More Bits & Pieces

YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST! I just love all the positive comments I got about my first triathlon. I am so inspired and encouraged by all of you. Thank you for taking the time to read my blog and to cheer me on. It's very motivating!

One question was, What happened to the sore throat? Well, on Saturday after the tri we ran errands all afternoon (really, Miguel? We need to do this today?). By the time I got home late Saturday afternoon I was dead tired. I took a two hour nap and wondered if I was getting sick.

On Sunday I was tired but had no symptoms so I thought I beat it. I went to work on Monday and a client canceled on me so I ended up with a huge gap in the middle of the day with nothing to do. Aha! I'll go to the gym. I went to the gym and did my cardio, including a lovely 3 mile jog on the ol' treadmill. While jogging it felt like my chest was sort of tight. We're dealing with a bunch of wildfires here in Northern California and I wondered if this was related to that. After the jog I did lower body weight training. A few hours after I left the gym I knew it wasn't the wildfires, I have a full-on cold. Blech. I was so glad I went to the gym when I did because I don't think I would have made it after work. Did you see I ran three miles again? I'm starting to think it's not a fluke and that I can actually run three miles. So my cold, yeah, mostly it's just a stuffy/runny nose and tiredness. But the worst symptom is a foggy head. I'm not moving so fast and can't think very well. Thank God I don't have a cough though, that chest congestion stuff kills me. Oh well, today's a relatively easy office day so not much is required of me.

I realized there were a few things I forgot to mention about my tri. Well, I told you about the swim going off course but decided a visual aid was in order. The black line is the swim route (not to scale, of course) and the red line is me, except I'm sure I didn't swim that straight. My swim coach Jean had said this event would teach me which way I "drift" while swimming in open water and I did. I drift, of course, to the left. Oh, and another neat thing. The run was a sort of a twisty, curvy route in which participants are running in both directions on the trail. A little ways into the run it occurred to me I might see Miguel. I started looking for him and within a few minutes he came around a bend. Yay! We got to smile at each other and do a little hand slap as we passed. That was such a nice little boost. My mom told me later that he was all excited after he finished the race (and while waiting for me) telling them, "She looked so good, I know she's going to finish!". She said he gushed on and on and was so proud of me. I love him. You know, I was not sore even one tiny little bit after the tri. I think all the preparation really paid off. That and the relaxed, cruising approach I took during the event. Next time I'll have a sense of what's involved and can push myself a bit more.

The group that puts on this tri started a blog. On Your Mark Events. They put up some comments about the event with a few pictures. Sadly I'm not in any of them :( The official photographer pictures should come out later this week but they are really, REALLY expensive. I will probably break down and buy one finish line picture, if I like it. Who knows if they got any of me on the course.

So I weighed myself on Sunday and my weight was WAY DOWN. But, it's back up. I kind of sat around eating all day on Sunday and did more munching yesterday evening. I hope I eek out a loss this week but with the cold and all, I'm not banking on it. I want to view times when my weight is relatively unchanged (say, less than a pound in either direction) as practice for maintenance. Everyone says maintenance is harder than losing and I believe it. Having regained lost weight twice before I'm all about maintaining. I strongly believe I have to get comfortable with not losing, or with gaining small amounts, because maintenance will be all about that. All that said, I hope I lose this week :)

So, I have a confession. I spent more money on bike related stuff. I had vowed not to do this after purchasing my bike and shoes and pedals and.... But I needed a bike computer for my road bike. If I'd had one on the tri I would have known the remaining miles to go and how fast I was going, which is totally necessary right? So what I really wanted was a Garmin Edge 305. But they are really expensive. But it didn't make any sense to spend money on another item I didn't really want when I knew I'd end up getting the Garmin eventually. Plus, with the state of the economy I really should be doing all I can to help out, right? So, you guessed it, I ordered the Garmin. I got the package that includes the heart-rate and cadence monitors. I'm stoked about the cadence, I want to work on maintaining an even pedal rate. Don't I sound all official and everything? But I am in debt now and it sucks. I'll be paying off my bike and Garmin for the next few months :( Anyway, Miguel and I played with the Garmin a little last night. Hopefully I can get it on my bike this weekend.

Speaking of this weekend, Ales & Trails is already upon us! It's a mountain biking day at China Camp State Park this Saturday. Basically you ride all morning and drink beer and listen to music in the afternoon. Sounds like my kind of event. It will be neat to get back on my mountain bike and the weather is supposed to be great. I have no plans for Sunday. What?! This must be remedied right away. If I sit around at home all day then I eat all day. Can't do that. Alright, if I find nothing else to do than I'll go to the pool and swim some laps and lounge in the sun. Ohhh, that sounds lovely actually.

I'll be sure and post after my Weigh-In on Thursday. Oh! I have to give a shout-out to Misty Pilgrim, aka Geekgirl, aka The Athena Diaries - Tales from the back of the pack. She finished her 2nd Ironman event yesterday and rocked!! Check her out.

Update: 2.6 Pounds Lost This Week!! Wooooot! So that puts me over 70 pounds total. 72 Pounds to be exact. Whoa. I'm 161.8 Pounds now. Shoshana and I are doing a 5 pound summer challenge. The goal is to lose 5 Pounds by the end of summer, which is 9/22/08. Now I'm thinking we should up it to 6 for a 1/2 pound per week average. We'll see what Shosh wants to do. ANYWAY....2.6 pounds! Yay!