Keep on Keeping On. (Aka Just an Update.)

Just like last month, we will be spending the next 4 months training before I have anything solid to report in regards to racing.  Though I typically only post when I have an event to show progress (or a lack there of :-P), it's about time to post to show we're still living.

Training - We're not even up to a large volume of hours yet - just 11hrs a week thus far.  I had a week (that felt like a LOT longer) in January where I really struggled with energy.  Though I consider myself to be a big eater, I had to step up my game a bit.  As much as I started to feel better, my Tanita Body Composition Scale also says I started to pack on the bad type of lbs.  What gets hard about needing to eat more volume of food is assuring all of that is good for you food.  Higher intensity workouts also tax me in ways I need to get used to as well.  I kept wanting to turn to pizza post-workout; a habit I have NEVER had in my life, but has all of a sudden been difficult to fight off.  That said, last week was a good week and last weekend I felt v.v.strong.

Last week we also had our first swim lesson - my first official lesson on my life since I learned how to forward crawl off youtube a couple of years ago.  Everything I was told to work on is probably extremely basic for people who swam in high school or collage…yet it really rocked my world.  Changing anything about the way I've learned to stay afloat introduces a bit of panic while I'm swimming.  Panic was my largest hurdle to overcome when I first started swimming 2-yrs ago.  As much as I'm not looking forward to fighting (relaxing?) it off again, it is a game I know well and I am certain I will conquer.  Swimming is the event I look forward to improving in the most.  I can't imagine ever finding the grace in the pool I see w/some of my teammates, yet it's the sport I see all I have to learn and am confident I can make progress.

Cycling, on the other hand, I'm starting to worry will be my weakest event.  This is bad news considering it's the longest leg in a tri.  It took me several weeks to get my slow legs used to the higher cadences called out in my training plan.  That said, I can now work at the higher cadences and stay in my called out HR zones, but I see how much harder of a gear JC is often working in right next to me…and I worry about getting out on the road in the spring.  I'm pretty sure I'm going to face a rude awakening to being a super slow poke on a bike that out-classes me.  I am a pretty bad a$$ hill climber (strong w/a really quick recovery rate), so maybe I wont be as horrible as I think in the end.  That said, I look forward to working on my skillz…

As for my old friend, running, I'm still in love with the sport.  I've noticed a greatly improved leg turnover rate as a carry over from cycling….  And for the first time in my life, I was LUVIN my last hill workout.  The biggest struggle I've had with running is that I try to find my peaceful place, rather than challenging myself to improve.  The speedsters on our team runs are a class above me (JC can keep up w/some of them), but I've yet to identify who would be in the middle ground for me to follow.  Typically, I place myself in the back only to find I'm quickly frustrated w/the lack of speed…and then I end out awkwardly on my own.  I mean, there may have been some one going my pace, but I didn't pair up w/them in the beginning…so now they're gone…  I'm sure it's something I'll figure out in the end, but I'm just not sure where I belong on these runs yet.

Whoa this post is going to carry on now that I've started the reflections.

Sooo, I should mention that time-management with both JC and I has NOT synced up yet.  Though Monday's (our only day off from training) are my rock solid get stuff done days, JC has not found the same drive post-work.  I must also admit that I was mentally fried from being on the go all weekend long, so Sunday was not a strong day for me either (when JC was running around getting stuffs done).  Also, JC always, always leaves the kitchen partially dirty.  It's one of those pet peeves that makes me irrationally want to scream every time I have to wipe up coffee grounds or clean the smudges and grit off cabinets/fridge handles.  Also, for the life of him, JC NEVER does anything extra with the pups anymore.  I'm pretty much solely in charge of the brushing and nails and cleaning of pet beds…  Since the dogs bring me such joy, I don't mind doing the work, I just wish they had the benefit of twice the care.  What I should also own up to is the fact that dishes are the LAST thing on my list at the end of the day.  I rinse them extremely well and place them where ever they need to go (dishwasher if it's empty - sink if it's not).   What I struggle with is doing any of the hand washing during the week - JC picks up this slack.  Where do I want to go from here?  Whelp, I need to plan for weekday meals better, which means I need to have a cooking plan in hand by the end of Friday.  By the end of Sunday, I NEED to have all my meals prepared for lunches during the week.

The other thing I finally locked in was sleep.  Though it sounds simple, I need more sleep than JC.  It was too easy to stay awake w/him late at night.  Sooo, I took a few steps, including a white noise sound track playing every single night and an eye mask to keep out changes in light, that have helped quite a bit.  These triggers (as yuppie as they seem) really help me conk out at night, no matter how bad of an influence JC might be.

That’s all for now.
Love,
Your Little Engineer

Honesty and Acceptance

As I was waiting for JC to leave work one day last week, I realized I no longer look for people I know.  You see, I went to an extremely small college - there were fewer than 2000 undergraduate students.  The amazing thing about the small college I went to was that the community I experienced there will never be rivaled - never again will I have that many friends in a single location - never again will I walk around with a permanent smile on my face because nearly everyone I pass is good people.  When I first came to work for the Big B, I would look at the faces I saw in passing.  Occasionally, I would see my friends where they were not and need to do a double take.  I'm not sure when, but at some point I stopped looking.  The people I knew were out numbered by the people I did not know...and what's worse, the people I would call friends were a staggering few.

Within the past month, I've gotten to experience the group of people that frequently participates in the TNMultisport training events.  They are often smiling and good-natured...but what's more important is that I see in them the things that resonate with who I am (and, perhaps more importantly, who I want to be).  I admire the strength, courage, and tenacity I see when I am surrounded by these athletes.  Though I still feel I am on the outside, my experience today with these people warmed my soul - though they would probably never have guessed.  For our team trail run today, I brought my pups.

As many of you know, I have not always found acceptance when my pups are in the mix.  They have both traveled hard roads in their first lives.  When Eure was younger, she was borderline aggressive...when Harper was younger, she would flinch at movements made w/haste.  When former false friends could not accept that behavior modification in abused dogs took time...well, we parted ways.  My pups are in a much better place these days.  That said, the easy acceptance and encouragement we found this morning with people who barely know my name touched me deeply.  Of course, I awkwardly found v.little to say to people I am still getting to know...  but they reached out to my pups often - reinforcing that people are good and kind and safe.  Today was a huge step in the progression of my dogs' growth...and in mine.  Today, some of the guards fell.  Though I will not call any of these people friends, yet, I have hope that I have found a place to belong in the future.

More honest than is standard...

~Your little engineer.

Photography Time-Lapse Project

Recently, I was inspired by two photography projects:

1) P52, which is a photography challenge to take new photos every single week to meet the photography theme listed for that week.

2) This clever time lapse of a bike left on the streets of New York.


That said, I'm a touch time-strapped this year w/IM training (it's not too bad now, but our weekly workout hours are going to climb much higher in the next few months). Though I decided I wanted to do my own time-lapse style project that I had to be contentious of all year long, I knew it had to be simple for me to succeed. That's when I decided to roll one of my other 2012 goals into this concept. Soooo, as dorky and random as it may be, I'm taking pics of my progress as I attempt to be able to do the splits by age 30.

This is week 1:

At the end of the year, I plan on creating a video similar to inspiration (2). Get excited! This is only the start of my 2012 randomness :)

Love,
This little engineer.

Christmas 2011 Thank You

This year I decided to spice our Christmas Thank Yous up a bit. We took video of our Christmas morning and I edited together this little puppy last night.



Again, thank you to all of our friends and family who thought of us over the holidays! Maybe one year we'll get our act together and send out a beautiful picture card/letter. Until then, we'll keep learning from yours ;-)

Much love,
This little engineer!

Postal Swim 2012

Today our triathlon team participated in something pretty awesome called the Postal Swim.  I guess it's kinda a big deal since you can be ranked nationally (for a little extra money).  The idea is that you get your own side of a lane and an hour to see how far you can swim.  Pretty simple, right?

Whelp, this was the pool...and I can't say that I was in love with it.  The bottom was a bit gross (def noticed a bandaid floating in the shallow section of my lane).  In the summer though, they remove the dome and it has a view of Lake Washington.  Amazing!

Anywho, I don't have much more to say other than, "I did it!"  In one hour, I swam 3,040 meters.  That's the furthest I've ever swam in one continuous go, so I don't much care that the distance probably still puts me in the lower half of the team.  Whatevs.  

At least I know there's a rockstar just waiting to find her way out of this little engineer's shell ;-)

Edit:  Looking at my numbers, my avg. lap time was 59s per 50m.  That calcs out to ~38mins/1.2 miles or 1hr16mins/2.4 miles.  Considering I did my first half iron swim in 36 mins (w/out really kicking (had some crazy idea of 'saving my legs' for the bike/run)), I'm still quite a ways off from where I was 2yrs ago.  Sooo, def means I need to keep hitting...er-swimming it ;-)  

2012 Goal Edit

Since I've already knocked off my 2012 goal of editing together at least one video, I've decided to step up this department and list the other short films I have in mind.

Videos to create in 2012

    a) Splits Progress

    b) X-Mas Thankyou 2011 (complete :)

    c) Snow Day Jan 18th (complete :)

    d) Something Ironman Training Related

Aaand, this little engineer is out!

Snow Day - January 18th, 2012

Starting on the 17th of January, 2012, the greater Seattle area got an unprecedented amount of snow.  We decided not risk the journey to work that day.  Instead, we had as many adventures as possible to enjoy the adverse weather.  For my first ever video creation, I edited together some of my GoPro footage from the day.  Enjoy.

PS  Love, 

This Little Engineer