Happy New Year's Eve!

Today I read a bunch of "reflections on 2013" type posts from the blogs I follow in Feedly and figured I should write my own. But then I thought NAHHHHHH!!! I want to spend time with The Husband on NYE and I always get sucked into writing a longer post than I mean (and here I am, CAN YOU BELIEVE IT). But then, as I'm getting into my car after leaving work, the 5th 11 hour day in a row (and I have 3 more on Th, F, and Sat), I'm thinking, okay, I have all day tomorrow. I can write a 2013/2014 post. What will I write? It's been so complicated. So up and down.

I turn the key and as I'm pulling out of the parking lot, flip through the stations to find one actually playing music. As I pull out onto Rt 9 and I'm trying to think about tomorrows post, I hit 100.7 at the exact moment a song comes on.

Ted Nugent. Stranglehold.

I just posted about that song in my last post! If I'm going to be completely honest I like to run to it and fantasize that I'm some sort of BAMF. I'm just cruising and picking off opponents one by one. Steely expression. Just the sound of my feet and my breathing. Clearly a fantasy, but one of my favorites.

But then I realize it. If not now, when? When I'm back to my lowest weight? Then I can take myself seriously? Or my lowest this year? Is that acceptable? No. No no no no NO!

Now. I want it now. I am it now.

Food is fuel.
Sleep is repair.
Work outs are deposits in the bank.

So that's it. That's 2014. I want to cash a big "check" at the end of the year. A check that will buy a permanent change.

2014 I'M COMING FOR YOU

I know...shaking in your boots, right?

And on days like today...

And on days like today, I need a little Nazareth in my life (if you don't know this song, it's NSFW):

And I KNOW! That's not the original version I posted, but I...um...actually like the G n' R version better. I'm a classic rock girl, but I can't help it. This is the one I want when I'm in a REALLY BAD mood.

So, the back story? We got a bunch of snow, all a few hours before and into rush hour and the towns and cities around here didn't do ANYTHING to really clear the roads. It's especially annoying because I don't have a choice about going into work. My job is the type where when everyone is told to stay home except "essential" personel, I'm one of the ones who needs to go in. I love my job, I just wish the people who cared about keeping the roads safe cared about theirs! I'm looking at you, municipal services in the greater Boston area!

You know what I  needed to do? Run it off! I even had a gym session scheduled with my trainer and training partner, but there was no way for all of us to get there on time so we had to cancel it.

When I started running I did it because I felt this need to burn off all that crazy, annoying excess energy from being wound up. Today? If I had the chance, I'd listen to Hair of the Dog on repeat a few times and then end it w/ some Ted Nugent.

You gotta do what you gotta do!

What "never again" really means...

It means I'm signed up for the Cohasset Triathlon again!

This is from the pictures The Husband took. I really love this one!

I said never again because I had such a rough time in the swim this summer. The bike was a hilly blast and the run was still nice even though I was toast. The race itself is AWESOME. The race director does a fantastic job and this event has raise over a million dollars for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. However, I wasn't sure I could agonize over the swim again like I did last summer. The conditions were much better than it has been other years. (You can read the recap from this summers race here.) 

I just couldn't resist though. The thought of sitting it out this year actually almost made me cry! I've done two more triathlons with swims that are twice as far and I feel better about it. This race will also coincide right around the time that my 70.3 triathlon training plan calls for a sprint distance tune up race. What's funny about that is I will surely be FAR better trained for this so called tune up race than any race I've ever done. Well, I'd better be or I will DNF my 70.3.

Wah wahhhh...sad trombone.  Not gonna happen!

Also, you can park at the beach and train on the course. I plan on taking full advantage of this and doing 2-4 loops of the 12 mile course to get some challenging long bike rides in for my 70.3.

So The Husband, being awesome, agree to sign me up again (it's my Christmas present) and will almost definitely end up doing the rides with me too. He's the best trained non-triathlete I know! Well...the only one.

Also, I went through his pictures from the Boston Triathlon and put them on facebook. I realize I never did a race recap. It's pretty much the same as my last Boston Triathlon recap but I was way less nervous and other than the bike leg, undertrained. I pretty much did this one for fun and it was!

This dog was staring and staring at The Husband so he decided to take his picture. He knew I'd love it!

Fun race. Highly recommended!


Sooooo....what have I been up to? Not much and it's not good. I was sick for the first three weeks of November, which I may have mentioned (I can't even remember and my laptop is being a stinker about opening another tab for me to check). Four bottles of liquid daytime medicine and 2 of night time and I came out the other side completely exhausted. As  in, I'd go see my trainer, come home and nap from 1-4pm and then go back to bed at 9 and fall right asleep. I'm a horrible sleeper, so when I sleep like that I know something's wrong. I'm finally feeling a little better, but little stupid things keep happening to set me back a bit. It's really annoying. I was supposed to start my off season training weeks ago and it hasn't happened. I'll do a couple of days, but not the whole thing. I have time, I was going to have to do the ten weeks twice to keep busy, but I don't want to waste time. Plus, all this down time is not getting me any closer to "race weight." Precisely the opposite, in fact. But hey, persistence, not perfection, right?

Speaking of my laptop. Mine is a 6 year old macbook. You know, the kind with the white plastic casing? Yeah. I'm surprised it works at all too. Anyway, it is so slow and at this point, the software updates are too new for it. Wah. The Husband has done a bunch to spiff it up and keep it running but you can only do so much. So, sorry for the sporadic posts. Between being so tired and it being so  much effort to convince it to let me write a post (and not delete it 75% of the way through THANKYOUVERYMUCH), I just haven't written anything. I'd like to write shorter more frequent posts, but I'm not sure how realistic that is before the holidays either! I feel guilty taking the money for a new laptop out of what I normally earn and put towards bills, so I'm waiting for the end of the month for when I have some overtime. I may actually have enough to pay for the whole thing with just OT. We'll see!

West African Style Peanut Stew with Chicken, Sweet Potato and Kale

The other day (when I ended up making my Baseball aka Kale Soup instead) I was searching and searching for an African Peanut Stew recipe that included more veggies than just onions and the occasional sweet potato (although those are necessary too!) when I found this recipe by Cookie and Kate that included collard greens. I liked the look of her recipe and although I used many for inspiration in this recipe, this was the main one I looked at. I added her site to my blog reader. Looks like she has lots of great recipes!

I added some stuff as I tasted and also threw in chick peas (aka garbanzo beans) and diced chicken thigh. I think the thigh meat holds up better in soups. As always, feel free to make this vegetarian, as it is in the original recipe, and to sub in or out and ingredients you like!

West African Style Peanut Stew with Chicken, Sweet Potato and Kale

This makes a big pot, so halve it if you don't feel like having leftovers and/or freezing some. I won't make soup unless I have a ton of leftovers!

Ingredients:

3 32oz boxes of chicken stock (or vegetable stock if you prefer)
2 red onions, diced
6 garlic cloves, diced
1/4 minced fresh ginger (less if you don't like ginger, the piece I used was about 4" long and 2" wide)
2 red bell peppers, diced
4 medium sweet potatoes, diced (or 2 ginormous ones like I had)
1lb boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into small bites
14oz can of diced tomatoes w juice (preferably salt free)
14oz can chickpeas
1lb bag of frozen chopped kale
6oz can tomato paste
1 1/2 cup peanut butter
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp black pepper
3-4 Tbsp white vinegar
hot sauce to taste (I used Sriracha)
salt to taste
green onions (scallions) chopped for garnish

Put the chicken stock in a large pot and turn it up to boil. While its getting to a boil, chop up your onion, garlic, and ginger and throw that in. I didn't wait for the stock to get all the way to a boil and it was fine. Next chop your bell pepper, sweet potato and chicken thighs and add that to the pot. Add the can of diced tomatoes with their juice, chickpeas, kale, cumin and black pepper and let all of that come to a boil for about 20 minutes. Turn down to a simmer. In a large heat safe bowl, mix the peanut butter and tomato paste. Add some broth from the stew to thin it out and then add the peanut/tomato paste mixture to the stew. Simmer for at least another 20 minutes and add the vinegar. Start with 3T and add the 4th if you want after tasting. Add the hot sauce and salt to taste. Serve with chopped green onions (and more hot sauce if you want!).

And the Half Ironman is....

The Pumpkinman Half Ironman on 9/7/14!!!

(image source, race site and more great pictures)

As of yesterday, the money has been paid and I'm registered!

Okay, so first, it's technically a half iron-distance race. It's not run by World Triathlon Corporation, who put on the Ironman and Half Ironman branded races and own the trademark names. However, it's the same type of race. For my purposes, I'm going to call it my "half ironman" because that's how everyone else refers to their 70.3 distance races, regardless of if the race is one of the trademarked races or run by another organization. Just wanted to get that straight so no one gets riled up!

What is a Half Ironman? It's a 1.2 mile swim, a 56 mile bike ride and a half marathon, which is 13.1 miles of running. An Ironman, the full distance, is double all of those distances.

I had been considering three other races, one of which was an Ironman branded race, before I made up my mind a couple of weeks ago. Every time I'd search for race reports, I'd always find discussions on triathlon forums and every single time it came back to people enthusiastically recommending Pumpkinman. Even if the person requesting opinions had stipulations Pumpkinman didn't meet, such as where they'd travel or time of year. I had originally been drawn in by the big production the branded Half Ironman events would be (Timberman, specifically). I wanted to see the logo at the finish, even if I was only (only?!?!?!) doing the half distance. I wanted to buy every piece of race merchandise I could get my hands on (like I can afford that after how much these races cost!). But part of me was weirdly dreading the day registration opened. It just didn't feel "right." It felt like more of a production than I wanted. I was also already agonizing over the race weekend logistics. I didn't want to HAVE to check in my bike the day before and I didn't want to deal with what was looking to be a huge parking hassle in the am (apparently you have to get there REALLY early to park close by). So I kept on looking and kept on seeing Pumpkinman. I searched for Pumpkinman race recaps and was hard pressed to find even minor complaints.

There are quite a few pros to this race: 

- The course still has challenging rolling hills, but is also not as insane as some others. It's just about an hour from Boston in southern Maine and if I absolutely had to, I could drive up and check in early on race morning. While that would not be ideal, it leaves me with an option if my schedule or finances don't permit a hotel stay. There are plenty of hotels in the area and all are affordable, so I can book later if needed. It's also in a beautiful scenic area. Love it!

- All three legs of the race are two loops. Even the swim! You swim .6 miles, run onto shore, jump back in and swim .6 more! Some people hate that, but I actually think it will be mentally easier to break it up. It will probably be physically harder, but it's always my mind that gets in the way. I love that the bike and run are two loops. I used to think it would be torture to go a long distance and then be like, "what? Do it ALL OVER AGAIN?! Are you CRAZY?" I think back to the three half marathons I've done and imagining that if it was a two loop marathon I'd have to do it all over again. Oh heck no. I have a friend who had the same thought and later did a two loop marathon and said it's totally different. Different prep and a different mind-set going in. Well, good, because I'm going to have to bike 28 miles, come almost back to the transition and then get back out there and do the 28 again. This is AWESOME. I plan on driving the course (if not riding as well) ahead of time, but during the race I will have a chance to race it twice and adjust the second time. Same thing for the two loops of the half marathon at the end.

- It's small, only 550 racers in the half iron, but there are tons of volunteers and spectators. All of the racers really feel like they're special.

- Uh, you get tons of free stuff! 2 shirts (race shirt and finisher), a backpack, other random swag, a full Thanksgiving style dinner with dessert and free Shipyard Pumpkinhead beer!

- Did I mention free Shipyard Pumpkinhead? My FAVORITE?

- There's more, I'm sure, but the cold medicine I've been taking is melting my brain.

Did I mention I'm sick? I caught a cold Tuesday night that knocked me on my behind. Down for the count. Writing this is actually taking more energy than I really have to expend, but the cold has turned into laryngitis and I WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT DANGNABBIT!!! Also, I'm really bummed. Our one month weight in for my partner training is Wednesday and I had managed to lose about 5 lbs and they're all back this week. I don't know if it's the extended couch time or what. I've basically been eating fruit, english muffins and homemade (low salt) chicken soup. Like, two meals a day of broth, tons of veggies (I even added kale!) and chicken. It just sucks. I was doing so well and it is going to sound like, "but but....(a bunch of excuses)..." and no results. I didn't expect to lose more with the lack of exercise, but I hoped to maintain.  I had been spinning my wheels for a long time, not making any progress because I wasn't doing what I knew I needed to. Now that I'm having some results, it sucks to not be able to be like, "look what I did!" It's 5 days away so maybe I will go back to normal.

Ok, pity party over! Back to the race:

Since some of you may want to know what my projected times are, I'm going to paste some of the text from the email I sent my trainer below. I will say that these are VERY ambitious times. The swim is the least ambitious because I think I am really capable of that speed if I put in the volume I plan to. I'm joining a pool down the street from me with wide open hours that is supposed to be fantastic (and cheap!). I miss chlorine sweat. I REALLY miss my swim class but the gym membership is too much money there (and I already have a primary gym membership so I can see my trainer). I'm going to try and get into one of the non-member slots. I missed it last time.

The bike is pretty ambitious, but I have been holding around that speed fairly often on 20-25 mile rides. These are "fun" rides too, so I know that once I get into the real meat of the training I should do well. The run is the wild card. My pace is the pace I've aimed for during training for my last 2 half marathons and I missed it by a LOT. A LOT A LOT. Like 1:20 a mile slower, a lot. However, I think in the back of my mind I knew that no matter what I could complete the distance. In the half ironman, you have to complete each leg of the race by a certain time or you get yanked from the course and earn a DNF (did not finish). You'll see the cut off below in bold and my projected time to the right.

Swim 1.2 miles (cut off 1hr after last swim wave, will probably be in the second to last wave) - 50 minutes projected time

The swim is actually a 0.6 mile course swum twice. The though of just doing a bit more than the half mile swim I'm used to and then getting out, getting back in and doing it a second time makes me feel much better than the thought of waiting at the start and looking at a long 1.2 mile course. (Nerves will be my main issue here)

Transition 1 - 10 minutes (60 minutes total)

This race has a HUGE hill (you'll see it on the site) going from the swim to T1. They actually give you a separate time (there's a prize for the fastest) for the hill and T1. 10 minutes should still be good though

Bike 56 miles (cutoff at 12:30, about 5 hours in for me depending on swim wave)-  3:20:00 (total time 4:20:00)

I figure I can maintain between 16.5 (3:23:00) -17mph (3:18:00), so 3:20:00 for the bike leg is good. I've been riding 20-25 miles easily and maintaining between 15-18mph with some faster portions. Here is the map with elevation. The Cohasset tri has a similar course (harder hills actually) so I can go do multiple loops of that one to practice.

Transition 2 - 5 min (4:25:00 total)

Run 13.1 (3pm cutoff ,7.5-8 hrs into the race depending on when my wave starts)  - 2:20:00/10:40 min mile pace (6:45:00 final time)

Same plan as before: Closest I've been to this is 2:36:00/11:58 pace. Will actually train and not cry about it this time. Should be able to run faster. Haha.

So, you can see I don't have a ton of room for a meltdown. I don't have room to not train and wing it. I definitely don't have room to not lose the 15-20 lbs I've been hauling around the last few years. Don't get me wrong. Triathletes are all shapes and sizes, that's part of what I love about this sport. We're all accepted and supported and cheered for. However, it hurts my race. It's not fun for me anymore when I know I have so much more to give. One day I was with my trainer, doing walking lunges while holding two 10 lb dumbbells. I was whining about how heavy they were and then it hit me...I used to weigh that much. My current weight plus 20 lbs. I used to always haul that around. It was part of me and I couldn't escape it then. I can't imagine how awesome it will be to hold those dumbbells another 20 lbs down from now. Actually I can!

Well, hopefully that's all coherent...haha. Have a great night everyone!

Autumn Bike Ride

Every time I bike on the Charles River path, I think that I should really stop and take some pictures. I figured today was a good time with the leaves turning. All of these were taken along the Boston side of the Charles River between Newton and Boston Common. The last few are from our lunch stop at the common. Yay for the Clover Food Truck!

Also, just saw that we rode a big part of the 22 miles at 16-17mph, hitting 18 a bunch of times and up to 20!

Sunday Update (and an awesome recipe!)

First of all, hello to all of my new readers! Welcome. I'm really trying to post more and remember that each post doesn't have to be some huge recipe or race recap, that the day to day stuff is good too. We'll see how that goes, but I hope you stick around.

Yesterday I was feeling pretty crappy and I couldn't have timed a sick-couch day better if I tried. The live stream from the Ironman World Championship in Kona was on at noon my time and the winners wouldn't cross the line until 8 or 9 hours later. Normally I'd feel guilty about laying around for a whole day, but this time I didn't have to. The race was awesome (of course) but some of the real greatness is the last hour of the race. The athletes have until midnight (17hours) to swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles and run 26.2 miles, which is a full marathon. In addition to the midnight cutoff, they have to survive multiple cut offs within the race or be pulled from the course. That last hour is magic. Mike Reilly, the "voice" of the Ironman is unstoppable, dancing cheering and and announcing to each athlete that finishes "YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!!!" He runs up and down the chute, pumping up the crowd and getting everyone to scream for the last few people to "let them know we're here for them." You can see how badly he (and the crowd) want these last few people to finish. The last 10 minutes is seriously intense and it always makes me teary (such a sap!).

You wanna see what I'm talking about? Go to this link http://new.livestream.com/ironman/imkona and scroll down to the Finish Line Part 2 video. It's hours long, so click on the progress bar so you're about 10 minutes from the end. Or watch the last hour or so like I did. Amazing.

What's a sick couch, you ask? It's the only good thing about being sick. It's ultimate necessary laziness. I clear everything away from the couch and then I put a blanket on the bottom and get a cozy blacket to get under. I get 3 or 4 bed sized pillows and gather everything I'll need - tea, water, tissue, medicine, phone, computer etc. This time I pulled a footstool up for my laptop for easy viewing and stole The Husbands iPad so I could still check in on facebook and stuff. You know what? Other than some sinus pain, I feel much better.

Today I'm still going to take it easy. A Trader Joe's run is in order and I'm going to make Savory Stuffed Sweet Potatoes with White Beans and Kale.

(image source - click for recipe)

I put the link for the recipe above, because there's nothing I'd really change. I do double the recipe, as usual, and I keep the baked sweet potatoes and the filling separate until I'm ready to reheat. It makes AWESOME leftovers and a great lunch to pack. It's really filling and feels like comfort food (but it's healthy!). It's also "dude" approved. Haha.

I also need to start putting together my Half Ironman training plan. The book I have is giant and includes plans for different distance races and for beginners through advanced. All the workouts are coded and it's giving me a major headache to flip back and forth. Plus, I like to be able to look at a whole week or month to see what's ahead. You can't even tell what the workout is each day without going back to a table. I'm not complaining though. It's what makes including such all inclusive training plans possible. I'll share the book title with you once I figure out where I put it. Oops! I have a while until official training starts, but I need to rebuild my fitness base (coughcough-losesomeweighttoo-coughcough) and also start getting used to training when I REALLY don't feel like it. I leave for work at 6:30am so the possibly definitely necessary am workout should be LOTS of fun. < sarcasm font

Some of you know I have been waffling a bit as to what race I am going to do. Well I'm 99.9% sure of which one it will and I'lll neveeeer teeeelllllllll!!! Okay, I will tell you when I register, which will be in about 3 weeks. All of the ones I'm considering will be open by 11/1 and once I sign up, that's it! No refunds at $200-250 for the race registrations means it for REALLY real.

Have a happy Sunday everyone!