This was a busy week. My lovely and patient trainer now uploads my workouts on Sunday night for the week ahead onto the Training Peaks app. This has been GREAT! It brings together two of my favorite things: schedules and lists (and when I do a workout it turns green, if I don’t do it, it turns an angry red). I’m a little obsessed with making sure the workouts get done which is exactly what I need for motivation. Otherwise, with some of the conditions I dealt with the past week, I surely would’ve skipped some workouts.

Monday was scheduled for a swim. My friend Yajaira is doing the 2 mile open water swim race in a couple of weeks so we decided to do an open water swim. It was a little windy most of the day. And then it REALLY got windy. Yajaira called me as I was leaving the gym heading to meet her. The wind was just bananas so we cancelled. Normally, I’d bag any swimming and just go for the couch but I had to change that dang Training Peaks workout to green. So I went home and jumped in my pool instead. I got through the workout just before the skies opened up. I got the green!

Tuesday was still pretty rainy and gross. On tap? A 35 minute run/walk. I woke up at 6 am and it was dark and stormy. Pretty easy to just roll over and go back to sleep. Our tours were canceled and we closed because of the bad weather. I was home working on the computer all day. At any point, I could go outside and run. When it stopped raining. When the sun came out. Any time at all. What did I do? I waited until like 6:00. Well after my nap. The only problem? It was raining pretty hard by that point. Again, without the threat of RED, I would’ve probably bagged it but off I went! On the plus side, I had the sidewalk completely to myself. Except for one homeless guy that was probably like “you chose to leave a dry house to come out and do this? you’re nuts”. But not only did I do the workout, I kinda rocked it. For the first time was able to run for 1.5 minute intervals. Which sounds like nothing but when I first started many moons ago, I could barely do 30 seconds. And then not many of those intervals. For 35 mins I ran 1.5 and walked 3. A breakthrough for me. Laughable to all my rock star runner friends. Whatevs, I was proud!

Yeasterday was a 45 minute ‘easy’ bike ride. Well, first of all, the only pace I have is ‘easy’. I don’t really have a higher gear. Wednesday started kind of rainy and gross but then it cleared up! I, apparently, wasn’t satisfied with going when the rain stopped. I had to wait until the blazing sun came out. Whoops. I started on my ride with the plan of going up and down the beach as many times as I could in 45 mins (about 5 miles a lap). Easy peasy. Well, after it rains  here, all of the bugs that exist in, I’m pretty sure, the entire universe come out and they’re PISSED. As I biked back and forth I just kept getting NAILED with gnat after gnat. The best thing was due to the blazing sun and my ‘easy’ pace, the bugs were really able to stick to me. Sweet. I almost called it quits early but then the Training Peaks workout for that day would’ve been a mocking yellow instead of green. Chasing the green high, I continued onward. At the end of it, I couldn’t really tell the difference between freckles and gnats. I did learn that I should zip my bike shirt all the way up in buggy situations so as not to get a gnatty bosom. Note to self. Here’s a lovely after photo. Yup, it’s true fellas, I’m single!

Last night was the beginning of Bootcamp. It’s an 8 week class on Wednesday nights from 7-8 at Stay Fit Studio. We go, weigh in, work out for about 45 mins then talk about what we should and shouldn’t be eating. The workout is no joke. Raquel takes it very seriously and kicks our butts. She is super supportive throughout the whole process. I had another run breakthrough last night. We usually have any where from 1-3 running laps around the block sandwiched between core workouts. Last night we had two. The first one I ran/walked as usual. My right hamstring was bothering me a bit from the rainy run the night before. I every so gracefully tried to dodge a puddle and felt a little pull. Why did I try to avoid a puddle when I was soaked from head to toe? who knows. Anywho, when the 2nd lap came: for the first time ever, I ran the whole way around! wahooo!! Now, I should point out that it is not far. AT ALL. But whatevs, I did it!!! Breakthrough.

Today I was a bit sore and have a very unfortunate red in my Training Peaks. I only got one of my two workouts in. poop. I also was OBSESSED with food today. Happens every single time I get on a new program where I’m weighed and measured regularly. At the end of Bootcamp last night, Raquel gave us 3 simple changes to make for the week. She doesn’t ask a lot. No complete overhaul or anything. Just small changes to make a big difference by becoming a habit. Now, my diet is WAY better than it used to be. If anything lately, I’m not eating enough. I’m usually too tired by the end of the day with the workouts that I’m too tired to make dinner and don’t want to undo all the good with takeout. But as soon as I hear the 3 rules for the week, something happens. Rule 1: No Fried Foods. Rule 2 and 3: I have no earthly idea. As soon as I hear Rule 1 (which I’ve been pretty good about following on my own), I go completely deaf and start fantasizing about chicken wings and french fries. Why? because I was told I couldn’t have them. What the F is wrong with me? lol. It took all my willpower today not to have french fries and chips and Dion’s chicken. The foods I barely think about any more completely consumed my thoughts today. I’m proud to say that I didn’t give in. Not proud to say that I ate my weight in ice cream instead. Oops. baby steps. Maybe next week she’ll ban vegetables. If she does, I’ll be all set!