Chasing My Joy

My journey to becoming an Ultra Runner and Ironman

  • Home
  • About
  • Current Gear
  • Race Reports
  • Pregnancy//Baby
  • Travel
  • Bucket List
  • Hikes

Archives for October 2012

October 29, 2012

Meeting with a sports nutritionist

On Friday last week I had an hour long nutrition “tune-up” with Dina from Fuel4mance. A tune up includes:
Our Nutrition Tune-Up is a one-time consultation for those seeking assistance with their daily eating program and competition day planning. Whether it is fine tuning your nutrition to ensure good immune and cardiovascular health or overcoming a weight loss plateau, this service includes a customized eating program based on past medical health history, fitness level and future nutrition goals.  
Competition day nutrition is also included in this assessment when time allows.
I was excited for this meeting because I have been looking to clean up my diet a bit and lean out for heavy training come spring.  I am at a “healthy” weight but feel that I could lose about 15 pounds and be able to swimbikerun easier. Since I sort of thought that Ironman training would help knock some pounds off (It did not….bummer) I thought I would call in the professionals. Dina was super nice and fun to talk to, her main advice was to not count calories or do crazy diets but to work on metabolic efficiency (i.e. not spiking your blood sugar). I don’t want to give everything away since this is her job and everyone’s nutrition needs are different but I am changing my diet to see how I feel and if I can drop a few pounds.
The biggest change is getting rid of grains and extra crap from my diet. 
I am not going low carb, I am still eating plenty of low-fat dairy and fruit, I am just avoiding breads, rice and starchy veggies. This will be a bit of a challenge for me because I really like grains and starchy veggies (goodbye butternut squash, pumpkin and sweet potato). I am going to give it a try for two weeks to see how I feel, if I have enough energy to get through 15+ hours of training and if I drop a few pounds.
Oh yeah….Alcohol is a nono as well =(
Have you ever worked with a nutritionist or wish you could? Did you find that it created a big change in your diet, body or life?

Posted by bethcurtis 2 Comments
Filed Under: Uncategorized

October 16, 2012

First Big Week Back

I won’t call it Ironman training since I still have more than 11 months until Ironman Lake Tahoe so I will just say I was back to training. Last week was my biggest volume week since finishing IMCDA and I am feeling it today! It feels really good to be back at it but also reminds me of how sore and tired I was all the time last spring. I really need to nail down some recovery aids, I know what to do but am sometimes just to lazy/busy to do it. Here was last week in review:

Monday: easy six mile run before work then 60 minute body pump in the afternoon
Tuesday: Track practice including 1 mile time trials
Wednesday: 90 minute spin class and body pump
Thursday: 45 minutes Yoga
Friday: 90 minute spin into a hard 20 minute transition run and strength training in the evening
Saturday: 11 mile hilly trail run (was supposed to do strength training but watched OSU beat BYU while following Kona live, priorities!) this run was SO beautiful!

DSCN7405.JPG

Sunday: 66 mile hilly ride with fast friends (easy ride for them, pushing it for me;) No pictures from the ride since we forgot our camera but it was a great way to enjoy the fall colors!
DSCN7450.JPG
It was a good week, total hours came to something like 16ish hours training. This week is fairly similar with some juggling for two evening events at work and traveling on Sunday.

What does a big training week look like to you? Last week was biggish with 16+ hours of training, really big will be more like 22+ hours.

Posted by bethcurtis 3 Comments
Filed Under: training

October 1, 2012

Fourth Quarter

I can’t believe it’s already October, where did September go? October is my favorite month, I love the changing leaves, the moderate temperatures and all the fun harvest activities. I am not ready for snow but I am ready to be done with the 80+ degree days. On Saturday we enjoyed a beautiful trail run near Nederland Colorado. Sourdough trail was a little rocky but mostly runnable and very beautiful!

DSCN7367.JPG

The aspens were bright yellow, it was worth it just for the drive, the mountains are gorgeous right now, and it won’t be long until they are covered in white. I hope to come back to this trail in the winter to snow shoe!

October also signals the start of the fourth quarter of the year, the last chance to get things you wanted to get done in 2012 before we ring in 2013. I had lofty goals for 2012, I am happy that I met the most important one but have to accept that I probably won’t meet all my 2012 goals. I feel ok rolling some of the into 2013, this year wasn’t perfect but it’s still been great. So here is my progress on my 2012 resolutions:

1. Follow my training plan as best I can. I am TERRIBLE at this, I know you can’t control everything so following 100% of the time is not reasonable but I need to be better. What is the point of hiring a coach if I just do whatever I want anyway? Still working on getting better at this, I think this might be an ongoing fight.

2. PR in half and full marathons check for the half marathon back in the spring, I had planned on running a marathon before the ironman but had to skip it because I had some over use injuries acting up and it just wasn’t worth it so close to ironman, this one will have to roll over to 3013. I have already signed up for the Colorado Marathon, hoping to PR there!

3. Complete the ironman (most important goal) DONE!!!



4. Complete an ultra marathon Sadly, not done =( I thought I would be able to shift focus after ironman and spend the summer running trails in the mountains. After a bad ankle injury in July I was derailed from reaching this goal at a early fall race. It is SUPER tempting to try to attempt this one in a non race self supported 31 miles. I have wanted to meet this goal for a long time and I knew that when I signed up for Ironman Lake Tahoe that I would be giving up an ultra marathon in 2013 so I could focus on Ironman, road running and avoiding injury. So this may happen not at a race (since there aren’t any in December) I will have to try to talk my husband into helping me accomplish this one.

5. Get to my training weight by April (10-12 lbs lighter than I am now) and racing weight by June. I was closer in the spring, but I am still working on getting there, I am hoping to be solidly at “training weight” by the end of the year.

6. Be better about blogging (i.e. more consistent, better pictures, etc.) This is a repeat from last year but I want to continue to improve. This is a COMPLETE fail, must do better.

7. Run 1,000+ miles and ride 3,000+ miles I think I am on track for this, but I am not great at tracking all the time.

8. Focus on strength all year This dropped off during peak ironman training but I am back at it now

9. Stay injury free, this will be most important in helping me reach all other goals Hmmmm, I did get injured but it wasn’t as bad as the last two years so that is progress. I am trying to get better about recovery.

So it’s a mixed bag but I am happy about the progress so far, now I jut need to talk my husband into a gorilla ultra-marathon late in December…what do you think hon??

Posted by bethcurtis 2 Comments
Filed Under: goals

Meet Beth

Follow

Search

Instagram

Follow on Instagram

Tag Cloud

Baby Baby Update Book Nook Bumpdate Cannon Disney Disneyland Emerald Europe Family Family Adventure Favorites Friday Favorites Gear Goals Hike Hikes Holidays Ironman Ironman Canada Ironman Training Kids Hikes Marathon Marathon Training Moab Monthly Update National Park pregnancy Project 366 race report Races Run run streak trail race trail running training Travel Ultra Ultra Training Ultramarathon Update updates Utah Weekly Recap Weekly Rundown

Monthly Archives

  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • August 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • May 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • May 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010

Easy Instagram

Loading...

Instagram Slider

Theme by 17th Avenue · Powered by WordPress & Genesis