City Ten Miler

This morning Cory and I were about to head out the door to drive to trail to get our 10 mile run in wen I had the weirdest thought. I wanted to run in the city. I always want to run on trails, get out of town, and run somewhere new. I think it's a bit funny that I wanted to live right in Denver but I am always trying to get out of town when running or riding. But this morning we laced up our shoes and headed out into our own neighborhood for once. It was fun to take a little tour of downtown Denver on foot.

We ran past the art museum

we ran along the Cherry Creek Path before heading back home

Conference Center

and back past the art museum. We ran an 8 mile loop before stopping quickly at home to pick up Winston for the last 2 miles.

It's nice to take the little monster out to get his exercise too.

Overall it was a good run, my legs felt good and felt mostly light and easy. The best part was it was confidence building. We have been riding many 50+ mile rides and running miles in the double digits without difficulty a lot recently. I feel like I could complete a half ironman at this point in my training. I know that I couldn't do it fast but I think I could do it. Now I just need to work on merging speed and endurance before my race in April

Do you have confidence building workouts?

Big training plans for tomorrow?
I will be riding 53 miles of big hills then a 30 minute transition run, hopefully it goes well!

Week 12 Ironman Coeur d'Alene Training

Yesterday I woke to howling winds, mid thirty degree weather and a three hour ride on my training schedule. Normally this would have been an obvious choice to jump on my trainer and enjoy a few movies while pedaling away. The problem was that I am (already) sick of working out inside and knew I wouldn't be able to really push myself and get a good workout in. I talked my husband into heading to REI to buy toe covers

These things really did help keep my feet fairly warm. We left for our ride from REI and rode down to Chatfield Reservoir.

The first half of the ride was really fun and it was only breezy.

The second half was honestly miserable, it was very gusty. It was difficult to keep my bike up right, I was scared about being pushed off the path a couple times. But I was happy to get it done!

This weeks focus is recovery so workouts are much fewer than normal and this week, I'll take it!

Monday Rest day
Tuesday am: 60 min Interval Run pm: 60 min strength training
Wednesday am: 120 min spin class and 60 min pilates
Thursday 2700m swim
Friday 60 min easy yoga or pilates
Saturday 35-45 mile hill bike workout, I really hope the weather holds so we can be outside and 30 min transition run
Sunday 10 mile trail run, hopefully on a trail

Do you take easy or recovery weeks while training?
I never have in the past but now I am trying to incorporate them into my training. It's very important to me to avoid injuries if at all possible in 2012!

Frosty's Frozen Five Miler Race Report and Chia Winners

This morning Cory and I headed down to Littleton CO for a five mile race.

Last year Cory and I signed up for the Winter Distance Series as well. Todays race was the second of the three races you can read about previous races here Rudolf's Revenge 5k 2010, Frostey's Frozen Five Mile 2011, Snowman Stampede 2011. We ran Rudolf's Revenge 5k in December but I don't think I wrote a race report on it (fail!)

I HATE racing shorter distances so I always question why I sign up for them but I had a really good time today. It was not too cold in the low 40s and it was a small race with about 600 people participating in the 5 mile portion.

I was a little sad because in December my parents were with us and mom ran the 5k, she is still working her way up to 5 miles and signed up for the 5 mile portion of the Boulder Spring Half but wasn't ready yet today.

So it was just Cory and I, fun but definitely not as fun as when more family is there. Given that we were both racing we didn't bring a camera along.

These pictures are from last year when Cory ran and I cheered because I had the flu. The course was the same just a little less snow this year.

Both cory and I got PR's today Cory ran it in 34:03 and I finished in 43:07. My splits were pretty even, even the two miles that I couldn't get my lap button to work!

My average pace was actually faster than last months 5k and I was rocking a cold this week. I hope this means that all the speed work is finally doing something for me.

Earlier today I used Random.org to choose the Chia winners:

First up was #17 Ashley!

and #11 Kate

Congrats ladies, please email me your address to bethcn at gmail dot com and I will send you your Chia Seeds!

Losing Weight While Training

Many people have the flawed belief that if you are training for an endurance event (half marathon, marathon, triathlon, etc) that you can eat whatever you want and still lose weight. THIS IS NOT TRUE, it is far from it! A lot of people I know in real life and in blogger world have gained weight while training for these events. Tina, Julie and Monica have all talked about gaining weight while training for endurance events. I often find that when I am in high volume training I maintain. There are many reasons that I think that this happens but these are just my opinions, I am not a nutritionist or fitness expert.

1. There is less time to focus on nutrition and food choices. After a 4 hour training session it's easy to just grab whatever food is closest

2. You are hungry ALL the time! You may burn more calories but it seems like your appetite grows more than you burn

3. Endurance training isn't the best way to rev up your metabolism and burn calories. I think interval training, HIIT, etc are better exercises if you are just looking to burn calories.

In the Book Racing Weight, Matt Fitzgerald suggests that you not try to lose weight while training because you need to be eating enough calories to get through all your workouts not keeping a calorie deficit that you need to lose weight.

Where am I going with all of this? I decided that even though I knew all of this, I still wanted to try to get closer to my ideal racing weight while training for my ironman. And since we started training I have taken off 14 pounds, I am happy about this and have about 10 more pounds to go to get to my "Race Weight". The last 10 pounds will come off slowly but I am ok with that, I don't want it to compromise my training. Also I am now and was even at my highest weight in the healthy weight range for my height, I just would like to be leaner (specifically getting down to 16% body fat, I am about 21% now) while putting in so many miles.

Here is how I have lost the weight so far and hope to continue to lose weight this way as I go:

1. Focus on the types of food I eat. I think I have a good idea of what healthy foods are and I try to fill up on them.

2. EAT! If I get too hungry I usually eat things I shouldn't so I allow myself to eat a lot, I just try to eat fruits, vegetables and lean meats.

3. Plan ahead. If I don't plan what my next meal will be BEFORE a big workout then inevitably I eat unhealthy foods if I have a plan before hand than I almost always stick to it.

4. Don't listen to others. I sometimes get crap from friends or coworkers about how much I work out and how I must be able to eat anything. Sometimes they give me a hard time if I turn down junk food. But I know it's not true that I can eat whatever I want so the the longer I stick to my guns the less crap they seem to give me.

For me it's that simple and that difficult to lose weight while training.

Have you gained weight while training for an endurance event? Do you have any tips?

Speaking of healthy foods, enter to win my Chia giveaway!

Week 11 Ironman Training and My First Giveaway

I hope everyone is enjoying their Monday so far! I am excited to host my first giveaway ever!


Because I am an Ambassador for FitFluential, I was sent a shipment of Chia Seeds and I would like to share them with you.

So two lucky readers will get a bag of black and a bag of white chia seeds to try out.

The contest is easy to enter, you get an entry for each of the following (be sure that you make each entry a separate comment)
1. Follow my blog and leave a comment that you follow

2. Follow FitFluential on Twitter OR like FitFluential on Facebook and leave a comment

3. Mention this giveaway on your blog or twitter.
Giveaway will close on Saturday January 21st at noon (Mountain Standard Time) and I will announce the winners that evening. I will use a random number generator to select the winners, good luck!

Week 11 Ironman Training

Monday 60 min yoga

Tuesday am: Distance swim 2900 yds

pm: Interval Run 6 miles

Wednesday am: 90 min spin class

pm: 60 min strength training

Thursday am: 60 min progression Run

pm: Speed Swim workout

Friday am: Strength training

pm: 2 hr 15 min time in the saddle ride

Saturday: Frotey’s Frozen Five Mile Race with 5 easy miles later in the day to add some distance.

Sunday am: 3 hour bike ride on rolling terrain

pm: Strength session


Yesterday I finished my first “ironman” for my gym’s ironman competition. It’s funny that I easily finish the swim and run portion in a week but the bike portion takes me almost two weeks to complete. Last week I competed over 14 hours of workouts and over 11 miles, it scares me that this is MUCH less than I will do in one day! Makes it more real what I am training for and I am grateful I have six months to get my body ready for it!

Run For the Hills!

After freaking out earlier this week about what I got myself into with the RAGE half ironman, I decided to do something about it. On my schedule this weekend I had a 90 minute trail run and a 3 hour bike ride, perfect, Boulder here I come!

Yesterday Cory and I headed to the Mesa Trail near the Flatirons. It wasn't too snowy on the trail so the was a plus.

*These photos are from last winter when we ran the same trail, I forgot my camera yesterday, whoops!

I really like this trail it's challenging and the views are breathtaking the whole way.

After our run we came home watched the olympic marathon trials. I loved watching it but was heart broken for both the female and male 4th place finishers. I had weight training on the schedule too so I got in 45 minutes before heading to my parents house to eat lots of yummy food and watch the Bronco game. The game wasn't fun to watch (for us) but they put in a good season and I hope they come back even stronger next fall.

Today we are heading back to my parents house (hope they don't get sick of us!) for our first transition workout of the year. We are going to ride out to Boulder to Old Stage for some hills and get a good 53 miles in.

From MapMyRide.com
When we are done we have a fast transition to a 30 minute run. My parents' community has great running trails so their house is the perfect place to transition.

I am so excited to get my new Kestrel out on the road for the first time today!

What are your plans for the day?

Dropping the Negative

This is not a triathlon/running/training type post. You have been warned.

I think of myself as generally a nice person. I HATE when people feel bad, I do everything in my power to not hurt people's feelings. But I think I play into gossip way more than I should. I feel that it is easy for most people to be pulled into negative gossip, especially if it’s under the guise of concern. It’s easy for concern to degrade into a complain fest and have a negative spiral.

Lately I have been paying attention to the actions of people that I really look up to and I have noticed how they don't get involved when gossip starts, shut it down and only have nice constructive things to say. I want to exhibit those qualities too and think that it must have a positive effect on your mental health not to participate in a negative activity.
So the plan is to do my best to not gossip, and to try my best to shut it down when others try to involve me for the rest of the month. Why the rest of the month? It’s not really a scientific choice, saying for the rest of my life seems unrealistic and like I am setting myself up for failure. I wanted a short enough time period that wasn’t overwhelming but was long enouph that I would be able to hopefully see a difference in how I feel. I know I won’t be perfect but the goal is to be conscious of what I am saying about others and what I am participating in.
What do think about gossip? Harmless, Hurtful, don’t care?
We will return to our regularly scheduled Triathlon blogging tomorrow. Happy Friday the 13th all!

RAGE and Terror

I did it to myself…….normally I am good about doing race research before deciding on a big race (to me this is anything half marathon or Olympic triathlon and longer) but for some reason I decided on the RAGE 70.3 as my spring long course without doing ANY research. I decided I liked the date and going to Vegas in the spring sounded fun so I forked over my money and didn’t think too much about it.

BIG MISTAKE! I had no idea how challenging this course is, there is more than 6,000 ft of climbing on the bike!

I don’t even know how to train for that! And then after thrashing your legs on the bike you get to climb over 2,000 feet in the first six miles of the half marathon.

I honestly feel a little sick about it. I keep trying to tell myself that it is good training for my full ironman. If I can finish this really difficult half that should give me more confidence for Coeur d’Alene, right? Well the lesson is learned here, take it from me kids ALWAYS research a race before signing up. I see some major hill training in my future *barf*

Have you ever signed up for a race before knowing anything about it? Did you survive?

IMCDA Week 10 Training Plan

After a week focusing on recovery, we are back at it full speed with week 10 (I can't believe it's been 10 weeks and we only have 24 weeks left, vomit). Things are getting more real now that it's 2012 and I am hoping to take more workouts outside!

Week 10 will look like this:

Monday Yoga and core work
Tuesday am: 2950 yd swim pm: 5 mile interval run
Wednesday 90 min spin class and 60 min strength training
Thursday am: 60 min endurance run pm: 2850 yd swim
Friday am: Strength training pm: 2 hr bike with time trial
Saturday : 9 mile trail run and a recovery swim
Sunday : 3 hr hill climb bike ride with 20 min transition run and a strength session

Total: 13 hours and 20 minutes total. This seems like so much and I think it will be closer to 20-24 hours a week in April/May. I have already started warning people at work that I will be tired and cranky all the time this spring!

With training taking up more and more time I am always looking for fast healthy foods. One of my new favorite breakfasts is Eggo Low Fat Whole Grain Waffles.

The stats look pretty good:

Source

I like it with peanut butter and banana before a workout or with light spread and sugar free syrup

What does your week look like?

What is your favorite fast healthy food?

Sausage Spaghetti Squash and Football

We woke up this morning to about 1/4 of an inch of snow. Frustrating that so little snow would keep my workout inside but it was pretty much a sheet of ice and would not be good for a hilly bike ride.

So instead we packed our bags and headed to the gym at 7 am where we spun on our own for an hour before taking an hour spin class. I was pleased that we had a great instructor and I felt like I got a really good workout. Some of the instructors at my gym are great and some are awful. After spin class we hurried to change into dry clothes so we could take the 9 am yoga class.

We haven't taken yoga at 24 hour fitness before but decided to give it a try since it was such good timing. I was pleasantly surprised by the class! It was challenging to hold some poses on tired legs after 2 hours of spin and I got light headed every time I stood up but I think my legs are in better shape because of the good stretch they got.

After our workout we headed home to clean up, eat and clean our house. Exciting stuff I know but it feels so much better to start the week with a clean house and clean clothes!

For dinner Cory made one of my favorite dinners, spaghetti squash with marinara sauce, broccoli and sausage.

Spaghetti squash is a much healthier option to traditional spaghetti:

How to cook spaghetti Squash:

1. Pre heat oven to 350 degrees
2. Rinse squash then poke holes in it with a fork
   
3. When oven is ready, cook squash until it feels soft when poked with a fork. This is usually around an hour.
   
4. Allow squash to cool
   
5. Cut in half, remove seeds and scape with a fork.
   

This is a great meal to make in advance for during the week since you can save the scraped squash in the refrigerator for up to a week.

I like mine best with cheap marinara sauce, broccoli and sausage but you can top it with anything you would put on noodles.

I enjoyed mine with some champagne (for no good reason) while watching the bronco game we had recorded.

What did you do today?

What is one of your favorite healthy meals?

Working Out Indoors

Living in Denver means that sometimes you just aren't going to be able to easily workout outside. Most of the time we have beautiful weather here but this week isn't cooperating with me.

I am more than happy to run in the snow

But I have a bike two hour hill workout on the schedule tomorrow. I don't like to bike in the cold let alone ice and snow. I was really hoping to get the new steed out on the roads tomorrow but it's not going to happen. I am a little sick of my trainer so decided to head to the gym to spin on my own for an hour then take a spin class. The cherry on top will be a yoga class when I am done. While not what I wanted to do I am accepting it and looking forward to it a bit.

What are your thoughts? Is working out inside as good as outside?

Beer Mile

Have you ever hear of the Beer Mile? I hadn’t until recently and was invited to participate in one this Saturday.

Here is how this run works: First, each competitor consumes a single beer in the starting area. After the beer is emptied (as proven by turning the container upside down on one's head), run one lap of the track. Upon return to the starting area, another beer is consumed and another lap run. Each runner must complete four laps and the 4 corresponding beers. If one vomits before the fourth lap is completed, a fifth lap must be run. Multiple vomits DO NOT result in multiple penalty laps, so the maximum any person will run is 1.25 miles.

Source
Apparently these kinds of runs are all the rage and there are some pretty strict rules you have to follow:
Official Beermile.Com Rules

1. Each competitor drinks four cans of beer and runs four laps on a track (Start - beer/lap, beer/lap, beer/lap, beer/lap - finish).

2. Beer must be consumed before the lap is begun, within the transition area which is the 10 meter zone before the start/finish line on a 400m track.

3. The race begins with the drinking of the first beer in the last meter of the transition zone to ensure the comptitors run a complete mile (1609 meters).

4. Women also drink four beers in four laps (past rule lists only required ladies to drink three beers).

5. Competitors must drink canned beer and the cans should not be less than 355ml (the standard can volume) or 12oz (the imperial equivalent). Bottles may be substituted for cans as long as they are at least 12 oz (355 ml) in volume.

6. No specialized cans or bottles may be used that give an advantage by allowing the beer to pour at a faster rate. ie "super mega mouth cans" or "wide mouth bottles" are prohibited.

7. Beer cans must not be tampered with in any manner, ie. no shotgunning or puncturing of the can except for opening the can by the tab at the top. The same applies with bottles - no straws or other aids are allowed in order to aid in the speed of pouring.

8. Beer must be a minimum of 5% alcohol by volume. Hard ciders and lemonades will not suffice. The beer must be a fermented alcoholic beverage brewed from malt and flavored with hops. For an abbreviated list of valid beers and exceptions, click here.

9. Each beer can must not be opened until the competitor enters the transition zone on each lap.

10. Competitors who vomit before they finish the race must complete one penalty lap at the end of the race (immediately after the completion of their 4th lap). Note: Vomitting more than once during the race still requires only one penalty lap at the end.

While this event sounds kinda fun I am not sure I can hack it. Chugging 4 beers would probably make me sick if I wasn’t running and throwing up in public is not my idea of a good time. I might go as a spectator and see if some super stars can break the 5:09 record (seriously!)

Would you or have you run a beer mile?

Ironman Challenge

As the Holiday Booty Buster Challenge winds down I find that I will miss it. I like having challenges, a little extra motivation never hurts! So I was excited when I saw that my gym (24 hour fitness) is hosting an Ironman competition. According to the instructions we have from January 1st until February 15th to complete the full ironman distances. What could be more perfect for me while I am training for Coeur d'Alene?!?

Also you can enter as many times as you like as long as you swim 2.4 miles (or 84.5 laps), ride 112 miles on the bike (each 60 minute spin class counts as 12 miles) and 26.2 miles by foot (running, walking, elliptical). I hope to complete at least 3 "Ironmans". I have already almost completed the swim and run portion but I think the bike will take me two weeks to complete.

Do you like competitions like these? Would you participate in an "Ironman Competition" at your gym?

Also I have added two races to my 2012 calendar. The first is Aimee's fault, she posted about doing the Greenland Trail 25k on May 5th and it sounds like too much fun!

So I hope to see you there Aimee!!!

The second race is the Wild West Relay

The WWR is a 200 mile relay on August 3rd and 4th. Cory and I were invited to join a team today and we are SO in!!! That will be my second relay in less than a month since I am going to run the EPIC relay with a team from work in July. Now I just need someone to invite me to run Hood to Coast (please)!

Supplements For Endurance Athletes

This morning was a bit rough, I was lazy and slept in almost every day while on vacation so this morning when the alarm at 4:20 am I was not very happy about it. But I drug myself out of bed and to the gym where it was about twice as busy as normal. I don't mind the newbies too much and hope that their new year's resolutions stick! I was happy to find an open treadmill and bust out 5 miles of intervals.

One of the things I am trying to get better about is taking supplements. I am asking a lot of my body so I want to make sure I am giving it everything it needs. Here are the supplements I currently take:

• Glucosamine for joint health
• Fish Oil
• Vitamin D
• Vitamin B complex
• Multivitamin
• Iron (Not everyday)
  

I am curious about some of the supplements specific to endurance athletes like beta-alanin (you can read about it here) or some of the other sport specific supplements (some are listed here). But by nature I am skeptical, do the supplements really help with anything or am I just paying for really expensive pee.

All of this came from watching a video of someone running the Devils Mountain 50k that I want to run in September. The video was to advertise Extreme Endurance supplements and it got me thinking.

What do you think? Have you taken any port specific supplements? If so do they help?

Snowshoeing and IMCDA Week 9 Training Plan

On the schedule today was a rest day so Cory and I talked my parents into going snowshoeing with us to celebrate our last day of vacation. It was a little windy but still had a great time

I was a little cold so Cory let me wear his coat that he didn't want to use, such a nice hubby!

When we are done we stopped in at a Brewery in Nederlands for Beers. Cory and I decided to split a hard cider.

It's organic so it must be good for me. Also I think this sign needs to be in my kitchen!

We then headed to the grocery store to stock up on healthy food for the week since we both go back to work tomorrow, WAH!

This weeks training plan has a focus on recovery. I am a little bummed that I will be ending the Holiday Booty Buster Challenge on an easy week but I do believe that recovery is important so I will try to stick to the plan!

Monday: Rest day
Tuesday: am: 80 min Interval Run pm: 60 min strength training
Wednesday: 120 min spin class and 60 min pilates
Thursday: Distance swim workout 2.1 mi (getting closer to ironman's 2.4miles) pm: strength training
Friday: 60 min easy yoga or pilates
Saturday: 8 mile endurance run, hopefully on a trail
Sunday: 30-40 mile hill bike workout, I really hope the weather holds so we can be outside and a strength session

Now that I look at it all together I am not seeing all the recovery?!?! I guess it's because we have 2 rest days (Monday and Friday) instead of 1. My goal for the week is to hit every workout and pack yummy healthy food to take to work with me.

What does your week look like?