weekend ramblings

It's safe to say my weekend actually started on Thursday. This was a big training week build, the last big push before Oceanside and I had some hours to log on my bike. Coming off the race Sunday and a rest day Monday I was actually still really tired on Tuesday. I guess I pushed the race pretty hard. Tuesday I had a 3hr ride with lots of big chain ring hill repeats and a T-run plus a strength workout. Wed was an 8mile run test and a swim and Thursday another 3hr ride +T-run.

I actually felt pretty good on Thursday and decided to join Shane and some coworkers while they entertained some executives for the night. I mean, what girl in their right mind would pass up the opportunity for a dinner at Mastros vs trying to come up with something to make out of my fridge that consisted of bread, peanut butter and feta cheese? Yah, I was in dire need of heading to the grocery store. Of course this started out with Shane's infamous lemon drops at our house first, which led to all sorts of comedy and getting to dinner VERY late. So late in fact, it was actually my bed time before we even ORDERED dinner. Needless to say I pretty much knocked down 1/2 of the appetizers and bread while the men watched in awe. I'm sure Shane was SO proud. Little did I know I was also the only one that ordered dessert. At least I shared, a little anyway.

And then Shane saw me hit the wall all sea bass and tuna tartar and lobster mac and cheese and chocolate cake filled. I told him to put me in a cab and he could stay, but I think he was pretty pooped out too, you know it was his first time out of the house since surgery! So we headed home me filled up with all sorts of sugary stuff and quite the little buzz. I don't know if I even washed my face before hitting the pillow. It was MIDNIGHT after all people.

Friday when I woke up a little fuzzy…I finalized plans to head out to Bartlett Lake with some friends and meet my blogger friend and new e21 teammate Molly. We have been blog friends for a couple years now, and even though she visits Scottsdale regularly we've never actually met up so I was pretty excited!

The lake was actually quite pleasant and seemed even somewhat clear for an AZ lake. I don't know how far I swam but it was enough that my lack of food (no, I still had not bought any groceries) and a bit too much to drink the night before was getting the best of me. It was all I could do to get myself (with help from Tracy) out of my wetsuit and back home. Well, actually not even home I had to stop at AJs market to get something to stuff in my mouth RIGHT NOW.

The best part about getting home was seeing the package at my doorstep waiting for me! Our e21 kits were finally here! I didn't even wash off the nasty lake before I was tearing all of the stuff out of the packages and trying it on! Here's a stolen picture from Molly of all our fun new stuff. I'm pretty sure I won't be hard to miss out there racing this year :-) Thankfully, all of it fits (well, almost all but I didn't find that out until today) and I think it's super cute… even with the little bits of PINK! I also just got a cute new lime green Mdot visor & think I might need some of these green CEP socks as well!

Unfortunately things started to go downhill after my little dress up party. I had a big 5hr ride/20min t run in the am and I had absolutely no appetite. I thawed out some red sauce I had in the freezer and made some pasta and eggplant (FYI - if you haven't tried the Barilla PLUS go for it! It's not as chewy as whole wheat pasta, but it has 10grams of protein per serving).. About 20mins after eating my stomach was miserably bloated and I started to feel nauseous. I ended up throwing up my dinner and then passing out on the couch at like 8pm. I woke up about 30mins later, stomach felt better but I was toast so I headed to bed…. I don't even remember Shane getting home several hours later and the next thing I knew I was up at 6 with the alarm.

I didn't feel 100% but I didn't feel horrible either so I decided to give the ride a go. My guess is I took in some nasty lake water that my stomach just did not agree with, so I was pretty sure I wasn't sick. I had some wonderful people that made plans to do most of the ride with me. We met up, then headed to our gym to meet up with a bigger group. They immediately took off up one of the first hills and I found myself in the back of the group, last up the hill as I watched my HR hit my max number for the day. Humbling to say the least. Thankfully, my two friends that were in for the long haul had an idea to pull off from the group after the first set of hills and go a different, more flat direction. I was game for something new and soon we were on our way. The route was semi flat with some inclines declines for a lot of it, and lots of wind. I kept my HR right where I was supposed to and took 2x e21 pills every hour like clockwork. I also made sure I was getting at least 200+calories per hour and eventually I started to feel stronger and stronger. By mile 70, after a stop for a coke slurpee I felt the best I had all day….. My buddies were stopping in a few miles and I was RELIEVED that I was feeling good. I finished the ride feeling incredibly strong and had a fantastic T-run. I had nailed my nutrition and the e21 kept my legs feeling fresh. After 90miles and 2+mile run I felt great.

The night was young and I had plans to go out with Shane and the one remaining executive in town. I bugged Shane over and over to make some plans/reservations, something for the night since he was in charge but of course as of 4pm on Saturday night he had not done so, and I was left googling places to go, fun things to do for the night and sending out last minute texts to friends to see if anyone was heading out. Without much luck on either front (clearly we don't get out much!) we did finally find some fun places to go and had a very entertaining night out! Another late night out and too much to drink left me not sleeping well, or at all really before heading down to Chandler to take pictures for the Tri for the Cure. I'm so happy I got my butt out of bed because watching this race was amazing and inspiring to say the least. I am so impressed with what a fantastic event this was, and next year hope to help out a lot more!

All I could think of after several hours on my feet cheering and taking pics was getting home putting compression tights on and laying on the couch! Unfortunately Baxter had other things on his mind….like licking one of his wounds so bad it was infected and I ended up taking him to the vet first… Eventually I did get my lazy time, just before dinner and an early bed time!

Monday's events were nothing short of a train wreck…but I've already gone on and on way too much so in short, here's how my Monday went in bullets!

• waking up to crazy wind and dust and after heading out for my 2:10 run I decided it wasn't smart to continue. My lungs were trashed from my ride and the wind and poor air quality and I'd basically been living on my inhaler.. I was bummed, but I knew it was best to wait a day.
• next up heading to my indoor gym pool, getting suit on, gear all out and walking to the pool deck only to see a sign saying pool closed.
• finally convincing myself to go to the outdoor gym pool anyway…. only to start the workout and realize my new e21 suit is too big, so big on the top in fact that I spent the hour swim flashing the older man swimming next to me. Fun times. Not to mention how much fun it was to try to hit some of my intervals with that drag.
• As I got out of the pool, in the rain I checked my phone and saw 3 missed calls from my cleaning lady… who was left at my house.
• Apparently, the dryer guy that I called in the am… (who was also just there on Friday, but the dryer stopped heating as I was washing my sheets this am so I called him back)… just showed up. He was supposed to call me first. Thankfully our sweet Mary was there and let him in to check it out. Needs another part, but of course it won't be in for a day or two.
• Next up as she was mopping the floors my steam mop exploded or blew up or something…so bad that my dogs were hysterical and shaking and she just couldn't leave them alone so WHEN would I be home?
• Oh, and the explosion blew a fuse and killed the power in my office, now my internet isn't working right

Thankfully, all are safe, no one was hurt… I'll eventually have clean/dry sheets and looks like I'm heading out for a new mop! My swim is in the bank and tomorrow's weather looks better and the rain we're having now should clean up the air for my lungs to catch a break….

Fun times! And with that, I'll finally shut up… Happy Monday :-)