's really really ridiculous how long it takes for Styrofoam to decompose not to mention how horrible it is for the environment just to make it, agh! I really want to be vegan and I really want to be a gardener.....but maybe I should do those things in a year that I'm not doing an Ironman.....?? Cuz' I can't fit it all in and it's making me stressed out. I do have to say though on the environmentalist subject. I just bought a book at costco called Gorgeously Green, and it's basically amazing. I just found out that almost all of my lotions, shampoos, conditioners etc....were carcinogenic.....hello! I'm an oncology nurse and I'm putting cancer causers on my skin!!!!! Call me crazy but those went in the recycle bin! Check out more info. at www.gorgeouslygreen.com it's a really fun site, with great links. So if everyone helped me out by eating less tortured animals, and recycling, and riding your bikes to work too, I'd feel better about me slipping up and maybe I'd make more time to train! THANKS.

ps i'll start posting my milage-to-date when I start doing some milage...just kidding I'm just in bed and would have to look at the calendar to put it on here and I don't want to get up! :)

pps i love all my friends thanks for all your love and support!!!!!!!!

Wildflower Long Course

First of all, if I would have typed this the day of the race the heading would probably be something like “the history of the race I will never do again” or something like that. But, because I’m human and we tend to forget the severity of the pain we endure my attitude seems to be a bit different these days. Let me also say for the record that this is one tough race! One that in my book compares to about ¾ of an Ironman rather than ½ an Ironman. I think that this is why it is called wildflower long course rather than ½ iron man (not to mention legalities). If it were to adopt such a name, they should call it., “Wildflower 70.3 Ironman- that tends to feel more like 140.6”.

That being said , on with the race report. The week before the race I had come down with a little stomach bug that didn’t let me eat like I normally would eat. Not that I have a specific way of eating other than A LOT. J I had skipped my swim classes, and called in sick to work….Friday night I was FINALLY hungry and decided that that was my “sign” to race and that my stomach was getting better!

Saturday morning I ate a small breakfast, waiting to see how the ’ol stomach felt….as it’s hard to discern against race morning stomach and upset stomach. My race didn’t start until 9:10 which gave me plenty of time to over-analyze how I was feeling. I had promised my mom over the phone the night before that I would stop the race at any point if I truly felt terrible. (she thinks I’m tougher than I am, of course I‘d stop!) I got down to transition area with plenty of time to wish Ben well (he started at 8:10.….they don’t want the 25 year old men complaining about the heat I guess) and watch all the pros come in from the swim! Wow, they were amazing. I ate some more food…..trying to get as many calories in as I could knowing I was in a bit of a deficit.

The swim was nice and smooth….after the initial 400 yds of elbows and feet I had nice open water the whole time. My body felt pretty good too….but I was intentionally cruising knowing I had a LONG day ahead of me!

Out of the water onto the bike I was hoping my stomach hurt from the usual drinking of lake water and not my bug. I immediately felt terrible on the bike and was thinking I just needed to get my legs warmed up….the first 6 miles of hills were enough to warm me up and almost enough to send me back to camp! I really really felt terrible, but decided I just needed some calories and some flat ground to spin my achy legs out. Luckily for me miles 20-40 were nice and flat…my legs never came back though. Mentally I felt ok, and seeing mile 40 was pretty refreshing only 16 miles to go ….not to shabby. Little did I know the hill everyone complains about starts about mile 41 my legs were no match for this baby. On this mother-of-a-hill I decided I was DEFINALTY too weak to be doing something stupid like this. All the old guys I usually FLY by on the hills were passing me or zig-zagging across the road AHEAD of me! So sad. This hill handed it to me that’s for sure….. Luckily there were a few nice long descents and I then decided I had better at least attempt the run.

Into transition I had my fuel belt ready to go as Coach Amy had suggested…..but putting anything extra on my body seemed agonizing. I sun-screened and headed out without my hydration hoping I didn’t ruin my race. The first mile I felt pretty good actually. I surprisingly didn’t feel more horrible than usual coming off the bike and decided it might turn out to be a good day. I had been running a lot and felt confident about my run. I was flying by all these walkers, sucking there energy as I went by. I then made a pact with myself (as I usually do, mental games keep me going). OK, I won’t walk until mile five and you‘re only allowed to walk because you‘re sick. My legs won’t feel good until mile 3 anyways, so mile 5 I’ll have earned it. At mile 1.5 I decided that walking up hills was ok. At mile 3 I wondered if the whole course was truly all uphill and if it was, was I allowed to walk it all? By mile 5 (ha ha, the “walking mile”) I decided that walking in the shade as well as the hills was acceptable. Miles 6-8 there were people lining the course so I had to put on my “running show”. (people commented after, “you looked great”….good then my plan worked!). Finally! I was back onto the trails at mile 8 ish and I could walk again! PHEW. At this point I was walking in the sun, in the shade, on the uphill….it didn’t matter….the tank was EMPTY. Mile 9-10 was downhill so I couldn’t really think of an excuse to walk…mile 10-11 was right back up that same hill and I gladly walked. At mile 11 I tried the ‘ol “anyone can run two miles” trick to get me going, it only lasted until I go to a dirt mound that I counted as a hill and decided I could walk again! J Unfortunatly for me mile 12-13 was downhill again and I had to run. It was so agonizing…my quads were in knots each step I wondered if laying down and rolling would be faster?easier? I made it through the shoot passing some 80 year old guy (not really). Ben and my friends Scott and Lea were worried because I (and I quote), “didn’t have my Katy smile in the shoot, and was out there for a LONG time!! we mean…..you did great!”. Thanks guys. J So, it wasn’t a pretty race I was cursing and crying about the whole thing for a while, insisting that I would boycott the whole event forever because of the pain it caused me. That only lasted a day when the real Katy came back life and decided I really needed to come back and kick it’s ass when I’m 100%. In retrospect (I’m almost recovered) It’s a tough race that I can’t wait to do again…..and have my NO WALKING rule in place. Hopefully more friends will join us next year, there are plenty of events for everybody even if there’s not enough toilet paper or warm water it’s still pretty fun. If you ever want to do this race I have the packing list saved on my computer that I update each year! J Don’t forget hand sanitizer and your toilet paper and you’ll be fine.

P.S. although I didn’t use my fuel belt, I used coach Amy’s advice by taking extra water from each station and folding the top over to have sips between stations. (I wasn’t moving fast enough to spill it, so it worked!)

Quote of the day:
“mommy why are all the girls running and all the boys are walking?”
-some little girl between mile 6-8

The New Blog and the New Training Season

My goal for this blog will be to update it weekly, have new pictures for it monthly, and I guess that is all. :) My goals for this training season are:

#1 To have a wonderful time training and racing.
#2 To feel great and FIT at Ironman Arizona.
#3 To weigh 125 lbs. before Ironman Arizona (who wants to carry a 10 lb backpack for 140.6 miles)
#4 To have better times at Arizona than I did at CDA. ie: swim 1:13, bike 6:50, and run 4:10
#5 To actually do my weight training sessions and to get in 1 yoga and 1 pilates session per week.

phew! I'm already exhausted just talking about this stuff!

Stay tuned for some fun ironman training adventures!