Spring-like weekend!

Hi All, Liz here! So you couldn’t have asked for better weather this weekend, low 60s isn’t too bad all! The warmer weather was calling our names so we headed out to ride!

Saturday’s ride took us to Scituate, Cohasset, and Hingham, MA for a 50 mile adventure. We biked along the ocean for most of the time, rode on quiet roads and through beautiful towns. We pointed out ridiculously large houses that were just too big to consider nice and boarded up beach homes we’d like to fix up and move into. We saw thousands of golden retrievers. OK, maybe not thousands, but there were at least 35 golden retriever spottings. It was a little creepy how many of them there were, but they are cute so I didn’t mind it : )

Biking has really opened my eyes up to how beautiful Massachusetts is. I forever thought that MA was by far the ugliest, dreariest, depressing state I had ever been to. I went to school in Worcester and after graduating, moved to Boston. My view of MA was solely based off my commute on the Mass Pike, and biking has taken me through many towns that have shown me just how nice MA is. I thank biking for changing my perspective!

It rained and snowed today, a wonderful way to start the week. Who’s ready for spring?? I know I am.

A Little Snow...with a Side of Humility

As Liz mentioned in her last post, we headed down to Atlanta to take care of some wedding stuff, including a wedding shower, and to see my family. We knew it would be a quick weekend and the weatherman said it would be crap conditions (and they're always right...30% of the time) so we were a little pessimistic on the amount of training that would get done, but we packed with the plan to get some sbr in.

Fortunately, my mom hooked us up with lots of healthy food options straight from the QT2 regimen, so we would at least have our nutrition in line. Still its never easy to have green tea and fresh fruit for dessert when there are lots of carbs nearby (I find there's less temptation when I call them carbs instead of chocolate cake or cookies).

After fueling up on Saturday morning, Liz took off to a dress fitting and my pops and I decided to run some errands. Since we didn't have a car, I was able to convince him to bike to REI which is 7 miles from their house. I knew the pace would be slow but was just very happy to get my dad out on the bike for awhile. About 5 miles into the ride I was getting a little anxious with our speed so I started occupying myself by swerving around the road and going no handed. The karma gods got their revenge when my phone rang. As I answered and started talking, I saw a tree in the middle of the sidewalk but missed the large curb right after it. As I went over the curb I tried to reach down for the handle bars but it was too late...I went straight over the top and ate some asphalt. I received some nice reminders of my stupidity in the form of bruises and road rash.

Afterwards, Liz and I met up at Chick-fil-A for our 1 cheat meal of the week. It was incredible!!! I haven't really had any craving since I started the diet a week ago but man was this good and it definitely helped in forgetting about my intro to the pavement.

So the warmer weather that we had hoped for were pretty much non-existent, in fact, we brought the cold temps down with us. Below is the scene on Sunday morning. Very unlike ATL to get snow but they got 3 inches, which means everyone panicked and all schools are closed a day later even though everything has melted (must be nice). We decided to follow the crowds and chalk the day up as a recovery day...

2 Fig Newton’s…fuel me up!

I love Fig Newton’s! When I saw that they were one of the moderate glycemic index foods I could eat before a workout, I was pretty darn excited. I only get to eat 2, but that’s enough to keep me happy – especially because I eat them REALLY slowly…just like a mouse : ) It would prob. kill you if you sat and watched me eat them, really.

This week we are weaning onto our new nutrition plan instead of diving right in, though I think we’re pretty much on track now – just missing a few protein shakes here and there and much needed variety in our meals. We now eat every 2-3 hours. This helps keep our blood sugar stable as well keep a constant supply of nutrients in our bodies to get us through the day. We’re still figuring it all, but check out what I had for lunch today (Greek yogurt w/ a mashed banana and fresh veggies with hummus…looks delicious, huh?):

Last night we headed out for a long run. Jus did 2 hrs, I did 2hr 15m. It was a nice run, NO wind whatsoever. I always find it hard to get myself out running on cold nights, but once I’m out and going, it ain’t too bad and I love it.

This weekend, we’re headed to the dirty south for some wonderful wedding related activities. Hopefully the temps are warm, as a little bonus to our workouts wouldn’t be so bad! It will be hard to resist that Chick-fil-A....in fact, I don’t know if I can.

It's QT2 time!

The time has come… Justin and I are now on the QT2 nutritional plan. We’ve heard great things about QT2 so we were excited to start working with them.

Before our meeting with Rachel R., the registered nutritionist we’re working with, we made sure to eat the foods we knew would not be making an appearance in our plans throughout this past weekend: bacon, egg and cheese, stromboli, mexican food, brownies…yummm!

Last night, we sat down with Rachel and reviewed our nutrition plan, learned about all things nutrition, and discussed our goals for this coming season. After some playful teasing of my love for Teddy Grahams and Justin’s hyper reaction to Guayakí Yerba Mate tea, it was time to get our body fat tested. The results are in:

Justin: current body fat percent is 7.8%, goal to hit 7% and 160 lbs on race day.

Liz: current body fat percent is 16%, goal to hit 15% and 116 lbs on race day.

We’re still trying to understand the numbers, especially our goals, as they don’t differ too much from where we are right now. We both feel like our goal body fat percent should be lower, way lower. There is A LOT to learn with the nutrition plan but with time, we'll start understanding it all. At least we now know what we’ve been doing wrong and have a plan to correct it. In a nut shell, the plan is designed to help better prepare and fuel us for workouts, recover from those workouts faster, and become leaner which, in turn, should result in more efficient training and racing.

More to come on the nutrition plan… too much to include in one post!

Winter days have got me down

Hi All, Liz here:

I’m in a recovery week, which I couldn’t be happier about. To tell the truth, like Justin said, I feel like I’ve just been going through the motions – somehow doing my workouts, but not quiet sure how I did them. I train hard, that much is true. If I am going to spend my time working out, I’m not going to waste it by not giving it my all. I’m not very tolerant of slacking off. However, lately, when I look back on my previous day’s workout, it seems to be just a daze.

I’ve been logging between 13-14 hrs/week. I wake up at 5:15am to get my long runs in so I don’t have to run late into the dark night; I head straight to the pool after work only to have someone hovering over me the entire time, waiting for me to get out so they can get in, and I have resorted more times than I would have liked to the indoor trainer. I’m finding it even a struggle on the weekends to motivate myself to bundle up and bike outside. I eat dinner late at night and fall asleep shortly after.

I’m not trying to be a downer, but I seem to be stuck in a rut. I’m getting my hours in but that doesn’t mean I’m doing them with a smile on my face.

I’m REALLY sick of winter. I’m ready for spring. The short days suck. I wake up and it’s dark out, I leave work and it’s dark out. I want the sun, I want daylight. I want to run in shorts and soak in warm weather, leave the pool and not freeze on my walk home because my hair is wet and its 26 degrees out, and once again bike without feeling like my nose, fingers, and toes are all going to fall off from frostbite.

I found out yesterday that daylight savings day is March 8^th. That’s just over 2 weeks away! I’m looking forward to it being lighter out later. Now, all I want is it to be warm. Then maybe, just maybe, I’ll crack a smile on my face and be back to my normal self.

The Mental Game

Sorry for the blogging vacation- lots of non-training stuff going on but we'll be back to posting this week.

Luckily, last week was recovery and just happened to fall at the same time that I got sick. I spent the start of the week just going through the motions, making myself log the training hours and not really caring about anything but finishing. As the week dragged on I realized that as much as being sick sucks, it forces me to push past all of the excuses and go. Not every or workout is going to feel good.

Last season started with St Croix...the weather went from calm, to downpour rains, to Carribean heat. Being from Boston, I wasn't used to the heat and struggled throughout the day- it didn't help that I crashed my bike in the rain and lost my water bottles early in the race. All race, thoughts of giving in and quitting kept popping in my head but I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I did so I set smaller goals (like passing someone on the uphills or refusing to walk during the run) and trudged across the finish line. Finishing was extremely rewarding even though I missed all of my pre-race goals (other than finishing and biking the Beast w/o walking).

About a month later, JoJo and I raced Mooseman. Race day was freakishly hot (100 + degrees during the run) and the lake temp a brisk 59-60 degrees. I tried adjusting my race plan to rbeak 6 hours and ended up bonking badly...missed my time by a few minutes.

Point of all this reminiscing- my "A" race last year was RI 70.3. Another blazing hot day that saw a lot of people crumble on the course. B/c of my stubborness during St Croix and Mooseman, RI didn't seem too harsh. I'd done bigger and badder during training/other races and never really worried about RI.

So as I train for IMLP, I've started to welcome the rough workouts. Training sick or in the snow may seem crazy and useless from a fitness standpoint but they've been priceless in building my mental fitness. All things to look back on and use on race day!

Here's a shot from this weekend's mountain biking ride:

Inspire Daily

The last couple off-seasons, I've gotten bored without having upcoming races (kind of hard to get pumped for something still 3-5 months away). Its usually around this time I start checking all the tri sites for amateur sponsorship- I only look at companies whose products I use, otherwise I'd feel like a poser. While scouring the sites, I got a recommendation to check out the Brooks Running Inspire Daily program. I used to run in Brooks' Adrenalines until Mark from Kilometers got me hooked on the Infinitis. I love my kicks, so figured I'd send in an application. Lucky for me, I got accepted! You can check out the info at: http://www.brooksrunning.com/Athletes+%26+Events/Brooks+I.D.+Program/. So if you see my sportin' more Brooks gear than usual, thats why. So stoked to be hooked up with a brand I use everyday.

As for training, this is my last week of heavy swim focus. As exhausting as its been the last month, I've been able to notice a huge difference in my stroke, comfortability and speed. Just hoping I don't lose it after the swim focus ends.

Anyways, here's a parting shot for anyone in the South- I know you wish you were here for the runs...