WHOLE WEEKEND OFF!

What an amazing thing! Christian and I both had BOTH Saturday and Sunday, completely off! It was wonderful! I didn't even have a Saturday morning practice. So we enjoyed it! Saturday we slept in, then cleaned the house a bit, and headed out for a 2:10 bike ride. Easy, enjoyable, sunny, and warm. Followed that up with a 22 minute transition run. No big issues, though we took Jack with us and even though he's been running 45 minutes with us, he hasn't been running in 70ish temps in a while, so he gave up about 15 minutes in and tried to lay down! Boy, he doesn't like heat!

On Sunday, we only had a 30 minute easy run. So we did that in the morning, and went to the Adrienne Arscht center. We found out they have a lottery program. You show up 2.5 hours before a show and put your name in, and they do a random drawing 2 hours before the show, for $25 tickets. RIGHT UP FRONT. And we WON! We got to see the matinee of Wicked in Row C for $50! AWESOME!

Other than that, it was a fairly general week. I missed one swim (open water on Friday, it was just too chilly for diving in the ocean for me!). So, I did 2 swims (one kick butt 4x(5x100 fr) repeats...Sue (my swimming buddy) and I rocked that and worked our butts off! I did 3 bikes (2 at 1:30, 1 at 2:10). One of those was a 4xOnly hill in Miami repeat... BURNED. I was supposed to keep the RPMs up at 80-85 up the hill. I was in the lowest gearing and still couldn't keep it up. I suck on hills. Worries me a bit about Louisville, but I got time. I have a feeling I'm going to get to know that hill ALL TO INTIMATELY!

And finally, did 5 runs (a 45 min easy with strides, an hour track workout, a 1:30 long easy run, a 22 minute brick off the bike, and a 30 min easy run). The track workout was pretty awesome. Christian and I were apparently the only 2 out of like 10 who were doing a 70.3 in the near future...so our workout after the mile warmup and strides...4x2000 @ just slower than 10k pace. OYE! So, everyone was already enjoying their ride home when I finally finished. Christian had to just chill and wait for me! Oh well, I'm getting used to being the last one out there!

So, can't tell you what this week has in store, b/c Coach hasn't updated the workouts yet. I assume maybe 13-14:00 hours, since last week was 12:45? Just a guess. Still feeling pretty good about the whole process so far. Starting to get some aching in the knee joints, especially after the long runs, and sometimes feel a twinge of tendinitis in the shoulder (so no paddles for now), but pretty much injury free (KNOCK ON WOOD). I know its really just getting going into the workouts though, so still nervous about what's in store!

Oh, and the diet, that Coach wants us to follow...eh, I'm not doing great at that. Probably a BIT better than usual, but not a LOT better. I just love junk! Its definitely my downfall. Need to make it so I only break down one day a week, but haven't made it that far yet! I'll let you know next week!

Last big swim meet for the season!

Well, the season is over! And we get to start all over again, YEA! This week, I don't have a lot interesting to tell you about myself, so I can let you know how hubby did. Coach decided to give me another fairly "lax" week with only a little less than 10 hours of training planned. I did it all, except for a 1200 swim, I never got in. Funny, how I spent all weekend at a pool, but didn't manage to get in a 1200 yard swim. Oh well. I guess let's start with our "Crazy Driver of the Week."

This week's award goes to Old Man in Car:
We were just finishing our long run on Wed. morning. It was 1.5 hours, and this week Christian's HR was a bit more under control, so he was ahead of me. But we jogged in the last 10 minutes or so together and then he had a couple more minutes to go, so he just went around the block. As he got to the end of the road, this old man decided to not only run through a stop sign to get onto a very busy road, but he also almost ran over Christian. So, Christian gave him the Thumbs Up and said "Good Job." What does the guy do?...Does he throw his hands up and say "Ooops, didn't see you?" Or completely ignore him? Or give him a "Sorry" wave?

NOPE. The correct answer is None of the Above.
He rolls his window down and says "F**K You!" Lovely huh!?

Other than that, Christian completed his first triathlon of the season. He did the Miami International Triathlon; an Olympic distance he's done every year since he got here. Its also one I've never done because it always falls the weekend of my big meet! BUT, HE DID GREAT! He thought he PR'd at 2:37, but apparently the first year he did it, his "1.5k" swim took him 20 minutes! So, he had done a 2:35...but we all know, I can't even do a 20 minute open water 1.5k, so may have been a bit short that year! Anyway, he did awesome. As I figured, you can't even tell that he was in Haiti and a bit screwed up with training for a month! He's just an awesome athlete! Congrats Christian!

See you guys next week!

LOVELY drivers in Miami

Boy, aren't recovery weeks great. We had 9 hours of training this week! Most of it was scheduled for the beginning of the week b/c I had a swim meet this weekend, which means I spent over 12 hours per day at the pool on Saturday and Sunday. Got another big meet this weekend, so fitting in the workouts may be hard this week. We'll see.

So, what was the most exciting part about this past week?
Number 1: I did my first 30 minute Time-trial on the bike this week. Apparently, my Anaerobic Threshold is 174. That was tough. I don't think I've pushed that hard for 30 minutes in a race. But, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I basically averaged around 20mph...everyone else appeared to be in the 22 range...so, I guess I'm slow, but I wasn't displeased!

Number 2: Another example of lovely driving in Miami. Christian and I had our long run on Wed. this past week b/c of the swim meet for the weekend. So, we went out running, and actually ran together b/c he was having a hard time keeping his HR down...it was nice to actually hang out together running. Anyway, both of us have a habit that if a car doesn't bother to move over, or slow down for us, we'll give the car a little smack. It often scares the driver enough to hopefully make them move a bit next time. Hopefully, but probably not. It mostly makes us feel better, I guess. So, we're running down the road about 1/2 mile from home, almost done with the run...and we run into a roundabout. A BIG Bubba Truck is coming from the perpendicular corner. He doesn't bother to slow down and let us get through the circle, or move over in the circle, so he basically buzzes us. Therefore, Christian rapped his window as he went by and said "THANKS!" and we keep running. The guy throws the car in REVERSE (AROUND THE CIRCLE) and basically tries to back up OVER US. He rolls the window down and the two girls in the passenger seats (4-door truck), not really the driver, start yelling at us about what the hell do we think we're doing, we need to get on the sidewalk, blah, blah, blah. Seriously, I assume he only backed up because those girls were in the car. Lovely ladies, let me say. So, I'm getting madder by the minute and I'm yelling at them that actually we have the right of way, and they tried to run us over, now twice, and that I'd be happy to call the police. They keep yelling so I smack the mirror on the truck and walk off. The thing about a truck is, they fold in when they get hit. So it did, and the passenger smacked it back out and knocked the plastic piece off of it! HEEHEE! Anyway, as they are yelling at us, this guy in a van has pulled up beside us and stopped b/c he saw what was going on. I borrowed his cell phone and called the cops and they took off. The cop came by our place about 5 minutes after we got home and got our story and said he was going to look for the truck over the course of the day. Of course, we never heard back, but at least the cop was nice...OYE! Seriously, WTF? THAT, right there, is why we are counting down the months in Miami. Nine and a half, btw.

Anyway, other than that, everything else, training-wise was pretty average. I had some shoulder pain while swimming last week, so had to get out of swimming early one night. And no pulling now for a while, but nothing terrible.

Can't wait for you guys to hear all the amazing driver stories over the next 6 months!

Gator Bug

First, let's start with honesty. I realized after posting last week's blog that I lied. I only did 3 bikes last week. I skipped one. I skipped the one the day Christian came home. This week, the plan looked pretty much exactly the same, except this week I did the 4 bikes, but I skipped the last 30 minute, zone 1 run. Christian did it...he did it at 10pm last night. I refuse to run at 10:00pm!

SO, since we just finished week three in the Foundations training plan, there's not much exciting to talk about b/c it looked like weeks one and two. The good news is, that week four is recovery week! YEA! I get my first REAL day off this Friday!

The other exciting thing is our bike ride this Sunday. See, as mentioned before, drivers suck in Miami. Therefore there are really only 2 "safe" bike rides that anyone does in Miami: #1 ride around Key Biscayne (for you DCites, its like riding Hains Point, but its much bigger, about 12-15 miles around) and #2 ride down south towards Homestead. I often do the south ride b/c it goes right past where I work so I can just end up there or go past and come back. With two rides and what we know is going to be a "very long 6 months," its not good I'm already bored with it. So, Christian and I decided to do something different.

We rode out to the Everglades and decided to ride through "Shark Valley." Why do they call it Shark Valley? I have no idea, its only filled with Gators! Shark Valley is a 15 mile loop into the Everglades and back out. The first couple of miles were filled with people, but the rest was pretty open except for a few cruisers here and there and the occasional tram that goes around the loop. But, there are lots of gators. All just hanging out on the side of the road. Chillin'. We did 2 loops around the thing for about a 1:52 ride. The first half of each loop was great. And the second time around we did 1:45 of 100+rpm 6 times. It was fun. The back half of each loop was windy! OUCH. That got old about 4 miles in, but we persevered! So, we created "Gator Bug." Its just like PunchBug, except, its every time you see a Gator. And you can't really punch the other person on the bike, well, because I would fall! The first time around, I was REALLY good at it! I saw all of them, but when we played on the back half of the last loop, I got STOMPED. I lost, 7-1! :( Oh well, great 30 mile ride, and finally SOMETHING DIFFERENT!

Now, for the not training part of my blog...After our ride, we drove back in and stopped at this place called "The Pit." Its as you would expect, a BBQ joint outside of town, that looked VERY redneck. I had actually heard good things about it, so I was a bit excited, even though I'm really picky about my BBQ. As we came in, it was FILLED with Latinos. Everywhere. To me, this does not help it feel like a bbq joint. Especially when I can see whose cooking in the back. The menu also has NO PULLED PORK! WHAT? How is that? They have "sliced." UGH! Who eats sliced pork. So, after being ignored for a while by the waitress who immediately waited on the Latino couple next to us, we decided to order the ribs (not much other choice since there was no pulled pork). We waited, and waited...and the Latino couple not only got their food, but were almost done and we still had nothing. And the waitress hadn't even looked at us, much less apologize! I finally threw up my hands at her and was like "seriously, where is our food" and it magically appeared. This was only my second experience being discriminated against...man is it not fun. The kicker is, the food was actually pretty good. I was very pleasantly surprised. The ribs were smoky and moist and didn't really need sauce, which is the way it should be! And they were accompanied not by rolls, but by what looked and tasted like beignets, without the powdered sugar. When she asked if we wanted honey, I didn't understand, but then after eating them, I wished I had said yes! YUMMO!

So, will we ever go back? To the bike ride, definitely (especially since we forgot the camera)...to "the Pit," um, maybe only to carry out. It was pretty darn good...oh, I almost forgot the best part...we are sitting in a VERY REDNECK looking restaurant (complete with a sign with a Dixie flag on it), that is FILLED with Latinos and some guy singing in Spanish, when in walks this VERY large drag queen to order from the carry out window! HA! It was AWESOME! Didn't expect to see that out in the boonies. In Key West, yes, in the city of Miami, yes (except there's no redneck joints there)...but not there! AWESOME!