Opening to Grace

One of the reasons I am such a HUGE proponent of Anusara-inspired yoga is because the basic principals of that particular genre of yoga have so many practical applications in life OFF the yoga mat.  I have plenty of workouts in my weekly routine--when I step on to the yoga mat, I'm looking for more than just flying through some poses.  I'm looking to relieve the stress I've put on my body . . . and also on my mind.

I mean really . . . work, kids, life, school, training . . . blah blah blah.  LIFE gets completely overwhelming sometimes.

Okay, let's be honest here.  Life gets completely overwhelming ALL OF THE TIME.

Open to grace is the first principle of Anusara-inspired yoga.

"Open to grace is the first principle of Anusara Yoga. How I understand it, this stems from the belief that we are more than just our physical body and mind. That everything is made out of the same energy, the whole of existence: you, me, nature and the streets. That everything is one thing. Opening to grace doing yoga is connecting and aligning ourself to this energy, that is bigger than us. That energy that intrinsically is us, the space in which everything appears and that what appears in it. All one thing." (Source)

Opening to grace is accepting that things will be hard, and embracing the challenge.  Opening to grace is seeing the benefit of the challenge.  I use the "open to grace" concept a lot. Not just during my yoga practice.  In running. In life.  Take a breath, accept the challenge, and stretch for a goal.

My bike was stolen out of my garage in mid-July. It followed on the heels of the theft of some other items out of my car the week before.  I was devastated, I loved my bike (it was a gift from my mom), and it gave me a feeling of freedom I don't get from anything else.

Cycling has always been a "thing" for me, even when I was an out of shape, unhealthy child.  My cousin Kirk would come and take me for these long bike rides--out to my Grandparents farm or just in the country.  I looked forward to those trips so much.

Anyway, it was a rough thing.  But . . . Open to grace.  Accept the challenge.  Inhale the positive, exhale the negative.  Think of a solution.  So I wrote a letter.  And two short weeks later, that letter has panned out not only into a sponsorship for me, but also for all the ladies on Team Tough Chik.

So its with great pleasure that I announce Diamondback Bicycles as my bike sponsor.

I am still more than a little in awe of the beautiful little bike sitting downstairs right now.   I'm not one for naming bikes, but this one is getting a name because of the very unusual circumstances by which she came to me.  I am not a pro athlete--I will never be the fastest, especially not on the run.  So going for a bike sponsor was something I would not have dreamed about even a few short weeks ago.  But here we are.  So meet Karma.  She's a Diamondback Airen 4. More bike than I would have dreamed of for myself for a long, long while.  I expected to be riding my aluminum Trek for years to come. 

I can't wait to get this baby out on the road.  And honestly, I'm considering doing something in November that I've only thought about in the most abstract of terms, previously.  

Inhale, exhale.

Open to grace.

Accept the challenge. 

Reach for more.

Namaste 

Race Report - Triathlon Trilogy #2

I feel like its been forever since I've written a race report.  Probably because it has been.  It's been six weeks since my last race (Trilogy 1) and THAT alone seemed like forever.  The last race I blogged about was Ragnar back in February and I never even finished writing about that.  Sigh.  Have to do better on the balance.

This race was by far my BEST race this season, so far anyway.  Also my best race on this course.  This is my third season doing the Triathon Trilogy, although the course was changed up this season by the return of the Rickenbacker Causeway to the bike course.  I actually miss all the loops of the old course--the Uturns made it a technically challenging course it was slightly longer.  The challenge presented by the climb is fantastic though.

Here's the low-down on the course.

 And how things shaped up for me.

The swim--AWESOME.  I have been spending a lot of time in the water focusing on improving my technique.  My friend Julie is an AWESOME teacher.  This was a PR on this course for me by 1:07.  Which is HUGE for a 400m swim.  The conditions were near perfect too. 

The bike-I had hubby's road bike for this race.  I am flat out floored by what a different ride it is, between the carbon fiber frame and the upgraded components.  The climb over the Rickenbacker Causeway was SO MUCH EASIER on his bike than it was on mine.  Its just crazy.  The pace above is incorrect though (as much as I would like to say I really did break 20) because the course distance is incorrect.  Either way, using his bike shaved 2+ minutes off my bike time from last race.  The only downside is that his bike is a bit too big for me and my shoulders/back are SCREAMING today.

T2-My T2 times used to be under a minute, but since switching to clips on the bike (I used to ride in cages) I can't seem to trim T2 down.  12 second improvement this time, so I'll take it.  I also managed to run in my cleats this go-round, which is a bonus.   Lots of room for improvement here.

Th run- by the time I hit the run course, it was hot.  I ran most of the first mile and then switched to Galloway 3/1.  Best thing I ever did.  I felt physically strong for the duration of the run, and this time was only 3 seconds off my personal best for this run course.  It's a challenging multi-surface run course--part of it is over sand.  Looking forward to breaking the 11 minute mile barrier in September, since I hope marathon training will continue to make me a stronger runner.

All in all, good enough for an almost 7 minute course improvement over last race, a 3 minute PR for this particular race, and 3rd in my division.  My friend Julie rocked it out for 2nd, despite back pain and a nagging knee injury. 146th overall and 47th female. 

This was my first race with my bia.  It's still a work-in-progress, learning how to use it.  I really enjoy the fact that it can automatically post my tracks (it has a built in cellular connection, which is pretty freaking cool).  The Triathlon mode is on rollout and I missed the shout out to get it in time for this race, so I missed getting that in time. As a result I missed the first .6 miles of the run while my bia was doing an upgrade.  But its all good--The go stick stayed snug during every stage of the race. 

The place medals were super fun this go-round--a spinning place number with a spinning multirace emblem inside it.  Loved them!  Here's a pic of the goodies.

 I am totally bummed that I will miss the 3rd round of the trilogy because of our vacation.  I have done every race in the trilogy for the past 2 years.

Marathon Training - Weeks 3, 4 & 5

Well, lookie there.  I'm behind again.  No big surprise.   It's been a CRAZY couple of weeks, but I'll spare you all the details.  This fun little sign pretty much sums up the past few weeks.

Suffice to say I am tired of yelling PLOT TWIST.  But life moves on, and the world keeps turning.

The kids have started sports again, and that sucks up a lot of our time--which is probably why I am again behind on blogging. 

I've been in triathlon mode lately.  Our season is coming in hot and heavy.  Emphasis on hot because HOLY COW it is hot outside in SoFl.  The heat index regularly tips into the 100s and the humidity is excruciating. 

Week 3:

Monday - Spin + Body Pump, Yoga

Tuesday -Yoga!

And then the sickies descended on our house.  ("PLOT TWIST!")   Wednesday and thursday were rest days.

Friday - 4th of July, I was off my food and feeling under the weather.  3.25 miles, excruciatingly miserable miles, but in the done column.

Saturday - Weights

Sunday - 9 miles

Week 4 looked like this:

Monday - Weights/Spin

Tuesday - 3.25 miles on the bridge (hills for SoFl people), 400 m Open Water Swim.  This day included yelling "PLOT TWIST" many times, but I saw a school of spotted eagle rays from the bridge--twas AWESOME!

Wednesday - 40 min spin, 400m swim, Body Pump

Thursday - 4 miles (including wu/cd)

Friday - Body pump

Saturday- 2 miles (with our cute lil foster puppy)

Sunday - 1 mile OWS

This was the first time I hit a mile in open water, so I was super stoked.  And super pooped.  I had four miles on the calendar for Sunday but pushed it back due to time and ya know, LIFE.  

Week 5:

Monday - REST (Because whoopsie, I went 10 days straight after the sickies came to call.  Because I have issues balancing, and also because working out is my stress relief.

Tuesday - 4 miles + Yoga

Wednesday - Discovered my bike had been stolen from my garage. ("PLOT TWIST") - Processed this information with a 70 minute spin session and an 800m swim.

Thursday - 3.1 mi bike+400m swim.  13 mile bike in the evening on my hubby's too big, but nice bike, just to make sure I could manage on it. Because Sunday was a race day.

Friday - Body pump - Easy

Saturday - Rest

Sunday - Virginia Key Triathlon Trilogy #2.  (400m swim, 8 mi bike, 5K run).   Race report to follow, but here are my awesome neighbor and I after the race.  

I have 10.5 miles on the calendar for Sunday, but that's going to be shifted to either early in the week or just be pushed back a week, depending on life. And the number of times I need to yell "Plot Twist" again this week. Lets hope not at all. 

Have an amazing Monday!

Marathon Training - Week 2

Since I'm doing Galloway's marathon plan, each increase week is followed by a recovery week.  We started a few weeks into the actual plan, which is why week 1 had 7.5 miles.  This past week was a recovery week so the "long" run was only 3 miles.  I love this because it allows for tri training and for my chaotic life.  Like this week-when I had to conduct my monthly sampling for work, which involves a bike ride in the Everglades.   That ended up being my long run this week.

My son got sick on the back half of the week, and it threw things off. Its still lingering, and STILL throwing things off.  Thank you Jeff Galloway for coming up with a marathon plan that won't stress me out when LIFE HAPPENS.   Because let's be real--life happens ALL. THE. TIME.

The theme for this week was beautiful scenery:

From Tuesday's 3.75 mile sunrise bridge run on the Rickenbacker Causeway (check out the moon and Venus in the first pic!)

And from Sunday's 30 mile bike in the Everglades--which felt like I was on the surface of the sun, by the way.  It was in the lower 90s and the humidity was INSANE. 

The river of grass--so cool to have such ready access to one of the world's most amazing ecosystems. 

 And yes, that's an alligator

 Its the rainy season here, which means everything is flowering!!

This was one of those weeks when it was lovely to be outside, even though it was excruciatingly hot, to see the beauty that nature has to offer down here.  

So, anyway, the week looked like this:

Monday - 50 min Spin, Body Pump, 30 min yoga

Tuesday - 3.75mi hill repeats (3/1 intervals)

Wednesday - 40 min spin, 1200 m swim (ladder workout), strength training

Thursday - 3.25 miles (HOTTER THAN HOT, ended up so slow)

Friday - Rest day thanks to a sick kid, but lots of puppy walks

Saturday - "Rest" day, and by rest I mean 2 birthday parties and several hours volunteering in the sun

Sunday - 30 miles in the saddle, 14.2 mph average pace.  First time I've hit 30 in a long while. 

So, really low mileage on the run side, but one hill workout.  I thin 

So far this week has been rocky--we ended up with a foster dog and my son has been under the weather again.  But its all good, because I've got this.  158 days till 26.2.

Marathon Training - Week 1

So, I am turning 33 in December.  I have never been big into birthday celebrations for myself . . .

I wanted this year to be different.  I wanted to do something "big" for a change.  My birthday, hubs birthday, and our wedding anniversary all fall in December, and of course there is Christmas too, so it makes it hard to do big things.  It's time to do something I have been thinking about for a long time, but makes me terrified.

So along with my running bud Jess, her hubs, and my hubs, we signed up for the Palm Beaches Marathon during its blitz.

Holy crap.  Twenty six point freaking two miles.  I guess it fulfills this mantra.

Its been awhile since I've done something that terrifies me.  26.2 miles TERRIFIES me.  Its a crazy thing that a lot of people will never do.  Its certainly something I never thought I would do, back in those days not so long ago when I would look at people running, from my car, while eating a fast food burger and thinking to myself "Wow, those people are crazy."

I have sort of been in marathon denile these past few months.  I have just tried not to think about it, because thinking about it is pretty overwhelming.  But since we're now less than six months away, there was no more putting it off.  So last week, Jess and I chose a plan and put our heads together and said  "The time is now."

And low and behold, Week 1 of marathon training is over.  Keep in mind, we're knee deep in triathlon season, which goes until November here in SoFL.  So that impacted the training plan I chose. Went with Galloway, because I think the mileage is realistic for me and because it will give me time to swim, bike and lift, all things I am not willing to give up during marathon training.

So here's what week one looked like:
M - 30 min spin/Body Pump
Tu - 800m swim/4 mi run
W - 50 min spin/3 mi run (brick!)
Th - 4 mi run/wog (cause I died at the end)
F - Body pump
Sa - Rest
Su- 7.5 miles at 3/1 intervals.  It was hot and humid but I was SHOCKED how good I felt at the end.  6 was originally on the schedule, but we decided to go for 7.5 because WHY NOT.  (And also because I realized Escape to Miami in September falls on the same day as my first 20 miler according to the plan. File that under things that won't quite work out.

The only bad thing about the week was the training increase sort of made me wig out on my eating.  I need to plan more carefully this week.  I don't care if I don't lose a pound over the next few months, but I DO want to lean out.  So I need to watch what I'm putting into my face.  Fun times.

Rock on peeps, and happy Monday.

When Life Bogs You Down

Hello Readers!!
Sorry that I have been MIA.  I don't even know how blogging fell by the wayside.  Or maybe I do.  Life happens, and sometimes, it just gets overwhelming and the things that aren't critical to existence fall away.  The past few months have been very much about finding our homeschool groove in this house.  Its been a challenge.   I haven't been running, I gained some weight . . . I struggled with my emotions and old habits and all of that fun stuff.

No matter where you are in your journey in life, or in fitness, or WHATEVER, its important to recognize that things happen.  Life gets you down. You make crappy choices, bad things happen.  You fall.  But then you get back up and you move on.

June has very much been the getting back up and moving on for me.  Its not like anything catastrophic has occurred in our lives, it was just that life got away from us.

I was reminded that people actually DO read this page, and take things away from it, by a woman I met at my last race.  She was a friend of an awesome chick I met last year, and had been reading for awhile. She had noticed the lack of posts.   I realized I need to make more of an effort to write here again.   I have fallen SO FAR behind, its not even funny.  Mental and physical struggles aside, I still haven't blogged about the last 2 legs of Ragnar.  I haven't written about the two half marathons or three triathlons I have done since then.

Oh, and I haven't written about the awesome night hubs and I went out to go dancing that resulted in my toe getting sliced open and sidelining me for an entire month. THAT was fun.   Because of that injury, I did my first Relay at Miami Man Speedway edition.  I'm lucky to have awesome running friends who are willing to run 6.6 miles in the heat of the day at the drop of a hat.

In the four months since I've written last, my son has turned 8 and my daughter has graduated from preschool.  We had a crazy fun soccer season in there too.

  

There have been a lot of beautiful sunrises . . .

 Miami Beach 13.1 - From the causeway

 and LOTS of epic craziness . . .

 like running in the rain

 and humiliating the dog

 and finding cool things on the beach

while burying ourselves in the sand. 

 June has been getting back to basics . . .

 Eating clean

 Positive self talk (Thanks Grandma!)

And COMPRESSION.

It was putting on my compression today, after a 50 minute spin/3 mile run brick, that inspired me to write today.  Because as I was struggling into my Aspaeris shorts I was reminded that only 18 months ago, I was sitting in my car with Amanda/TooTall feeling exhausted after my 2nd Ragnar leg/my first Ragnar night run, and feeling like there was no way I could MOVE yet alone keep going.  We were two runners down, my stomach wasn't behaving and I felt SO TIRED.  But she talked me into struggling into the shorts, and even though I felt like dying, we finished.  Life is like that.  You think you can't go on, but you do.  You preservere.  You get better, you get stronger, you get faster.  It may never get easier, but you get better.  You keep going.  

My favorite thing about running/endurance events is that they are metaphors for life.  Yes, its hard.  Yes, you want to give up.  You struggle, you fall, you want to quit.  But you don't.  You can't.  You have to keep going.  You come out the other side.

Oh, and sorry if you see me around town in my compression get-up.  Since training is back in full swing, you gotta do what you gotta do.  

Ragnar 2014 #1

 We got up at 2am on Friday morning to do this crazy thing.  Yes, you read that right, 2am.  By 3, we were on the road to pick up Kristen and Rich.  Gigi and Nick had arrived the night before and were staying at our place.  It made things super easy in the logistical sense.  We arrived shortly before 4am for our safety briefing and check in.  Ragnar was running behind, and we didn't actually start until 5:10, ten minutes after our assigned start time. 
Our starting rotation looked like this:
Nick - 5.7 miles (including the Rickenbacker Causeway)
Brad - 4.4 miles (through Grand Avenue)
Me - 2.4 miles
Rich - 4.0 miles
Gigi - 3.6 miles
Kristen - 2.7 miles, handing off to van 2 at Tamiami Park
Here is everyone at the start, getting ready to go.

I knew Nick was fast, but I really hadn't rectified in my mind exactly HOW fast. The man has a 1:28 half marathon under his belt.   When they started, he was off like he had been shot out of a slingshot.  He was in the lead leaving Key Biscayne.  He was IN THE LEAD.  I'm a 11-12 minute miler on an average day, so this whole in the lead thing was pretty foreign.  We watched him in awe.  Here he is, looking like a flash.

 

Nick handed off to Brad in Coconut Grove, and we stuck close.  It wasn't even six am, the sun wasn't up yet and Brad had to run through a pretty shady area.  So we would go a few blocks and wait for him, then go a few more.   Once he crossed US1 we headed to the next exchange, which was right behind the University of Miami.  I was up next.  My 2.4 was pretty uneventful--my legs felt heavy, and I think I was finally warmed up by about the time it was over.  I ran a 10:45, which was on pace for what I was expecting. 

Next up was Rich.   Rich is also a super speedy guy.

 

 Gigi was up next--love this girl, we had such a great time.  Here we are before her first exchange.

 And here are the guys while we were waiting for Gigi to come in.

Next to the shower pill magnet.  We really did love our shower pills.

 AAnd last, but not least was Kristen, who brought us in to Exchange 6, where we handed off to Van 2.

The really GREAT thing about doing this race, which literally runs through our back yard, is that once we were done, we went home.  We dropped Kristen and Rich at Kristen's house and then went to my house. We ate real food and slept in real beds (or at least tried to sleep).  That paid off later.  We were done and headed home by 10, looking forward to a solid four hours before we needed to meet back up.  Meanwhile, Van 2 ROCKED IT despite the heat.

To Be Continued!!