Nothing beats CONSISTENCY!

At the end of the 1st two weeks of Ironman training and my training mantra this season is going to be consistency. Of course I have lots of fun, exciting workouts planned for my season but I want to focus specifically on consistency and getting the work done. Last year I let swimming slide once the season got started and just got the necessary running in. This season I want to work as hard at swimming as I do at the other sports AND push the running. This is what is going to get me to run the full marathon and not walk/run! The best part of consistency is just how disciplined you become once a routine is established. The 5am wake-up call is becoming automatic. It's been a great start to the weekend with a 90-minute run today and a 2-3 hour ride tomorrow. So happy the snow is gone!

Signs of Spring

Got out for a BEAUTIFUL bike ride yesterday! Spring is coming to the NE, at least for this week, snow forcasted for next week. Enjoying it while I can. Notice in the picture the little bit of water that is beginning to open up......lake swimming just around the corner :)

Let the fun begin!

This Monday marked 24 weeks until IM Louisville! That means the training is on! No more sleeping in, no more excuses, just time to get in the miles. I am so excited to get back on an official plan. And to make it easier somehow spring came to Vermont early and we are having sun and temp's in the 50's which means I am out on the bike, woo-hooh!!!! Monday also marked my return to Master's swimming, again. I have been coming and going a lot this winter. It was hard, my arms were feeling it but it was a good wake-up call to get back on track.

The vegan diet is going good. It has been fairly easy to stick to as I don't really care about meat much anyway. I have been experimenting with Bulgar and discovered some yummy chicken type product to use in stir-fry which ended up having egg in it, so I messed up there and then also my soy yogurt is made with some sort of milk product. Again, nothing I am stressing about as I am just trying to focus a good balance of grains, vegetables and protein. I also made a yummy PB/Chocolate Krispy snack that is great to have when I need something sweet.

So my next discussion topic that I am interested in researching is Athletes and Allergies. Do any of you out there suffer from allergies? I got hit hard in Florida and am just now getting everything out of my system. I know that I need to just suck it up and see a specialist but any other ideas out there. Acupuncture, herbal remedies, etc? I really want to get this resolved so I do not have another wheezing attack this season. Any thoughts or ideas would be appreciated!

The Vegan Athlete

Oh no! Here it comes....another one of my brilliant ideas! I am going vegan!!!! This is not the first time that I have attempted or thought about going vegan. I had a stint in college which ended after indulging in steak fajitas but I have always resorted to beans, veggies and rice as a staple meal when I was single and living alone. I am a stir-fry junkie. Once I met Luke and moved in with him the meat eating really got hard core! I came to the point where every meal was centered around the meat dish. I was still eating a lot of veggies and grains but I feel that there was something missing or maybe something that didn't belong.....meat! I was inspired again to go vegan or at least vegetarian after reading "The Kind Diet" by Alicia Silverstone (yes, the Clueless girl, what a great movie). It is so interesting to learn just how much meat and dairy affect the digestive system and your metabolism. I am sure that there has to be a benefit to athletes and meat and dairy consumption is decreased.

So on that note yesterday was my 1st day of living vegan. It went really well considering we had no groceries in the house after just returning from Florida but I was able to stop and pick up some food before work. I posted a picture of my yummy Black Bean Mushroom Burrito. It also contained green peppers and asparagus. Totally yummy and nothing out of the ordinary. The challenge is going to be shopping for two and hearing other people constantly say "why", "that's not healthy" or "it's too hard". I am just going to take it day by day with my main focus on trying to completely eliminate red meat and dairy the first month. If you have any interest in this topic check out http://www.thekindlife.com/. It has great info and resources. I am sure this is going to be a big topic for my upcoming posts so I will try to post as many resources as I can.

Happy Training!

Florida Vaca

After this long yucky winter of sickness, work and not training I was so excited for our annual trip to Naples, Florida. It is amazing what sunshine can do for a person. Although this is our vacation Luke and I both want to always use this trip as a kickstart to training. We found a local 5k race in Naples that was a lot of fun. What a great distance, especially when you haven't been running. We have gotten in a lot of swims, runs and even got to bike this year. I found a great bike shop where we were able to rent some road bikes and got out for a few great rides. If you are ever in the area be sure to go to Naple Cyclery's http://naplescyclery.com/. They have all of the top brands, but more importantly, the BEST customer service I have received when renting a bike.
I have also gotten a lot of much needed rest and relaxation on this trip that has let me refocus, get prepared for IM training and just be HAPPY with where I am in life. I have also been doing some research on food and nutrition and am going to really start to make some alterations to my current diet (a post to come soon). Think GO VEG!
Off on another day of breakfast, run, beach, swim, lunch, beach, chillax, dinner, relax some more, sunset walk, sleep! Does it get any better?

I am BACK!

Wow, February was a bad month. Glad that it is over and I am focused and motivated to move on. It's March! That means IM Louisville in 6 months. Time to get serious. I won't dwindle on the past but February consisted of hiring, firing, rehiring, my car completely dying, buying a new car, looking for a new career, almost finding it and then being disappointed that I couldn't work for peanuts, being sick over 1/2 of the month and just not feeling my mojo. After 28 awful days I have accepted where I am right now in my life and am embracing the fact that my number one focus right now is just training and achieving my goals, as well as wedding planning. Although I might not be completely happy in other areas I am very lucky for the life I have and the surroundings I live in. So now my life is about training again and although that may sound meaningless to some people it is what truly makes me happy and I know that I will not always be able to be so focused on sport in the future. So March 1st marked my day back to Masters practice and back on the road, running that is as it is not quite warm enough for me to get out on the bike. It never felt so good to smell the sweat of chlorine as I ran today. Florida training vacation coming up.