Oh, Hi!

As I say at the beginning of all posts recently, I apologize for my absence! Law school definitely interfered with life for a minute there. However, I can now happily say that that problem won't happen again! I got hooded yesterday!



It was awesome! I now have two months of intense studying before I sit for the bar in late July, and then I'll be a real attorney! (But please don't ask me about your legal problems! I can't give you advice over the internet!)

Anyway, since my last post (seven months ago!), so much has happened. I won't bombard you with everything now, but there's been a lot of racing, a lot of training, and a lot of traveling. I'll get you caught up soon!

At the moment, I'm just finishing up my first week of Ironman training. Yep, Ironman! I know it's insane, being I just started running a year and a half ago, but I know I can do it if I stick to the training. I'm a pretty fierce chick! I was looking for a fall race, and I found an iron-distance triathlon in Maryland in September called ChesapeakeMan.



I'll actually be living in DC in September (Yes, I'm moving! Another story to tell...), so it's quite convenient. I started a 20-week training plan from BeginnerTriathlete.com on Monday, and I'm loving it so far. It's hard work--don't get me wrong--but I love training. Since Monday, I haven't really been able to do anything except sleep, eat, drink water, and rack up mileage. Seriously, if I sit down for more than five minutes and am not eating or drinking water, I fall asleep, no matter where I am. It's crazy! I hope it gets easier in subsequent weeks!

So far, training has gone like this:

Monday: run and swim
Tuesday: bike and run
Wednesday: swim
Thursday: long run
Friday: bike and swim
Saturday: REST!

Tomorrow I have a long ride, and then Monday starts Week 2, which follows nearly the same pattern. The workouts are specific as to time and/or distance, but I can get into that later.

Honestly, I had almost completely forgotten how much I love triathlon training. I spent all of last summer training for a fall triathlon too, Ironman 70.3 Augusta, and never in my life did I feel healthier. I was eating right, training a couple hours a day, practicing yoga regularly, and I felt like I just glowed all the time.

Even when I was dirty!



Although I've been consistently training for endurance running events since Ironman 70.3 Augusta, I've slowly let myself go. I ate junk for a couple days after my race because I felt like I deserved it, and then I never really stopped. I pretty much quit biking and swimming. I practiced yoga maybe once a week, but I was mostly just going through the motions. Despite the fact that I trained for and ran two marathons and a 50K ultra-marathon between then and now, I quickly became out of shape. Fast forward to a couple weeks ago, and I was forced to confront the fact that I had put on almost fifteen pounds and could barely walk up a flight of stairs. It was definitely time to start triathlon training again!

I'm not going to post a picture of me now, which would essentially be a picture of what I consider to be "Overweight Me." I could, but I don't want to give anyone the wrong idea. I'm overweight for what I consider to be a good racing weight, and the subject of healthy weight is definitely one where your mileage may vary. Healthy for me isn't about what my body looks like but what it can do, and, right now, it can't do anything!

I'm hoping to drop between fifteen and twenty pounds before ChesapeakeMan in September, and I don't imagine it will be too difficult. I lost two pounds in the first week! The workouts are only getting harder, and I'm just going to keep eating better. I'm eating about 80% raw at the moment, and I'm absolutely loving it. I know I don't talk about food much on this blog, despite it's title referencing my choice of diet, but I certainly will if anyone has any questions about what it's like to train for an Ironman as a mostly-raw vegan. Just ask!

The last thing I'll address today in order to get you mostly caught up is a new and important character in the story of my life. My darling, Rusty.



Rusty and I have been dating since last fall, and I have a feeling you'll be hearing a lot about him in the future. He currently lives in Baltimore for work, so he and I regularly travel between here and there so that we can spend as much time together as possible. Also, I totally got him addicted to running, so you'll get to hear about his races, too, from the perspective of a spectator!

That's all for today. I have to go clean my apartment--my landlady already wants to start showing it to people, even though I'm not moving out until July!

Long time, no talk

Hello, readers! My apologies for my absence as of late! My schedule is just not conducive to blogging these days. Hopefully it'll ease up in August after I move (yay!)!

Maybe I do neglect the blog, but there's definitely something I don't ever neglect... Yep. It's training! Things have been crazy, and they're just getting crazier. I like sticking to plans though. It's like an addiction. Check out my recent schedule.



I've had a couple amazing runs recently! I've also had a couple not-so-amazing runs, but that just happens from time to time. As a new runner, it's still really hard for me to decide whether to suck it up and push or whether to ease my pace and relax, but I usually sort it out in my head before I'm totally out of steam.

FYI: When I say that it's really hard for me to decide whether to push harder or whether to slow down, I mean it's REALLY hard. I hate admitting weakness; I'm one of those people!

This morning, for example, I was scheduled to do a smooth 3-miler, but after biking 15 miles with my roommate last night, my legs were just not working with me. I had to walk a couple blocks around mile 1.5 and again around 2.5. As it was happening, I was so embarrassed. I never walk on my short runs. I hung my head for most of the day until I could talk to some other runners about the experience, and they were able to ease my mind a bit.

"Sometimes it happens, and it happens to everyone."
"People can't be ready to run strong 24/7/52/365/whatever."
"We're human."
"We have good days and bad days."

It doesn't mean that your training is down the toilet or that you're some sort of failure. It just means that that day is not your best and that tomorrow will be better. Keep on truckin'.

Running humbles me. Daily.

So... Let's talk about upcoming events! I have a couple races coming up, as you might have seen on the schedule above.

First, there's the Magnolia Run this Saturday.



It's a 4-mile run a few miles north of the city. Should be pretty flat and fast--I think it'll be a nice change of pace.

Then, next Saturday, there's Muddy Buddy!



Oh yes, my darlings! I'm doing another mud race! This one is a bit different than the Warrior Dash because you do the whole thing with a buddy. You and your buddy have one bike between the two of you that you share throughout the race. There are 6 1-mile legs, all separated with obstacles. For each leg, one buddy runs while the other one bikes, and then you switch running and biking at each obstacle. You don't have to do all of the obstacles together, but you have to do the last one together, which is crawling through mud! Woohoo!

I'm doing the race with my friend Rusty, who recently moved to Baltimore but is coming back to do Muddy Buddy.

My roommate Jessica is doing it, too. She's buddying with our friend Patrick. Our friends Paul and Emily are going to be buddies, as well! It's going to be SO. MUCH. FUN.

Here are some pictures of the buddies. This is Paul, Rusty, and Patrick:



This is Paul, Emily, and Jessica:



There's going to be some serious craziness on the course!

Getting triathalon-readier

I'm getting better at biking, and it makes me so happy! Granted, I still ride slower than molasses, but I'm upping my distance a bit with each ride, which is cool.

Yesterday evening, the darlin' and I set out and rode 15 miles.



That's farther than the distance I'll be riding in my first triathalon in August!

Completing a triathalon was the first fitness goal I set for myself. The triathalon I'm doing is on August 14, about a week before my 27th birthday!



It's a short sprint triathalon, with just a 400m swim, a 13.6-mile bike ride, and a 5K run. I'm nervous about it, even though I know I shouldn't be. I'm going to incorporate an 8-week triathalon training program into my marathon training starting June 28th. Until then, I'm just going to continue building up my strength and speed in the different events.

You can see my triathalon training plan here.

I started with a Hal Higdon triathalon training plan and worked it around my marathon training. It's going to be complicated, but I don't think it's going to be impossible. Actually, I think it's going to be amazing!

There aren't words for how proud of myself I'm am now. I never thought I'd even get this far! I thought it would take me a year to get fit enough just to finish a triathalon, and, here it is, a few months later, and I can already complete all of the events separately!

It's an amazing feeling.

I'm not just going to complete the triathalon; I'm going to DOMINATE.

I'll leave you a picture of another favorite veggie shirt. :-)

And thus commences uber-training

So, I'm all good and signed up with my Team in Training for the Nike Women's Marathon! $3900 sure is a daunting fundraising goal! I know I can do it, but it's going to be tough. I'm going to need so much support from my friends and family!

I'm going to use the Jeff Galloway training plan to prepare for the race. (More info about the Jeff Galloway plan here). Basically, you run three days a week with your Sunday run being your long run, and the length of the long run varies until you reach 26 miles.

You can see my marathon training plan here!

You may notice that the race plan has 28 weeks in it; I did this because I'm including this current week, in which I intended to include a 5-mile long run anyway. You may also notice a lot of things in parentheses. These are other events I have scheduled on those days that will necessitate training modification. I don't think my other races or my triathalon will cause too many problems--nor will my trip to Comic Con in San Diego because we'll be at a hotel with a treadmill--but my volunteer work in Haiti might cause some problems! We'll just have to see.

Combining my marathon training with my triathalon training will be interesting. My schedule for next week will look something like this. I imagine future weeks will look like this, too.



Because I'm starting a new training program that I'm sure will prove to be unduly demanding in the next couple of weeks, I decided to give myself a break today! I still went to my afternoon vinyasa yoga class (LOVE!), but I didn't run, bike, or swim at all. It was lovely!

I slept in a bit, and I started my day with some of my mom's FANTASTIC vegan cornbread. These are leftover from Easter. SO GOOD! A little Earth Balance makes everything better, too!



For lunch, I had chana masala and quinoa. I love chana masala. I would eat it every day of the week if I could! I find it too heavy on days I'm exercising, though. I really only crave it most on my days off.



I also had a slice of my mom's awesome vegan carrot cake, also leftover from Easter. She sure knows how to please a vegan! It's. So. Good.



Now, I'm munching an apple, some walnuts, and some baby carrots while I attempt to pay attention in my fascinating entertainment law class! I know I shouldn't be blogging in class, and I swear I'm really a good student! We're talking about talent contacts for new artists, and I've already covered it in another class. :-)

Increasing mileage and getting stronger

Last week I had an awesome 15-mile week, and this week I achieved my goal of a 16.5-mile week! I feel so strong!

One of the biggest rules that I read consistently in running materials is to only increase mileage by 10% per week (check out this article for more information about the golden mileage rule.) That means next week I could increase to 18 miles, but I think I probably won't. I'm going to do 4 3-mile runs and a 5-mile run, similar to this week, adding up to 17 miles. Even a 10% increase weekly now is too much for me--I'm going with the slow-and-steady plan! Even though I feel stronger, I like to feel comfortable with my mileage before I push it further. I probably won't increase until I can master the 5-miler. That's my monster.

Also, I have to get back to swimming and biking! I've been avoiding swimming recently because now that it's warmer, the pool has been much busier than it was during the winter. I know I just need to get to the gym earlier, but I like to run in the mornings, not swim. Excuses, Excuses!

I'm going to swim tomorrow. I am. My workout schedule this week looks like this:



I'm going to stick to it, too!