Icky Sicky

I woke up Wednesday morning to find that at some point over night, I had been bitten by a bug. Runny nose, drainage and just an over all feeling of fatigue.

It is not at all surprising that the bug bit me. This weekend was really, really stressful followed by two nights of really challenging workouts that left me unable to walk like a normal human being. Stress - both physical and emotional, can seriously effect your immune system leaving you venerable to all sorts of things.

For me, it always seems to be a sinus cold. The last five times I have been "sick" it's been sinus related. But this time, once and for all, I am taking the orders to cease all workouts and do not pass go until I am feeling 100%. Not 92%, not 98% - but 100%. Of course, this seems like it is taking an ETERNITY!!!

A blogger friend of mine has been suffering from an injury the past couple weeks. While her set-back is much more serious than my little cold, someone posted a comment to her blog that I thought was particularly intriguing: "When we are healthy, we never think we will get sick/injured, but when we are sick/injured, we think we will never be healthy again. Neither of these thoughts are true." It was something like that.

Why is it so hard for athletes to listen to their bodies and just rest up when sick/injured? Seriously - we will take every little advantage to make us faster and better, down to the flavor of our Gu (will the new Blackberry Rocktane really shave one 100th second off my bike split?) but tell someone to lay on the couch and do nothing for four days so that they can return to training faster, stronger, better and they throw a hissy fit!

Last year I even raced while I was sick and it sucked. I ended up with being 5 whole minutes slower than the previous year (that might as well be an hour in a sprint tri) and I stayed sick for another whole week after I raced. So yeah, not worth it.

It's a hard pill to swallow. I was just starting a new power block in training this week and was really getting into the new, more challenging workouts then... BLAMO! Sick and forced to put out 0 watts riding the couch for hours on end and drinking gallons of bland fluids (why can beer hydrate just as well as water???).

Judging from the way this is running it's course so far, I will be starting back on Monday, hopefully well rested and ready to take the next week of training head on with no bugs in site!

Good Eats

For Christmas, I got a couple of new cookbooks and I have been cookin' up a storm with them. This is a good thing because, as you know, I have been struggling to put, and keep the weight on. By the way, you'll be happy to know that I have put on 5 lbs. since Christmas - HOORAY! It's been super important because the training hours keep going up and up and Liz has me doing some crazy hard workouts - I WILL NOT BONK or worse, get sick.

So anyway, I want to go on record and say that I am in love with Ellie Krieger. Or rather, her new cookbook, So Easy. Because she is a nutritionist all of the recipes are chock full of veggies, healthy grains, and FLAVOR! Plus, she splits up the chapters into "in a hurry" and "at ease" - so there is "dinner in a hurry" - meals that take less time to make, and "dinner at ease" - meals that you can make when you have more time, which for me only happens on Sunday night.

I also received, The Athlete's Plate for Christmas although I've only made one thing out of it - sweet potato, kale and chicken "risotto" which wasn't really risotto at all, just the cooking method is similar to risotto - adding warmed chicken stock to the potatoes a little at a time. The recipes in this book are UBER healthy but seem a little more complicated and are geared more toward summer foods.

I love reading other athlete's food blogs too! I have been stealing recipes from the Cotters, my blogger-friend JP, and Beth and James (who I don't know but think are a super cute couple and super FAST!).

Happy Eating!

Trainer Tales

Kansas City, just like most of the Midwest, or the country for that matter, has been under the spell of Old Man Winter for the past three-four weeks. It started Christmas Eve when we were hit with ice, followed by snow, followed by a blizzard that Paul and I fought (literally and figuratively) our way home in, and it did not stop snowing until Monday, Dec. 28th. When it was all over, we were left with 12+ inches of the white stuff (that's what she said).

There were a couple of good things that came out of that storm: we had the first white Christmas I can remember in years AND we went sledding with some good friends on Christmas night despite the frigid temps. I have not laughed that hard in a very long time!!

But with the goose-egg temps and snow up to my ass, it's time to get back on the trainer...and the dreadmill. I don't know why we all complain about the trainer so much. It seems as though we would have adapted to it by now given our geography. Hell, come spring I have a hard time getting off the trainer and riding outdoors!! I would much rather sit in the comfort of my home, watching a movie, with immediate access to warm, clean facilities than ... get all geared up, make sure I pack enough nutrition, tubes, etc. and have to plan a route, wait for stop lights, etc., etc.

Speaking of comforts of home...with the colder temps, the dungeon has been anything but comfortable. Exhibit A and B below prove that our 1920's basement/garage are anything but comfortable at the start of a ride:

Exhibit A: It's 48 degrees in the dungeon.

Exhibit B: All bundled up - hat, gloves, sweatshirt, yoga pants over bike shorts

Actually, this works out quite well for those harder interval, steady state, and testing days because I don't even have to run a fan! I just start with all the layers and peel them off one by one.

But all this riding indoors has damaged my equipment. Or, rather, if you don't pay attention to the details while riding indoors, your equipment can fail faster than you can say "watts". Case in point:

You can actually see the threads!

Turns out, if you fail to apply the correct amount of tension between the trainer and wheel, the friction will cause the wheel to overheat and therefore, shred your tire. I can't tell you how many times I walked away from a trainer workout covered in tire shreds! At first I thought it was my trainer - it sucked. But then I realized (after a quick physics lesson from Coach Liz) that it wasn't all my trainer's fault - there was user error too!

But I ended up having to get a new trainer anyway, because, well, I'm just too powerful for the one I was using. I had to upgrade because the equipment I was using was not capable of handling my wattage output! That's just so funny to say! I crack up every time I say it. Ha! Ha!

Anyway... as I type this the sun is shining and the birds are chirping and it's finally above 20 degrees! In fact, I may even break out the shorts because it's supposed to hit 40 today! There is so much melting that if you look out the window, it appears it is raining - from all the snow melting off the roof tops. I even heard a rumor that it will reach 53 next Tuesday!!

Spring is just around the corner, right?

Reflecting

It’s New Years Eve and all this week, well, for the last couple of weeks really, I have been doing a lot of thinking. A LOT. But I’ll just focus on the racing/training part here.

What is that quote about history and moving forward…something about learning from our mistakes? Ahh, I think this is it:

“Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” – George Santayana

So I took some time to read through my blog posts from last year and I noticed a theme - negativity!! Honestly, with all the bitching and moaning and whining I did, it’s amazing that people keep coming back to read this blog.

I also went back through all of my saved e-mails from Coach Liz. I save all the special ones – race plans, feedback on race results, feedback on training, and wow – lots of emails about handling stress and emotions. Again, I’m amazed she put up with this wet blanket of a client!

But 2009 wasn’t just a difficult year for me. I know a lot of people who would really like to forget it ever happened. Good friends lost loved ones, got divorced, were laid off from work or at least had the threat of a lay off looming, suffered from injuries, or had their hearts broken.

Despite all this, I have learned more about life, relationships and humanity than any other year. And that is priceless.

Liz asked her athletes to reflect on 2009 and list out our season highlights. Mine were less about race results and more about experiences:

• Swimming in Lake Michigan with Liz, Cat and Danni

• Downers Grove Crit Nationals - I may have come in third to last in the Cat ¾ race, and it was super hard, but I am so glad I had that experience!!!

• Huge swim PR at Redman Half Iron/Long Course Nationals

• Racing cyclocross for the first time - again, no stellar results, but I had so much fun doing it!!!

I think back about all the hours of training I put in. All the sacrifices I made, all the pain and anguish, and all the heartache…and then I look at this list and I smile. It was all worth it.

Life is going to suck at times. Sometimes it’s nothing but back to back episodes of crap. It’s how we deal with it that makes us stronger and better, right?

2010 is off to a great start. I started 2010 on Monday with a BIG training block (I think all of Liz’s athletes are in the same boat – SOLIDARITY!) and if I can get through this in the dead of winter, I know I can get through it in the blast furnace of summer.

What? You think I'm going to tell you what my goals are this year??

The biggest thing I will be working on this year is my mental focus and outlook (duh). Even if my life is shit, I will work really hard to keep my life out of my training. I even got crafty and made this cute little frame to remind me EVERY DAY what I’m working towards. I’m keeping a journal and making notes and goals for the week (beyond what I log in Training Peaks) and I’m trying really hard to stick to them.

New gear for a new year!

This is MY year! This year I am going to live up to my potential. I will not simply pass through space and time. I will make a mark!

It’s time for a NEW YEAR!

Wait for it...

I'll be back on the blogger wagon soon! If not this weekend, by January 1 for sure.

2010 is going to be MY YEAR!

Key words this year: Focus, No, and Success

Focus - Focus on training and not much else. Focus on me, putting my goals first.

No - Saying no to partying, staying out late, eating crap and missing workouts.

Success - This year, I am going to live up to my full potential as an athlete. I am going to GO THERE!!!

Off-Season!

I'm starting my three weeks of non-training training. You know what this means - workouts with no structure, no races, no talk of triathlon or sport of any kind.

So this blog will go dormant until December. Check back then for updates!

Fresh Ink

Finished! Three sessions, 6.5 hours, five colors = totally worth it! Big thank you to Scott at Mercy Seat. I can't stop staring at it.