Taking the Reins

I think I ran more today than I ever have in my life!  Woohoo!  Did a 3.5 mile track workout with my fellow Divas today, learning how to use our heart rate monitors and attempting to figure out our max heart rate.  I learned that I’m a wee bit faster than I originally thought, but I lack the general endurance to go along with the speed.  I got yelled at for trying to keep up with the Olympic triathletes and the 2 girls training for a marathon in 2 weeks.  But I was pretty much ahead of most of the other women, which was great!  1/4 mile in roughly 1:52….I hit that pace 4 times.  My aerobic pace was 1:43 for the 1/4 mile.  But trust me, my race pace will probably be 2:20 or 2:30!!  I was shocked at how much better it felt to run on the track versus the pavement.  I felt the stress on the shins, but my knees are thanking me right now.  What a difference.

I ended up eating a lot today, but quite frankly I’m not too upset about it.  I was woozy after some of the running and could have stood some carbohydrate goo or something, so I knew I hadn’t overeaten.  Coach isn’t a huge fan of dieting while training.  In fact, we aren’t in it to lose weight– we are in it to be athletes and achieve fitness.  So part of me has to get over the fact that Goo has 100 calories and recognize that as an athlete, I need the glucose to pick me up.  How I’m going to get over this mindset is beyond me!!!  My fellow WWer informed me that she’s been so tired that she is upping her activity points to see if it makes a difference.  She’s on 18 pts a day, and I just don’t know how she survives on that.  I’m like, “eat ‘em, girl!” 

Here’s my beast of a day:

Well, I survived the 4th of July, but not without some poor food choices. We hit Johnny Carino’s for our celebratory afternoon, and as some of you familiar with Johnny Carino’s may know, it is not the friendliest place on the planet for a WW dieter. I ate 1/2 of the bread that they started with, noshed on all the chicken from our “Italian Nachos” (and ate 2 or 3 chips), then devoured my angel hair pasta with artichokes and parmesan. (It was tossed in olive oil, not in a butter sauce or anything) Suffice it to say that I am 100% certain this devoured any and all flex points I may have had left. Weighing in this morning at 152.5, I’m just a tad bit grumpy with myself.

I’m still stewing over my lost bike, too! I’m staring down a couple hundred more dollars for race entry and a triathlon suit, so I really don’t want to drop more on a brand new bike…..ugh!

Tonight is track practice. We’re having a heart rate training clinic first with a couple Polar-sponsored Ironman triathletes (rock on!), followed by a 3 mile workout that’ll experiment with our new heart rate monitors. If anyone is interested in one, I scored one for $30 at Performance Bikes yesterday. On sale from $60, so I was pretty excited. It’s much easier to use than Polar, but I hear it might get some interference from cell nodes. Hey, for $30, I can live with that. I think heart rate training is pretty neat. I read something in Self magazine (I think, or Shape?) that said that women who did interval training (bursts of exertion followed by lower level exercise) lost 3 times as much weight as those who exercised for longer periods of time at sustainable rates. I’ve only ever done this in spin classes back in Colorado, so not sure I can say it personally works….but something to look into nonetheless.

Well, here’s hoping today gives me more strength to deny garlic bread and chocolate.