Chasing My Joy

My journey to becoming an Ultra Runner and Ironman

Archives for October 2011

Photo Food Journal

Have you ever done a photo food journal? I know food bloggers do it all the time but this was a first for me. It was seriously a challenge to remember to take photos of everything I ate before eating it. I wanted to do this because I think it’s good to have a visual representation of everything I ate in a day to see the overall balance.

First Breakfast: home made protein balls, Winston wanted to share. Too bad I wasn’t feeling very giving. I also downed two cups of coffee and some water before heading out to a 90 min spin class.

Second Breakfast: Protein Green Monster with Chia Seeds and another cup of coffee.

I always use this creamer in my coffee, I love it even though it’s a bit of a frankinfood.

Mid morning snack was a Honey Crisp apple. These apples are the best things ever, sweet, tart and always crispy. LOVE THEM, I wish they were available year round. I often eat two a day I love them so much.

Whoops, didn’t get this one before I drank it, but at least I got it before it hit the recycle bin. I had half the bottle since I drank the first half yesterday.

One serving of pop chips and a diet coke. This wasn’t the healthiest choice of the day but SO good.

Lunch: was a spinach salad with bell pepper, cucumber, flank steak and blue cheese…so good

With a healthy dose of this on top

Dinner was homemade Clam Chowder. It wasn’t as good as usual because I didn’t have any white wine at home and was too lazy to run out and get some. Recipe can be found here it’s a “healthy” version and still really good.

I had a nuun with dinner, not because I needed it but because I just really like it. My favorite is the strawberry lemonade, SO good! Not pictured are the many glasses of water I drink thoughout the day.

This is a fairly normal weekday for me, I think it looks pretty balanced, what do you think? Cory and I recently went to a sports nutrition workshop where the nutritionist said in “transition phase” (the one we are in, basically off season) we should be eating mostly fruits, veggies and lean proteins with little to no whole grains. This depressed me a bit, I know I get plenty of carbs from my fruits and veggies I just really like my grains! What’s your take, could you be that disciplined?

Why do you blog?

If you write a blog do you ever step back and think about why you write it? I do sometimes and it seems over time that the reasons are evolving. I was inspired to start a blog because I was stalking reading other peoples blogs and I needed a profile to be able to comment. When I first started this blog it was as a journal for myself, I wanted to capture all of the big a little moments while training for my first triathlon.

Now I could have done this and kept it private but I put it out there in the world anyway, no one was reading it and I didn’t post very often but I still enjoyed it. As my training progressed I started reading some blogs more regularly and posting more often. I still love that I can look back at what was thinking, doing and feeling last year but the blog has taken on more for me now. There are a few bloggers I have connected with and it has become a place of support where people “get” me. There are a few goals I have for my blog going forward, I would really like to deliberately meet some of the bloggers I love in this upcoming year.

I may never be the athlete that wins the race or contemplates going pro, but I could be the one to make people think hey “if she can do it, then I can too”. I hope to take on ironman with a twisted femur, asthma and a demanding career, I dare to dream that I can run an ultra-marathon in the mountains of Colorado.

(Running up the flatirons in Boulder)

I believe that I can do these things if I work hard enough and keep a smile on my face.

So the questions of the day are:
Why do you blog?
What do you dare to dream that you can do?


Goals for the week

Oh man I haven’t done a “goals for the week post in a long time! feels like it’s time to get back on the wagon.

I haven’t taken myself seriously as an athlete, I tell everyone I am slow and not that impressive. But if I want to be faster and reach my big goals I better start believing that I AM an athlete and treating myself as such. So my first goal is not really a measurable one (totally breaking the rules of setting goals but whatever).

  • Start believing that I am an athlete and acting like it

I may not be able to measure this goal exactly but I will try to look back every week to see if I am believing it and acting like it yet. For the rest of my goals I will keep them simple:

  • Follow my workout plan for the rest of the week, no excuses.

My plan for this week is:
Wednesday: 90 min spin
Thursday: 5 mile run finish with plyos
Friday: 60 min pool workout
Saturday: 6 mile trail run (this will be so nice, it’s been a long time since I have been out on the trails)
Sunday: 40-50 mile bike ride
** Also 30 mins every night of my PT exercises, I am getting stronger!

The weather looks like it will cooperate just fine for this plan check it out!

  • Eat like an athlete (follow my plan and track everything I eat)

I hate tracking my calories but I haven’t done it in a long time and it’s time to get back to it.

I have one last parting message for myself and all of you out there.


Sorry for the f-bomb but believe it!


Reset

Do you ever feel like you need to hit reset on your life? Lately I have been stressed and not fully present in most things I was doing because I was doing too many things to do anything well. It became clear to me this morning that I need a reset badly, to re-prioritize, rebalance and get back on plan. It’s easy for me to get wrapped up in things, mainly work lately and let everything spiral out of control. So I am prioritizing my mental and physical health.

I will do this by taking a sick day tomorrow, even though the pleaser/perfectionist part of me feels obligated to go in for the 13 hour day that was planned. I am already sick and working that much I know would make it worse. I have to say that choosing myself this time feels really good.

On a different note. last night Cory and I got an email from Coach Charley outlining what the next few months of training will look like. It was so exciting to think about getting the train moving that will hopefully carry us all the way to Coeur d’Alene. We are searching for a house to rent in Coeur d’Alene, for Cory and I to share with my parents and our combined five dogs (yes, five!) CDA is a small town and rentals fill up quickly. I hope to have a place lined up this week, wish me luck!

Do you ever need a reset?


Mexican Chicken Soup

Now that the weather is cooling down, I am happy to add some cool weather favorites to normal rotation. Full disclosure that we did have a record high of 82 degrees today in Denver, but it still really cool at night. One recipe that I would love to share is mexican chicken soup, it’s warm and full of flavor.

Ingredients

  • 1 tbl olive oil
  • 1 large yellow onion, diced
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 jalapeno, seeded and minced
  • 2 tsp chili powder
  • 1 tsp dried oregano
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 quart (32 oz) chicken broth
  • 1-1/4 lb plum tomatoes, diced
  • 1 4.5 oz can green chilies
  • 1 15 oz can hominy, drained, or 2 c frozen corn
  • 2 c shredded cooked chicken (two breasts)
  • 1/3 c chopped fresh cilantro
  • 1 ripe, pitted and sliced avocado
  • 1 lime, cut in wedges

Directions

  1. In large pot cook onion, garlic and jalapeno in olive oil for about 5 minutes or until onion is translucent.
  2. Add chili powder, oregano and cumin; cook for an additional minute.
  3. Stir in broth, tomatoes, chiles, hominy. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
  4. Add chicken and simer for 10 minutes more.
  5. Stir in cilantro and server; garnishing with the avocado slices and lime wedges.

Tonight I am off to bed early after working this morning. I hope to get a good 40-50 mile bike ride in tomorrow before a fun family fall fest (also known as dinner at my parents house). What are your plans for tomorrow?


A Day in The Life

Beth over at Shut Up and Run tagged everyone to do a “day in the life post”. I love these posts because it gives a peak into what my favorite bloggers normal life is like. It’s interesting hearing about how they fit in everything else that they do other than training and racing. So I am going to play along and post a fairly normal day for me, try not to fall asleep.

4:30 am – Alarm goes off, Cory and I roll out of bed, feed the dogs, brew some coffee get dressed and head to the gym for spin class

5:00 am – arrive at gym and take an awesome 90 min spin class (30min on our own, 60min with instructor)

6:30 am- Head home, eat breakfast and try to get cleaned up for work

7:30 am – Pack up lunch and head to work for the day, I am very lucky in that I work less than two miles from my house. My day is rarely the same at work, I sit in a lot of meetings, read curriculum, teach, etc. Every day is different.

5:00 pm- Leave work and head to massage appointment. This is not a “typical” day. I wish I could get a massage everyday but we do go once a month to help keep our muscles healthy

6:30 pm- head home and fold a bunch of clean laundry that I didn’t get to over the weekend. Laundry is a never ending chore here and we don’t even have kids!

7:30 pm- sit down to dinner with Cory, we had salmon cakes with salad and champagne. It wasn’t for a special occasion, it just looked really good. Do you ever drink champagne just because? The salmon cakes are really good and good for you, recipe can be found here

8:00 pm-do PT exercises, and get ready for bed and read a few blogs (best part of the day)

9:00 pm- head to bed to cuddle with this guy.

That is a pretty normal day for me now during the off season, it will be fun to do this again in May when I am in peak IM training to see the difference.


Iron Distance Triathlon Coming to Colorado in 2012

It was just announced that there will be a Iron distance triathlon in Fort Collins, CO in 2012!

The HITS triathlon series is going to put on a full triathlon series including an open, sprint, olympic, half and the full distance.

I am excited that a full is finally back in Colorado, it is about a month after Coeur d’Alene on July 28th and 29th so I am so tempted to sign up for a second go at an ironman. I am not sure if this is a great idea, I will at least race the half.

Fort Collins is the cutest little college town, we ran our marathon there in May:

Marathon finish coming into old town.

We also ran our first half marathon there the Horsetooth Half Marathon in 2010.

The swim will be in beautiful Horsetooth Reservoir

Fort Collins is such a nice place to race! Who wants to come out and race it with me? Don’t live in Colorado? I have a spare room!


Weekend Wrap-up

Cory and I had a great Autumn weekend, we started off Saturday morning with Running with the Buffalos 5K we then headed home where we tried to do some errands while watching the live feed of Kona. It was such an exciting race so happy for Chrissy and Crowie.

On Sunday we woke up very early so we could volunteer at aid station number one for the Rock and Roll Denver Marathon. It has just turned cold so we bundled up

Apparently Cory was still asleep…probably shouldn’t have let him drive. It was dark when we arrived so it was hard to see the cups to fill them

I couldn’t believe how big the aid station was, I have never ran in a race this big.

We then headed home, picked up our dogs and took the “long way” to my parents house to enjoy some fall color

After eating a quick lunch we headed to Anderson farms for some fall fun

Baby Goats!

My brother erik expertly lead us through the corn maze

Not sure what’s going on here

We picked out some pumpkins

It was the perfect day, not cold, not hot with lots of sunshine. It was then back to the grind and a long work week. I am feeling ready to start ramping up my training. PT is going well, I am getting stronger and almost never have knee pain.

What is one of your fall must dos?

mine is visiting a pumpkin patch

Running with the Buffalos Race Report – and my first age group win!

It was not the best weather for a race, but it reminded me of running back home in Oregon. It was cold in the low 40’s and raining hard. We got up at 5:30 am so we would have plenty of time to drink coffee (most important), eat and gather our things.

So weird to race in cold weather clothing after being hot for so long! This was a very small race so we showed up 30 minutes before the race start, grabbed our numbers, shirts and chips. We warmed up quickly and lined up. I knew I could have used a better warm up but my legs felt heavy and lungs full of crap so I wasn’t really feeling it. We lined up heard some updates and took off. I tried to pay attention to where the other women were ahead of me but also run my own race. The course was nice mostly along a fine gravel trail with rolling hills. The rain lightened up to a drizzle for the race which was really nice. It was really nice to see familiar friendly faces racing and volunteering around the course. I love that we are really getting invested in the running/triathlon community, it makes it that much more fun.

I didn’t feel very fast while running and was focused on controlling my breath so I didn’t have an asthma attack. I did pretty well and finished feeling crappy. Yup I hate 5k’s they hurt and suck. Don’t let anyone tell you “it’s just a 5k” they are HARD!

Cory was at the finish cheering me on as he had finished a few minutes before. I asked how he did and he came in 4th overall, I was so happy and proud!

We milled around talked to fellow athletes, Randi from RMTC was there (she is doing Ironman CDA too). We headed to the awards ceremony with hopes that Cory would win one of the coveted buffalo trophies, he didn’t think he would get one as only the overall winners and first place age groupers get one. He was already making plans on how he could earn one next year when his name was called as the winner for males 30-39 I was SO excited that we would be taking home a trophy and that Cory had won his age group. I was talking to Randi (who took second overall, GO Randi!) about how great it was that Cory won that I almost missed that they had called MY name….wait, what? I won for women 30-39??? REALLY?!?! I walked up front to get my trophy, and Charley jumped in to say that Cory and I were married so we would be taking home a matching set.

There was a collective ahhhhhhh from the crowd, and we had our picture taken together. I have to admit that winning with Cory was pretty sweet, we both won our age groups and took 4th overall for our genders. Overall, a great way to start the weekend. The rest of the day will be spent doing errands and watching live feed from Kona, we were excited to catch the age group start and the pros go into T1.

Daisy is cheering for all the Colorado athletes out there today!

KONA

Anyone else super excited about the Ironman Word Championship in Kona? I am having such a good time reading about all the shenanigans that some of my favorite super athlete bloggers are having. Even if you aren’t a tri-tard I suggest checking some of them out since yesterday was the traditional underwear run, their bodies are SICK! If you want to follow along check out Sonja, Michelle, James, Beth, and many others. I am excited to stalk them online tomorrow.

In other news I have to admit that I lied. I said I wasn’t going to race in October but Coach Charley is putting on a local 5k called Running with the Buffalos. The race promotes health and wellness in Commerce City and there is great support from the local schools and community. Last year the prizes included shoes and (anatomically correct) buffalo trophies. So if you are in the Denver area with nothing to do come on out, I would love to meet you!

Tomorrow it should be about 40 degrees and raining for the race and I am having a hard time figuring out what to wear. It’s been warm for so long that I have forgotten how to run in the cold (I will need to figure that out quick for all the long winter runs I will be doing).

I don’t think I will need to dress in snow gear, although I will be tempted since I am not used to the cold. We had a very mild winter last year. This was taken in January.

I don’t know if we will be so lucky this year.


→←