I know – lame excuse for my absence. Pinky promise that it will not be a reoccurring trend.

I’m sure what you all REALLY want to know is who won the compression sleeves?? Drum roll please…..

KIM!! She blogs over at “Teta means Booby in Spanish” … aptly named from when she was training for Ironman Cozumel in 2009. Chica – please email me your address (drtrirunner at gmail dot com) and I will get them on their way to you asap!

That’s all I have time for now… CLASS in 10 min. Ugh.

-E

But that does confirm that: yes, I am still here. Possibly buried under a stack of PubMed articles and lab reports, but here none the less. I have had pretty much zero guilt or shame in admitting that the blog has been at the very bottom of “the list” this semester… that is until my amiga Betsy over at Earning My M-Dot called me out in one of her posts for slacking. And then Susan, my long lost friend in NY emailed me saying she was coming to Minneapolis and where the truck was my blog?

Guilt is a powerful emotion. Guilt about skipping that long ride because you were SPENT from being at the office till way late the night before. Guilt about not being cleared to play in your stupid 1-credit tennis class, when your doctor is clearing you to run as much as you please. (You’re a LINEAR athlete!! Don’t risk it for something so small!) Guilt that the Twins just lost 10-5 and yes I did just snap on someone unintentionally. (Oh… guilt that this was written last week and never hit publish? Twins won their last two games BTW.) Guilt that yes, that is a Costco sized box of Starbursts in my drawer. (Cheap, long ride fuel?!) And then it crept in – guilt from blog neglect.

I’ve still been reading though – I know that Julia went on a sick training trip, Betsy is planning (are you serious??) a freaking amazing racing/spectating trip, Steve is an overunder pronator and yes damnit we will ride soon, my teammate Matt posted a SOLID  race at Oceanside 70.3. I haven’t been able to post, but I’m definitely still reading!

ANYWAYS. Long story short, this is my life right now:

[ETA: we're back to the current date - April 19th.) There are a total of 16 days until my last class of the semester, and then ONE WEEK of finals with my Ex Phys exam on the last possible day – Friday May 13th (we can’t all be lucky) – and then I’m donnnnnne!!

Or at least done for 9 days until my May term class starts. Don’t feel too sorry for me – it’s PE 1012: Beginning Running. And my LAST PE course ever of my Kinesiological education. ( <- That’s the outcome of my degree. “Kinesiological.” Really?) I will, however, accept condolences from July 4th through August 4th when I’m sitting through 4 hours a day / 4 days a week / for 4 weeks of intensive Physics. I think I just threw up in my mouth a little…

Training? It’s going. I had probably the slowest ride of my life yesterday, but I’ve also had lots of great rides so I’ll write that one off as “one of those days” and move on. I’ve also been swimming consistently – 95% of which is contributed to having someone to consistently swim with! Running…? Not quite ready to comment on that one just yet. The racing season will be here in a blink of an eye though, so I better own up and take whatever I’ve got!

If you guys can just hang with me for sixteen more days… I promise my life will be about 75% less packed and stressful, and we can hang out like we used to back in the old days. In a shameless attempt to KEEP any readers that I may still have, I’m going to be posting a giveaway sometime this week, so make sure you check back! I have several to give away, and they rhyme with depression leaves. Only they have nothing to do with Prozac or botany.

Reader Qs:

Can I get a quick collective rundown from the people who are still out there – how is training going? What races do you have coming up? (I know a lot of you have already started competing – how did the 1st of the year go?) Any big trips – racing or otherwise – to look forward to this summer?

Train hard, train smart, train often!

-E

(Sorry if I just offended anyone – of course there are plenty of amazing triathletes who are also great swimmers. But in the scope of the whole triathlete pool, let’s face it… >75% are more like manatees.)

[(Bad example - while manatee's usually swim around 5mph (still fast!), they can hit up to 15 mph in short bursts. And swim on their own an hour after being born. Thanks National Geographic!)]

ANYWAYS. I have gotten the sweet opportunity to witness a lot of amazing swimming, and it’s only just getting started. The University of Minnesota has had the honor of hosting this year’s NCAA DI Men’s National Swimming & Diving Championships! Today (Saturday) is the LAST day of competition, with prelims starting at 12:00 and finals beginning again at 7:00. There are around 50 schools competing, and they all remembered to bring their game – I lost count of how many new records have been set, but I expect more to come today! There are several students who have competed in the Olympics (and will be returning for 2012), so the bars are set high!

If any of you are in the Twin Cities metro and interested in checking out the REAL fish I’d encourage you to head over to the U of MN and check out the LAST day of competition!! Today schedule is:

NOON – PRELIMS

• 200-yard backstroke
• 100-yard freestyle
• 200-yard breaststroke
• 200-yard butterfly
• 400-yard freestyle relay
• platform diving (trials start at 1:30)
• 1,650-yard freestyle (all but last heat of time finals)

7:00 PM – FINALS

• 1,650-yard freestyle (last heat of time finals)
• 200-yard backstroke
• 100-yard freestyle
• 200-yard breaststroke
• 200-yard butterfly
• platform diving
• 400-yard freestyle

I know what I’m the most excited for… but truthfully this is all amazing, fast swimming! This is also a great event to bring your kids and get them excited about the sport of swimming. I talked to a couple little tater-tots last night who were standing front row about their favorite strokes, and you could see the excitement in their eyes. So if your free and in the area, come on down!

READER Qs:

If you’re a triathlete – did you swim growing up or not until you picked up tri? What is your favorite stroke?

I swam on a club team from 5th-8th grade, and varsity in 9th grade. Took three years “off” (in my strictly-running days) until my hip surgery forced me back in the pool! I usually swam breast and back when I was on the team, and actually hated free until I started swimming with my tri team. (Once in 9th grade my coach put me in the 500 free, and like 300 yards in I said &#%@ this! and started swimming breast. Hahahha he was heated!)

GO GOPHERS!

-E

Monday – 2 midterms
Tuesday – Paper due
Wednesday – Paper due
Thursday – 1 midterm
Friday – review for last exam on ….
Monday – LAST midterm!! (Sort of… there is another “midterm” project+presentation due a week later.)

Add to that, I found out about this amazing internship on Tuesday night. RIDICULOUSLY amazing. I haven’t been able to get my mind off of it!! And as it turns out, the deadline is TOMORROW. With all the exams and projects (and oh yeah… job? training?) I’ve had this week, I was definitely in one of those “are you kidding me?!” modes at seeing that. But please believe, there is no way in hell I’m letting this opportunity pass me by without even trying. So immediatiely following my Human Physiology exam today, I will be writing a cover letter. A jaw-dropping cover letter. During Motor Development lecture.

Sometime you gotta do what you gotta do. And you might as well have a positive self-efficacy attitude while you’re at it!

Leaving the gym this morning at crazyearlyo’clock, the sky looked something like this:

Oh wait, you probably can’t even see that because my cell phone camera is worth about a nickel and a stick of gum. (Wanna trade?) But if you squint real hard, (and ignore the two UFO looking things my camera decided to throw in…) you will see a full moon in the distance. OK, a full full moon isn’t until this Saturday… but work with me here. After several years serving at a restaurant, I can say with 97% accuracy that crazy stuff happens with the full moon. People take other peoples’ orders… other peoples’ reservations…. the frequency of lying about your age to order alcohol skyrockets. I’m telling you – crazy stuff. I’m going to say that it’s due time for this full moon to mean crazy GOOD, in that I will kill my physiology exam today, I will rock that Sports Psych exam on Monday (as opposed to having it rock me…), my run today will feel effortless, and I will hear only good things from my sports med doc this afternoon.

Best news of all… my DAD is here from Philly!!

That’s what’s up. The end.

-E

What am I saying – NOT the end!! While working the Twin Cities Marathon expo a few weeks ago, I did a little networking, and met a representative from Arctic Ease. You might think I have a cryotherapy fetish or something after hearing me talk about all my icyhot, bags of ice + saran wrap, lunch box ice packs + head bands, etc. I’ve come up with some interesting solutions to icing while on the go. But Arctic Ease solved my problem, and they will solve YOURS too! They want you to be able to try their cold compression wraps, GRATIS. (That’s “free” my amigo.) Also known as: giveaway time. Look for my review and details to come!

Here’s we go:

You may recall me mentioning I was going to tag on some themes to the days of the week, in hopes that I might be able to post more. [*cough* Post more... mental note.] As a matter of fact… that’s the real reason you haven’t seen me since September 3rd. I’ve been so busy coming up with creative weekday themes.

MEDICAL Monday

See that Dr. part of my title? Mmm, yep. I’m still workin’ my way there. And because I am in the field of Kinesiology - also referred to as sports and exercise science, exercise physiology, exercise science, movement science, sport science…. I think you get the picture – my medical tidbits are likely to be weighted towards that area of interest. Which is fortunate for YOU because I believe about 97% of my readers either consider themselves an athlete or active on some level. It’s a win-win. I learn, I share, I do well on my finals. You learn, you…. well, you learn. The end. Kidding!! I know I have some other pre-med/pre-PT/pre-health professionals out there, right? Say hi!!

TRIED IT Tuesday

Reviews of all sorts – products, gear, workouts, you name it!

WORKOUT Wednesday

I don’t think you’ll need too much assistance with this one. Whether it’s new to me, or new to you, you can look for a new workout, drill, or activity to shake up the routine. Contrary to the beliefs of my youth ( ), just because your a runner, does not mean you should only run. In addition to swim sets, ladders on the track, and intervals, you’ll occasionally find new playlists or power songs. Lord knows I don’t mix music and running… but my underwater mp3 player changed my life!

THOUGHTS ON A Thursday

You already saw an example of this one a couple weeks ago. It was pretty random. It will continue to be pretty random, but I can promise there will always be thoughts of some sort involved. Given my outlook on this fall semester… don’t be surprised if you see findings in sports psychology, motor development, amazing accomplishments of the human body, or Big 10 and NCAA news. Then again, you could also wind up with Buffalo Jerky, Sports Illustrated, or a giveaway. Oooh the suspense.

Friday CONFESSIONALS

You didn’t think I’d let that go, did you? I know it breaks all the alliteration I had going, but Friday Confessionals is a well established tradition, and I think ‘Fess up Fridays’ sounds lame.

WHERE’D YA GO? Weekends

That is the million dollar question. Being that weekends are so cherished, and yet so short lived, I make an attempt to disconnect on Saturdays and Sundays. It’s my goal to spend those two days catching up with family, friends, teammates, and the big man up top. OK… and maybe a bit of homework.

Can you feel this surge of optimism? No post for two weeks… and now I’m laying out a weekly schedule?! Let me tell you, if there is one thing I have learned about myself over the years, it is that I function 110% better with a plan. Whether it be for school, for training, for my closet, or anything else… give me my color coded sharpies, my fancy-shmancy 3 ring binder, or my iCal, and let me Martha it up! (Can we make organization a Olympic sport, please? THAT, my tibia can handle.)

Another thing I’d like to feel out with this new surge of inspiration is upping YOUR contribution. That’s right buddy… I’m lookin’ at you. You might be a blogger, a reader who has never commented, a company, or anywhere in between. If there’s something you want to share – a guest post, a race, an organization, a product, let me know, and we’ll hop to it! I have met so many amazing people through Dr.TriRunner… and I just want to spread the love.

SO. If you have any ideas, anything to share, any question, send it on over! Either leave it in the comments section, or shoot it to me at drtrirunner [at] gmail [dot] com!

THREE DISCLAIMERS…

#1 – I just gave you a Monday through Friday. That does not mean I will be posting all of those days. In fact, I can tell it to you right now that there is no flipping way. Unless you want to give me college credit, or money. This “schedule” simplifies my life in that it a) enables me to write ahead of time and schedule some posts, and b) gives me a basis on where to START, rather than “oh wow, I have so much to catch up on I don’t even know where to begin…”

#2 – Just because I said I disconnect doesn’t mean I’ll never jump online or throw up a post. Don’t try and call me out if you see me tweet!

#3 – You can ask any question you want, but I wont promise I’ll answer it. There are somethings I can’t share just due to contracts, and there are some things I wont share cause ya’ll have thrown some crazy stuff at me in the past. I guess in sum, just don’t be afraid to ask. 97% of questions I’ve received thus far have come from common sense, or logical curiosity.

ALRIGHT.

Now that I’ve given you THE weekly rundown, I want to give you MINE. Maybe because I feel guilty for not posting for so long, but also because I want to share my schedule! It is WAY different than the schedule I was operating on during the summer, and WOW was it a rough adjustment. You will see that I have practice at 6AM, meaning my wake up time is 5 and I [am attempting to] go to bed around 9. In comparison to the summer when we didn’t even close the restaurant till 9:00, and I was lucky if I was ready to sleep at midnight. Yeah… first week was rough. Here’s what a week in my life might look like now…

I think you should be able to click it to enlarge. Why do I show you this? Two reasons… 1) to show you that it is possible to fit your work, schooling, kids, homework, fitness, church into your busy life. This doesn’t show some of my committments, like bible study, time spent on homework, or oh hey – time to relax? But it is doable. 2) To tell you that while I would love to say I make it to every single practice session, or every meeting or group I’m a part of, I don’t. Sleep is one thing I know that affects me more than anything else, and if I don’t get my sleep, 6am might not happen. I have finally learned the difference between ‘ahhh… but my bed is so warm!! It’s dark out!’ and knowing that a workout just wont be productive. I’d rather spend the hour catching up on sleep than wasting time in the gym not doing anything beneficial. Capish?

Because it is my first official Wednesday “with a schedule” … I leave you with a

WORKOUT Wednesday

And because I’m writing this from an elliptical, with a sport psych journal that I really should be reading, I’ll chose a quickie. My current POWER SONG of the moment… is Power, by Kanye West. Check it out!

POWER on YouTube

Reader Question: What’s your power song of the moment?

Hope I didn’t loose to many of you in the Dr.TriRunner drought! Catch ya SOON!

-Erika

First of all, IT issues. And that would be IT as in I – T, not it. If you’re reading via Google reader, you may not have noticed that my layout and heading have CHANGED. This was not exactly intentional, but in updating my previous theme, it wiped out my custom header and personalized settings. FAIL! However, it did force me to spruce things up a little around here. So if you’re reading ing Google Reader, please (!!) click on over and tell me what you think of the new header, the layout, what am I missing (?), and any other comments. Minnesota Nice comments though – that constructive criticism.   Here is what I have noticed, and would love your help if you are blogging/internet/html savvy and know how to fix it!

1. When you are on the main homepage, just reading the posts through scrolling down (versus clicking on each individual post), there is no link to leave a comment!?!? This used to be linked down by the tags, at the bottom of each post. How/where do I edit the html code to put that back in?
2. When I list things… the text is all squished together. I don’t like it. How could I make it 1.5 spaced like the rest of the text?

Um… that’s actually all I can think of that’s different. My pages tabs have moved to the right side bar, my “fueled by” sponsors/links have moved over to the right side, and so has my search bar… what am I forgetting about?

Just to note in the mean time, you CAN still comment! (haha, no pressure though.) You just have to on an individual post page (click on the title of the post) and scroll to the bottom. Frustrating, I know, but hopefully I’ll have it figured out soon!

OK, now we begin.

In all of seven days, I’m going to be renewing my student status and heading back to campus at my dearly beloved University of Minnesota. And trust me, this girl will not be dragging her feet. Summer 2010 will not exactly be looked upon “fondly” in my books. Alright, no B.S. – it was truthfully the worst summer I have ever had. I’m looking forward for this summer to be done, and I’m ready to just leave it at that – close the chapter, and turn a new page.

ANYWAYS.

What am I looking forward to other than summer ending? A lot. Copious amounts. Heaps, loads, MUCHO!! But for the sake of time (and your sanity) I betcha I can break it down to three:

SCHOOL

Yes. I am looking forward to school. Class. Homework. Cadavers, textbooks, exams – bring it. I know my major is the right fit for me because I get out of bed and I’m excited about it. Every. Damn. Day. And AMEN for that, because I went through that year and a half of unsureness when I started out doing architecture. (THROWWW BACK POST! I look so young! [Edit: that was only two years ago you doof!] I miss my dad!!!) And that’s OK – if I have any young guns out there going off to college (or still in high school!!), let me tell you two things. A) Say HI!! One of my new favorite people in the world left her first comment recently, and I love that girl! I want to hear from you!! Oh yea… B) You do not need to know what you want do do/be “when you grow up” when you go to college. That’s what college is for! Take classes outside your comfort zone. Use your general eds to explore different fields and see what really lights your fire. [That sounded dirty when I reread for editing. How old am I??]

On track… on track.

I’m excited and looking forward to school. Here is my schedule for the fall semester – classes only. I may or may not be adding on one more 1 credit class (another PE – Kines needs 5 to graduate, and I’m at 3) but I need to wait and see how some other things (that I’m also looking forward to!) pan out.

1. Into to Kinesiology. Yes. I am taking this way late in the game. Oops!
2. Sports Psychology.
3. Intermediate Swimming. Will get to do my own workouts, since the prereq for “intermediate” is “PE 1007 or equiv, proficient ability to swim 100 meters or instr consent.” 100 meters? I think I’ve got it covered.
4. Human Physiology + Lab
5. Motor Development Across the Lifespan
6. [Potentially.....] another PE, Monday nights, 6:45 – 8:30

TRAINING

It probably doesn’t blow your mind that I’m looking forward to training, but when you hear that I’m still not running… it might. Its true – I was SUPER down about not being able to run – pretty much this whole summer. And I’m definitely still bummed about that. But I am in the hands of some of the best sports medicine doctors the Twin Cities has to offer, and for that, I am so grateful. I feel so solid in the decisions I’ve made about racing and training this year, so solid in my coach, my goals, and the plans she has given me to help me reach them, and more solid than flipping Fort Snelling in having given this one over to God.

And also pretty solid in rocking my new prescription sleeve. It makes me feel like I’m almost still a runner. Did I mention I love my sports med team?

Note: nope – I’m not on the UMN XC team. Just a groupie. :/

MY FUTURE

I will tell myself over and over again, until it’s permanently engraved in my mind. I can do anything through Him who strengthens me. I’m entering the new school year with a good attitude, a solid head on my shoulders (jeeez, you’d think I like the word solid or something… [note the official sarcasm color]) and a strong hand of faith on my shoulder. There are plenty of opportunities out there just waiting to be seized, and oh man, do I plan on seizing. In fact, I plan on going pro at it, so watch out! This summer blowed, but that doesn’t mean the rest of the year has to.

Life is only what you make of it my friends. If you’re questioning whether or not your makin’ of it… I ask you this: If not today… then when? (That is a direct shout out to YOU mama bear! I love you!!)

Alright kiddos… [I do realize the majority of my readers are older than me... I should change that out. This editing-post-writing is a good thing. Highly recommended.] Scratch that. Alright compadres, it’s time to wrap. The Twins just beat the Tigers. The world is right. (Or is it solid..?) And it’s bedtime.

READER Qs: Are you tech savvy//very empathetic, and can help me fix my html to make the comment link reappear? What are you taking this semester if you are still in school? What was your favorite course in college if you are all done?

Sleep tight!
-E

Gonna let the photos do the talking here – I’m pretty much all talked-out for today. Essentially, I had a less than stellar race today: I couldn’t feel my feet until 15 minutes after the race ended, and I had a T1 that leaves me hoping I won’t be disowned by my family. Or Peace Coffee Racing. Or UMN TRI. So… definitely not my A-game. But I still placed (2nd in my AG), so it’s hard to complain too much. If you want more coverage from this weekend’s action, check these out:

Manitou 2010 Official Results Online

Minnesota Tri News’ Coverage

In terms of a race REVIEW, here’s what’s up: Manitou. Is. Awesome. The course? Awesome. The swag? Awesome. The fans? Awesome. The race organization/management? Awesome. The transition being closed for 1:45 before my wave even entered the water? Not so awesome, but I’ll plan for that next year. Yeah… NEXT YEAR! I’ll be back.

And before I get to the photos, I need to do a several major mad props shoutouts.UMN (University of Minnesota) TRI is really cleaning up this summer. Andrew Turner, David Preston, Cody Stadler, Sam Janicki, Tom Kandiko, Matt Dodds, Matthew Priess, Aaron Barlow, Claire Chandler, Tracy Powell, Megan Brandes, Susanne Gabrielson (reppin’ overseas!), and hey, I’ll throw myself in, Erika Sperl-Imhoff. Look out for these names. We’re comin’ at you.

Another big up to el chico, my boyfriend, who also raced today at Trinona and finished 7th overall (!!) and 3rd in his age group! It makes me nervous to do the same race as you…!

This is an exact copy of my album on facebook. All photo credit goes to my mamacita – I am so happy and thankful you came!! You should be able to click on the image for the full size. Hope you all had a lovely weekend. Ciao!

-E

THE. END.

Until 2011.

Fell asleep by about 10:30 pm last night, and the alarm went off at 5:00 am this morning. 6.5 hours obviously isn’t isn’t ideal, but it’s pretty good for the night before a race. That, and I was telling myself my 12.5 hours from Wednesday would hold me over a little bit. I had gone over my check list (which I will post soon, along with adding it to the Train On Top files!!) and all I had left to do was load my bike in the car, grab my coffee, and GO!

Taken at 5:42 this morning.

I drove up with Tom and Cody – two guys on my UMN Tri Team. Tom was nice enough to drive (the fact that bikes fit slightly better in his Pathfinder has nothing to do with it…) so I got to his house around 6:00, made a quick transfer of items from my Accord, and we were off! We took a slight detour on the way to the race, following someone with bikes on the back of their car thinking that they obviously know where they’re going. Until they turned into their garage… FAIL! We still got there in plenty of time, and pulled into the Long Lake Park lot just as many other athletes were arriving.

Myself, sandwiched between Pretty and Muscles. Hahahahha!

Re-attached wheels… gathered bags… and suddenly a wave of terror swept over me. “My helmet is in your trunk… right?” says the ingenious redhead who checked her check list three times. “Nottttt that I’m seeing…” says fellow teammate who now must really now I’m an idiot. REALLY!?! Who forgets their helmet?!? Oh wait.. the girl who also forgot her SHOES for the marathon. Awesome. At that moment, I was seriously thinking I was not going to be racing today. People bring spare goggles, they’ll let you borrow an extra watch, they’ll even share their body glide. But NO ONE brings an extra helmet.

Except Randy, the God-sent jolly man behind Vacation Sports who was putting on the race. In fact, he had several spares, for the rest of the numskulls who forgot this critical (and mandatory!!) item. So with that taken care of, I went to go set up in Transition.

After I racked up my bike and was heading off to warm up, I hear “Dr. TriRunner?” No joke guys.. this MADE MY DAY! I know there are at least a few regular readers, but it feels so awesome to know that there are local triathletes (or at least one!!) out there reading along! And it doubly made my day that he is a he, because for whatever reason my first assumption is that most of “you” are female. Not that I have anything against the ladies – nothing at all – but since 80% of my friends are of the male variety, it’s almost comforting to know some hombres are reading too.

This is getting wayy too long, and I haven’t even gotten to the race yet, so I’m going to [try to] keep it to the facts:

Pre-Race Fuel:

Gluten free apple cinnamon granola, and dried apple rings. New combo to me (don’t try anything new on race day…? pshhhh), and it was PERFECT!!! And delicious. Along with Tanzania Peace Coffee, of course!

Race Conditions/Gear:

Cloudy, off and on sprinkles, and somewhere in the mid 60s. Virtually NO wind. AKA ideal. Wore my QRoo wetsuit, Peace Coffee tri kit, and stripped to just my homemade PCR sports bra for the run. Haha – Sarah called me an overachiever? Made this on my “sick day” on the couch. Was glad I did, because I would have felt too hot running with the tri top on. This is the first time I’ve used a shoelace as a racebelt, after seeing this amazing lady do it, and let me tell you – LOVED it. I hate the feeling of anything extra around my waist, and you can’t get much more minimal than a shoelace. And of course Gomer and Rilo were in on the action.

I did take home-ec back in the day…

The Swim:

1/2 mile. Despite starting in the front of the pack, there was lots of face kicking and breast stroking going on. >:( Maybe I need to run out farther into the water? Oh wait.. here’s a better idea. Maybe I need to be more consistent with my swimming. Ding ding ding!! We have a winner. Anyways… I could feel myself getting frustrated on the way out. And then I reminded myself – this is essentially a free workout. I had a free race certificate, and I was sick all last week. I didn’t have expectations for this race other than to shake out the race nerves and have fun, and there was no way I was going to let negative thoughts take over. So I decided to take charge and slapped myself back into reality. Today will not be wasted was the mantra of the day. (Haha, yes. I am considering Sports Psychology.) With that mindset I went ahead, and felt like things finally settled down at turn around buoy. And the 1/4 mile swim back to shore honestly felt awesome. I have this “kayak theory” but I’ll post more on that later. Passed some wave 2 and 3 swimmers (I was wave 4)… which gave me some [possibly false] hope that maybe I’m actually a decent swimmer? Orrr maybe the wave 2 and 3 people that I passed, well, swimming just isn’t their strength.

T1:

Note to self… work on taking off wet suit!!

The Bike:

14 miles. Basically, I loved the course. There were a few hills, but they were all rolling. There were two girls on the Tri Kings team that, little did they know, really helped me push myself. We were passing each other back and forth, sometimes on an uphill, sometimes going down. I also took note of some really sick bikes out there, and some really amazing athletes riding them. I talked about training with your friends and using them as inspiration… and believe me, I drew in plenty of inspiration today. Felt good and strong throughout, and I know I’m not fast. I’ve accepted that [for now], and I know where to work.

T2:

Already had my shoe-lace-race-belt on… ripped off the helmet and threw on the hat, threw on my happy-feet shoes, and bounced! Would also like to make note that I was wearing the Sof Sole socks I won, and LOVE LOVE LOVE them. Felt like my feet were on clouds.

The Run:

5k. What I was really looking forward to. Despite the steel infused shins of yester-year, I was confident that today was a better day. Not going to hide this one… I passed 53 people on the run. Yes. I counted. It gave me something to think about during the run, but honestly, if I’m going to be a slow swimmer and biker, then damnit I’m going to be proud of my run. I know my mile splits weren’t anywhere near my “just running” 5k times, but I still ran sub 7s, and I still felt strong. And with that, I’m happy.

The Finish:

1:22:?? Says my watch… I’m waiting for official results online. I didn’t want to try and dig my way through the crowd of people that always surround the print-outs, so I just went for a cool down. With this guy!!

No, he didn’t race in basketball shorts. I made him put his sweaty jersey back on for the photo.

I didn’t know that another Peace Coffee Racing teammate was going to be here, so I was super pumped when I saw Justin before the start of the race. I went on a cool-down jog with him and some of his buddies, and called it a day!

THE. END.

The greatest thing about these early morning races (well, at least when they’re this short…) is that you’re DONE and home by like 10:30, and you have the whole day ahead of you. My mom called as I was driving back to la casa and asked if I wanted to  go to CostCo, to which I replied, damn straight (I do understand why learning English is so frustrating…), and I was home, unpacked, showered, and at her house within 45 minutes. We stopped for an obligatory coffee on the way, and hit Costco, Trader Joe’s, and the local Co-Op so she could get all the ingredients for a special dinner she’s making tonight. I was just along for the ride!

The view from the shower.

Tonight I have nothing planned other than putting my feet UP, and chillaxin. The weather did eventually turn icky, but I’m giving a HUGE thanks to mother nature for waiting until the race was done. I hope THIS GIRL got her race in before conditions turned soggy too, and I can’t wait to hear her recap!!

I will most definitely be returning to race New Bri again. It was very well put on, just like all the other Vacation Sports races I’ve done. HUGE UPS to todays winners, Jenny Wilcox and Carl Shultz. Like I said, there were a lot of really outstanding finishes today! You can read all about it at Minnesota Tri News’ new website!! I was a little disappointed with my finish, and especially that I didn’t place in the top three in my age group. Thankfully my UMN teammate hit me with a dose of reality and said “you better get used to it!” 20-24 is a lot more competitive, and I have lots of work to do if I want to still have a “title” to defend.

POSTS TO COME:

Tri packing list
A…. Kayak?
Motivation
A review!!

And with that, I’m out for the night. No work, no obligations other than enjoying myself. Sounds great. Have a lovely night, and a great rest of your weekend!!

-E

p.s. I just realized how much link love is goin’ on in this post. Sorry… a little much!!

[Sorry guys... this isn't the "clue"-ed at post mentioned previously, but that one's not time-sensitive so it can wait. But while I'm inserting this ETA... I might as well say ENTER THE SUBWAY GIFTCARD GIVEAWAY! You have until tomorrow, midnight, central time!]

THURS 05.06.10

• 8:30 am – 7 mile run, accompanied by Breakaway Ministries and my homeboy Señor Dios.
• 10:47 am - Read email that 100% made my day. Possibly year. More later (maybe)!
• 11:00 am – Condo showing. PERFECT location/price. Only they neglected to mention that it’s a basement apartment.  No graicas.
• 12:00 pm – Bike 6 miles to class
• 12:45 pm – LAST class of spring semester 2010!! Spent practicing my active listening skills (aka dominating at Words With Friends…)

Cred. to my photographer extraordinaire Mrs. Grace!

• 2:00 pm – Continue bike ride for 20 more miles. Gomer bailed on me somewhere around mile 17… >=(
• 3:45 pm – Be held off for work until 5:30, so decide to make my first attempt with the crockpot. It’s cookin’ now!
• 4:15 pm – (present time) Do the DTR Rain dance… send a prayer, make a sacrifice stew. Do SOMETHING to make the weather slightly more pleasant so I don’t get called off!!

And that is my day thus far. I really don’t have much else to tell you, except go enter the Subway Giveaway, and have a lovely Thursday night! Ohh no I lied – one more thing…

Summer classes.

I’ve took one last summer to knock out my last general ed, and let me be real here, it blowed. It’s 90° degrees out, you wanna be running, biking, laying out by the beach, going on a picnic, pretty much anything but sitting inside in a classroom. It’s like lecture on Saturday, right Lizzzz? No fun. BUT, then I found out this class was offered. And now here I am hoping it’s not filled because I really want in! I’ll preface it by saying that this prof is amazing and never once will you feel like you’re wasting time in his classes. It’s apparent from day one that he knows his stuff, he’s passionate about it. Anyway, here we go:

_______________________

KIN 5729: Pediatric Exercise – Concepts and Applications

9:05 – 11:15 am … M/T/W/TH … May 24th – June 1oth

Course Description:
The aim of this couse is to address the current understanding of pediatric medicine and exercise physiology. This course will explore the use of physical activity and weight management in the treatment of various diseases (i.e., obesity) that affect children and adolescents. Lectures will cover the metabolic, physiologic and molecular responses to exercise in healthy and diseased states. A current understanding of the basic anatomy and physiology of children compared to adults will be provided. Topics include strategies for exercise prescription in various applied and clinical situations. This 2 credit course will be composed of interactive seminars, lectures, and demonstration.

_______________________

Um, how AWESOME does that sound?! Like my blogbuddy Kelly, I’m really passionate about encouraging physical activity in youth. But this class also brings in the medical component to it – using physical activity to treat disease, looking at the physiological responses in the body to exercise, and if you know me, you’ll know that they could have hooked me with the “anatomy & physiology” alone. A&P has been my absolute favorite part of my education thus far, and maybe because I’ve taken them through the kinesiology department, so they have a bit of an exercise science spin, but I LOVE it! So anyways, my question is pretty simple: do I take the class, or not? Well, it seems simple. But here’s my [tangled] thought process:

PROS

• It’s obviously a really interesting subject to me – something I’m passionate about!
• It counts towards the 9 KIN credits I need for the clinical movement subplan.
• The professor is fantastic!
• It’s only 14 days for two credits.
• Some of my good kines buddies are registered!

CONS

• It does NOT count as one of my med OR physical therapy prereqs (I’m still not decided as you can tell…). Although no matter what, it will “look good” on my resume, and it will show where my passions lie.
• It’s during the SUMMER…
• It’s during the MORNING in the summer… my favorite time!!
• It costs $$. Obvio. So if it’s not a class that “counts” then I really need to think about Can I afford to take this?

Haha, sorry – I know this isn’t what you guys come here to read. But maybe some of you can shed your insight on it. READER’S Qs: Have you taken summer classes? Are you taking anything this summer? If so, what? And for me to get to know some of you better, What is your major? Or, what did you study when you were in college?

OK, I’m done for real now. I’m happy to be DONE with classes [for now], and I hope my fellow collegians are winding down too! I have ONE final to dominate next Wednesday, and please believe, there will be celebration when that one’s over and done!

[Hopefully] Off to work! Ciao.
-E

Current status: I’m only 21 minutes in to what will be 120 minutes on the X-Runner, so apologies if this gets a little lengthy! Today was officially declared a no-running day, as I’ve been trying to stick to only 4 days a week, and unfortunately I already capped that this week! Will be running tomorrow anyways, riding on Saturday, and racing on Sunday! Numerous items on the agenda today, and since I have 100 more minutes ahead of me… I think I have time for a little PhotoShop love:

Well that took long enough! I’m now at 55 minutes. Good thing I still have 1:05  to go…

1. Mail Bag

I mentioned last week that my next post would be comin’ out of the mail bag — it’s a question I’ve received enough times (or at least similar enough) from readers that I figured it was time to answer on the blog.

Hi I just found your blog. First of all, you are am amazing athlete! You are such a fast runner – so inspirational.

I was wondering what your diet is like so that you have enough energy to fuel your training and develop muscles and strength while staying so lean? Do you eat smaller meals more frequently? What are you meals like?

Also, how did you start doing triathlons. Did you know how to swim before? How often do you train? Sorry for all the questions. Take your time. I know you’re a busy girl! Any advice would help. Thanks!
–
Jessica Lee

First things first – THANKS!! – I have been running for a loooong time, so success has definitely required work. But I can promise you that there are lots of faster runners out there. Given that I’ve come back from a fractured femoral neck, twice, I’ll take what I can get!

Question one: diet. This year my diet has gone under some changes because I finally have the guidance of an awesome nutrition and strength coach, Jodi, from Model Per4mance. Prior to working with MP4, I had the opportunity to work with a pretty awesome dietitian in Boston, but a lot of my “theories” or beliefs just come from trial and error. Before MP4 I was eating about the same calorie-wise, but I definitely ate more processed foods. I’m not talkin’ like Ho-Hos and a Coke for lunch, but think Kashi GoLean Rolls… microwaveable meals… etc. My current diet is a 90/10 = 90% whole, fresh, from nature foods… and 10% fun. There has to be room in your life for going out to eat with the boy, or that biga$$ cookie you know you want. If there is no “it” you crave, or if all your cravings are for healthy foods, then fine. But if you DO ever want something “unhealthy” and you’re like me, you’ll just keep eating other things until you finally squash that craving, wishing you just ate what you really wanted in the first place. It’s a lesson learned, for sure.

Frequency of meals? Would be better referred to as “frequency of food” because “meals” don’t really happen per se. I’d like to work on balancing the food out a little more evenly through out the day, but essentially I graze, or small “meals” throughout the day. It works for me. You gotta do what works for you!

“Lean” is only partially attributed to diet. I would say more of it comes from strength training.

Question two: training. Like I said, I’ve fractured my femoral neck, twice. You can read about the first time + surgery, and the second time (no surgery).  I have a genetic condition called fibrous dysplasia… a condition where a section of my hip is super soft – more like scar tissue. After surgery (December 2008) I knew that if I was running at all, I definitely wouldn’t be running as much. Enter: triathlon. It gets me off of my feet for 2/3rds of my training. So I guess I should thank my geneticFAIL hip because that’s where it all started!

Swimming was a prior activity for sure – I had been tossed in a pool since I was like 1 year old. Swam for the YWCA Uptown Otters from 5th grade through 8th, and I also swam Varsity my freshman year in high school. If you haven’t concluded yet though, it’s not exactly my favorite.

I am part of two teams – the University of Minnesota Triathlon Team, and Peace Coffee Racing, so training happens… all the time. I take a rest day when I need to. I don’t always stick to the “schedule” because I feel like when you feel good, you shouldn’t “save it” for tomorrow’s tempo or interval or long ride. [If you have time...] You should let your body dictate what it wants to do.

I think that about covers it, and WOW – I gotta move on!

2. USAT Collegiate Nationals

[ETA: Hahah.. ran out of time. Used my last 30 minutes on the stair mountain because that’s something I almost never get to do.. and want to use this “free day” to (as my boyfriend’s Sundays are declared) do what I want. True story kids… want to know where I am right now? Doin' what I want, I can tell you that!]

“]Ahem… USAT Collegiate Nationals. The race I have been building up to be THE race for the last how many months. The ultimate in team bonding… 20+ hours in a 15-passenger van with the crew. And where am I right now? At the lake.

Say whaaat?

A couple weeks ago, some family events were presented to me that I had not been previously privy to. (Fun fact of the day… “unprivy” is evidently not a word.) I don’t need to waste time on details, but they involve my Singaporean relatives and sister and B-I-L coming to Minneapolis for the 16^th/17^th/18^th … and those days only – Singaporean relatives that I have not yet had the chance to meet. If you’ve been a reader for a while now, you might remember my qualms last year about leaving Boston and transferring back home to the University of Minnesota: the basis of my whole move was that I wanted to be closer to family. I was sick of missing Thanksgiving, missing Easter, missing birthdays, state hockey tournaments, missing FAMILY. So to have this big family deal going on this one weekend, and electively chose to not be there, seemed like it was going against my values a little bit. I know… its Nationals… but there will be next year. I have no clue when the next time these guys will fly all the way from Singapore. There are a couple other contributing factors, but overall, I feel very good about my decision.

I will still be acting as “reporter” for my team, and will be in constant contact with them via phone and online. If you want to stay up to date on the University of Minnesota Triathlon team and their venture to Collegiate Nationals, please see the first installment in my post on Minnesota Tri News! There will be more to come soon!

3. Peace Coffee Racing

Because I am not in Texas this weekend… I will be doing a race that Peace Coffee is sponsoring on April 18^th. Please believe that no matter what I was going to be racing this weekend. Its early enough on Sunday morning… not going to interfere with the fam-o plans… but I am very excited to be doing it! AND it’s for a good cause – EARTH DAY! I’m down.

4. Giveaway preview

Scroll up. Study the photo. Can you guess what the next giveaway is??

Aright… This gets it’s own collage…

5. LIFE

Here is just a little bit of life lately:

Upper left photo – note not me, with the “oh-shit-how-do-i-clip-out-not-funny!” face (new to the Kilo at the time of that picture), but the P.O.S. Honda in the background. I shouldn’t say that… she’s been a good car. Many many miles on her, like all Honda’s should, and many good times. Picked up my first puppy and she threw up all over the floor in the front seat on the way home. Crazy High school memories with the girls, one in particular possibly intoxicated with way too much Patrone and her feet out the window. Changing my first tire. Getting hit by my own friend in a rain storm. Like I said, many good times. I just changed the oil today, and turns out she has about $800 worth of work needing to be done. $800 worth of money that I don’t have. Conversed with the padre on this one, and we decided that this summer would be the right time for me to get a different car. Don’t think it’s just because of these repairs – this decision is about $5,000 in repairs OVERDUE. So if you have any [used] car shopping advice for me, I would take it all with open ears.

Upper right photo – That is a man. Sleeping in a box. And that is what I will turn into (not a man, but sleeping in a box…) if I don’t figure out my housing sitch for the next year. OK… truthfully it’s not at that point. My lease isn’t up until the end of June, but I really want to have it squared away – it’s stressing me out!! It would be sick if I was living with another kines. student because we’d be working on/interested in the same stuff, but obviously that’s not a requirement of mine. Ahhh I just want to decide!

Imaginary photo – Starting work back at the restaurant this week!! Those are legit exclamation marks. I am SO excited!

Wow. Record for longest D.T.R. post? Possibly. Apologies (or not – haha you’re ready for me to be done I’m sure!) but I got to get to some real work… aka this VO2 Max lab report that I have been working on for howw long? If you stuck with this whole post, I hope you can feel my love for you!! Till next time amigos.

-E