Running in the Moment

By some freaking serious headwind.  After last week’s 66ish miler, I felt amazing, awesome, and ready to ride more miles.  Today I had 40 planned, but there were only five of us riding and everyone else was doing the full 57, so I decided to go along for the ride so I didn’t get lost.  Before even starting I knew everyone was much faster than me, but I had already drove all of the way out to St. Charles where we were meeting (about a half hour ride) and just hoped I could keep up enough that they wouldn’t have to wait for me.  Last week’s ride was a no-drop ride, so I figured this was the same since it was posted on the club board as a club ride, but I just hate being the last person the entire ride.

Off we went through some sketchy neighborhoods because the road we were going to start off on was closed, but after about two miles we were on the road we needed to be, and off we went.  The first 15 miles were around an 18-19mph pace which I could keep up with, but I knew there was no way in hell I could keep that up for the entire ride.  I just kept pedaling away and tried to keep up with the group the best I could.  At mile 17 I must have had my small gear up to high when I switched to the big ring and my chain dropped 😦  I was able to get it back on the ring pretty quickly but I had a chit ton of grease all over my freaking hands.  Argh.  We stopped at a gas station for a short break around mile 22 and then we continued to about 29 where we turned around and headed back.

All was well at first, I was happy I had made it half way at a decent pace and I was more than half-way done and then, it happened.  The wind.  Good lord… this wind was brutal-head-on-shaking-your-bike brutal.  I’m hoping that as I ride more I can learn to handle this type of wind better, but today, I wasn’t prepared.  Slowly I dropped to an 11 mph pace (and the others, except for a really speedy guy, dropped down too), and it was all I could do to keep upright.  For TWENTY MILES.  TWENTY!!!  I was near tears by mile 50, definitely because of the wind, but in addition I realized I had missed a crucial spot with the body glide in the ‘undercarriage’ area 😦  After having many conversations with myself that I needed to keep pushing, especially if I even am entertaining the idea of an Ironman, because this stuff is pickles compared to that.  This ride, by far, was the toughest ride, mentally and physically I have ever ridden so far.

We finally made it back to the cars where I proceeded to immediately fall over on my bike right in front of my car and eight people walking the trail that had stopped to take a group picture.  Embarrassing and ouch.  Really?  I can go 58 miles without toppling over but I choose the very last .00001 mile to do it?  Part of the issue is that I still haven’t gotten used to the higher seat.  My toes can hardly reach the ground while unclipped without really leaning over or lifting myself off of my bike seat.  Blah.  I’ll practice tomorrow if I have the leg strength to ride after my planned long run.

After the ride I did a quick one mile run which was sloooow.  I was seriously toast after that ride… to prove it, my heart rate monitor calculated that I burned 1,988 calories, whereas my 66 ride last weekend only burned 1,400.  Wind is hard work folks.  Then we all headed over to Trailhead brewery for some brews and some much-needed food.  The general topic of conversation was the Redman Tri/Club Nationals and the logistics since they’re transporting the bikes for the club members that are racing that weekend, which is 30 bikes!  All of the discussion about the race logistics, team dinner, tent/race day food, support really pumped me up for the race.  I simply cannot wait for this race and to join in the fun with all of the club members.  I’m definitely bringing a sign or two to cheer the members on that are racing on Sunday (my race is Saturday)!  Joining this club was one of the best decisions I have made in a long time 🙂

Now I’m off to the pool to do some light reading (snoozing) before JMR comes over for dinner tonight.  I’ve missed him!  It was a busy week for both of us so I haven’t seen him since last Sunday!  A movie night sounds like a nice low-key evening….

Wish my legs luck on the run tomorrow, they are pretty angry at me right now!

So this morning I woke up at 5a (which wasn’t totally awful, because I went to bed at 8:30p the night before, yes, you read that correctly), but I still layed in bed for a good ten minutes thinking of fifty different reasons as to why I shouldn’t get up and head to the new gym so I could swim.  I finally thought of one good reason and threw on my suit, grabbed my swim bag and headed over to the Heights.  Man, it’s staying darker longer in the mornings!  I got there at 5:30a, it was pitch black out, and the center actually was so dark looking in the inside that I almost thought they weren’t open.  Fortunately they were and I was able to get my forms (I didn’t realize I needed a voided check) and head to the pool.  Thank goodness they let me swim today and sign up tomorrow when I bring my voided check.

On to the pool.  It was weird.  The ‘aquatic center’ was a hodgepodge of all different ‘aquatic’ things.  First, the lighting was really dim in the area, but I’m not sure if that’s because only the lap lanes were open.  Regardless, with the floor to ceiling glass window facing the parking lot and it being pitch black out, it was creepy.  It looked like there was a lazy river type area, several slides and another circular type wading pool.  The ‘lap lane’ pool consisted of three lanes, and they each were staggered, so the cement (or whatever material that is used) for the middle lane started 24 inches from the far left lane and the far right lane started 24 inches from the middle lane.  Like tetris or something.  Odd.  Perhaps I’ll get a picture tomorrow.  Just trust me.  It was strange.  Fortunately next week the Heights is closing their pool for a week for cleaning and I get to use the Center of Clayton’s pool, hooray!  The have a whole, regular, rectangular pool with FIVE lanes (this is the norm, right? not a weird three staggered lane setup), so I can’t wait.  The Y shares its one pool with classes so it will be nice to always have the five lanes available.

After work I headed home to get Peaches ready to head to Big Shark so that they could take a look and see if the seat looked like it had dropped.  I wasn’t sure if they were going to charge me for a fitting so I had my fingers crossed while walking in that hopefully they could tell without too much work.  Here’s a picture of Peaches getting prepped for the seat adjustment:

It turns out that my seat was really low, it probably did fall a bit over the year, but I bet when I had other work done, the seat just didn’t get put back to the exact spot.  Big Shark was awesome and adjusted the seat for me free of charge and I was on my way!  I am a bit nervous about my ride tomorrow because I’m worried I will topple over before even starting to pedal because I won’t be able to reach the ground even on my tippy toes while on the seat.  Fingers crossed.

When I got home I went for a quick 5.5 mile run which seemed to take way more effort than necessary.  I’m not sure if it was the heat (but it had cooled down considerably by the time I started at 6:15p) or that my legs were just angry because they had been hanging out on the couch the past two nights.  Whatever it was, I hope they wake up nice and refreshed and ready for their ride tomorrow am!!  Off to finish dinner, rehydrate, and head to bed for a 6a wake up call!

Ugh.  This post hurts my soul to write because sadly, it is day two-in-a-row of not working out.  It seems to be that either I’m working out hard, or not at all.  At least that’s how it was prior to the workout intensity increasing in July.  I do have an excuse, but not one I’m a fan of.  Yesterday I was totally out of commission with a massive migraine and the after-effects and today, I was lucky enough to get one around 10a at work, so most of the day I felt like a zombie.  Which meant that by the time I got home from work, I was out of commission.  Activities that involve balance are off-limits with my stupid migraines and even though you would think running doesn’t involve much, I’d surprise you 🙂  Anyways, I have a Dr. appt and physical (figured I should get one anyways if I think I can even entertain the idea of a full-ironman in the future), just to make sure everything (read: Iron levels) are up to par.

So that’s that.  The planned itinerary for tomorrow is to finally hit the pool, then after work take my bike to Big Shark (where I bought it) to check that the seat hasn’t dropped…I’ll get into that in a bit), and then hopefully a short run.  The ride last weekend felt great except after mile 54 my knees got kind of grumpy.  I thought it was a temporary thing since I lopped 16 miles on my longest ride, but on Tuesday after (and during) my little 12 mile ride, they *still* hurt.  So something’s up, biking is supposed to be good and painless for your knees, or so I’m told, so I have the lug her back to get my fit diagnosed.  I’m really hoping they can just take a quick peek and I don’t have to get refitted.  I’m really not in the mood to drop $150 for a new fitting when I already did it a year ago.  Grr.

I don’t have any fun and new pictures from the past few days events, but I did spot a race picture from the Olympic tri I did a couple of weekends ago and I’m just going to say that I’m definitely not at my race weight, and some work is in order (I don’t have a set ‘race weight’, but I’m guessing when your gut folds over on the bike, eh, that isn’t your race weight).  This blog is definitely not about weightloss, but I am adding that part to make myself more accountable to eating more green and less… crap.  Darn those Panera potato chips…the crunchiness and salt are just so delicious….and I’ve never been a potato chip person until the past six months. I blame it on Triathlon training and my love for unlimited salt.  Regardless, even if the calorie count looks to be not super crazy for a particular food (hey, potato chips are only 150 calories a single serving bag!), I’m going to make a point in the next four and a half weeks to really eat healthy.  And that means you too, beer and wine … we might have to reunite after the race.

Well, it’s not late, still early, but I’m old…or still dealing with the after effects from my migraine today so I’m heading to bed.  I promise to fill you in tomorrow on all of the swimming, biking and running related things I said I would do in this post!!

Today I woke up tired.  I hate that.  I guess I do need to eventually buy new pillows because the ones I have stink (not literally) and depending on how well I squish them up under my head while sleeping it really dictates my sleep.  I managed to do my usual morning routine: let the little guy out, iron my clothes, shower, dry hair, get dressed and pack my snacks (1/2 cup of fiber one to mix in my Chobani and 1/4 cup of Trader Joe’s Go Raw Trek Mix).  Then it was off to start the work day.

Work was fairly uneventful (phew), and during lunch I placed my ‘order’ to rent at wetsuit at a local tri shop.  This tri shop has open water swims in the spring which I have done the past two years where you can try their wetsuits for $10 a swim, so I’m pretty comfortable in a wetsuit.   So if I like the one I’m swimming in during the half iron in September, I will buy it because I will definitely need one if I do IMAZ and even then, if I rent a wetsuit more than a few times it would financially be worth it to just buy one.   They also have a great deal that if you rent and decide to buy, they take $50 off the retail price.

Oh which reminds me, I booked my flight and hotel for volunteering at IMAZ in November.  My dad rocks and let me use some of his southwest points to book the flight so it was ‘free’, which was even better than I thought because the hotel wasn’t cheap due to the fact that there weren’t many hotels near the start/finish available, and the ones that were, were rather pricey.  Glad that is settled, so if the half goes well, I will totally be in the line at 5a the day after volunteering at IMAZ to sign up for 2013 🙂

Workout-wise, today I ran 2, rode 12 and ran 1 after as a cooldown.  The plan was to run 4 total but I didn’t do a great job fueling during the day and was starving by mile 6 of the ride.  Also, during the whole ride, I kind of felt like I was in a haze.  Perhaps I need to start taking my Iron pills again?  I have issues with anemia, but I’ve been good about eating red meat lately (I know there are other ways to get iron, but that’s usually the best way for me), so I’m not sure what’s the culprit.  Perhaps an earlier bedtime.  Regardless, it was a ridiculous workout and I felt like not much was accomplished.  Grr.

On a new note, I have to get up early tomorrow because I’m joining a new gym!  My Y decided to close their pool for three, yes, THREE, weeks.  Should I be concerned that it takes that long to clean it, and yet I’ve been swimming in it?  Yes, we can use other Y locations during this time, but most are also closed for pool cleaning as well. W.T.F.  Fortunately I live by another gym that has a pool and is pretty darn inexpensive for membership (half what I’m paying for at the Y), so I’m going to join for a month.  Stupid and annoying, but I still need to get in my swims and I’m not sure of another option.  I wish my bathtub was larger.

So, that will be exciting!  Nothing like waking up at 5:30a to apply for a new gym membership!  🙂  Now I’m off to bed!

Wow.   I thought I’d catch up on the weekend events yesterday but I was wiped when I got home and didn’t get up early before work to post. Prepare yourself for a long post.  You were warned.

Saturday I got up and headed over to Columbia, IL for a group ride which I was running late for after I realized the directions I was taking had a detour.  Awesome.  Honestly, I don’t do well with cutting it close to the last minute things, but when it involves sleep, well, I’m a bit more flexible.  Regardless, I arrived at 7:35, and some members were still getting ready so I was good to go.  I changed into cycling shoes, put my cadence meter on my bike…gloves, helmet…nutrition.. lots of fun details.  In a last minute decision I globbed sunscreen on my arms before heading over to the group and boy was I glad I did.  I finally headed over to the group and met everyone that was doing the ride and was glad there were some individuals doing the 64 mile ride and not just the 100 mile ride.  I knew a few of the people, but met quite a few more.  Then, we were off!  Off in-freaking-deed.  As in 18 mph to 20.  Uh…. really?  for a 64 mile ride?  Yipes.  The pace did settle down, but most of the individuals in this group has some serious experience in their legs.

During the first 30 I chit-chatted with several different people I hadn’t met before and overall had a great time.  There was one hill that (I believe) due to breaking on the downhill, I had zero speed going back uphill and had to (It hurts to say this), unclip and walk it up the hill.  I really wasn’t comfy chugging up the hill out of the saddle and not doing that, eh, I was going to fall over.   The group was great though, those that passed me said ‘good job’ and ‘no shame! keep going!’ (eh, there still was shame, but that felt great to hear in a low point).  And then we kept going.  And going.  Overall I felt amazing, other than being the pokey little puppy trying to keep up at 16mph or so, but everyone in the group was just great.  I learned a ton of IM tips and riding/racing tips in general, which was awesome.  Plus, I stuck to my quasi nutrition plan and all went well… four gels, a packet of honey stinger chews and a bottle of Gatorade Endurance.  I’ll probably need more than that for the half, but my tummy didn’t experience any sloshing.  Hooray!

After the run I hurried to the Y for a 1,450 yard cooldown and then met JMR for a date at the pool.  Too bad it wasn’t very warm and no one was at the pool (generally good for good people watching), but we still had a good time.  After the pool we were off to dinner at a local place where I consumed an entire Reuben sandwich listed as ‘Reuben the Great’.  Yeah, it was ridiculously large, and I was hungry, and in retrospect, it was pretty gross I was able to eat the whole thing (I’m still a bit grossed out, except, well, it was good).  I’ve ordered it countless times before and never finished it…if that lets you know the excessiveness of my consumption.  Anyways, I’ll just show you a picture of a beer we had instead of the sandwich.:

The next morning I was all business, I had a run and then was meeting JMR and his parents at the baseball game.  Unfortunatley JMR didn’t know when they were arriving (and I was wiped from the day before) so after figuring out what time to meet up, I  only had time to run 10 miles instead of the planned 12. Argh.  (I’ll be paying for that this coming weekend…), but I’m glad I got it done and met them at JMR’s place, and we all headed to the game.  The game was fun, and it didn’t hurt that we were in a party box with unlimited food and drink (if his parents weren’t there, I would have taken a picture of my food), but the game went on…and on…and on.  19 innings.  Thank goodness we left after the 13!  Here’s a shot from the suite:

After the game I took the little guy out and retired to the couch…which is what I’m doing now.  This week is a ‘rest’ week, so I have a ride and run on the schedule for tomorrow, but the mileage is low, so I’m pumped.  I would have gotten on the bike tonight but I got a migraine around 4p so I’ve been out of commission on the couch since 😦

As exciting as all of that is, I have to cut my story short 🙂  Catch you tomorrow!!

Actually, it is already here and I’m getting ready to head to bed, but just wanted to post the fun events of the day before I got some much-needed slumber.

This morning I got up early (hooray) and ran six miles, and then headed to work just in time for a meeting.  It was one of my coworker’s birthday’s today, so another coworker who is an awesome baker and chef, made cupcakes for the department.  They were freaking awesome.

Later I met JMR at my house for lunch (it’s in between where we both work and easier and faster for one of us to pick up something and eat there than to go to a sit-down place), and he brought crazy bowls per my craving-of-the-day, but sadly I had a lapse in my memory and told him the wrong order.  It was the veggie wrap with feta that I wanted, not the mediterranean wrap.  There is feta, spinach…veggies… in the one I usually order, I’m not sure why I thought it was all ‘mediterranean’, but I did, and it was not as good and mucho more calorie laden than my usual.  I know I’m burning some serious calories with my training, but wraps also have some serious calories packed in them, and I still want to be able to eat dinner and have my pants fit tomorrow!  Last time I mix that up!

By 2p I was super sleepy and annoyed that there were still three more hours before I could head home and (hooray..or not), swim 2400 yards.  I toughed it out, got some more work done, and headed home determined to get my long swim done.  I was so determined, that I turned down drinks with a former coworker that I desperately need to catch up with who was meeting up with another former coworker for happy hour.  Bummer.  Only a few more weeks though of this, and then I can go to happy hours and be as social of a butterfly as I want.  But happy hour isn’t going to get me across the finish line when there’s a much-needed workout waiting to be completed.  I will say, it does help that JMR is busy studying for his tests and can’t hang out much during the weekends and pretty much at all during the week, or I would be no-show for the race in September.

I finally made it to the Y after messing around with my waterproof shuffle and adding a few new songs to it.  It didn’t come with instructions so I wasn’t sure what the button next to the power button did, and after playing around with it, I still had no clue and no time to google it.  When I got to the Y, while in the locker room, I stuffed the cords in my swim cap and clipped it onto the back on my cap and I was off and ready to swim!  For once I followed the workouts in my training schedule and the swim actually went by quickly.  I would like to say it was because of the headphones, but once I was underwater I couldn’t hear squat.  Just the beat of the techno music I had loaded onto it…unce…unce…unce… lame.  I think I need to wear the smaller sized headphone ear buds so that they fit better in my ears.  I’m sure they’ll work out, I just need to play around with them and get the right fit.  Regardless, every now and then when I was taking a breath of air (on the left side too..oh yeah…), I could hear the music which did help and distract me.  So thank you dad for buying those as a surprise, they are serving a purpose!

When I got home I fed and took the little guy on a walk and then headed to REI to peruse the aisles of nutrition to try to get a game plan for race day to test out tomorrow.  supposedly I need to consume 300 calories an hour while on the bike, and it’s more easily digested if it’s in liquid form (Gatorade, gels, etc).  That’s a lot of sugary goop.  I can’t imagine how my stomach will handle that… but I guess I’ll find out tomorrow on my 64 mile ride.  Prior to that, the longest was 50, and I stunk it up in the nutrition department (Only ate two gels, and I was shaky by the end), so this will be my debut.  After buying a packet of hammer powder and some honey stinger chews, I remembered that I had some Gatorade endurance left in the tub I bought last summer, and since that’s what they’re having on race day, that’s what I’m going to use along with the gels and honey stingers.  Crossing my fingers my stomach is excited about this nutrition plan!

So that’s about it, my very exciting, it’s-Friday-and-I-have-no-social-life, details of the day.  Off to bed because I have to be up in six hours to prep for my ride….I’ll give you a sneak peek (I hope this doesn’t come back and bite me in the ass….) there are like 50+ turns on the directions for the ride tomorrow.  I’m hoping it’s marked out, or at least fairly intuitive…otherwise, you might not hear from me until a couple of days after I get rescued from being lost due to lack of ability to ride and read four, yes FOUR, pages of directions for this route.  I’m trying to give the organizer the benefit of the doubt, but…oh my.

Goodnight!

This morning I woke up and after hitting snooze once, made it to the Y to get my 1900 yard swim in.  I was planning on trying out  my new waterproof ipod, but I was already running late (due to snoozing) and knew it would take me awhile to fuss with it and it would probably make my swim take too long and would be late for work.  While swimming I tried to breathe bilaterally (both sides) because for the entire swim for Redman in September  the buoys are on the left side…. so I’m really going to have to at least breathe bilaterally, if not mostly on the left side during the race.  It was pretty awkward, but by the end I got into a rhythm.  Hopefully with more practice it will feel more natural.

I was still a little late for work, but not terribly.  During lunch I ran to the vet to get allergy medicine for Patrick.  I’m a bad mom and let it run out a couple of months ago, but his allergies weren’t bad at all, so I didn’t worry about it.  But now, the little guy has been rolling around constantly in the carpet and scratching his eyebrows and face 😦  Time to start his medicine again!  I also stopped at the Daily Bread, a bistro type place near Patrick’s vet, to get a turkey sandwich.  I used to go there a lot during highschool but have only been a handful of times since.  Man, was that a mistake, it was packed!  My sandwich was just so-so also, so I won’t go out of my way again to eat there.

Around 4p, dark ugly clouds rolled in, which wasn’t a good sign for the ride I had planned after work.  By 4:30 it was dark, windy and it had started to pour….and thunder…and lightning.  Which meant my ride was out due to the slick streets and debris that might have washed up as well (which means I’ll be more likely to get a flat).  On to plan B!  When I got home, I put on my bike shorts, grabbed a water bottle and headed to the Y.  I hopped on one of the stationary bikes and started pounding out my interval ride.  Usually I don’t worry about ‘workouts’ on the bike, as I’m riding on the streets and it isn’t convenient to do intervals, but I figured ‘why not?’ since I was on the stationary bike.  An hour and ten minutes later my 20 mile ride was done!  It wasn’t awful, but I don’t think I could have gone for much longer though.  Next up was my four mile run, and after stopping home to change into running shorts, off I went.  It was a pretty uneventful run, but my legs were feeling pretty good which I was pumped about.  I will say, if I get more invested in triathlons, I definitely want to invest in a trainer so I can ride indoors in the privacy of my own living room and with my own tv right in front of me 🙂

After the run I showered, walked the little guy, and promptly plopped down on the couch to drink my protein shake, eat some eggs and veggies and whatever else I had that seemed semi-healthy.

Tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday will also be busy days training-wise, but I’m in the home stretch!!  Next week is a step-back week, then two more build up weeks, and then… taper!  Wow… so freaking close.  It actually makes me want to train harder knowing it’s so close, because I’m getting more and more nervous about finishing, and don’t want it to be by crawling across the finish line!

As I sat down to write my post, I didn’t realize my last one was on Sunday… how the heck is the week already more than half over?  It usually never seems to fly, but this week really did.

Monday I gave myself the day off because of the race the day before, and my legs were still pretty stiff/sore.  After work JMR and I went to dinner with my Grandma in her new retirement community she moved into last November.  I know, November was practically a year ago, but people are still moving in and it just still seems new to me.  Before she moved there, she was still living in the house that my dad and his siblings gew up in.  After chit-chatting with her for a bit on her porch, we headed home and on the way made a quick detour to a Mexican restaurant for a skinny Margarita that I had been craving all weekend (well, JMR just ordered a regular one).

The next day at work was pretty busy and I had to help lead training that evening from 5-8p, so I knew a swim was out, unless I wanted to get done with my workout at 9:30 at night (swimming itself doesn’t talk long, but getting everything ready/changing into suit, and then showering with the special shampoo and soap so I don’t smell like a pool afterwards takes time too).  Fortunately we finished the class a little before 7, but I already had a run on the brain, so I set out for a nice 6 mile run at little under a 9 minute pace.   After the run I hopped on my computer to see if the official race results from Sunday were posted, and they were.  There were actually 26 people that did the Olympic, not 22 that was posted on the paper results the day of, so I felt a little better about coming in 16th overall.  But what I didn’t realize was that I came in 3rd female, and 2nd in my age group.  To top it off, I was 39 seconds behind winning my age group, argh!!  I saw the girl with the 32 on her calf (they write your age on your calf) pass me on the bike, but I figured there were other people in our age group ahead of me.  I also kept telling myself that this wasn’t the race I was training for; it was just practice, and I didn’t want to overdo it and push myself too much so that my workouts were crappy for the next week (which was another big mileage week).  She was not very far in front of me during the whole run, but I stuck with my ‘don’t overdo it, the goal was to just finish’ mantra.  I finished in 2:37:xx, which I was pumped about for my first Olympic, but now I’m miffed I didn’t pick it up at the end!  Oh well, live and learn.

Today work was anothe busy day, followed by training from 5-8, which also got out early, so when I got home, I went for a quick 5 mile run before heading to the store to stock up on more food (I feel like all I do these days is work, eat, workout, eat, sleep….).  I have my long swim of the week planning tomorrow am and a brick (bike/run) planned after work, so I’m heading to bed soon.  I just hope it doesn’t rain tomorrow evening….running in the rain is ok, but riding, eh, not so much.

Oh, and work ordered everyone dinner who was in training tonight but I wasn’t hungry when I placed my order, so I just ordered fruit.  I didn’t have time to eat because I was helping the person who was leading the training, so I can’t wait to eat this tomorrow as a snack (just the fruit and yogurt, the roll was kind of stale)!

Fruit Salad and Yogurt

Ok, I’m not that ridiculously healthy all the time….. it also came with a brownie (it looks a little less fluffy than it did a couple of hours ago, I think it’s just because it’s been in the fridge).  I may or may not eat it after finishing this post…

So I took today totally off, as a semi-attempt to ‘taper’ for my race tomorrow, ha.  I feel like a sloth, but I think my body will appreciate it tomorrow.  I got up at 8a to let Patrick out and went right back to bed and slept until 11a.  Holy moly.  I can’t even remember the last time I did that, I guess I really did need the sleep!  After I got up I drove to work because I left my badge and debit card in a bag under my desk.  Yipes.  Then I went to Whole Foods to get something for lunch.  I love the hot sandwiches they have, I ordered one with chicken, roasted onion, cheddar cheese, avocado, tomatoes, lettuce and chipotle mayo on pretzel bread.  Yum!  In fact as I’m typing this hours later, I want another one!

Later I headed to REI to drop my bike off for them to put the new cadence meter on, and while they worked on it I perused all of the aisles I had no business perusing.  I did need earplugs for the swim tomorrow in case the water was cold, but that was the only item I *needed* to buy.  But…. they just got their fall merchandise in and I love a brand they carry, Prana, so I ended up buying a casual sundress as well (super soft, comfy and it wicks!  My kind of dress!).  Oh and I bought these too for tomorrow.  Love that they have caffeine!

After an hour or so my bike was ready so I headed back to pick it up from the bike area and got some more additional bike/tri advice from the guy who worked on it.  Awesome!  Once again, I love REI 🙂  Then I headed back home to be a couch potato and watch ‘Million Dollar Listing’, which isn’t that great, but it was the only thing on that slightly appealed to me.  In an hour or so I’m heading over to my parents to babysit my sister’s two month old baby.  My sister and my mom are hosting a couple’s shower for one of my sister’s friends and instead of me watching baby C over at their house, she thought it would be easier for me to watch her there in case I had any trouble.  Trouble as in I’ve only watched her twice, and only for an hour, and prior to that it was seven years since I had babysat.  Do you really think I’m joking when I tell people I’m having puppies?  As of now, I don’t really think kids are in my future…things could change, but right now, I’m having puppies.

Off to take a shower and wear my new fun dress from REI while babysitting. I figured since it was a nice party, even though I won’t be mingling, I shouldn’t wear gym shorts which is my regular garb.  I am trying to be fancier and wear running skirts while running errands instead of running shorts, somehow I feel like I look a tiny bit nicer in those.  Funny though, I bought them for that purpose and not for running.   I got them at Target for only $20 (Champion brand), which I thought was a great deal and ten times cheaper than the Lululemon ones (even though I do love lulu), and they are super comfy!  I’m not sure how they are while running though, as I only wear them while out and about and on the couch 🙂  I don’t really see myself running in running skirts, I’m more of a compression short/running short person these days.   Shower time!