Always trust your gut when it comes to underwear in the road....

Had a 20 mile run to do his past Sunday, in preparation for a potential marathon in March. I planned to do this run in three loops - the first two loops identical seven miles each and then mix it up the last six. Given the sub 30 degree temperatures, loops make it easier for me to get water, fuel, kleenex etc, instead of worrying about carrying frozen supplies. My long run buddy and former college roommate Kristin was planning on joining me for the second and third loops.

So, I set off at 7am to do the first seven miles. Pretty uneventful and I felt good. Things picked up when Kristin joined me for loop two and we got engrossed in conversation. Just past halfway through the second loop, we happened to pass a bright pink striped pair of underwear on the side of the road (pretty unique pair of underwear if you ask me). Kristin was in the middle of a story and I thought to myself "thats funny, I have that exact pair, what are the odds". Ten seconds later I thought, "wait a second, could that be MY underwear? Did it get stuck in my dri fit clothes in the dryer and fall off in the first loop?" I stopped Kristin and told her she was going to think I was crazy, but I was pretty sure that underwear in the road we just saw was mine (meanwhile, I thought I was crazy because I was actually considering picking it up). Well, the underwear looked pretty clean (i.e. not run over and not like it had sat out all night) so it corroborated my thoughts that perhaps it had just been sitting in the road for the past hour since it unattached itself from my clothes, and I defintely hadn't seen it on my first loop. I also confirmed it was the size I knew I had in the same pair. So.....I picked it up and put it in my pocket of my running jacket. Seriously. I picked underwear off of the side of the road.

Me to Kristin: I can't believe I just did that!
Kristin: Don't worry, I'm not judging you!

Me: Oh no, you should judge me, I am judging me - I just picked up underwear off the side of the road!

In case you are wondering, the rest of the run went great, one of my best 20 milers ever. Further, I confirmed that I was in fact missing that pair of underwear from the drawer...I still haven't decided if I'm actually going to be brave enough to wear it again....

Bottom line - Always trust your gut when it comes to underwear in the road...

Time for Resolutions....

Ah, January 1st - the time where so many people set fitness resolutions. My resolutions don't really have to do with fitness, they have to do with not letting my fitness goals take over my life. For 2010, my resolution is to balance my training with life - be more flexible with rearranging my schedule so that I don't let the rest of life (time with family, friends) pass me by, and probably more importantly, don't get too stressed out about this - its supposed to be fun! (DH will thank me if I carry through on the latter part especially!)

Now onto the (athletic) goals for 2010 - I'm sure I'll make tons of lists over the course of my ironman preparation, so get ready. I'm going to limit it to big goals for 2010:

1) Finish IMMoo!!

2) Qualify for the Boston Marathon (maybe not too smart to try to do #1 and #2 in the same year?)

3) Stay Injury-free! Incorporate stretching, core training, yoga, massage regularly....whatever I can do to avoid the injuries that have plagued me the last couple of years.

4) Improve my cycling fitness

5) Complete an average at least 90% of my scheduled workouts

6) Go hard on hard days, easy on easy days (see # 3!!!!)

7) Train with DH in his preparation for his first marathon in October!!!

8) Nail down my nutrition plan - I have struggled with nutrition in marathon training in the past and finally need to figure this out.

9) Take planned rest days. Take unplanned rest days if necessary and don't feel guilty about it because its for the better.

10) Blog about the journey!

December Totals

December Training Totals:

Swim - 19,450 yards; 6 hours, 40 minutes

Bike - 103.5 miles; 7 hours, 25 minutes

Run - 127.4 miles; 19 hours, 17 minutes

Total Training Time - 33 hours, 22 minutes

More time in each sport this month....even with the holidays and all of the hectic-ness they bring.

I am starting a Computrainer bike class in January. This is an organized indoor ride at a local bike shop where I use my own bike on a Computrainer, which provides different levels of resistance while you ride "courses". Bikers swear by the Computrainer for bike improvements. I'm hoping this will help my winter riding program as it will guarantee me a 90 minute hard ride once a week in addition to my other trainer sessions.

So, in order to get the most benefits from the Computrainer sessions, one should do a "test" ride to callibrate the trainer to one's fitness level and current power output ability. Let me be clear that before October of 2009, I have rode a total of maybe 10 times in the past two years. I am starting from ground zero. I was not expecting fabulousness from my "test". DH reassured me by saying "don't worry honey, there has to be SOMEONE you can beat"...haha I wasn't so sure. During the test, there were 8 people - 6 men, two women. Everyone looked serious and like they had done this before. Needless to say, I was smoked by everyone but a [70] year old man (barely - I give him serious props). My reassurance is that this is a race against myself for improvement. Opening avg power output: 115 watts [cringe]. (To put this in perspective, the "top" guy at the test had an avg power output of ~260 watts!!!)

Guess I should stop writing and start biking.....

November Totals

I've neglected posting for a while, so time to catch up with training totals. My first full month of "base" training was November. Here are the totals:

Swim - 14,550 yards; 5 hours

Bike - 78.1 miles; 4 hours, 45 minutes

Run - 119 miles; 17 hours, 47 minutes

Total Time - 27 hours, 32 minutes

Not bad for the month considering the last week included an all-inclusive vacation in Mexico....

The less than 20 miles per week biking average needs to seriously improve - I know I am neglecting improving my [weak] bike fitness while training for a March marathon.