December 6, 2012

Athlete Wish List Part 2 (bike)

Good morning, it’s time to continue the athlete’s wish list with the bike addition. Being a triathlete means needing a lot of gear you can find my swim list here: Athlete Wish List Part 1 (swim) and here a a few things that I have and love or are on my list for biking:

If you’re looking for a big ticket gift, a full carbon road bike might be the right choice. A women’s specific bike is important for my build (long legs, short torso and narrow shoulders) I love my tt-bike and while I won’t be adding a fancy new road bike to the fleet this month maybe one day:
Trek women’s Madone 4.5 WSD

If you are going to spend hours on the bike you might as well be comfortable AND look cute! Betty Designs Cycling Kit

I great addition to my gear this year were proper tri shoes with carbon soles, I love mine from Specialized:

Smart Wool arm warmers make regulating your temperature easy while on the go:

And my FAVORITE thing to eat on the bike (don’t judge me) PB snickers!

Coming Soon:

Athlete Wish List Part 1 (run)

Athlete Wish List Part 1 (train)

Athlete Wish List Part 1 (stocking suffers)

Lists from last Year:
2011 wish list – part 1
2011 wish list – part 2
2011 wish list – part 3

December 5, 2012

Race Medal Ornaments Revisited

I have received a few questions about what to do with race medals so I thought I would repost this from last year about how I turn race medals into ornaments. One medal that wont be getting snipped this year:

Maybe Cory will want to put his on the tree? but not me!!!

For most of the year the race medals that Cory and I get sit in a pile and collect dust. We could get a fancy medal hanger and display them but instead we save them until Christmas time so we can turn them into ornaments.

It’s fun to think back on the races we have done over the year while decorating the tree. This time of year is a great time to think back on all the fun we’ve had this year.

It’s pretty simple but I thought I would share how I make medals into ornaments.

Step 1: Cut the ribbon in half

Step 2: tie ribbon in a bow if you like it, if you don’t want a big bow on your tree you can remove the ribbon and use a metal ornament hanger.

Step 3: Hang on your tree and enjoy for years to come.

Simple and easy, just the way I like it!

December 3, 2012

This Week in Workouts 3

I hope everyone had a great weekend, I can’t believe it’s Monday already. My weekend was jam packed with working, schooling, running and watching football. I didn’t get to finishing up Christmas decorating like I had planned but something had to give. And my moms invitation of a yummy dinner and a football game was too tempting to pass up. And what are the holidays about if not family?!? Onto this week, it should be a little less hectic as I *think* I am done with my classes for the semester (one prof is really bad about communicating and is really confusing). As far as training this week is another big week for training:

Monday: 60 minute yoga and strength

Tuesday: am- 90 min spin class

pm- 90 min interval run

Wednesday: am- 90 min spin class

pm- 60 min strength

Thursday: 6 mile easy run

pm- 2650m swim

Friday: am- 8 mile run

pm- 30 min strength

Saturday: distance swim and strength (or ride outside if it’s nice)

Sunday: 18 mile trail run

As December is getting going I have been thinking about my goals for this month.

It’s always a little harder this time of year because there are so many other things pulling on my time but I still would like to make some progress. I decided to make my monthly goals have more of a weekly focus since I tend to do better with shorter term goals. If I need to change them week to week I can:

December Goals.jpg What are your goals for this month?

November 28, 2012

Athlete Wish List Part 1 (swim)

Hello Friends! I think we all know that part of the fun of being an endurance athlete or just being active is all the great “gear” that comes along with it. So if you are looking for things to add to your own list or something special for the athlete in your life then maybe you can find inspiration from a few of the things that have caught my eye or that I already have and love. There are way too many things for just one posting so I will break them up into parts:

Athlete Wish List Part 1 (swim)

Athlete Wish List Part 2 (bike)

Athlete Wish List Part 1 (run)

Athlete Wish List Part 1 (train)

Athlete Wish List Part 1 (stocking suffers)

Swim is by far my least favorite thing to train for but that doesn’t mean I don’t like goodies:

Everyone needs a great swim bag, I like this one from Speedo:

Cute swimsuits are a must! I love this one from Splish! But they have tons of cute designs

Pull buoys can help work on form as well as rest tired legs, comes in pink or blue:

If you are in the pool for a really long time what would be better to fuel with than Sharkies!

If you want to splurge TYR Freak of Nature is supposed to be the best wetsuit out there (I wouldn’t know, I love my suit but not that $$$ much)

What would be on your swim list?

Lists from last Year:
2011 wish list – part 1
2011 wish list – part 2
2011 wish list – part 3

November 27, 2012

I love you Amazon…

I have no love for black Friday shopping, for me it’s just not worth the crazy crowds and crazier people. But I do love online shopping so I am all for Cyber Monday. This year it was more Cyber Sunday for me where I was able to pick up most of the major gifts for my family and bought myself a nice little early Christmas gift. I was excited to see a great deal on Amazon for the Garmin 410, with the discount, cash bonus and a gift card I still had from my birthday it was less than $100.

I love a deal so it makes me extra excited about this purchase. It’s also my first GPS watch so I can’t wait to try it out at interval training tonight.

Do you have a GPS watch? Do you like it? Does getting a deal on something make you like it even more?

November 26, 2012

This week in workouts 2

I really enjoyed my time off work to focus on school and training, but now it’s back to reality. Last week I saw a lot of this:

This:

And This:

This week I will be putting in my time at work but also putting in the time training. When coach sent me this week’s plan I was surprised to see doubles that weren’t just strength. I thought I had a couple more months before those kicked in but I guess he thought I should get after at and secretly I kind of love it. It’s a big week for me as I try to wrap up school for the semester so an extra challenge I have given myself is no tv. I need to be extra productive with my time and it’s easy to get sucked into watching my favorite shows.

Here is the plan for the week:

Monday: 60 minute yoga and strength

Tuesday: am- 75 min spin class

pm- 90 min interval run

Wednesday: am- 90 min spin class

pm- 60 min yoga

Thursday: 6 mile easy run

pm- 2750 m swim

Friday: am- 90 min spin

pm- 30 min strength

Saturday: 18 mile trail run

Sunday: 3200 m swim and 60 minute strength

What does your week look like?

November 25, 2012

Turkey Day 10k

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I enjoyed a full day with my family but I think my favorite part of the day was the start, a family race. My brother and dad raced the 5k together

While Mom, Cory and I ran the 10k

Cory and I have done this race the last tree years and mom joined us last year. This year the temperature was perfect for running in the upper 50s. Mom and I both decided to wear last years’ race shirt so we ended up as twins.

While the temps were great there was a wicked headwind on the second half of the race which was also the uphill section. This made it practically impossible to negative split. Mom said that’s not her style anyway.This year was a new course which we didn’t like as well but the first part through the park was nice. Cory, mom and I all ran together. My mom is coming back from a few injuries and is doing awesome. Her big goal is a half marathon in June and she is going to KILL IT! Even with the difficult conditions she as able to get a PR of 1:00:28 to win her age group. Cory and I had a great time running with mom and were happy to see her do sowell. We hung around to watch Dad and Erik (big brother) finish up the 5k The race wasn’t doing awards that day so we grabbed some water and our race t’s before heading out

Normally I really like readline runnings shirts but there was a mix up with the shirts and there is no graphic on the t-shirts. Also our arm-warmers did not come in. I feel a bit bad for the race director as it seems a lot of things went wrong but I wasn’t stoked about all the changes from last year. Next we we all decided we want to race the family 5k together.

November 21, 2012

Thanksgiving Eve

Happy Thanksgiving Eve! If you are one of the millions who are traveling today I wish you safe and easy travels. I am not traveling today since my parents conveniently moved to Colorado last year.

Even though I am not traveling I am still busy and trying to fit a bunch in today so I can relax and enjoy tomorrow. I got up early this morning to fit in a 90 minute easy spin, this helped to flush out my legs after yesterdays long run. I am hoping to get some yoga in tonight when Cory gets home. This afternoon I am trying to get some school work in before starting to cook tonight. This year we are in charge of Thanksgiving desert and post race treats. Cory decided to make homemade cinnamon rolls (I am SO looking forward to that) and I am in charge of pies!

I am going to make classic pumpkin

and dutch apple all from scratch

I love baking but I don’t do it very often due to dietary and time limitations. Cory is a great helper and by cooking the pumpkin and peeling apples for me!

Are you cooking the full meal for Thanksgiving, just a part or just showing up?

November 21, 2012

Elf for Health

So many fun Challenges to participate in this time of year, I thought I would pass along another one incase you love this kind of fun like I do!

Elle for Nutritionella has come up with Elf for Health challenge

Copied from her site:

Introducing the Elf for Health Holiday Challenge! This is a six week challenge that will run from the Monday after Thanksgiving thru the first week in January. There will be daily tasks, daily winners, prizes, weekly newsletters, and a Facebook group for support.

And are you ready for the best part? You’ll have an elf to support and encourage you! When you sign up, you will also be committing to be an elf for someone in return. Over the course of the challenge, you will have three different elves.

Sounds like a great way to stay motivated and meet new people over the holidays doesn’t it?! Since this challenge is internet based, anyone can participate… no matter where you’re located! All you need is access to the internet and an email address.

So what does an Elf do?

Elf Duties

As an Elf, you are expected to support your assigned buddy with their holiday health goals and the daily challenges. Elves & buddies will be reassigned every 2 weeks. You are only asked to email your buddy 2 times per week:

Monday: Send your buddy an email to help them with the challenges for that week. Ideas of things to include/attach: your own personal tips & tricks, inspiring words and/or images, a new, healthy recipe or workout to try.
Thursday – Saturday: Any time during these days, check in with your buddy! For example, ask them if they tried a new recipe, workout, or had fun with any certain challenges. Feel free to tell them how you did with your challenges, too!

Anything more than those 2 emails is up to you but feel free to go above and beyond this to show your support! Just a few ideas: send your buddy Tweets, shout outs on our Facebook Page, email a fun workout you liked or send a hand written recipe or note.

Sounds like fun! SHe even provides a nice calendar that you can use as a google cal, so helpful! Will you join?

November 19, 2012

November Goals Check In

Good morning friends! I can’t believe that Thanksgiving is THIS WEEK! Time is flying and November is already over half over. Seems like a great time to check in on my November goals. November 2012 goals.jpg

1. I have lost 6 pounds so far so I feel good about accomplishing this goal.

2. I think I have missed only one day so far so not bad.

3. Photo a day has suffered, I went through I VERY busy time at work the last two weeks, but I am having more fun on instagram so I still consider it a win.

4. Assignments are on track and I am hoping to get a little ahead this week

5. I have been following the guidelines outlined by the sports nutritionist and it has been easier than I thought it would be

Now it’s time to go work on #4 while cuddling with this guy:

Happy Monday everyone!

Elf Duties

runwithbeth