Swim Like A Whale!!

11/13/12

This evening I met up with Marvin to swim at his apartment complex. Considering my last swim experience was not the greatest, I was a little nervous. I warmed up with a 100 and then Marvin watched me swim and broke down every part of my freestyle stroke to help me swim efficiently. Basically, I was biking with my legs, my hands were not always cupped, my right arm is more exaggerated than my left stroke, I need to keep my chin down, and slice the water with my pinkie fingers facing up!

While trying to keep all of these different things straight in my head, I swam a 400 while Marvin watched me and gave me pointers on what to fix and focus on. I am so thankful he spent time to help me break down the stroke piece by piece so I could understand what I was doing wrong. After that we swam a 500, very slow, then a 250 sprint ( 25 sprint, 25 freestyle), 100 kick, 100 arm stroke, and cooled down with a 200. Today was one of my longest and hardest swims. I was really pushing myself and trying to focus on all of the different techniques Marvin pointed out. I am going to purchase a kick board soon to also help me out with drills! I feel like after what I learned today I am going to start kicking ass in the pool!

THANKS MARVIN!!!!!!!!!!!!! =D

PINK <3 MARVIN

Girls on the Run 5k - Mattoon

11/10/12

Saturday morning I woke up at 6 am on my only day off to drive from Arcola to Mattoon for a run! YIPPE! Bob and I met up at the YMCA in Mattoon and we ran a total of 8 miles, down Western, through Lane Acres, back down through Peterson Park back and around to the YMCA. The total run was 8.20 miles finished in 1:10 with an 8:36 average per mile. The run felt pretty good, my foot wasn't feeling too bad. Its funny what stories you can hear about another person's events. Not naming any names, peeing themselves during races. LOL!!!!!!

After the run, it was time for the Girls on the Run 5k! This run was so much fun!! =) There were so many young girls running with their coach, friends, and family.There were several people running their first 5k EVER! I saw my cousins running and many other people I knew. There were volunteers EVERYWHERE along the course encouraging everyone to finish strong. I ran pretty slow around a 27 minute finish time because I was already tired from the 8 miles. I stood towards the finish and cheered on all of the young girls and encouraged them to finish strong. What a great day for running! =)

PINK <3 ENCOURAGEMENT

Reality hits ya hard bro!

11/8/12

“One person's craziness is another person's reality.”
― Tim Burton

Tonight Valeria and I went to Nick's house to cycle to a training video. This was my first experience doing an indoor cycle with my bicycle. I really enjoyed the workout!!! I was a hot sweaty mess during the entire ride!!! The video consisted of a 5 minute warm up, followed by 30 seconds of sprint and 30 seconds at a steady pace for 5 minutes all the way down to 1 minute. After that, the video had us sprint for 2 minutes, rest for two minutes 5 times. This was pretty rough by the 5th time, my legs were getting really tired! The sweat continued to pour and I continued to push through the rest of the workout with a 5 minute cool down.

This is a great workout, especially during the winter while it is cold and snowy outside. YUCK! I really look forward to the next time we meet for another workout. Reality hit me hard while we were talking about Nick's experiences during his Ironman events. Its going to take so much strength, energy, and endurance on all levels mentally and physically! I hope I know what I'm getting myself into, lol. There are a lot of emotions running through my mind, but I am loving every minute of it! 

PINK <3 CRAZINESS

Out of steam...

11/6/12

Tuesday evening was a rough one. After I finished work, I headed to Mattoon to meet bob for a run. Since it was raining and cold outside, we decided to run on the treadmills at the YMCA. We finished a 3.5 mile run, which did not make my foot happy, stupid dreadmill. While sweat was dripping from my hair, I raced over to Pam and Chris's house to meet Lindsay and Brooke for Mitch's visitation. It was a LONG 2 1/2 hour line, but it was well worth it to say our goodbyes. I spent the evening over at Christy and Greg's house, I was definitely feeling a glass of wine and starved from our run!

11/7/12

I woke up after only 4 1/2 hours of sleep at 5 am to attend Bob's spinning class at the YMCA. I was definitely not prepared, because my Vibram shoes were the worst idea for spinning! It KILLED my foot so I only put about 75% of my total effort into the workout. I am excited for the next time I can come to the class, because I love spinning, I miss when I used to do it at Gold's Gym before they closed. After spinning, we saw Lane running on the dreadmill so we chit chat with him for a few minutes until I decided to kick Bob's butt with an ab workout! It was kind of commical because he doesn't do any other working out besides run, bike swim. We spent about 30 minutes ripping our abs! =)

This evening I went to Marvin's indoor pool with Kodi. We began the workout with a 250 warm up, which I was already exhausted from lack of sleep and my other work outs. I spent the next 30 minutes half assing a few drills. Poor Marvin and Kodi were trying to teach me out to improve my breast stroke and a few other drills. I ended up just being very frustrated and tired and decided to bail. Marvin promised to help me one on one with my strokes next swim, so hopefully I will be in a better mood!

I feel like I have been running nonstop, so tonight I am sitting on the couch and relaxing! I truly appreciate everyone helping me train and achieve my goals on my journey to becoming an ironman!

PINK </3 TIRED

Rattlesnake 5k - Urbana

11/4/12

I woke up (on time with the time change) feeling strong and confident today, so I decided to complete the Rattlesnake Mater 5k in Urbana, IL this morning. I'm not gonna lie though, I was feeling a little nervous on the drive over, because if you read up, my last experience at the fun run was not a good one. I could not even complete the second loop of the 3 mile. So I went into the race telling myself, Alicia, don't over do it, don't push it to the MAX, you don't need to PR (which is what I usually think), just finish the 5k safe and without hurting your foot! After my mental talk, I did my "warm up" by jogging to the signup under the pavilion. I thought about not wearing my wrap on my foot, but I figured better safe than sorry, so I put it on as I was registering.

The 5k began with us running the route backwards of what we normally run during the fun run. I was super excited because this was my first run with my new GPS watch, which was VERY accurate! This was my first time running this route, which was very nice, I even enjoyed running on the grass for the last half mile. I sprinted to the finish as I saw the clock and finished at 23.34. I ended up winning 1st place in the female 20-29 division, so I was very happy!! I remember my first 5k at the Illinois Marathon in 2009 when I finished with 23:36. I thought I would NEVER beat that time, because it wasn't until this June in Tolono where I FINALLY beat it. I was in complete shock with this finishing time, because I thought if I finished around 25 minutes I would be happy, considering I didn't feel like I was running that fast.

The after race party was a blast! Amber and I had hot chocolate and chocolate doughnuts to keep warm and refuel! =) It was so nice to see all of my running friends and being able to watch them finish, since I am usually the last one, LOL! Congrats to everyone who placed, finished, and PR'ed at the race today! It was great to see Stephen, Mike, Ryan, Corey, Amber, Nikki, Valeria, Sarah, Michelle, Andrea, and everyone else who I may have forgot, sorry! I have to give a special thanks to Ryan for holding my key too! =)

For breakfast we made a reservation for Bob Evans and it was DELICIOUS! I had french toast, bacon, eggs, and hash browns. Everyone seemed to enjoy their breakfast and the conversations were even better! Like Amber said, NEVER compare your pets to other people's children, haha, whoops! I am looking forward to the winter Marathon training with all of my new friends! I will be  praying for a mild winter for all of us, because I hate the cold!!!! 

PINK <3 RACING

Slowly Recovering

11/1/12

Today I broke in my November calendar with a 4.12 mile run with an 8.32 pace and an overall time of 35:08! (I'm not sure if my "bathroom pit stop" was in those numbers or not, LOL! Bob and I ran in Mattoon from his shop down the bike trail and back. During the run I was feeling pretty strong with our first mile timing around 8.06. The rest of the run Bob and I had good conversations about previous events with running and triathlons. It is so awesome I have someone to help me train for such a major event! Bob gave me a book I plan on reading this weekend about a man's journey to the Louisville, Ironman. I am definitely interested in reading another person's perspective of this event! He has also given me a little insight on his "eating habits" and I am embarassed to even say all the crap I eat, haha! I don't eat terrible, but about 75% of the time I eat like a 10 year old adult! Anyways, ike I have said, I am either going to die trying or crawling across the finish line. Either way, I am going to become an Ironman!!!!!!!!! =D

PINK <3 TRAINING PARTNERS

Just Keep Swimming

10/30/12

Today was a successful day at the pool! Once again I have to thank Marvin for kicking my butt into shape! This swim was definitely a lot easier than the first time. We began the swim with a 100 slow warm up, followed by a 250 which I timed at 6 min 45 sec. I was very happy with that time, considering I wasn't pushing myself for time. 

Next, we did a few drills where you flutter kick on your back for a 100 and the same on your stomach for another 100. I was feeling pretty awesome until we decided to do the "frog kick" where I basically kept drowning myself. LOL! Marvin did his best to help me, I was supposed to complete a 100, but I lucky to finish the 50. We finished the workout with a 500, my second time completing this distance I timed at 13:45. I felt really strong during this distance, which last time I had to stop in between for about a minute to catch my breath. I also did less breaststroke/backstroke and more freestyle through this 500. 

Overall, we swam about 1100M in 50 minutes. I am looking forward to my next swim with Marvin! He is talking about swimming for two hours, so God help me please! 

Also, I have made up my mind on two upcoming races. I am going to compete Sunday at the Rattlesnake 5k and in November the Santa Chase half marathon. I am going to try to keep my running to a minimum in order to keep my foot safe, but I am not going to completely stop. I REFUSE! So even if I have to jog or walk the half marathon, I think it would be a good training to have at least one long distance under my belt before the Illinois Marathon 2013.

PINK <3 STAYING STRONG