Optimism

This blog formatting is all messed up. Sorry. I meant to sit down and fix it but the last week was super hectic. Questions - I need new bike shoes. Any recommendations? Are carbon fiber soles worth it? My left hip is sore. The pain wraps around my hip and radiates down the back of my leg. If I do a sun salutation bend over and then look up so my legs are straight but my bank is flat, I can really feel it. Saturday morning (3-9) - I think I might be getting a little cold. Ugghh. Might try and take it easy today. Sleep in the car. Probably wont be able to update after this. In general, if you don't want to read everything, I had a really good weekend in Bozeman. Motivating, fun, and hard ride and run going up lots of hills. Some even really steep. The week continued to productive except I did too much legs on Tuesday at gfit which was detrimental through the week. Legs hurt riding and running and my left hip still doesn't want to work. Headed south now and hope to get in something more productive tomorrow (sat). Tired now.

This is what got me through part of the swim on Thursday. The non-swimmer sharing the lane with me wacked me 4x in his short little drag himself through the water doing flailing backstroke. Really people, don't you know how to stay on your own side of the lane?  The swim ended well though. Did the 200 at 1k pace on 3:05 and the 100 on 1:29.  Yes!!!!!  Talk about a day full of ups and downs. Wed - swim and ride. Everything normal. Thursday - post work run. Then dinner with Jaimee. Working around some of my social stuff this week has been a little stressful. I like the normal schedule, like next weeks. Run was good. Feel like I am getting some endurance back. Saturday Had a really fun ride. First climbed Story Hill (you did that once), then headed north of town and climbed up all the hills I could find. Some even covered with snow and ice. Saw some bald eagles and hawks. Had an enjoyable day. Time between food kept getting closer and closer together as the ride got longer and longer. Glad to get out on cross bike. Needs some work and adjustment before Speed wagon. Friday- only made it one hour on the rollers. I need some new entertainment. Sunday Masters swim- the usual fast lane 5 people were not there so moved over to avoid the cluster of lane 4ers. They like to dilly dally. We finished the same workout at least 10 minutes ahead of them. I am starting to be annoyed. Good workout though. Included 3x150 at 1k pace. About 3200 total. Run - Bozeman weather never ceases to amaze me. Sunny while at Masters, complete white out for first half of run and sun to the west the other half. Good run and I didn't fall apart. Ran up (steep) Drinking Horse. 20 minutes up. Ran down. Ran up the M (steep). 25 minutes up. Did 3 little loops with very hard switchbacks. Each loop took 5 minutes. The only audience I had were so super sweet deer. Legs tired on Monday. Hurts to walk up stairs. Monday - found a series on the Iditarod. Was captivated for two whole episodes. 86 minutes. One musher has a giant hampster wheel a home. His dogs choose to get in it and run. They actually have to lock it sometimes because the dogs won't stop. Tuesday- gift- worked my legs pretty hard. Masters big workout. Lots of IM. Lots of fly. Total of 3400-3600. Was the very last one in the great big pool. Was hurting the next day though. Wed- got together with the team and did a group trainer ride. That workout hurt. My legs were so sore from the day before that I don't think I actually rode that fast. The post ride run hurt too. 15 minutes was a long time. Thursday - gift and masters swim. Swam about 2900. Was still feeling worked so took it easy. Friday- so tired today. Hectic at work all morning. Didn't get the run in. Just ran out of time. Stayed at a super sweet hot springs town. Hot springs right across the street from the hotel.

Third week of February

Masters swim meet- Kalispell the first weekend of April. A bunch of people are going and sort of bullying me into it. Michael really wants the trophy. I could do the 1000 to see where I am for the Grizzly. It would be Polson  the weekend before but I think I could carpool. Maybe do events one day and ride/run the other? Maybe I will see if Jen Luebke is going and we could ride one day? Aren't you coaching her? Thought I heard that.

Schedule for next week- something not too late on Thursday. I promised a friend I would go out to dinner with her. She has a kid, so doesn't get the chance to go out much, plus I really love her company. Can skip out of work during the day for a few hours.

Spring break-  We are going to leave in the afternoon on Friday the 8th and drive to southern Idaho and spend the night in a hot springs town. Then drive to st George on Saturday. The rest of the crew is coming down on Sunday or Monday. My one request is that I get a massive  swim one day, Sunday would be perfect, but of course the pool isn't open Sundays. I want to go and really enjoy the awesome pool down there.  It might be hard to be super flexible with four other people who only want to mountain bike. However, with that being said, I want to bring my TT bike and do the st George course again. We will also have two cars so I can do my own thing.

Work schedule - Monday and Tuesday are busy. Wed I have an appointment from 11-12 and a lunch seminar from 12-1. Other than that, nothing I know about yet.

This was a busy work week even though I didn't have any experiments. Histology is hard work and kind of gross. Lots of nasty chemicals and carcinogens.

Tuesday - Total brain fart. Missed 10 minutes of gift and didn't do the run. Lost track of time.
Masters swim - tied a parachute around my waist and did 3x25 followed by 1-25 fast and 1-25 easy. The last two 25s were without the drag. I thought it was kind of fun, slow, but fun. My back and arms were tired the next day.

Wednesday- Rode bike? Can't remember.

Thursday - gift at the gym. Watched a guy walk down the stairs on his hands. Crazy. Watched another guy rocking out to his headphones. Love it! Did some extra Achilles stretching, just to stay on top of it. 

Boblablalaws blog- Do you watch Arrested Development?  It is hilarious.

Masters swim - Think we got in around 3400 or so. Lots of 200s,  I think.  Masters is funny. The lane is kind of hard to get moving. Some people do IM all the time with fins and go really fast because of the fins. Still not sure how they do breast with fins. Then others will do no more than 3000. Then others come late and talk themselves up but skip out on parts of the sets. Interesting how adults function. Worse than kids, I imagine.

Friday swim- what is up with the band? What is the purpose?

Saturday - got worked trying to skate ski up Bozeman creek. 6 inches or more of snow made it hard work. Got to the bridge( just short of 5 miles) one mile at a time. Hardest I have had to work at skiing this year, I think. Turned around at bridge.

Sunday - good masters swim. Good warm up then 5x100 followed by a 200 recovery. Tried to swim my fastest 100 ever each time. Got a 1:32 once. In a 50 meter pool. I think that is my fastest ever. Yay!

Nice sunny day for a run again. Saved a dog after it jumped into a snow bank that was covering a creek. Poor thing.  Then this girl had to catch me at the last light with about a mile left before home. Straight stretch. Well I couldn't let her easily beat me, but damn she was fast. I convinced myself she was only on mile two or something, not 13 like me. That was one hard final mile home. Had a hard time mapping out the run. Ran for about 2 hours. I think it was more like 13 to 14 miles instead of 12.

A lot of thought...

In general that workout (s) on Saturday were hard. I haven't felt that worked in a long time. Had to take a 30 minute catnap (withe the cat) when I got home. We had a Team Muleterro party that night so I probably didn't get a great recovery.

Tuesday
45 minute run followed by gift. Fun to do it with the gang again.

Wednesday
What did I do Wednesday? Just a little thankful I didn't have a difficult brick.

Thursday
Big work day. Thankful I didn't have anything to do at lunch etc. Ride with the crew was fun. It was also kind of hard. Erik has been staying in shape commuting. Spent vale

Friday-
Big work day. Think I am a little OCD. It takes me 12 minutes to take a mouse BALF and get their lungs. It is crazy to me how fast 12 minutes can go by when I am concentrating. Anyhoo, got run in before swim and met Katie for some filming. I admit I was a slacker on this swim. Did as little as I could and probably didn't go 1500 pace.

Saturday
The words put of my mouth as I walked up the driveway after the run were "oh my god, I an tired, sigh". 
Rode trainer instead of rollers since this was an option. Crazy how much hotter one gets on the trainer vs. the rollers. Worked hard on each of the intervals. Want to put more into the bike this year. Want to get faster.
Legs were heavy starting the run. Settled in though. It was sunny and 50 degrees. Felt great to be outside. Did a lot of heavy thinking on this run. Sometimes it gets really heavy and I can't let it go. Think I am going to quit my Thursday monthly meetings. All I see is a battle which I am not going to win. I might as well put my time and energy into something that will really make a difference.

Sunday
Didn't get a ton of rest after workouts Saturday. We had a Team Muleterro party. Did a little dancing which my legs were not happy about.  Swimming wasn't about yardage again. Did some fun race things. Funny who is competitive and who isn't.  Stayed after and added another 2000. Probably got in a total of 3500 maybe a little more.
It was wet and snowing off and on all day. Opted to ride rollers. Tired when this day was over.

Monday
Adventure ski up Hyalite. Ended up being about 4 hours. Broke some trail for a while. Thought I was lost for a while. Ran out of food. What better could you ask for in a days adventure? Beautiful day!!

Calories

Can't seem to get enough calories. Take a giant bag of food to work and by 3pm  am seeing stars. Any suggestions for some good, healthy snacks that I can either keep at work or easily pack up in the morning. Right now I am sitting here eating pop tarts, for lack of anything better in the house.

Was just checking out the Polson triathlon's website. Pretty sweet. $5000 in prize money. Now Matt Seeley knows how to put on an attractive race. Further, all proceeds go to the pool. Love it when promoters give back to the racers and the community.  If only the Bozeman race directors were receptive to comments. Someday I am going to put on a sweet triathlon in Bozeman, someday..... 

Questions about effort. Did the 3 miles at half ironman pace. I ran what would be a general goal pace for a half ironman but it hurt. 3 miles in 23 minutes in the dark on icy streets, waiting for traffic. I felt pretty good about it. Is it about actually running the pace or the feel? I was thinking it was the actual pace. For IM training last year I ran harder than I actually thought I could hold and ended up pretty happy with my run. Faster than I thought I could go. So anyway, go with the fast pace? Half ironman used to be just about getting in the miles, seems to be converting to going fast and getting in the miles. I like!!!

Tuesday
Gfit after work. Did it with the co-workers. Didn't make the one with the girls because last minute Megan changed it to to 12:30 and I was infecting mice. Lisa gave me most of the workout though and I filled it in a little. One legged jumps up on a box (not very high) and back down the other side. Those were hard. Could only trust making the box for the first go around. Did some one legged squats too.
Ran for 15 minutes before.

Wednesday
SUCCESS! Had a great workout. I guess I already explained the run above. Ride was good too.

Thursday
Went to the gym at lunch and did gfit. My calves were hurting on Saturday from those jumps. Also did 20 pushups in 1 minute. Woohoo. Usually I start to cave at about 12. I think the girls who were lifting weights just to be seen at the gym were my motivator. If you are going to lift at least do it properly. Hope they don't hurt themselves.
Swim- Busted out 3900. Finished the whole workout! Usually don't finish it. Haven't swam that far in a long time. Even felt pretty chipper afterward.

Friday
Kind of an emotional day. Found out Erik's nephew's girlfriend who is only 19 had surgery and they found cancer. She had to get a hysterectomy while she was opened up. Her mom decided for her. Poor girl. Anyway, had a lot of work to do so didn't get home until around 6. Rode the rollers but called it quits after 70 minutes. I think I was starting to get tired from Wednesday and Thursday. Went to get some dinner with Erik. Sat forever to order our pizza and then the oven broke. We were both so hungry. I think this calorie hole set me up for an uneven Saturday.

Saturday
Mister had been vomiting for a couple of days. He hadn't been keeping anything down. Called the vet in the morning and took him in. Was really worried since every time something like this has happened with other cats they end up with something bad. He seems to be good though!!! Thankfully!!!! I really love that cat.
Also, had to go to the mouse facility to check on an experiment (here is me sighing because I am so sick of coming in on the weekends)Put on my new windstopper/breathable shirt and ran to check on mice. Took 10 minutes so continued my run from there. I think I run faster now than I did a few years ago because I ran all the way across town and back and still had a do a little detour to get in the time. Can't wait for trail running when you just go forever in the mountains! 

It was close to dark when I finished the run. I think I ate something or sat around for a while and hopped on the rollers. Opted to spend the evening on the rollers and being anti-social rather than dinner at the Curry's. They kept sending me texts with pictures of the shenanigans going on. I guess they were missing me.

Sunday
Still feeling tired. Well actually, Saturday was kind of larger volume than usual. So was kind of tired. Went to Masters. Didn't get a lot of yardage in. Spent some time in the deep end vertically kicking and passing around an 8 lb medicine ball. Adding 8 lbs to my kick makes me sink. I was okay with the easier swim. Hope you don't mind. Met this woman who I have been watching teach little kids swim lessons. She is teaching them how to flip turn, butterfly etc. The City still teaches Red Cross swimming. I think kids learn the side stroke. She teaches adults. 30$ for 30 minutes. Thinks she could help me. I might do a session with her.

Needed to tackle my trails up at Moser again. Can't seem to read the map and always end going the wrong direction. This time I was determined to do the whole loop. Was totally baffled when I realized I was coming up the way I came down a few weeks ago when I thought I was lost. I have no sense of direction in the woods. Think I covered the whole loop. Next week-Alex Lussier was telling me there is groomed trail up a little higher. Want to go and explore that!! Was out for a little over two hours. Kind of want to find something a little longer. Stopped at one point to listen to the quiet. Love to be out in the mountains. Find myself truly happy.

My co-workers husband is a rep for SportHill. I'll stay late and help her if she keeps giving me sweet clothes.

Today is going to be awesome!!!

Words to live by

I really like this photo. Landon is going to be famous someday. 

Formatting is all messed up sorry. Monday Swam. 1500 straight. Boring. Oh well. Think my flip turns are getting better. Pool was full with a aqua jog class in the lane next to me. Felt like they were going to keep kicking me. They were probably annoyed from getting splashed whenever I turned. Ride - rode the the rollers after work for an hour. Tuesday Epic work day. 20 mice and 3 organs equals a 12 hour day. Lucky I didn't have the intracellular stain. It would have been at least 1:15 longer. Peggy was also there late and at 7:30 she still had a bunch to do. I was going to go do gift but didn't have the heart to just leave her. Stayed to help her finish up. Wednesday Didn't get started with the brick until after 6. Did the ride with a good focus on the intervals and changed for the run. It was snowing out. Ran hard for the first 20 and then eased back. Stewed over the whole pool situation way too much. Need to be more positive! Was running at 8:30 at night. Didn't get to bed until late. Pretty tiring workout. On these big evenings I am going to try and get done with work early and get on the bike by at least 5. Thursday Tired from Wednesday. Went and did the run and gift at lunch. Spent some time doing some extra stretching. Masters swim - spent some time talking to Jamie and Michael about the pool so workout wasn't super huge. Got in around 2400. Workout was hard. 2x300 breath every 3, 2x200 breath every 3, 2x100 breath 5, and then I think 4x50 breath 7. First, I was holding the intervals. Not by much but still and 2nd was breathing as best I could which was better than before. Friday Swam at lunch. Felt frustrated with the paddles and my form. Run - tried to get out of work early which didn't happen. Ran for 80 minutes over at Pete's hill to get in some hills. Started to get tired with about 20 to go. Ready to go home, eat, and be anti social. Saturday Much needed day for myself. Slept in, made a big breakfast, of which mister even had his own plate. Watched cyclocross and headed out on a snowy ride with Erik and Lawrence. Finished the evening off with a little wine and chatting with Marta. Sunday Swim-3100. Lots of 200 IM. Good workout. Love my lanemates. Ski Going to do a Tour de Hyalite. Explore some trails I have never been on before!