Where Have I Been?

Sorry for the enormous gap in posts! The combination of starting grad school, traveling, and Caleb's first stomach bug have kept me away from blogging. I have, however, managed to (mostly) stick to my training schedule, switching some team practices for training on my own. Good thing, as now we are only five weeks away from race day! Holy Smokes! Even though I've done full distances of each leg of the race now (5 miles of running, if you want to get technical), it's still hard for me to imagine doing all three right in a row. We have two long brick workouts coming up, so those should help me feel more prepared.

One thing we are focused on in training at this point is getting our nutrition/hydration routine down. My bike frame is so small that I can only really fit one water bottle on it, so I'm going to wear my camelback for the race. I've been wearing it on most of my bike rides, so I'm used to riding with it now. I'm going to drink something called nuun, which is like Gatorade. It's a tablet that I drop into a liter of water. I've tried the lemon-lime flavor, and it's pretty good. I bought a little mesh carrier (some brands are called a Bento Box) which attaches to the top tube of my bike. I put my energy bars and kleenex in there. I've gotten the hang of eating while biking, but blowing my nose is still a challenge. I can't do the "farmer blow" that more coordinated folks do. I'm working on using the kleenex without having it blow away when I open the carrier. You can get disqualified for littering in the race, and it's, y'know, not good to do.

I'm also trying to find a gel that doesn't taste disgusting. I tried gu, and it was vile. Next thing to try is clif brand gel. I have problems with getting hungry/bonking during exercise, so staying fueled is important. We had a special clinic on nutirition earlier in the season, so if I wanted to really be conscientious I would figure out how much of each food group i need to consume, etc. I think finding some good, fueling snack foods and practicing eating them is good enough for this length of race, though.

We just got back from a family trip to San Diego. I was on my own for the 6:30AM spinning class at the resort's gym, but I did have family company for the other activities. My Dad and I went swimming in a lovely outdoor lap pool at a community center near our hotel. Wiley and my sister-in-law, Rachel and I went for my longest run yet (5 miles) on the beach by our hotel. The hotel is flanked on either side by Naval Stations, so we ran from one military fence to the other and back again. Some Navy Seals were running at the same time, so we got to feel pretty jocky. It was windy in stretches, which was good practice. The sand was very packed down, moreso than the 1/2 mile of beach I'll be running on at lavaman (I think). Thanks to my Mom doing "nap duty," Wiley and I could both go off and exercise (or, ahem, have a cold drink by the pool!)

This morning Caleb and I went to a birthday party for his friend Claire, who lives across the street. A couple of my neighbors asked if I'd lost weight during my training. I haven't, but I look thinner because I'm more toned than usual. When I did the Danskin Sprint triathlon two years agol I actually gained weight during my training, so I'm glad just to have maintained my weight this time. I'm trying to avoid junk food from now until after the race, just because I want to feel as good as I can going into this last stretch of training. I'm doing okay except for a cookie habit, which wasn't helped by the delivery of girl scout cookies yesterday. (Who can resist girl scout cookies, or the cute neighbor girls who sell them? Not I!)

I feel good and I'm still really glad to be doing this. However, I am getting a bit weary of the huge time commitment that this is. I'm grateful for the fact that there are only a few more weeks of evening and Saturday practices. Now would be a good time to remember the larger reason for doing this, and to be thankful for all of the support I've had. It's astounding that I've raised over $10,000 already! People are impressed that I'm doing this, but it's YOU, my family and friends, that are making it all possible with your emotional and financial support. You have no idea how much both of these have boosted me every day of my training! THANK YOU.