An unhappy foot

Little Ben sprained his ankle or knee the other day and is ringing in the New Year with strict orders from the vet to take it easy for two weeks.

Someone please tell me how to keep a one-year old dog on restricted activity because so far we are failing miserably. Part of the problem is that Ben gets sooooo excited about everything. Like I'll get up to go to the bathroom and he will be sprinting across the room to try and accompany me. He even gets excited to go to the vet. Tail wagging, kisses to everyone...you would never guess that he was in any sort of pain minus the fact that he was hopping on three legs.

Today Ben seems a little better and seems to be taking cues from Naomi (the laziest greyhound in the world). The two of them have been taking a nap for a few hours...which should help with the recovery process.

My feet are up too. All I had to do today was a one-hour spin and now I'm killing some time before The New Year's Resolution Run. I'm sure there are a million more productive things that I could be doing but I've been looking over my blog posts from the last year. 2011 was a great year. I didn't get to travel as much as I would have liked to for races, but who cares. I had so much fun. Not to mention I won the SS 24 hour National Championships and did my first ever chin-up!!! Those are two HUGE accomplishments for me.

Hopefully 2012 will be even better. But first...I still have one more race to get through. Don't ask me why but I'm actually nervous. Probably because I know that there is a 99.99999% chance that I'm going to have to run hard with a side stitch.

Happy New Year's Eve everybody!!!

Yes! I can still eat sugar!!!

So my trip to the dentist went as well as can be expected. The good news is that I don't have any cavities. To tell you the truth I still find this hard to believe. I was bracing for the dentist to tell me that I had at least ten.

The bad news is that I like to grind my teeth at night. This isn't exactly news as I used to wear a mouth guard. When I told my dentist that I used to wear one he asked why I don't anymore. I had to tell him that a dog ate it. Totally lame excuse but true. This happened a few years ago when I was staying at a sponsors house. Long before we adopted Ben. Long before I learned that anything left in the open is considered a toy to young dogs.

Anyways, I guess that I managed to grind through almost all of my enamel in a few spots. SWEET! I have no doubt that it happens during the race season, when I'm having crazy dreams of missing the start or getting lost on course. Sigh.

Oh well, enough about the dentist. I have to go back in a month, but until then I will talk (I mean write) about other things. My legs are slowly recovering from my stair sprint against Jason and it's just in the nick of time. We lifted weights tonight but only did light leg work. I am racing the New Year's Resolution Run (4 miles) this Saturday again and I am bound and determined to beat my time from last year. My legs should feel OK for the race, but I'm not so sure about my arms. I had an awesome upper body workout tonight so I might have to run without moving my arms on Saturday.

My time last year was 27.58, and I know that's nothing to brag about. However I do remember that it almost killed me. And even though I barely ran last year, I think I've run even less this year. And forget about running intervals. Ha, I told my coach I was just doing the race for fun, but I can't help myself :-) My plan is to run the first three miles at a seven-mile pace and then sprint the last mile. It's a good plan when I'm thinking about it but we'll see if I can actually pull it off. There is just as good of a chance of me puking, and or completely erupting. There is also potential for me completely passing out.

It's going to be interesting, that's for sure!!! I was reading my blog post about last year's resolution race and I can't believe that it's already been a year. When I think back to how I felt like I was going to pass out...well, it feels like it just happened yesterday!

OK, enough procrastinating. Time for workout #2. All I have to do is an hour on the trainer, but I've been putting it off for waaaaay to long.

Just as bad as I remembered!

Monday was my weekly strength workout with Jason and a certain somebody thought it would be fun to do stairs since we hadn't done them in a really, really long time.

Anyways, I tried to sprint to the top against Jason and lost horribly. Jurrien was there too and I think I heard him say, "oh man." Pretty sure it was because he was witnessing me getting my butt kicked horribly. I couldn't even make it to the top without coming to a stop. Now I owe Jason 2 expensive coffee drinks. I better quit betting unless I'm sure that I can win :-)

Today is D-day. DAY WITH THE DENTIST. Everyone keeps asking me if I'm afraid of the dentist and the answer is NO. However I am mortified that I waited soooooo-freaking-long to go, and I'm pretty sure that it's going to be painful. And I can only blame myself. Growing up I always prided myself on not having any cavities and with all the gels and drink mixes I live on while training that is probably going to change. In fact I have one tooth that hurts whenever I ride in my tempo zone or higher. I'm not sure why...but I'm pretty sure that's not a good sign.

Well I'm off. Hopefully I can still open my mouth when I get back!

Christmas weekend...

I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend!!! Mine was just how I like it. Very low-key, lots of Christmas cookies, and awesome gifts with my name on them :-)

Seriously, this weekend went by WAY too fast. I was able to sleep in a bit on Christmas morning eve, and then Scott and I got trapped into drinking coffee and watching The Dog Whisperer. There was a marathon of the series going on and we couldn't pull away...

Even Ben started watching TV. I think The Dog Whisperer is his favorite show because he gets really close to the screen and wags his tail whenever any dogs on the show start barking. It's more fun to watch him watching the TV then watching the actual show!

Finally we pulled away and rode our Mukluks around for 2 hours. It had snowed the night before so I finally got to ride on some white stuff. It was awesome.
Afterwards I went for a 50 minute run with my BFF Juli, got some more coffee, ate dinner with my parents and then did some present wrapping.

There's something that you should know about me and wrapping presents. I hate it! I'm just way too impatient to make them look good.I was in charge of our adopt-a-family at work this year too, which means I had to wrap a lot more gifts then usual. By the time I got to Scott's presents I was especially unmotivated.

I had to laugh about the present on top. In my own defense I ran out of wrapping paper, and it's the thought that counts anyways, right???
On Christmas morning I woke up early and was running around Reed's Lake with my mom by 8:00 a.m. It was awesome. For December it was unseasonably warm (39 degrees) and there was zero traffic out. Afterwards we grabbed some coffee and I came home to Scott making banana pancakes. Yum! I ate enough for a small army and then hopped on my Mukluk for a 4-hour ride. Once again I had the roads almost completely to myself. I loved it.

Today it's all about recovery. I'm tired from working out over the weekend and I'm exactly one Christmas cookie away from falling into a cookie coma!

........................zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Mukluk'in around...

Since I've gotten my Mukluk I haven't ridden anything else. It's just so. much. fun.


I almost always ride with my hydrapak, so right now I don't have any water bottle cages on the bike. This is what it's weighing in at (with the frame bag).


And speaking of the frame bag...how did I ever ride without one before? It's so nice to have during the wintertime. So far I've noticed that whenever I'm on my Mukluk I need about one less layer on. It's nice to be able to store clothes in the bag when I overheat. Not to mention having easy access to christmas cookies. In fact, I better watch it or my bike won't be the only thing that's fat :-)

Well off to work. I can't believe that yesterday was Winter Solstice already. However, it's really nice knowing that we are moving in the direction of longer days again!

Now that I have a Mukluk all I want for Christmas is my two front teeth...

This past weekend flew by! I finally got my Mukluk Friday evening so I spent the weekend riding. You would think that I would have a million pictures posted on this blog of my new bike after the months and months of talking about it, but I haven't had much time to take them yet. When I wasn't outside riding this weekend I was standing in front of the bathroom mirror in hysterics over a loose tooth. Yes, at the age of 29 (ha ha) I managed to have a chipped tooth turn loose. Talk about full-on panic attack.

And the worst thing? Besides the fact that my tooth was loose? I had procrastinated going to the dentist for SUCH A LONG time that I didn't even have a dentist anymore. I was so freaking mad at myself and probably not that much fun to be around this weekend. Except when I was outside riding of course :-)

Luckily for me I was able to get into a dentist on Monday. I had absolutely no excuse about why I've put off going to the dentist for so long, but I think that I'll be going enough now to make up for it. I get to go back next week for a full check-up/cleaning...yeah!

Mukluk pictures coming up later. Right now I'm taking two lazy dogs for a walk and then going riding.

There will be no gloating in this post...

OK, so I got beat on the watt bike again. We ended up racing the 1000 meter again and I had my worst time yet. Grrrrrrrr....I'm starting to realize that I'm a sore loser :-) Thank goodness I don't want to be a track racer. I don't see a future for myself in all out sprints at all.

The rest of my workout buddies are getting faster and faster times...I think we need to start doing a longer distance!
I was supposed to do a long ride today but the weather had other plans. Pouring rain all freaking day long. All of a sudden we are getting Seattle weather. It's probably a good thing because I've had a pounding headache and the rain forced me to take it easy.

Rain though...blech. I would much rather ride in snow. Especially because I need the practice. I just signed up for my first race of 2012. I've been to Marquette a lot during the summer but never in the winter. I absolutely can't wait. The snow bike race is new this year but the ski races have been going on for years and the race waves take several hours to get everyone out on the course. It will be fun to watch.

I have no hopes for the weather tomorrow as there is like a 100% chance of rain again. I'm planning on sitting on the trainer after work then doing another strength workout afterwards. Hopefully this weekend will be clear!

Two-A-Days

I didn't think it would be possible but there is a good chance my Mukluk will be built before we get a significant of snow. There I just jinxed us. People living in Michigan expect a blizzard...tomorrow!

Anyways, it's definitely been an on-going process but it's almost done. I might have to sell my car but that's OK. I'll just ride my snow bike everywhere :-)

This weekend kicked my butt. Or I kicked my own butt. Whatever. I didn't have any super long rides this weekend but my coach does has me doing two-a-days every now and then. And this weekend I did two-a-days two days in a row. Ha!

On Saturday I went for a trail run with my BFF. As much as I poo-poo running I have to admit that trail running is pretty fun. The ground was covered in snow and it was really nice to be working out but not completely frozen. The only bad part is that we went out for coffee afterwards and then I completely wimped out on my intervals. I did them, but not outside. I did them on the trainer with the heat cranked and the TV on. Sigh.

Sunday was a little warmer (for Michigan) and I was able to get out on the road for 3 hours. I'm still riding with a 32x16 and the verdict is not out on if I'm going to keep that gear ratio. I like it for flats but I feel like some sort of sloth going up climbs. Once again I had a crazy headwind and by the time I got home I had talked myself into skipping the dirty herd run. I tried bailing on my friends but they "guilt-texted" me into going. The problem with having such tough friends is that it's hard to make excuses. I couldn't say that I was tired from working out, because they had all done just as hard (or harder) workouts as me.

I'm glad I ended up going for the run. It was fun. Running with friends is so much more fun then running alone. You would think that I would have running partners at my disposal but not so much. Naomi is a little over 9 years old now so it's understandable that she doesn't want to run, but Ben? Apparently he missed the memo that he should like trail running...
Today I have strength training with Jason and I am dreading...DREADING the watt bike. Last Thursday we dropped back down to racing the 1000 meter and the guys all kicked my butt. Jason had me do a ton of leg workouts before hand which I found suspicious but whatever. I was a sore loser :-) Today we are supposed to race the 2000 meter and I'm going to do my best to beat them. I just don't know how since I am dragging today.....

However, if I do win you can surely expect a post bragging about it tomorrow :-)

Moving along...

These last two days have kicked my butt. Tuesday I did a 3 hour ride with steady state intervals (which always hurt) and yesterday I took my SS out for a 3.5 hour ride. I was hoping to get out for 4.5 hours, but I completely ran out of daylight. Not to mention I switched my gearing to a 32x16 and now I'm thinking that maybe I shouldn't have. I died a thousand and one deaths trying to get home last night. I had a crazy headwind and for the last half hour I was lucky if my cadence was 50 rpm. Talk about riding in slow-mo.

I have absolutely no complaints though, because it's December and I can still ride outside. It's just always surprising to me how cold weather makes me SO tired afterwards. I was asleep by 9:30...which is good since this morning I had to wake up at 4:45 a.m. for work!

Below is a picture of my snow bike....slowly but surely it's coming along!!!

PS. I have to thank my favorite mechanic Ted for color coordinating my wheels :-)

A small but VERY important victory!!!

Now that it's the off-season it's back to my regular scheduled strength training sessions at Train Out Pain. I never actually stopped strength training in the summer but the workouts were less intense and much more sporadic due to racing. I'm excited to get back into a regular routine and get stronger!

We've all been at it for several weeks now and already the competitions have begun. Last year it was about the rowing machine and who could row the fastest on it. By the end of winter it was slightly out of control. Not only were we betting coffee drinks on it but I was calling my sister who rowed at U of M for tips to improve my form...on a rowing machine of all things!!!!

Recently Jason bought a Watt bike for the office. We started with seeing who could up push the highest watts and I got my butt kicked. Then we decided to see who could cover 1000 meters the fastest and I got beat again. But this week we upped it to 3000 meters and guess who won??? Yup, that's right. Yours truly!!! Insert victory dance here. I have to gloat a tiny bit because I always get beat me in everything else. Insert another victory dance here.

Of course I had to take photo documentation of my workout buddies as they got beat BY ME!!!

Gareth ready to puke....
Jason unable to get off the floor...
Jurrien suffering....
Ok one more victory dance and then I'll stop gloating...until I crush them in the next watt bike competition :-)

Ick

There was absolutely nothing even remotely exciting about this past weekend. It rained all....weekend.....long. I turned slightly neurotic in checking weather.com, hoping that there would be a break in the rain but it DID NOT happen. It's one thing to ride in the cold, it's another to ride in the cold when completely soaked. There's no use in complaining about it because everyone around here was in the same boat. I had a few moments (actually a few hours) of extreme grumpiness but then made the most of riding the trainer and catching up on reality TV marathons.

I did get out late Sunday afternoon to run with a few friends for the dirty herd trail run. I'm still not a huge fan of running but it does have a few advantages in the off-season. Such as, it's nice being able to work out in a light rain/cold temperatures and not completely freeze. The trail was pretty muddy in parts, which made the run even more fun (to me). Luckily I remembered to wear my trail shoes this time. Having traction was a good thing and I'm happy to report that I did not wipe out on my face.

Grippy soles....
Anyways, this was my second time running with the dirty herd and it was pretty fun. Every week the group runs the trail at Robinette's (about 4.4 miles) which is super close to my house. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be brave enough to show up without my cyclist friends though. I still feel like a fish out of water when it comes to running :-) And I definitely sound like a fish out of water...talk about gasping for air!!!

The rest of the week is looking much better and I hope to sneak some riding outside. Temps are going to be cold but it looks like it's going to be dry. Crossing my finger and toes....