wounded ego and sore legs...

I haven't posted in a very long time. So what happened in my oh so glamorous life in the past week. I have started to train with a purpose since I am pretty sure (90%) that I will participate in the Spring Sprint Triathlon May 3rd. I am still not too sure about my ability to complete this event to my satisfaction. I'm hoping I am not raising the bar too high we will see. I have yet to register.
I have also switched my workout schedule around a little and decided to try to work out 3 days a week early. Unfortunately this means that I am going to have some painful runs since I am really sluggish in the morning. I hope it isn't going to take too long to get used to.
However as much as running in the morning is hard, swimming is a pleasure. At 6:45am, the pool is empty, the cool temperature outside made the pool surface foggy. Loved it!
Today I went for a long bike ride, well long to my standards 27 miles. I got lost several times in Rancho Santa Fe. It was really nice but now my legs are really tired. Running tomorrow is going to be interesting. That is for the tired legs part of the title. The wounded ego is due to the fact that I wasn't able to unclip my pedals fast enough and ended up falling of course in front of several cars. I hate when this happens ;)

Surf stud

B went surfing today like every day and got lucky to have his picture taken by a professional photographer.

Since I'm always yapping about my athletic prouesse or what I think are prouesses here are some pictures. I am so proud of him.

On another note I posted a question on my gotribal (the women triathletes group I just joined) forum asking whether or not I should participate to the Spring Sprint triathlon in early May or postpone to another one taking place end of June. The answer was an overwhelming do it now. Now I have no other way out than doing the one in May. I want to make sure though that my training doesn't soak up my time with my family.

Dear god I will never dare posting should I do an Ironman?

One of the members answered do both, which I would admit I thought about, and she said that she did two ironmen back to back and 3 other ironmen the following month. Then she added that she wasn't an athlete. Lady news break someone who can finish an ironman is an athlete ;)

Today I ran 3.1 miles outside. First time I was able to not walk but it was still very hot. Next week I will start moving some of my workouts early morning to avoid the heat get things out of the way.

Where did the good resolutions go?

I'm talking about my long todo list to finish before guest arrive! Hahahah we stopped a while back and the guest bedroom is a mess of miscelleanous items, the garage not better, the faucets not changed because I'm the one who says there will always been next week.
Instead what have we done this week end. On friday, in between two lines of code I joined a group of women triathlete. For those of you who know me I am what is called an introvert which means I really don't like group especially group of people that I don't know. But since they have this mentor/mentee relationship I thought I could get some good advice and make the whole thing a little less intimidating. That night I went to the meeting and it was really nice. I met several people and hopefully will be able to schedule some workouts with them. I also got convinced to participate to the spring sprint triathlon in May.
On saturday we went to a store selling really nice guitars. B is turning 40 and has shown some interested in getting a new guitar. We took the kids to the store and we saw sooo many cool stuff, electric guitar, ukulele of all shape, mandoline, banjos etc.... The kids had a blast. Then we went to the beach grass cafe for breakfast.
After that we came back home and while the kids went down for a nap I put my new pedals and shoes and went for a short 9 miles bike to be followed by a 3 miles run.
Hey if I'm going to do a triathlon in May I wanted to see what it feels like to run after a bike ride. Well it is really really hard. I started, stopped went back to the house compained and went out the door again and ran 1.7miles. This means that I'm gonna have to start running after biking to get use to the transition.
Sunday was crazy, I had to go in to work at 7:30am for 2 hours. We took the kids to their swimming lesson. MEC loves to jump in the water it's too funny to see herself launch. MAC had the teacher for himself since the other kids were gone. Then we went to a little birthday party. We had friends over for dinner and I made filet mignon with red wine sauce, mash potatoes, salad and a pear upside down cake.
Today since I didn't feel like running, my legs are still sore from saturday, I went for a 40 minutes swim and I managed to finish 1500yards. I still have to be a faster biker and swimmer.
I'll try to do my first open water swim either this week end or next week. Depending on the feeling I have I will sign up for a sprint end of june.
Now I'm going to bed cuz I'm really really sleepy

Who am I kidding?

Today my dear B picked up my new triathlon wetsuit. Well second hand but new to me. I tried today and it is soooo tough to put on. I have no idea how I am going to take the darn thing off in a timely fashion if I am ever to compete.
The guy who sold it to us told me his wife didn't really like the cold water and being kicked! Just great.
I spent an hour watching clips on how to transitionned from swimming to biking and then some more clips about ironman. The latter is pure madness and I will say without shame I am NOT interested in doing one EVER! However I am secretly toying with the idea of a half ironman. I know it won't be for a long time since you need time to train for those things and time is hard to come by these days!
Today I did go swimming. I have to admit I don't know how many laps I did since my small brain has a real hard time keeping count. I would say probably around 1100 yards in 30 minutes.
On the girlie front I did receive my Frye flats and they are adorable. I am really happy to have chosen them over the boot. I know already that I will wear them a lot. Now I need to actually slap the return label on the box, fill out the return slip and send the boots back!
Tomorrow is running. Given the temperature at lunch I may go for a late afternoon run which is probably going to collide with B's evening run. I need to rework my work
out schedule a little.
I hope to get my new bike shoes before the end of the week so I can try them on this week end. I also absolutely have to learn how to do basic fixes on my bike... I'm still asking B to pump my tires Lame!
On the home front I have to confess that my laundry skills suck big big time!.
I hate it I hate it I hate it I hate it... Do you think that if I repeat that sentence enough time it will magically get folded and put away on its own. Lets hope lets just hope.

Thoughts

I have been back on the motivation train to at least train as if I was going to compete in triathlon any time soon. I have had a little cash and bought new bike shoes with the cleats and pedals to go with them, I joined the triathlon club of San Diego and found a wetsuit second hand to try to motivate and push me to go swim in the Cove.
I hate wasting money so I will either resale that stupid wetsuit or actually start swimming in the ocean.
This week was the week I was getting back in my training routine. I did run a very painful 3 miles yesterday and was planning on swimming today. Unfortunately my poor son was sick. He came to our bedroom crying this morning at 6:30pm and asking when it will be morning time. He couldn't sleep because of a headache! He was diagnosed with a sinus infection thus B and I shared the day. I went to work in the morning and worked from home in the afternoon and he did the other shift.
I hope the antibiotic work pronto pronto so that he can go back to school. I know I sound like a bad mom but balancing work and sick kids is really tough!
Besides that yesterday I cooked some tritip that I marinated in olive oil, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice and garlic. Unfortunately the meat was smelly and ended up in the trash! B made asparagus to go with that and I made a black olive, tomato,mozarella salad.
We ended up eating the veggies and some chicken wontons from TJ.
At lunch since I wasn't going to exercize I cooked myself the easiest bestest soup which is zuchini soup. Boil some water add some zuchini (either the green kind or the yellow squash). Cook until tender. Remove the water. Blend it until smooth add a little cream and salt.
All the benefits of eating soup for lunch were nullified by the vanilla cake (or should I say butter cake) I made with MAC this afternoon. I had to lick the batter and try a little piece. Yum Yum....
Tonight we have homemade pizza. Tomorrow hopefully I'll make it to swimming pool and release that extra tension that I tend to accumulate.
On the shopping front, I decided to embrace my modern chic style or should I say Audrey Hepburnish. I have to resolve myself to the fact that I am not office sexy trotting on 7 inch heels (do they even exists) type of woman. I am confortable in pants, heels and most of the time flats. I'm also not the classic slightly boring look and thus decided to trade the pair of camper boots against a pair of ballet flat.
I still need to find a few pairs of slim fitting pants for the summer and I will be all set!

So a week ago I finally decided to spend some of my "bonus" money to buy myself a pair of Camper's boot. The fact that they were on sale helped too. I was super excited but when I put them on I felt bleh. They are nice and all but I don't really wear skirt, I live in a place where it is hot most of the time. So I decided to return them. I saw a pair of cute flats a while back but of course my husband pointed out to me that I already have a bunch of flats thus it isn't a great choice.
On top of it he likes heels better. Unfortunately I am in a more down to earth kind of mood lately and I am trying to embrace my modern chic style as would put it Bunny and flats sound much more apealing then heels.
I am going to return the boots ;( and will hang on to the money until I find something really nice to spend it on. I suspect that I will buy that pair of FRYE flat I have been eyeing for a while or maybe something else.
My second purchase from that bonus money was a new pair of bike shoes, cleats and pedals. Since I'm a little on the cheap side I voted no for the 120$ pair of shoes and opted for the 85$ on sale for 35$. Those will stay with me though.
On the exercize front I have decided to get back to my 4 days a week routine and kicked it off by a short but somewhat intense (by my standard) bike ride. I felt my legs all sunday. Today I went for a 3 mile run at lunch which left me very very comatose all afternoon. I know it will get better I just know I have to do it more!
Tomorrow I go swimming, wednesday running then thursday swimming.

Cooking spree

Yesterday I had craving for new foods so I decided to try to make a Chicken Pad Thai. I have not been able to win the asian food recipe. I am decent at the dumplings, we did make some sushi at home that were good, I can do some currys and simple asian. I however suck at stir fry and thai food in general.
I found a recipe on the williams sonoma website which seemed fairly simple. It was good a little dry. In other word I wouldn't trade the spices thai one for mine!

I think we will have a japanese evening soon at the coon a) because I want to drink sake and b) because I found some very very tempting recipe. I will have to be good and write down the exact ingredient.

Yesterday I prepped some pork to make carnitas. For once I used my slow cooker, and let this huge pork shoulder simmer all night long in mexican lager, orange juice and lime juice. Since I have a ton of meat I decided to invite my neighbors to share this mexican dinner with us.
I have some fresh tortillas, avocado to make fresh guacamole, some chipotle to make a creamy chipotle sauce and some rice with some cilantro like at chipotle. I will make a salad to get some green.
Stay tune for some more cooking adventures.