Fat Camp

At today's practice you could have easily mistaken it to be a Fat Camp like from the Biggest Looser instead of a tri club practice. CL had us doing all kinds of crazy things and the group was pretty chatty so she had to redirect us quite a few times. This is basically what practice sounded like today as CL barked out orders....

"Go run 2 miles. Now get in a line and do jumping jacks. Stop. Now run in place with a high cadence. Faster. That's too slow. Stop talking. Do it again that wasn't fast enough. Now take your shoes off. Don't sit down to take your shoes off- do it standing up instead to engage your core. Now run in a circle with your shoes off focusing on cadence and foot strike. Faster feet but don't go forward too fast. Stop talking. Put your shoes back on but leave your socks off. Go inside. Find a partner and a foam roller. Hurry up. We are running out of time. Do these 3 exercies (they were explained). You're not doing it right..... "

LOL. I think we drive her a little crazy. :) Today was fun. It was a bit different than what we normally do. RB was my partner and we had some good laughs trying to figure out the foam roller exercises.

Today's workout: run and stuff
2 mile run
running drills
foam roller core exercises

Rainbow Bright

Swam this morning at the Aquatic Center. This week is a recovery week. Yay! Today's swim felt almost too easy. I swam in a lane with XXX. Not many came to practice this morning. Lots of people are out of town for work. The news for the day is Preston now has a nickname.... Rainbow Bright. :) Why? Well you will always find her wearing something very colorful. I think it is very fitting.

Today's workout: Swim
Warmup: 300 pull; 200 kick
10x100 Threshold pace + 5 seconds (I basically did the 100's on the 1:35 with 10 seconds rest)
10x100 at Threshold pace (This was on the 1:30 with 10 seconds rest)
Cool down: 100 kick; 200 back

Tubby is a model

I think my body is paying me back for all the abuse this weekend. Today is my day off (no cardio). I set my alarm for 7:30 (sleep in time- wow!) but unfortunately I have been getting up so early that I couldn't even sleep that late. I made it to 6:30... which is pretty good. When I got out of bed my entire body was in a knot. I got the foam roller out and did some rolling. While rolling Mr. Tubby was looking at me like I was psycho.

Speaking of Tubby, he is the Team Vortex mascot. He was pretty excited this past weekend so he put on his team uniform with a little help from me. LOL. See below. :)

Tubby thinks he is a model. :)

The funny part was that my uniform almost fit him perfectly!!! I think he has been eating too many lizards. :)

Tubby is feeling our pain of what it is like to be a tootsie roll in a uniform. Notice how he is trying to get it off with his front paw.

Have to get a good shot of his back. Go Team Vortex. :)

 Tubby's real thoughts about the uniform. This S%$#S! Haha. He also doesn't like the flash on the camera either. Put those two together and he is ready to bolt!

Disney's Princess Half Marathon

Today started with getting up at 2:30am so we could get to Disney by 4am for the start of the race at 6. I was really excited because I had never done a Disney race (other than the Danskin... but I was told that that one didn't count (LOL) ... however I was also really nervous because my toe was still sore and my legs were still screaming despite taking Tylenol, using the foam roller, and going to bed at 7:30 wrapped in ice. Luckily everything went numb and didn't really hurt. The race was really awesome. This is by far the coolest race I have ever done. It was sold out... 20,000 crazy people dressed in tutu's and tiaras... 19,500 women and maybe 500 men. Even the guys wore tutu's or skirts... Wallace you are a trooper! We had a lot of people come from the Lake Nona YMCA running group and some from Team Vortex (the Lake Nona YMCA Triathlon Club that I workout with). It was a really nice group. I ran with Jessica and Wallace for a bit and also with Amanda. I took the first half of the race really easy. CL even made us walk the first 5 minutes to warm up. I felt like I was going to jump out of my skin as everyone sprinted at the start while we were walking. That was hard. I am competitive and don't like to get passed....but I get it. It was for the greater good... and this was not my "A" race.... and considering last night I was almost comatose... going slow in the beginning was prolly the right thing to do. At mile 6 in Magic Kingdom I picked up the pace because I was (surprisingly) not feeling very tired. The time spent running in the Disney parks (MK and Epcot) were 3 miles at the most. Most of it was spent on the highways connecting the Disney parks. Surprisingly there was a lot going on. There were Disney characters everywhere. People stood in (very long) lines to get their picture taken with them. They also had lots of high school bands and chorus' there performing. LNHS' chorus was there. I saw them at the end along with Mr. and Mrs. Chase. That was really cool. I slapped all of their hands as I went by. I also saw Jennifer Weber while she was there working. She works for a company that takes pictures for these events. She was in MK. It was a great day. :) Afterwards the gang went to Sweet Mamas for breakfast/lunch.

Best song of the day, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger" by Kelly Clarkson. This was the official race song and I swear I heard it at least 6 times along the course. Does this song just make you want to get up and run or what?! :)

Below is a picture of the Cult Leader and I at the start and then me at the MK castle. :)

Today's workout: 1/2 Marathon
13.19 miles
2:17 time from my Garmin... not my official race time (doesn't include a potty stop and a 2 picture stops b/c my watch pauses automatically)
Avg Pace: 10:25/mile
Calories Burnt: 1315
Avg HR: 156


Official Disney Stats:

Chip Time	2:30:27
Overall Place	5210 / 15784
Gender Place	5210 / 15784
5K Split	1:03:25
10K Split	1:22:32
15K Split	1:54:29

Wetsuits are the devil!

Saturday started off the way I had expected but then Cult Leader threw a (good but unexpected) monkey wrench into things. So for starters.... I met up with XXX, his son, and Little T at the YMCA and we drove to Lucky's Lake where we did 2 crossings (about 2yards). The water was chilly (especially for us southerners)... 70.2 degrees. To check out more about Lucky's Lake go to http://growingbolder.com/media/sports/water-sports/luckys-lake-swim-202905.html There is a cool 7 minute video that explains what it is all about. The main reason we went out there was to swim in our wetsuits as we will have to wear a wetsuit for our IM race. This is the first time I had ever swam in a wetsuit. OMG. I hate wetsuits. I felt like I was being strangled and suffocated. When I first got in the water I was on the verge of having a panic attack. Very weird. After a little while I got somewhat used to it.

After swimming we went for a 75 minute run. I ran with Jess and Camel in the beginning. Boy was that a mistake. They are both way too fast for their own good. After huffing and puffing (running about a 8:30 min/mile) with them for about 3 miles I couldn't hold on any longer so they went ahead and I settled into a 9:30-10:30 min/mile pace. It was SUPPOSED to be in zone 2. While running with them I think I was in zone 10.... basically any minute from needing a defibrulator. The rest of the run was ok but not great. I was pretty sore from lifting weights yesterday and also from walking all day at Legoland for a 6th grade fieldtrip. I'm not sure what happened but at Legoland my middle toe on my right foot started to really hurt. That really flared up from the run today. Oh well. I'm sure it will go away soon...

After the swim and run Cult Leader texted me to go out to lunch with her. She mentioned also having to pickup her race packet at Disney because tomorrow was the Princess Half Marathon. She said she wouldn't be there long so I agreed to go with her. Lunch was nice... went to TF and I for once found something that I like there. Long story short, we went to the Expo and it was not a short trip. I should have known! I bought a bunch of stuff (that I prolly shouldn't have) and walked ... or shall I say hobbled around way too much (since my toe basically felt broken and my thighs were screaming from today's running and yesterday's weights). As I am hobbling around CL then tells me that one of her other runners couldn't race tomorrow and asked if I would like to take their place. I thought I would get the packet and then make my decision. Little did I know that decision had already been made for me. :) So here I go...  tomorrow I am running a half marathon!


Today's workout: swim/run brick

Swim at lucky's  2,000 yards (2 crossings)

Run 75 minutes in zone 2 (was the goal)
Actual stats:
Ran 7.45 miles
Time: 1:12
Avg pace: 9:45/mile
Avg HR: 165 (avg was a low zone 3)

Must lift more weights!

Friday's workout was the usual foam rolling, but today we also did weights- legs. Wow, I learned a valuable lesson today... and that is don't do legs before a long weekend workout or you will pay... BIG. It prolly didn't help that I haven't done weights (for legs) in almost a month. Eek. That needs to change. I know this is a bad excuse, but I am just so busy. I can barely keep up with all of the practices much less do additional things on my own (ie weights). I know, I know.... :)  Anyways, we had a good time. There were lots of laughs. It's been only 3 days since then but I can't remember the details. Guess I'm getting old. :)

Friday's workout:
Foam rolling
weights- legs

Stampede of elephants

Swimming today was filled with lots of drills and then sprints. I swam with PD and XXX. On the 100's descend I went 1:16, 1:15, 1:12, 1:09. It felt pretty good except for the end where I felt like I needed a defibrillator. :) However, the funniest part of practice (by far!!) was when Jeff, Stebra, Walrus and Camel were swimming in a lane. Cult leader had told them to circle swim and draft off each other. However, instead of doing that they all pushed off at the exact same time and it became a stampede of elephants.  Talk about hilarious. It was mass chaos with people swimming on top of each other and running into the lane lines. I was laughing so hard!! (Sorry guys!) All I can say is that I was glad I was not in that lane... I prolly would have an anxiety attack with so many people in my little bubble.



500 warmup alternating 100 pull; 100 kick
3x100 drills
3x100 of more drills
400 easy swim focus on form
4x100 fast decending R30
4x50 on 1:00
4x25 on :25
200 back

2,400 meters (short course)