Speedy [Update] Gonzalez; in more than one dimension...

Tomorrow is the big day! The 10th Annual Women in Leadership Conference as hosted by the Rice Chapter of NAWMBA! This event has been one year in the making, so please forgive my lack of posts lately. All of my time has been devoted to the conference. By the way, it is 10:12 p.m. right now and I need to be up at Rice in business formal wear by 6:00 a.m. Yikes.

Since this will be so brief, let me give you a rundown of the 'training' (I like to call it that. It does make me feel better about my habits!):

Yesterday - spin class and ab class. Light lifting session - legs. This was immediately followed by Dad picking me up for a mad dash to Orange, Texas for the business board meeting. It was fascinating......albeit intense. Times are tough right now and we are not immune. Which is another reason that I am enjoying this training track/blog. It is a distraction!

Today - 5 miles at Memorial Park and 3 miles in the gym. 8 miles total. My legs were not happy by any means, and I am certain that they will have more to say with regards to their anger tomorrow morning. How I am dreading getting out of bed.

Wish me luck tomorrow! We are all so excited. The cocktail reception was this evening and it was gorgeous.

Are you ready for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics?

I had to share the exciting news about our swim today: we did 3,000 yards! It was rough, here's the set rundown:
1.) 400 warm up
2.) fins - 400 swim; 2x 100 kick; 300 swim; 2x 100 kick
3.) 12x 125s; every middle 25 stroke in IM order

What I am thrilled about is that my arms really are not all that tired! Wohoo! Let's see if we can keep the cycle going this week....

Back in the Saddle

Sorry that I have not updated you since Saturday. This weekend was a blur. And Reed's Super Bowl party was awesome. I have not been able to spend QT with Reed and Allison in a couple of months, so their Super Bowl party was lovely. We all ate way too much and had so much fun just hanging out.

And the second I stopped watching the game, the Saints started winning. YES! Now if only I could control my poor Notre Dame Irish Football team like that. But I know that is still the stuff of dreams...

Needless to say I did not get up yesterday morning to ride. It is more appropriate to say that I could not get up. I had a cheese-induced food hangover all day yesterday. Which was exacerbated by (A) the fact that we could not swim yesterday afternoon because it started to lightning and pour down rain, and (B) my slightly less-than-healthy dinner last night.

Ugh. My tummy is still angry with me. But that's OK! Every day is a new day.

I meant to sleep in this morning, but woke up at 3:00 a.m. and twiddled my thumbs. I prayed and read for a while, then thought to brave the elements and go run. Again, it was lovely! Our gang consisted of Merry, Pat, Larry, Daniel, and myself! We had a great time. It was so nice to pour my heart out to Merry about life's dramas. Thank God for wonderful, wise women that He places in our lives. He is so good to me.

It felt really nice to get out on the road! And to lift. I confess I thought that it was going to be rough with all the food still running around rampant in my system somewhere, but I believe that the whole point is just to get up and DO IT.

This Friday is our big conference. It will be amazing. But I am trying to plan out the training/workouts for this week. I think what will happen is the following:
cycling - 1 time. Tomorrow morning.
Running - T, TH, and hopefully Sunday morning! (At 6:30. Then church. Have never done this. Should be a most interesting adventure).
Swimming - T pm, Sunday pm(?)/Maybe TH last half of am(?)

This week is going to be a gamble....Wish me luck! And in the words of my lovely Mammaw, "Have a Happy Today!"

Just another Sunny Saturday in Houston

It is glorious outside! Don't you adore divine days like this? The sun is shining, the sky is clear, the weather is in the lower 60's (yes, in February), kids are playing, people are laughing....it is a glorious, glorious day!

This day is even more special because I successfully completed 10 miles this morning! We ran the Heights route this morning and I ran at about an 11-minute mile pace. OK, yes, that is somewhat slow, but (a) I just wanted to finish, (b) I am working on getting back in shape which I must accept in my heart will take a while, (c) I was wheezing the entire time we ran, due to the cold, and (d) I slept terribly last night. I almost slept in and was certain that the group would leave me. I am somewhat nervous about next Saturday because I am going to be SAGging the run. But it will all work out fine.

Amanda, Curtis, and Daniel gave me good advice about sneakers and watches, so that is going to be my upcoming mid-term project: researching for these products. I have not run with a watch in over 3 years. It is time. I am an adult; it is time to pay attention to my running, my speed, and be kind enough to do something small like offer the time to others rather than annoy everyone with such a simple request.

After the run about 25% of us went to Starbucks for a breakfast. It was nice to hang out with the gang and I do need to be more social, anyways. They are a great group~SO fast. Their average mile pace excluding me is probably around 7.5 minutes whereas mine is 11 minutes. One day I will get up there with the thoroughbreds! I just need to shut up and run.

I do not know who reads my simple little blog, but for those of you who do not run and wish to, do it. You do not need to be fast, you do not need to be thin. You just need to want to run. And you really should not "wait until [I've] lost a little bit of weight before [I] get out and run so I will go faster." No, no, no. Just get out and RUN. I promise you that your body will adjust to YOU, and not the other way around. You should not be adjusting to your body. Our good Lord did not design us in that manner.

If I can do it, you certainly can do it. I am not a great runner; never have been and never will be. And that is perfectly fine with me. I enjoy running. I enjoy getting out on the road chatting with others about what is going on in our lives, being alone with my thoughts, or talking with the Lord.

Contentment. It is the key to happiness.

I am sitting at the Barnes and Nobles by the house, drinking a hot tea that I did not realize contained cocunut; thus, is akin to drinking suntan lotion. I know, right? Blech. It is nice to spend time catching up on reading and journaling. I know that once work starts all of this nice time will cease to exist.

Anyways, enough of Heather's rambling. Since this is indeed a blog focused on half-ironman training, allow me to relay the rundown of this week's activities:

Cycling - 1 time + ab class

Lifting - 2 times

Running - T, TH, S: 23 miles (wohoo!)

Swimming - M, W, F: 7500-8000 yards. And that includes a Jada practice!

I now follow a few other triathlon blogs (I know what you are thinking; and yes, can you believe there are others than just myself psycho enough to do something like this out there? Crazy people, all!).

I will have to think about the activities list for this week. Not only is tomorrow the Super Bowl, but Friday is the Big Day: Rice's 10th Annual Women in Leadership Conference! I will need to really plan out this week's activities to-do list if things are going to get done.

Super Bowl'in Friday

Swam 2500 this morning. Thank God I ate breakfast otherwise I would have spent half of this morning's practice at the bottom of the pool. Jada coached today and with her workouts, either (A) there is no break at all and I'm doing about 2,000 straight, or (B), I am hanging out at the wall about every 150 or so. Breakneck pace!

I ran the idea by Mom last night of staying after swimming and taking the ab and spin class....but Mom said nah. Great dressed slowly, and then go to school and piddle. Which I did. And it was AWESOME. I had some time to write this morning, catch up on emails, blog, etc etc etc. But...Ummmmm.....find and download a half-ironman plan? Not so much. To Be Continued...

And in other news: Super Bowl Sunday this Sunday. Go Saints!

Run, Forrest, Run!

Ran 8 miles this morning! Yes, we are going step by step. My goal is run 10 miles on Saturday morning. It has been raining for the past two days straight, but it was not raining this morning so it was actually pretty nice. I ran with Pat and Larry. Who are both so wise and encouraging. I confess that I enjoy talking with them a little bit more than running.

I do not have much else to report. Swam 2600 yards yesterday and it was a great stress-reliever. My shoulder feels a lot better. I am certain that is because it has been rested. Have been dealing with drama at school. I do not think I am a good disciplinarian; I do not remain attached enough. I get too emotional.

But that has nothing to do with training, does it? Tonight is the Scholarship Dinner! And tomorrow will be a big work out catch up day: swimming in the morning, ab class, and maybe spinning if I am feeling brave enough. Wish me luck.

On the road again.

Larry and I ran 6 miles this morning! It felt fabulous. For both of us. Larry has been having lung problems, which I am very familiar with living with allergies and asthma. We both missed running for a few months and are both getting back in shape. Larry has the Big Sur marathon in April, and as we all know, I am doing a half-ironman (still haven't chosen one) in the fall. The run felt awesome! For Larry, it is because he can breathe; for me, it is because I am finally, after 30 years, learning to eat like an adult.

I finished Robyn O'Brien's book, "The Unhealthy Truth." I am 95% certain that her book changed my life. I did not realize how messed up our food supply is. Similar to Robyn, I had blindly believed in our system. But our system, and more importantly, our system administrators, have incentives of their own. Read that as money. There is a fantastic money trail with regards to ingredient approvals and food supply that you cannot find ANY information on anywhere. Because it is a nasty secret. So sad. If you do not have or have not read Robyn's book, please read it. Especially if you have small children with allergies or asthma. I have both, and her book made me cry at two places, because the trials of her children that she describes and went through as a mother is exactly what I experienced as a child. It was horrible. I pray to God that my children will not have any of the problems that I did. And this will happen!

The reason I mention Robyn's book is that it has been helping me eat correctly. That, and my awesome Mom has been lecturing me (rightly so) on not eating sporadically and to c

ommit to meals at mealtimes. With REAL food (my Dad has a bad habit of eating nothing but sugar and salty chips, so those are everywhere the eye can see in the house). I confess that I never paid attention to food before because I never had to....who does in their teens and twenties? Alas, I am not a spring chicken anymore! And Robyn's book helped serve as the catalyst to motivate me to do this. I have a suspicion that her book will not be last I read on this subject and incorporate into my life.

My body is having a blast with the real-food-non-chemical-eating phenomenon, and I attribute our awesome run this morning to this phenomenon! It felt wonderful to be fleet of foot, and speed along the streets of Houston. We stick to areas around Memorial Park, and it makes a great start to the day.

Speaking of starting the day, it's time to get going.....One of the items on the to-do list is to email Steve about riding with the COP MS 150 group, even though I am not officially riding in the MS 150 race. I did not know that this could be done. This would be fantastic because this means I could get out on the road (via the bike) much earlier than planned! Fall half-ironman, here I come!