Cooking

So I love to cook. I find it relaxing and it also gives me a nice feeling of accomplishment. I like to create new simple recipes. I just love it.
Lately I made some jams strawberries/blueberries! I know it isn't the season and strawberries are expensive right now but I like the idea of making and eating my own jam. I still have to learn how to perfect my recipes. This batch is pretty good though.
I also made some pierogies last night. I love those things and I am really sad Trader Joes discontinued them. Every now and then I do like to make a batch. My last batch ended up in the trash since they all glued to one another making a big mess. This time instead of piling them up I made a single layer.

When sharing my love of cooking to some coworker I was a little puzzled at the reaction of some. They were poopooing the fact what I do. I hate that especially when they don't do it themselves, when they are less healthy (or at least look less healthy than I do). I do it because I love it that's it let me have my fun ;)

Training Week 2

So after a little adjustments on the time I actually have to train and still do all the other things. The new training plan was

Mon Off

Tue 1500M swim

Wed 50min run with some hill workout on a 12% incline!

Thur 50min bike workout

Fri 1700M swim

Saturday 2H00 bike ride with lots of hill repeat followed by a 30 min run with some intervals

Sunday 1:20 run slow slow and then 15min core training!

So I was so happy when on saturday evening my injuries felt better and I was glad to get into the water today. I was a little sad to see the long course especially with my sprint workout but also because it means less lanes to swim in. I was also distraught when I saw that a whole lane was occupied by two older lady bobbing in the water at lunch time!!!! Anyways I found a lane to swim in and I started my workout. I did everything but I feel so so sluggish.

I felt pretty good myself until I talked to a coworker who is active but not as much as I am, who taught herself how to swim but still manages to swim 2000yds in 60min when I believe I swam 1600yds in 50min! Arghhhh so frustrating! I should not care about what other people do or not do but this is really a work in progress. In other word I totally suck at it!

A wreck!

and the wreck is me! So a few days ago I bruised my tail bone badly since it is still painful to sit in certain positions, get out of the car and such. As a result of that stupid injury I pinched a nerve in my upper back which resulted in a kinked neck! Finally this morning I wanted to take MAC on my back since he doesn't like walking on the wet concrete around the pool before his swimming lesson. I don't know if he grew that much in the past few weeks, or if I wasn't positionned properly but here we go falling off. I land on my right thumb then on my butt which was already sore!

Anyways after lying on the floor for a little bit since I felt woozy again, my thumb throbbed all morning!. Finally at 5pm, I don't have a kinked neck any longer, my thumb isn't hurting much at all anymore and my tail bone either. The ibuprofen probably helped a little and I have to say I feel a heck of lot better! Yay!

Now I'm ready for some wine, food and friends!

No fracture

Thank goodness I didn't fracture my tail bone. But today I am hurting even when I walk. I don't take Ibuprofen so maybe I do like the pain! To top it all up I pinched a nerve in the top of my back so I'm hurting every time I move! Arghhh result on a friday night we have a very sore cranky Sophie ready for sushi!

I'll try to go swim over the week end. Then my training will start again on Tuesday. I quickly looked at my run schedule and I thought 9% incline was bad... I'm in for hill repeats on 10-12%! Well I guess it is true that you get better by doing hills!

Blimmey

So my first training weeks was going great! I finished the swim, the run and the bike workout. Then everything came to a halt when I bruised my tail bone yesterday evening. No I didn't fall off my bike or did anything cool. It was just a stoopid accident. I was putting away freshly made jam jars in the top of my cuboard thus using the step stool we just bought.
On my way down I didn't really looked what was behind me and I must have bent over a little so my butt collided forcefully with the top of the chair that was just there.
It was pretty bad and I had to sit down and take a few deep breath.
After that life went back to its normal self. Sitting on the couch happened to be quite painful. Anyways things are back to normal well almost. I'm not getting up as easily as I did a couple of days ago. I go over speed bumps very very slowly with my car since those are extremely painful. My seat is almost to the most upright position in my car to keep the pressure off my lower back.
Of course my training came to a halt and I'm hoping that the pain will ease and I can start again soon.

Training Week 1

So some of you may know that I decided to bite the bullet and work with a coach for the next few months. I hired Lesley Paterson who finished second at the Xterra world championship being sick like a dog two weeks before! She is this small scottish girl with a ton of energy, fire and toughness that I hope will rub on me. Besides being a professional triathlete she also writes/produces movies. Anyways I am intrigued by her personality and I thought we could work well together.
The other reason why I decided to go with a coach is that since I mostly workout by myself I thought it would be kindof nice to have some more motivation to go the extra minute. Lastly I thought that a professional eye may help me structure and focus my workout since I don't have much time I need to be super efficient.

Anyways here I am sunday night receiving my first week of workout after a 2 weeks off doing anything and 16 weeks mostly running 2x4-5M and 8-12M on the week end.
Monday: 45 min swim with some speed work etc...
Tuesday: 50min run focusing on a max Heart Rate Test. 15min warm up, then set up 9% incline on the treadmill, start 1min at 145 bpm, 1min at 155bpm, 1min at 165 bpm, 1min at 175, 1min at 180 and finally 1 min all out!, 10 min jog, then 6x 1min hill repeat at incline 9% with 1min recovery jog/walk focusing on the form and finally then 5min warm down.
Wednesday 1:00 bike trainer
Thursday: 45 swim in the am, 45min weight training in the evening
Friday: 50 min run interval training
Saturday: 2H00 bike ride
Sunday: 1h00 bike trainer (spin class type exercise) followed by 1h00 easy slow run.
Pfff. I have to confess when I saw I panicked. No way I can sustain that kind of exercise regime for 5 months! B said the same thing. After a few chat with my coach I told her I would do all to almost all of what I had down and we will se how it goes.
Monday I did most 1300 yards out of 1500 yards of my swim training. I say only most because I forgot the piece of paper describing the workout and I couldn't access it off my phone. Today I did most of my run I only managed 4 of the 6 last hill workout and I walked most of the recovery because man a 9% incline on the treadmill is steep. Today I learned that I'm going to have to put my pride in my pocket and focus on my HR instead of my speed. I'm doing most of my runs at 80-100% of my max HR.
Tomorrow since I have a parent teacher conference I will do 30-40min of my bike session.
Since the pool is closed no ealy AM swim (thank god!) so I will combine my friday run with a weight training and do 30-40 min run and 30 min weights.

Besides that work is still completely crazy! I'm hoping it is going to calm down a bit before the second wave hits.
Home is going well. The kids are behaving somewhat. We have been doing a lot as a family so that is nice.
I received my boots but instead of making my legs look nice and long it makes me feel small and sturdy so I will be returning them which is kindof good actually.

Should be working ...

It is 9:45pm we just finished dinner and instead of blogging I should be working. I have sooo much stuff to do but hey there will always be sooo much stuff to be done.

So I was really good at not spending too much money on myself but I fell off the wagon big time. In the past few weeks I bought myself a pair of birkenstock, a purple purse, a dress and legging. So anyways my shopping spree didn't end at there and today I found a pair of over the knee dark gray boots from Kenneth Cole. I did find them on sale though which made the purchase a little easier.

Anyways on the spending front I decided to hire a coach for a few months and see what turns out. I'm excited and a little anxious as well. Then I do have to register for my 3 races Sprint Spring in May, SDIT end of June then US Women mid october.

But I have to admit I haven't done anything since the half marathon. Well we did walk last sunday does that count? I did pack my running stuff this morning but of course a lot of work and little motivation took care of that and tomorrow well I'm pretty sure Dim Sum will just win.

I was looking forward to some special bonding with my bike but I'm afraid that again this will be postponed to next week end! I will go for a run or/and a bike ride this week end!