Thursday, January 30, 2014

Friday Favorites

I am still working on the tri series. The swim will be up next, I'm just really really paranoid I'm going to forget something that I want to share. I'm going through my emails, because I have lots of good stuff saved from swim class and from triathlon athlete letters. Also, the world is conspiring to never let me get to spin class. Either my work or training schedule has changed and prevented me from going. I will go and update you when it happens. Good news though! I got into my swim class! It starts on 2/11.

So anyway. A few of the blogs I read do a Friday Faves rundown, usually of things that come up during the week, and I really enjoy them. So...here we go (product title is a link when available):




I bought this on a whim, because I love the smell of fresh figs. I started using it right around when I started swim classes and now the scent or fig and chlorine, and the happy memories from training for my first tri, are intertwined. It's pricey, but a little goes a long way and I don't use it all the time. I got my last tube for Christmas 2012 and still have some.






While I do like the grapefruit version, I'm talking about the original formula with peppermint. It's amazing. I use it all year round and just bought 5 more tubes at CVS. I have one in every jacket and purse and also in my gym toiletry bag. You need this in your life.





Booo. It appears that it may not be available now and that I discovered it just as the last of it was being put out. It was only $4.99 and amazing! I mostly used it to drizzle over some air-popped popcorn and it went pretty quick! I highly recommend keeping your eye out for it.




I get really annoying pimples on my chin and this is one of the very few scrubs that works but doesn't feel harsh. My skin feels amazing after I use it! And, thanks to writing this post, I just realized I can buy two of them on amazon with the gift card I have. I originally bought it at Whole Foods, but haven't seen it there recently.





I'll let you just click the link above and check it out. I found it a few months ago while browsing through iBooks on my phone. I haven't read anything like it in quite a while, but I was sucked in right away. It's a pretty quick read and I was sad when it was over.





Lululemon Cool Racerback Tank

I KNOW. It's a $42 tank top. I know, I know!!! But let me tell you that I have a few (let's just say a few, mmkay?) and I live in them. I workout in them, I sleep in them, I wear them out in the summer and layer them in the winter. My very very favorite one looks to be back in stock. It's the "wee stripe white heathered medium grey" color. I have had this one for YEARS and sometimes hand wash it in the sink because I can't handle when it's dirty and I can't wear it. I end up sleeping in this on a lot and it has still kept it's shape. I might need to order a couple more of this one. I always regret when I love something and don't buy extras. I also have some cool colors too - hot pink, dark aqua, heathered charcoal.






Capri Blue Jar Candle - Aloha Orchid

I love this candle. It was an impulse buy a few years ago that ended up being a favorite. A guy friend even saw it and exclaimed, "my wife buys those! They smell so good!!!"




Vanderpump Rules

Yeah, I'm not sorry. I seriously love this show and I have no idea why. Even Time agrees, even if they admit the show is trashy. So there you have it.




Wyndmere Lavender Oil

That and my eye mask/pillow that I can't find a picture of. I have an eye mask that I got at Whole Foods that has extra padding under the eyes so light doesn't get up under the mask next to your nose. I brush a little oil onto my pillow, put the mask and and I might actually sleep the whole night. During the summer, I wake up as soon as it's light out and it's really annoying. The mask helps with the light and the lavender makes me sleepy. Just be careful of how much oil you use. Some people are really sensitive to it and it's not recommended to put right on your skin undiluted. I used too much once and ended up congested the next day.



Commanderie de Peyrassol

I love rosé, as I think you've gathered now. Don't confuse it with your great aunt's white zinfandel (aka pink wine!). This is slightly sweet and minerally. It's really special. It should start appearing in about 2 months, just when spring starts to hint at a warm up.

I first saw it mentioned in Formaggio Kitchen's blog a few years ago and apparently it's come up again:

http://blog.formaggiokitchen.com/2013/05/31/breakfast-to-bbq-four-of-my-favorite-roses/




This is a fairly interesting profile on the estate:

http://www.madrose.com/index.php/france/provence/commanderie-de-peyrassol#cotes-de-provence-rosé-“commanderie-de-peyrassol”

and it was #1 in a New York Times taste test:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/24/dining/reviews/rose-in-demand-but-not-demanding.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

I drink rosé year round, even though I think of it as a year round wine. Well, except the Peyrassol, which starts to disappear in May. It also goes from about $20 a bottle, which is quite enough, to closer to $30 as it gets more scarce.

Well, that's it for today. Happy Friday!

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

10 (more) Things About Me

Since writing posts about triathlon training is giving me nightmares, I figured I'd break it up a bit. Also, my last 10 Things About Me was one of my more popular posts. That and any post that involves booze. Can't help you with that tonight. Just sparkling Rosé. What? It's the drink of snowstorms!

1. Okay, since I mentioned the rosé I guess that can be number one. Do you have a song that distinctly reminds you of a place or event? Last February, we had Nemo. It was a Noreaster? Maybe a blizzard? It doesn't really matter. We got 2 1/2 feet of snow on that Friday and my Saturday schedule at work was pushed back to Sunday. We spent all day shoveling out the alley where my car is parked. The alley is city property and city maintained but you bet AINT NOBODY GOT TIME FOR THAT. Not one plow. Most of us realized that we would have to get together and shovel the length of the alley to get out, so we did. By about noon we were done and I said to The Husband, "you know, the local restaurants are posting on facebook that they don't have food (delivery trucks could not get through), but they're open for drinks. I think we should stop by." So we went to Tremont 647. It was hoppin in the there! Not only did they not have food, but at that point they were also out of OJ for mimosas. It was pretty funny. I took one look at the menu and said, "this might be ridiculous timing, but eff it. I'm ordering rosé and pretending it's spring." And then, just when there was a lull in the collective conversations in there, someone changed the song that was playing to something much more appropriate:


Everyone simultaneously started dancing and looking around like, awww yeah, who did this?!


2. I have some random habits that I always do. One of them? When I get home and know the next time I will be getting in my car is the next morning for work, I ALWAYS put the preset to 105.7 WROR. I feel like it HAS to already be on that station when I turn the car on in the morning. I always listen to Loren and Wally and classic rock in the morning. I just can't handle the top 40 DJs on the way to work. I'm cranky. I'm barely awake. I'm not in the moods for shenanigans. Unless it's Loren and Wally Shenanigans, then that's ok.

3. My "classic" bad dream that I have when I am stressed out, like REALLY stressed out, is that the lights either aren't working, are dim, or a combination of both. In the dream I feel like I'm in danger because I can't see well and am super frustrated about it. It almost has a supernatural feel to it, like there's some sort of demon or ghost controlling the lights. Towards the end of The Husband being in grad school, the on light from our track lights pointing towards the kitchen, plus the light over our sink went out. Only the dim bulb over the stove was working. It felt just like the dream and I was ready to move out until he graduated. Of course I couldn't reach the track light to change it and was afraid to mess with the sink light. ARGH!!!

4. HUGE pet peeve of mine? When pedestrians are crossing at a light where it specifically says WALK or DONT WALK and they somehow don't get it. I will give you the benefit of the doubt that maybe you are from somewhere without stoplights. MAYBE. But probably not. But seriously don't walk out into traffic that has the green light, while you have the pedestrian equivalent of the red light, THE BIG ORANGE HAND THAT SAYS DONT WALK, jack up traffic and gesture to us, "ehhhhhhh, this is a crosssss waaaaaaalk." Yes. It is. AND YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG.

5. I really REALLY like how I smell after swim class. I love when I go to bed after (it's usually a late class), curl my arm around my pillow and can smell the chlorine on my skin still. Now that I'm waiting on signing up for my next round of classes, one of the things I keep thinking of is that I will get to drift off to sleep dreaming of swimming.



6. My bird, Peete, gets really, REALLY upset if I lay down anywhere (especially my bed) in the apartment. He shrieks, paces back and forth and generally loses his mind. I don't know if he thinks I'm dead, is upset he's no longer getting attention or is just a jerk who won't let me nap. I also think it's really funny to go to bed wile the husband is still up so Peete loses it with him too.



7. I'm almost incapable of making a dinner recipe without doubling it, especially if it's a soup. Even if the recipe looks like it makes a lot, I will still double it. That's how we ended up with 8 quarts of Minestrone Soup last week. It was totally worth it though. It was yummy and now have it, like, forever.

8. We live in a +/- 650 square foot studio apartment in the South End of Boston that houses the two of us, two bikes, a cockatiel with a HUGE cage and a wetsuit that hangs on a wall because there's no place else to put it. Oh, and our kitchen table is mostly commandeered by my husbands "mad scientist experiments" (read: legit technology projects). It's "cozy."

There are now two bike parked here...

9. I am really bad at keeping plants alive, but am obsessed with cacti and succulents. I know. Everyone is bad at plants, right? However, there have been two or three plants that The Husband (who works with plants for a living) deemed as dead lost causes that I not only brought back to life, but are now beautiful. I got my amaryllis to bloom after 18 months of being told to throw it away. I have a 13 year old Jade Tree. I even got his Bonsai Tea Tree to bloom 3 or 4 times while he was in school. Too bad I forgot about it just long enough for it to die weeks before he graduated. Wah wahhhh...



10. My bike is named Tater. I was jokingly calling it The Orange Crush, because it's orange and tried to crush me but I knew that was SO LAME. After doing my last triathlon this past summer, I said, "I'm pretty sure it needs a trip to the bike shop. There were so many rollers and I was mashing those gears like 'taters." And then it felt right. Tater. Right from Ron White. (Because Tater is so much cooler)


I'm serious, it's worth watching the first 8 min to the punch line!

Monday, January 20, 2014

Triathlon - An Overview

Psssst! Hey you. Yes you, the person who has secretly wondered if they can do a triathlon. No, seriously. YOU. The person who has just planted the seed. Maybe you've heard of other completing a tri or seen one on tv. Maybe you imagined, step by step, if you could get through all 3 legs of the race. Maybe you started to think through the gear. Then maybe you dismissed it. For whatever reason(s), you did. I did too. But maybe that seed had already rooted a little and the thought came back to you. You won't admit to yourself that you might be taking it a wee bit seriously, but you might be. You definitely haven't told anyone yet, because that's crazy right? Maybe not! So here's what I say. Follow along because you're JUST CURIOUS. Okay? No one will tell.


See? I get scared too. Second road race ever, a 5 miler at Harpoon Brewery.


To give you some background if you are new here, I am a newbie triathlete. I have done 4 sprint distance races since my first one in August of 2012. I started sharing my running, and then triathlon, experiences partly to document it for myself but to also share with all of you. So many of you said what I was doing was brave, but I didn't feel brave. I started pushing myself because I felt so NOT brave. So here I am. I want to help you feel brave. Maybe sometimes terrified and brave, as triathlons can do to you, but brave none the less. I am also not of the traditional background, or body type that most people picture an athlete to be. That's why I am here for you now. I want you to see that if a totally goofy, clumsy "mortal" girl, who has more of a tendency for Bravo tv marathons than actual marathons can do this, you can too. I struggle with my weight, I have major battles with motivation some days and I work full time, just like many of you.

This series is geared towards someone who has never done a triathlon, or is very new and looking for tips. I will be focusing on the Sprint Triathlon for this series, although there are shorter "super sprints" and longer distances as well. I am really trying to make this as no nonsense and clear as possible. For that reason, I'll let you know the very basics you need. I will also let you know what the "nice to have" things are too so that you can make that choice. In upcoming posts I will go more into the transitions and the swim, bike and run individually. For now, I want to give you a sense of the logistics and how it all works.

Here's where I have to be the fun police. Please make sure any of the types of exercises you will be doing to train for a triathlon, and the race itself, is safe for you. It's a good idea to clear it with your MD if you are not sure. While I am not looking to scare you, there have been deaths in triathlons (same for running races). The vast majority of them happen in the swim to people who have undiagnosed cardiac conditions, but you never know. There have also been deaths on the bike course, mainly from bike-car collisions. Please ALWAYS wear your helmet when you're on your bike. ALWAYS. I fell in my driveway while standing over my bike with my feet on the ground. I hit my head HARD and was lucky I was wearing my helmet. 

Registration

First things first, you have to register. For each race you do, you must have a USA Triathlon license. There is absolutely no way around this. You choose during the registration process to get a "day license" for $12 or you can get a year membership for $45. Obviously, if you think you'll do 4 or more races, you will save money with the year membership. With the year you will also get a spiffy card, a USAT sticker for your car (STICKERS!!!!! I love them!) and a whole load of discounts. One of them is 20% off Tyr, which makes swim and tri apparel. I only wear their swimsuits and with that discount, made back that $45 in one summer with the money I saved. I plan on buying a one piece tri-suit (we'll get to gear later) later in the season when I have a better idea of my size. You also get ranked nationally if you do three or more races, which was pretty cool to see this past year. Fun fact: I rank better nationally than locally. Not surprised at all. Thanks crazy competitive Boston people.

Training 

So now that you've registered and have wiped your sweaty shaky hands off, how will the rest pan out? Well, first, don't forget to train. I used a plan that my personal trainer made for me for my first tri. To her dismay (ha...she is so patient with my craziness!), it was complicated by the fact that I had also signed up for my third half marathon, which was about 2 months after the tri. That meant 5 or 6 weeks or training overlap. The two books that I do own and would recommend are:


Your First Triathlon by Joel Friel

This is a good overview for beginners and has a very basic training plan. Of course, like anything else, it has to be taken with a grain of salt. You have to consider your own differences and needs. One example? My first race included a half mile open water swim. This book, and many people in my life, said that was a horrible idea. Mostly because they wanted me to be successful. However, I knew, and so did one of my friends who encouraged me to sign up, that I'd be fine. I was. It was scary but SO awesome!





This book is fantastic, because it includes training plans for the sprint distance right on up through the full Ironman and has ten (TEN!!!) levels of plans for each distance, depending on your experience, how much you want to train and what your goals are. I bough it and then proceeded to be totally intimidated by it until I signed up for my half ironman and things got REAL. Don't be intimidated. The workouts are coded and you have to flip back and forth to get the workout for each day. I made a google docs table and wrote out the workouts for each day so that I can see what I have every day for the whole week/month/plan. Write it out online or paper, whatever works for you! Remember to be flexible in training. If you have to swap days, it's okay. Just make sure you don't do a ton of days in a row. You need rest days too. 


Training is also the time to figure out what works best for your pre-race meal and also if you need some nutrition during the race. I will get into this later as well.



Race Week

This is the week that you should be considering how you will lay out your transition area (at the latest, feel free to experiment ahead of time). Transition is your home base and I will do a separate post just for that. Essentially, it's where your bike is racked, where all of your gear will be and where you will get "transition"from one stage to the next. You should also be cutting back on workouts as your plan will tell you. Eat normally and as you get closer to race day, start considering how sensitive your stomach is and if you will want to avoid certain foods. For me that's dairy and anything with a lot of fiber. Later broccoli!

If you have the opportunity, I strongly recommend going to a pre-race packet pick up and not the pick up on the morning of the race. It's just one less things to worry about. It also give you a chance to look through everything in your packet and make sense of it. You will have numbers for your helmet, your bike, your body (for the run) and maybe even for your swim cap. You will be give a color coded swim cap that corresponds to your wave and maybe even temporary race number tattoos (if not someone will write them on you with a sharpie on race day). Something that might throw you off is your "age" during the race. If you are racing in 2014, you will race as what ever age you turn that year. Even though I will be 35 through the entirety of the 2014 race season and turning 36 in the fall, I will race as a 36 year old. You will also be in whatever age group that "race age" puts you in.

You may also be given a neoprene timing chip. If so, DO NOT LOSE IT. DO NOT FORGET IT. This is how you get your time and has to be worn the entire race. You are also responsible for giving it back or being charged a fee. Some races don't give them out ahead, which I prefer. Otherwise I sleep with it on the night before, because I am THAT paranoid. Make sure its on good and secure. You don't want to yank it off with your wetsuit if you are wearing one that day. No chip = no time = no results = sad trombone for you. Wah wahhhh...

Since you have all of your numbers, you can go ahead and put the ones for your bike, helmet and swim cap (if used) on ahead of time. One less thing to worry about on race day! I suggest using a race belt that holds your number for the run so that you don't have to fumble with safety pins after swimming. No matter what you think, safety pins are a horrible idea and I'm glad that's one of the things I didn't learn the hard way. I will give you an option for using them that has been suggested in a future post, but I like the belt.


Race Day


Most races start at 8am, but some are even as early as 7. For an 8am race the timeline is often:

4:30/5am - race day packet pick up opens (and possibly day-of registration)
6am - transition opens (you are allowed into the corral where you will have an assigned bike/transition space. Only athletes, volunteers and USAT refs are allowed in here)
7:30 - transition closes
7:45am - pre race meeting/national anthem
8am - first swim wave starts

So you see why you don't want to wait to pick up your packet? Think of how long the drive will take. Think of how early you will have to get up to eat, get dressed and pack up/double check your gear before the time you need to leave. You could easily bet getting up at 3/3:30am. If your a terrible sleeper like I am, it might mean only 2-3 hours of sleep that night. If you don't have a choice, just bite the bullet and get there as early as it opens. You will be tired no matter what time you get there and the more time you have to get settled in, the less nervous you will be before the race. Don't put yourself in a position to rush.


This line is 30 minutes after I arrived and is tame compared to what it looked like 30 minutes later.


After you get there and set up your transition area, try and make a last minute porta-potty run. Even if you think you don't have to. If you are wearing a wetsuit for the swim, leave plenty of time to get it on correctly and get into the water. Soon you will be called to the pre-race meeting, which is usually safety basics, random announcements, reminders and any changes. After that you will be grouped into your wave. Waves are made up of elites and then different age groups. It's done this way so that you have 50-100 people rushing into the water at once instead of 1,000 plus. There is often a "novice" or "nervous swimmer" wave as well. I highly recommend signing up for this wave and have placed myself in it for 2 of the 4 I have done. It's a little more, "Yay! We're in this together! Go us!" and a little less, "I will push you under and swim over you if you are in my way!" than the age group waves can be. That being said, I've had great experiences no matter how I've raced. Except for the guy who grabbed my toe and needed a kick in the face. A typical sprint distance swim is 1/4 to 1/2 a mile and in a pond, lake or ocean. You will almost always have a separate time for the swim, along with T1, the bike, T2, the run and your overall total time. Small races may not give you more than your total time.


Yep. I'm so cool you can't even stand it.


After the swim is the first transition or T1. Here you will go from the swim to bike. All of your gear will be next to your bike and hopefully laid out in a way that is helpful to you. Keep in mind that unless you are doing a full Ironman with a changing tent, you will not be able to change clothes and nudity is a big no no. We'll go over how that will work with clothing in the gear section. Do not forget to put your helmet on here! The bike leg is usually 10-15 miles, with 12 being pretty average. Elevation changes vary greatly race to race, so consider this if you are not a strong biker, but remember that you can train for hilly courses too!



Running the bike out of T1. You cannot get on your bike until the mount line.


After you bike, you will enter the second transition, or T2. Here you will end the bike and start the run. Don't forget to take off your helmet (you'd be surprised how many forget!) and have your run number on (I usually put it on before the bike and turn it so it's behind me while I ride). Get going on your run and expect your legs to feel pretty heavy for the first 10-15 minutes or so. The run is usually about a 5K (3.1 miles) but can be up to 4 or 5 miles.

After that, it's the finish! Be proud, post it allllll over facebook, talk your friends' ears off and wear that medal and race T-shirt out to brunch!





Then go find your next race.




Sunday, January 19, 2014

Update on this week

Well....I didn't do either the spin class of the swim. Yep.


Let me distract you here with a training playlist favorite...


My days off from work this week were Thursday, Friday and Sunday (I work four 10 hour shifts). However, there was an opportunity to work an extra 10 hours of OT and get ahead on a pile of paperwork, so I offered to help out. I went in on Thursday, which was the day I wanted to go check out the pool. Turns out missing it was okay, because I just found out that I have a chance to rejoin the group swim class I had been taking back when I had a Harvard Athletic membership. The class registration opens on Monday, but allegedly I cannot register until Monday the 27th if the spots have not been filled by members. Realistically, it looks like anyone can register whenever they want, even before tomorrow. Cross your fingers for me!

Ideally I will end up in one of those classes. They are pretty much identical to the warmup/drills/swim/cooldown that my off season plan and eventually my training plan call for. The advantage is that I have someone watching me for the 8 classes and giving me feedback and it means I won't skip class or slack off in the workout. If I do get a spot, I won't sign up for the pool until later this spring since I will only be scheduled to do the one swim workout anyway. I would have just kept the Harvard membership and had access to the pool and the early sign up, but since The Husband has graduated, it's quite a bit more expensive as an alumni. That's why I will eventually be checking out the cheaper community pool later on, I just hopefully won't need it for a few months now.

I really have no excuse for skipping spin on Friday other than being exhausted. I slept so horribly all week that I crashed Thursday night and slept until almost 11 on Friday. Spin was at 8:45 and I knew I needed the sleep more. I also realize that the time is coming very soon where I will need to train more and that there will be some benefit to learning to train fatigued. I'm off next Friday (and will not be exhausting myself with OT) so I should be able to make the same class next week.


The triathlon series I've been promising is mapped out and the first one partly completed. Coming soon!


Friday, January 17, 2014

A neeeeeeeew computerrrrrrr!

(said with a Price Is Right style hand flourish of course)



The Husband and I headed over to the Boylston St store in Boston so I could decide on the 11" or 13" MacBook Air. I knew what I wanted for storage, I just had to choose the size. I felt like the added portability of the smaller one would outweigh the drawback of the smaller screen, but I still wasn't sure. It was a pretty hard choice. The small one looked a lot smaller than I imagined, but the 13" still was bigger than I wanted. I'd really like to be able to throw it in an oversized purse and take it with me whenever I want. Once I played around with the settings on the 11, I was sold. I ended up buying the 11" with 256G of storage. Woot woot!

Of course, I am sitting here looking at it in the box, because The Husband had to run to a meeting. I know it will be easy to get started, but with my luck I will do something to mess it up. I'm just going to be patient and wait a couple of hours. I had to wait almost a month after I decided I was going to buy it with the extra money I'd get from the over time hours I worked. As he was leaving the house, he laughed and said, "NOW what are you going to complain about?! Well, at least you have the next two hours to think about it while you wait for me!" I laughed, because it's totally true, and replied, "well, I still have an iPhone 4 with iOS 5 on it, so all hope is not lost!" Hopefully once I get the Air running I can update my phone. My old laptop won't support the new software for my phone.



Funny thing about complaining - a few years ago I was telling The Husband that I felt like all I did was complain. Almost like I had to fill the dead airspace with something and that something was constantly griping. I don't love being in a bad mood and I certainly didn't want to bring everyone around me down. It was almost like it was a hobby to me. 


Let me just pull my rocker up to the front window so I can keep an eye on those kids!

So I said, "that's it! I'm driving myself crazy! I'm going to try and not complain for an entire day. Just one day to see if I can do it."

I went off to work and started my shift at 6am that next day. By 8:30 I was still doing well, but it took a lot of concentration. Coworker #1 and I were standing at a station getting stuff prepped for our tasks later. Yep. Still plenty of stuff to complain about. Endless possibilities. Not gonna do it. Coworker #1 walks away and #2 comes over a minute later while I'm finishing my prep.

"Um...I just wanted to check on you. Are you okay?"

I'm a little bewildered. None of us really know one another that well at this point, so everyone kind of gives everyone else some space. Besides the fact that nothing is actually wrong, I'm surprised she spoke up.

"What? I'm okay! What do you mean?!"

"Well...it's just that...you've been REALLY quiet today"

And that my friends, is how you know when you complain too much!



I did actually learn from this and have made a big effort to cut the crap. Except for when my laptop made me crazy. Or my phone acts like it's possessed. Which is like, all the time. No more! I can't wait for a time when, if I accidentally click on iPhoto, it won't ruin the entire rest of my afternoon while it tries to load and gives me the pinwheel of death.

Sunday, January 12, 2014

This Week

Just a quick entry (and another trial to see if my iPhone will play nice with blogger)...

I need to do one of two things this week (bonus points for both) and I'm telling so you can hold me to it! Either:


1. On Th go down to the pool and do a workout to check it out. It's $15 for one day, but I'm fairly certain that if you decide to sign up, they'll roll it into the 3 or 12 month fee. It's so cheap that I'm not quitting the gym I already go to. I really like the trainer at my current gym. Also, leading to #2:

2. Go to the spin class intro at 8:45 Fri am and do the class at 9. Another reason I like my gym. A bunch if spin classes, one of which looks like a pretty cool training class for road cyclists. The Fri one is tabata style. I'm doing that one just because it has an intro on a day I can attend.

To be honest, I've been feeling a lot like this lately:


After being sick for almost a month in November and rolling my ankle at the end of December, most of my goals are far behind where I'd like them to be. I'm learning that accepting where I am and moving on is invaluable. I'm only who I am today.

Also, hopefully on Friday I will finally purchase my neeeeew computerrrrrr!!! (this must be said with a Bob Barker, Price Is Right style voice, complete with hand flourish).

So that's it. Sign up for swim and take a spin intro do I can get on with my workouts already, lose weight, stop eating crap etc.

Oh! I finally convinced my longest and best friend, we'll call her Jax, to do a triathlon. I'm suuuuuper excited. Specifically, she's doing the Iron Girl in Webster, MA. So, in her honor, I'm going to write a series about beginner tris. Not that I'm an expert, but I have a lot to share as someone who is still learning, both through advice and doing it the hard way. I think I'll do a post on each leg plus the transition, and an overview. I'm just having a hard time getting started because I'm remembering stuff at really random times. I need to sketch them all out on paper to list out my ideas.

K! Time to try and publish this!