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post race ramp up

Getting back into the swing of blogging - harder than it sounds!  It's so easy when things are going well but it gets harder when there are struggles to admit to.  90% of my eating is going really well.  50% of my working out is going well.  I'm working on getting both of those closer to 100%.

I had a big race on Sunday (Lake Stevens 70.3) but woke up feeling sick on Saturday.  Same thing Baby has had all that week.  One of us stayed home with him all week.  He's better now but I woke up Saturday with my throat on fire.  Feeling unwell is a trigger for me.  Add "taper" (no exercise before a big race) and "carbo loading" (supposedly eating to fuel for a big race - my brain needs to sort out carbo loading from binge eating).

I wasn't completely out of control but I made some not so great choices.  I'm not eating candy (since March) and salty snacks/chips (since April) and I've stuck to being abstinent.  But I haven't been able to break the sweets.  In between, I'm eating healthy.  See how good I am at rationalizing??  Yesterday I signed up for a weight loss contest with a group of friends.  The reward?  $200.  That kicked my butt squarely back on the wagon.


I'm back on track as of yesterday.   I even made it to the gym (tail end of my cold meant a horrific cough - I'm sure there's someone blogging out there about the lady at the gym with the cough...).  We have joined the YMCA - great facility plus nice child care.  Perfect for us.  So last night, I fed the baby, handed him off to his teen sister (swim team goes past child care hours) and then headed to the Y with my teen son in tow.  I put in 2.83 miles on the treadmill (39:56 minutes, 14:06/mile avg. speed) and then did the ActivTrax weights workout.  I love this workout - I go to the kiosk and print out my weight training.  It's easy to read, easy to track.  Yesterday was lower body.  And there's a core workout/abs with every session.

Then it was time for swim team.  Given that breathing without coughing is still an issue right now, I let the coach know that I wasn't 100%.  I was willing to GIVE it 100% but was going to play it by ear.  I'm in the slow lane and he modifies the workouts for my lane anyway.  And last night I was the only one in lane #1.  So it worked out well.  The coach is great - helping me with my stroke (and God knows, it needs help - I've got a lifetime of bad habits to correct - I almost wish I could do a "stroke reboot" and start over!!).  I made it 55 minutes or so and then had my son refill my water bottle.  Coach ended my workout at that point, stressing that my face was red and I looked done.  I happily got out of the water and headed for the locker room.  A little hot sauna just for fun and then a shower and headed for home.

I called ahead and had my daughter run a bath - part of baby's bedtime routine is bath, food, bed - and it was nearly bedtime for him.  I stopped at the store and picked up some goodies for an awesome salad and a cheap cut of steak.  Dinner!

I got the baby to bed, fixed dinner, and sat down to bask in the accomplishment of working out and eating healthy - even if it's just for a day.  It really is about One Day At A Time.


Race Report:

7/19/2012:
Lake Stevens Half Ironman 70.3.


Sunday morning, 4am, my throat was on fire. But I had a team counting on me. So I ate a banana and headed to my cousin's house, walking distance from the race. I ate some oatmeal there and then we headed down. We got there in plenty of time - got body marked (glad it's only my AGE they wrote on my calf for everyone to see...) and then paced nervously until it was time to line up for my wave start

Event warmup:

I got in the water by the shore - which was stinky like gasoline - eww!! I swam a little bit but mostly I was concentrating on sucking on cough drops to ease the throat pain.


   Swim (1.2 miles)

Comments:

I'm still struggling to put my head in the water but I had decided I was going to just do it. 11 strokes at a time. It mostly worked. I even caught up to a few swimmers from the previous wave. But I don't think I overtook anyone from my wave. I would say I got my face in about 75% of the time - a vast improvement for me. With my sore throat and generally feeling like doo, I was happy to have made it the full distance.

What would you do differently?:

Not get sick? I need to get in a lot more OWS and really get my face in the water and work on my stroke more. What swim training I've done is definately helping but I've got a long way to go before attempting this race solo in 2013.

finishing time: 47:02


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