Flashback Friday

I was over visiting my brother yesterday and I found something I forgot about. Last year, if you all recall I participated in the Tarpon Spring Triathlon. I wrote this long post and had zero photos. 

Well my brother thought I still needed to download my Iron Girl photos, which I already took from him. Anyways as I looked through his pictures, I found the pictures my brother took of me during the Tarpon Springs Triathlon. 

He didn't take a lot of photos since it was pouring throughout the majority of the race. However he managed to get some good ones I thought I would share...so here goes: 

To my left is my brother and to my right is Andy. Love these guys!

My best supporters!

Done with the swim. 

Sky still doesn't look like it pour on us!

Looks like I am going SO fast! 

I am glad I found these photos; they are the motivation I needed to get me ready for Top Gun. I honestly slacked while training for Tarpon and still showed significant improvement. I am aiming to do even better with some serious training. 

Happy Friday!!

Playing Bloggy Catchup

Before my overextended break I was posting Operation Lean Out on a weekly basis. I loved this post because it was simple to write and it kept me accountable to my workouts. I knew if I didn't workout I would have to face the blogosphere and say I did squat diddly. 
Now that I am trying to get back in the groove of blogging, I want to continue with this post. However before I get back to posting my workouts, it is important for me to tell you about some recent updates in my goals.
First off, you should know my running has taken a bit of a back seat. My coach requested that I take a bit of a breather and I didn't fight her decision.  I think I did a bit too much back to back and my left shin hasn't been the same. It's been about two weeks since I last ran. I plan to test the leg out tomorrow and run an easy mile. We shall see.
Regardless, triathlon training started a few weeks ago. I have been planning all along to do Top Gun. Therefore, I have been swimming and cycling and making up for the lack of running.
I have also been keeping up with my crosstraining because I have started contemplating some crazy ideas...
These ideas started popping up when I saw Beth finish the Augusta half Ironman. I couldn't help continue to toy with the idea. Not to mention that I feel the strongest with little effort when I am triathlon training. 
Either way, after all that rambling, what I am trying to say is my tentative goals are to finish Top Gun and then signup for an Olympic tri and finish the season with completing my very own 70.3.
I haven't signed up for anything yet. Other then Top Gun, of course. I am holding out to see what happens with the shin. And I am scared. This is a huge commitment and I have issues with sticking to long training cycles. Need less to say I am really sleeping on this decision.
Other then these triathlons, I am signed up for some half marathons in the fall and winter. I will fill you all in on those in a future post.
Alright these are all my training goals for now. I didn't feel right just jumping back in without giving you all a full update on the plans.
I look forward to getting back to posting my weekly workouts.

Do you hesitate in signing up for bigger goals like iron distances and marathons? What helps you make the final decision?

*forgive me if there are any typos in this post or if the style seems funky, this post was created on my Samsung Galaxy S4.

I'm Back!!

I can't believe it has been a little over a month since I have blogged. Things have been crazy busy for me and blogging sort of fell to the bottom of the list. I have thought of blogging every day, but just didn't get around to it.

It feels weird writing this but I missed blogging. And yet whenever I found myself having available time I still chose not to blog. I guess I needed a break.

Part of it has been because I know I have loads of catching up to do. I owe my blog a few recaps and even some reviews of gadgets I purchased, which I feel are worth writing about. I have even accomplished some goals and added some new goals to my list.

As usual when you take a break from something you return to the task refreshed. I come back with some new ideas.

Either way, I am back. In that spirit, I will give you a tease to some of the upcoming posts (in no particular order):

RRCA Convention in Albuquerque.

Mini-Me's birthday cruise.

Started this again.

Went to St. Augustine with this handsome fellow.

Ran another half marathon.

Started this again. FYI that's Meghan my riding rabbit. It is officially my goal to catch up to her. :)

Have you ever take a break from something? How did you feel when you started back up?

Iron Girl Photo Dump!!

My brother took some photos during Iron Girl. I finally got my hands on them after my recap of course. So here they are for your viewing pleasure!



My arrival at Iron Girl.

I feel like I am talking to the paparazzi here. LOL

My happy PR face!

My running club lovelies!

 

Finally, My Iron Girl Recap

The Athleta Iron Girl Clearwater was exactly 10 days ago and I spent a good 4 or 5 of those days sore as hell.

Why was I sore, you might ask? Well because I had a 17 minute PR. :)

But I get ahead of myself. The weeks leading up to Iron Girl were rough. I was working like crazy. Didn't get a lot of rest. And the week of the race, I managed to get a whole two runs in. I had a short run on Saturday. I remember freaking out because my legs felt weird.

Prior to those two weeks, my training was spot on. My training has never been so good.

Race morning, I didn't feel confident. But I felt hopeful that somehow things would still workout. Everything went wrong too. Andy didn't get a chance to make my rice for breakfast. My brother was running late - he is NEVER late. Once I got to the race I could not find my friend who would be pacing me.

Thankfully, once we got to Clearwater we found parking relatively fast. I had plenty of time to find my pacer. I found a bunch of friends, but didn't find my pacer. This made me nervous as heck.

My friend, Anne ended up coming to the rescue. She recently ran a race and couldn't finish because of an injury. She too was a tad nervous about making sure this race went well.

We lined up together. I still kept looking around for my other friend, but I never could find her until close to the end of the race. Anne and I stayed together, each with the condition that if either one was having a magnificent race they could book it. We started out with the 2:30 pace group, but they went out way too fast. I let them go on ahead.

Once we got going the miles ticked off slowly.

Throughout all my training runs the runs went by fast. During Iron Girl, one mile felt like forever. I wasn't really keeping track of pace either. I just made sure to keep moving. Anne and I found our rhythm.  We kept our pace easy.

We chatted. We walked all the water stops. And took the ups on the bridges easy. I am happy to say that the only bridge we somewhat had to walk up was the very last bridge. At around mile 6 - 7, I had to stop and untie my shoe and loosen it. I had to retie my shoe in the morning to get the chip on and I may have tightened it too much because my foot was getting tingly into the race. I saw Xiomara kicking some Iron Girl butt around this time.

Some where around mile 8ish, we passed the 2:30 pace group. The were walking. I believe they were trying to slow down. This was such a huge confidence booster and was also my first indication that I might be hitting a personal record.

I went through mile 1-10 without feeling much of anything. My longest run was 10 miles during training. Once I got passed 10 miles, I started to feel the race physically and mentally. I wanted to be finished. I was getting grumpy and hot. I had to dig deep to keep it moving.

The last bridge was rough. We had a headwind. I ran into Caitlyn during this bridge. We asked each other how we were doing. She reinforced my suspicion that I would PR. I told her I did't want to know. I can't tell you why I didn't want to know. I figured if I knew what my time was I would either be disappointed or put too much pressure on myself.

I was so ready to be done that a flew down that bridge. I flew down the spiral path. I flew over those sidewalks. I saw my friend Jessica with like 0.3 to go. She was SO excited to see me. We went through our coaching certification program together and she wrote my training plan.

Her first words were I didn't expect to see you so soon. In all her yelling and cheering, she was like Jess you are going to PR. Race it in. And that's what I did. I mustered every little bit of energy I had left and booked it to the end.

I immediately found my running coach Lynn with my family. I told my brother that the race was dedicated to him. He comes to all of my races, even the bad ones. I promised myself the next race that I had that was great would be for him. :) And Iron Girl was a great race!

How cool do my splits look? I alternated the speed between faster and slower.

What did I love about Iron Girl? I really liked the course. I know some don't like the bridges, but it was nice to have a change up. Once I was getting used to the flats, I had to run up a bridge. Alternatively, those bridges are also why I was SO sore. Concrete isn't forgiving at all.

The scenery was beautiful. Everyone that's everyone was at the race. The pancake breakfast after the race was probably my favorite touch.

My only two gripes were that the area where we could run on the course was pretty narrow. We could have had a few more water stops too. I believe there was a water stop every two miles or so. With it being as hot as it was more water or maybe colder water would have been perfect.

In the grand scheme of things those were two very minimal things. I enjoyed that course. I enjoyed seeing my friends. And when I finished, I felt like a real Iron Girl.

I'm an Iron Girl!

Disclosure - Iron Girl provided me with a free entry into this year's race in exchange for this post. All opinions are always my own. 

Waiting for the other shoe to drop...

Things have been crazy busy these past two weeks. I landed an amazing project that has had me running around like a chicken with its head cut off. I have been loving every minute.  In between all of this craziness there has been something that has been surprisingly un-crazy - running.

I don't call my self a Cuban Running Crisis for nothing. Every training cycle I can count on something happening. When it's not IT pain, it's poopy panties. If it's not crapping my pants, it's shin splints. I can keep going. Seriously!

Yet as I started training for Iron Girl with the exception of some minor shin splints, I have had zero issues. I have been running on pace. My nutrition has been on par. I have been running lots of hills. I have been incorporating surges into my long runs.

I am doing well.

And I find it hard to believe. In fact, I can't help but wonder when the other shoe will drop. I would be lying if I didn't tell you that I am afraid it will all come apart at the seams on Sunday. And even after typing that I still have a feeling that Sunday has the potential of being a great race day. I am usually such a train wreck throughout training that I know race day won't be surprising.

Needless to say, after having said good training cycle, I desperately desire to have a good race day. I know that it doesn't always work this way. Until Sunday, I will continue to wonder how it will all pan out.

Thankfully, I will be a busy bee the rest of the week. I have lots of work and I am the volunteer coordinator at the Tampa Corporate 5k this Thursday. I really won't have much time to think about it. But I can tell you, I will be a tad nervous and excited about how the day will unravel on Sunday. Races are always a coin toss on how you will feel.

I am hoping for nice weather. I will accept rain. I will start out slow and run smart. And maybe, just maybe I can break my 3 year old PR.

I need to maintain this amazing running streak for one more long run! Here is hoping I am a true Iron Girl on Sunday!

Have you ever felt your training cycle was too good to be true? How did your race turn out?

Operation Lean Out WK#16

What a week?! How I managed to squeeze everything in is still shocking to me.

Let me cut to the chase. This week's workouts -

March 18 - Coaching class did some light weights and ran about 2 miles of bridges/ also did Jillian Michael's video week 1 workout.
March 19 - Off (I coached track); 10 flights of stairs
March 20 - 2 miles with dog; 3 mile of intervals with club; strength workout in gym
March 21 - Off; 10 flights of stairs
March 22 - Jillian Michael's video
March 23 - 2 mile run with Miles for Moffitt group I am coaching.
March 24 - 10 miles (5 bridges in 20 mph winds)

Looks like a hefty workout week, huh? I am proud of myself for squeezing everything in. I had to manipulate things around, but I made it happen. The key was not to procrastinate. If I had an open time slot I squeezed in the workout. Otherwise, I knew that later things would get crazy and then I wouldn't be able to get the workout it. 

I was sore 90 percent of the week. Not horribly sore, but a good kinda sore. 

Getting my strength on at the gym.

Other than me getting my strength on 3 times this week, the most important thing to happen was my 10-miler. It was my first time back in the double digits since early last year.

It was a tough run. My club headed out to Clearwater, to give us members running Iron Girl the opportunity to run on the same bridges of the course. We thought it would be raining, instead we faced 20 mph winds.

Thankfully, the wind made it feel cooler, however it made us slower. During the run,  the miles ticked away quickly. I don't know if it was because of the bridges or what, but the run seemed to go by fast. I used my running coach as my rabbit. She ran ahead and I just focused on following her. The bridges were tough but doable. I even added another repeat of the bridge for good measure.

This run was exactly the confidence builder I needed! If I feel anything like I felt on Sunday during Iron Girl...I will be one happy woman.

This weekend we will be making our way out to San Antonio for one final long run before it's taper time.

How did your week go?