Marathon Plans

Hello! I am back… although, I haven’t really been gone anywhere. As much as I like my blog and talking about triathlons here, it somehow was not possible for me to sit down and take a couple of minutes to let you all know how the training has been going lately. But there are some exciting news: Some of my friends, my mom, my husband, my brother and I have signed up to run a relay marathon next spring. What started out as a (somewhat drunk) conversation about exercising at a friend’s birthday party turned into the eight of us participating in the marathon. The race is one of the biggest marathons in Germany and each team consisting of four members splits up the total of 42,195 km (26.2 miles) in four legs. Everybody will be running right around 10km (6 miles) and we decided that the slower team has to provide the beer for the after marathon-party. I guess that my run-training next spring is coming together. I will start the official training for my half marathon in early April in January 2012. After the half marathon I am going to do the relay race in late April and the first Olympic distance triathlon will be in early July. The focus on the running earlier in the year still gives me plenty of time to turn to the swim and bike training later although I am going to continue to incorporate the two throughout. It’s going to be interesting how I will manage to run and bike in the winter though. Time and weather will tell and I will continue to let you know about it here!

Back on Track

I got sick last week and couldn't follow my workout schedule as planned. My rest day last week was on Tuesday and Wednesday was really busy so I ended up not exercising on both days. As it turned out I woke up sick on Thursday and haven't been able to pick up my routine until Sunday. Finally my husband and I decided to go for a swim yesterday. It felt good to be doing something again and I am eager to continue my training today. Right now I am just sitting around the house waiting for some delivery guys who are going to drop off our new dining room table. The shipping company will be here anytime between 7 am and 1 pm according to their notification. My plan is to go for a run as soon as they have left and I am going to see how it goes. I am shooting for anywhere between 0:40 minutes and one hour depending how I feel. According to my training schedule, this week should be my recovery week which means that training length and intensity are being reduced by approximately 40%. But since I really didn't do anything this past week, I sort of already had a recovery week. If I am still feeling good after the run I will do some weight training (hyye33333333333333  dfffffffffffffffffc my cat says "Hello!") focusing on the chest and back. One of the other things on my to-do list for the day is looking up vegan Thanksgiving recipes. In Germany we don't celebrate Thanksgiving but with my husband being American we like to invite people over for both countries' holidays. We'll do a big Thanksgiving dinner this year and I want to start trying out some dishes before we'll actually serve them to our guests. The "Old Fashioned Lentil Loaf" we had yesterday wasn't bad but a little too mushy for my taste. Knowing there's going to be a lot of big dinners coming up always serves as an extra motivation for me to workout even more. Ok, off to getting my Monday chores done. Have a good week everyone!  

Inspiration II

There's no way I would be exercising so much if it wasn't for my mother in law who really got me started with all this. My husband and I live in Germany but he is originally from San Diego in Southern California where my in laws live. That means I don't get to see my mother in law a whole lot but somehow we connect through our shared interests. My mom in law is one fit lady as she has always been working out and you can tell by the way she looks. It must have been around two years ago now that she got into the p90x workout routines and when we talked on the phone she would always give me updates on her progress. She would let me know that she was doing 50 push ups in one workout but that this number was supposed to increase as she went on with the program. "That's incredibly impressive!" I thought and that I would not be able to do that. As the months passed by, my husband's mom continuously let us know how she was improving and I finally went online to look up the dvds she was talking about. The next thing I knew is that I had ordered the program and was out to buy the dumbbells and other gear needed for the routines. I still vividly remember calling my mother in law after I finished my first p90x-week, telling her that I couldn't even do many of the exercises. She was very encouraging and told me that it was fine to do less repetitions or to do a slightly different and therefore lighter version of the move. It was fun to have somebody to talk to about the workout. And it turned out to be a big encouragement for me to know that she had done the program as well. I didn't want to quit and have to tell her so. After I finished the 90 day program we visited my in laws this summer and my mother in law and I jokingly compared our results while our husbands were just rolling their eyes. While it's not easy to  live extremely far away from family I am grateful for having such a good relationship with my in laws. Despite our different cultural backgrounds we just connected and our shared passions don't end with exercising. My mother in law and I have found that it's much easier to stay slim, if we feed the calories we're not supposed to eat to our beloved pets!

My super fit mother in law and her Corgi

 My belly cat

Finishing in Hawaii

As we gathered in front of the computer at 7 pm on Saturday to watch the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii, the athletes started off their long day at 7 am local time in Kona with the swim in the clear Pacific Ocean. We had some friends over who are not into triathlons and it was fun talking about the sport in a larger group and telling them what the Ironman was all about. The pro race was going to take around 8 hours for the men and closer to 9 hours for the women. Our friends still had other plans for the night and left long before the winners of the contest would be revealed but my brother, husband and I were set on following the whole pro race. To say the least, it was more than impressive to see how fast those guys are going! Man, they barely slow down at the aid stations to grab some water or other nutrition. Seeing the athletes either excel or fall apart during the marathon was really intense. But at 3 am and after 8 consecutive hours of staring at the screen, any sporting event can be only so fascinating. The Pina Coladas definitely didn't help me staying awake and I went to bed after the male winner of the race was established. My brother stayed over that night and during breakfast on Sunday morning we turned on the computer once again and watched the age groupers finish. 14:30 hours after we had initially started to watch the Ironman, we picked up again and followed the athletes crossing the finish line. Those people, as little as I know about them, will stay in my memory for much longer than anything I had seen the night before. There were the two 45 and 50 year old friends dancing together as they crossed the finish line. Many people could barely walk as they came in. One lady was crying in pain and couldn't stop but she had refused to give up before she completed the whole race. There was the guy who held a "Will You Marry Me?" sign and the man who tripped and fell inches before the line. The oldest competitor came in at 84 years old and an 81 year old men won his age group minutes before his 80 year old competitor. The crowd went insane for every single finisher and the female pro athlete and winner of this year's race, Chrissie Wellington, was right there at the finish line to hug and congratulate most of the finishers. Finishing the race also means that the famous announcer Mike Reilly  calls out the finisher's name and oftentimes a short story about that person, but what everyone wants to hear is him screaming out "You Are An Ironman!". The most heart-breaking story of the night was the lady who came in just 4 seconds after the cut-off time at 17:00 hours. Mike Reilly was running next to her to get her over the line and the crowd was pushing her down the final stretch with their chants but the poor lady couldn't make it in time. I don't think she was so happy but the audience and the announcer called her an "Ironman in our hearts". That's what I like about triathlon: it's not about winning, but about getting out and being part of it. After watching the Ironman my husband and I went out for a run and talked about how we felt inspired by what we had just seen. These people and their finishes were by far the best part of the whole broadcast and maybe I will change my Ironman-watching-approach for 2012 and turn it into a Hawaiian brunch.

Clothes / Girls' Stuff

As many of you might know I have been losing quite some weight lately. And don't get me wrong, I am more than happy about that fact. Then again, I have serious problems when I am standing in my closet trying to find stuff that fits me anymore. And I am not fishing for  compliments here, it has really become hard for me to assemble my daily outfits. I know there's a solution to this problem: go shopping! Buy new clothes! "Yeah! Fun!" You might think, but not, if you have actually been doing this for quite some time and you constantly need more new clothes. Let me clarify by telling you this little anectdote: On April 29, 2011 (I precisely remember this because that's the day that Prince William and Catherine got married and my mom and I met up to watch it on TV) I showed my mom bags full of pants and shirts I had just bought for the summer. All was exciting and fun because I had already lost weight at that point and after the long winter I was getting my wardrobe ready for the warmer time of the year. I had found shorts and cute tank tops and they were all a size or so smaller than the clothes I was wearing before. My mom liked the stuff I picked, I was happy and we poured another glass of champagne and went about our wedding celebration brunch. Then we went to visit my in-laws in the US a month later and I did some clothes shopping there because everything was so much cheaper. Again, I could go down one size and I was thrilled. After we returned from our trip I continued losing weight and the clothes I bought in April started getting somewhat too lose on me. Slowly but surely this slimming waist of mine was becoming a serious financial burden. It's nice to buy clothes that you can actually wear for a season or two, but if their obsolete after a couple of months? I told myself that I would buy one nicer item each month and get a few cheaper basics so that I would have enough outfits for work at least. That's what I have been doing since. I am writing this post today because I am sitting here in my newest "nice item of the month": a pair of Levi's jeans that I have purchased today. The thing is that these pants are actually too tight, I think. Because all the apparel was too big so soon after I initially got it, I thought today that I should just buy the next smaller size for once. Of course they fit and they look good but when I sit down they're just a little too tight to be comfortable. I hope this will serve as an extra motivation to lose another pound or so. That should be enough for me to be able to breathe in deeply in October's "nice" purchase!

Getting Ready for Hawaii

I am really excited because I will be watching the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii Saturday night. It's the first time that I really pay attention to this event and I am looking forward to a night of Hawaiian snacks and great sports on TV. Because of the ridiculous time-difference the broadcast here in Germany starts at 12:50 am. My preparation plan definitely calls for a Saturday afternoon nap! Shouldn't be  too hard because I will also do a swim early in the morning  and that should tire me out enough. My race plan also calls for some coconutty and pineapply refreshments in solid and fluid form. I am not quite sure yet what exactly I am going to make, but we'll probably have some cocktails and fruit platters. Pineapple cupcakes and a coconut-mousse might be whipped up. Isn't that a relaxing preparation plan for the Hawaii Ironman?

Nutrition

This bell pepper-sweet potato-tomato soup is what I just had for lunch. I made it from scratch for last night's dinner and topped off the leftovers with some arugula today. In my day to day life I pay relative close attention to what I eat because I am vegan and eat no animal products. I adopted the vegan diet over three years ago, so I know pretty much exactly what I can eat as far as that goes. When it comes to the nutritional requirements of my new more active lifestyle, I find that I am somewhat clueless oftentimes. In every magazine and workout-book you find the same information: the body generates energy from carbohydrates during an endurance workout. During the exercise muscle tissue breaks down and the body needs protein to be able to rebuild the tissue and become stronger during that process. On top of that one needs to ingest "good" fats. That's basically a very short wrap up of the things I've learned about nutrients and their role in fueling the body. And then I am left with a million questions: How much energy do I burn during a one hour exercise? (I rarely exercise longer than 1:15h/day.) Do I burn the same amount of calories during a swim and a run? How big is the difference in calories burnt? How long before an exercise should I be eating? What source of carbs is the best one? The list goes on and on and while I am wondering about all this, I still want to lose weight before I start in the triathlons next year. Because I am the type of person that likes to plan everything out (you should see my workout plans and journals...) this confusion regarding my diet gets a little frustrating. I feel that I could be doing better if I just knew exactly what to take in at which point.  Based on the books, the right nutrition for a specific athlete is usually figured out by trying different things based on the scientific knowledge that's out. Not everybody reacts the same way after eating or drinking the same foods during training.  For me that means that it's basically going to take some time to learn what works and what doesn't. My quest must be to pay close attention to the signs I receive from my body and somehow connect those to my specific nutritional needs at the time. This notion is new to me since I have usually only paid attention to whether I was hungry or not. And all this writing about nutrition and food has made me kind of hungry now- I guess it's dinner time!

Training Recap

This weekend was a special one as far as my training goes because it included two 'first times'. As I've told you in my last post I started off this weekend doing my first brick workout on Friday. It was a beautiful, sunny day and I did a 1:50 h bike ride followed by a short 10 minute run. I dropped my bike off, changed into my running gear and dashed outside the door for the run. I know that I am not a fast runner but I felt as if I was going incredibly fast at first- way too fast. I had read before that coming off the bike, the runner's legs want to go faster than they should and that it takes some time to adjust the rhythm. I experienced that and found that I was just starting to feel more comfortable when I was almost finishing my jog around the block. I was still happy to be done after two hours of working out and am looking forward to getting more experienced at my bricks in the months to come.

Saturday morning I went for a swim at a local public pool that I had not been to before. It opened at 8 am and I was there shortly after. There were already quite a few swimmers, but it wasn't crowded and everybody could comfortably swim in their own lane. My plan called for a 25 minute swim only but I was so glad to be having so much space in the pool that I stayed in the water and did the full 1.5 km (0.9 mile) Olympic distance swim for the first time. It took me 45 minutes and afterwards I was very pleased with my work outs so far. Although I was considering to take Sunday off, I did a short 40 minute run first thing in the morning. It was another beautiful warm morning and I just enjoyed to be out in the still sleepy and quiet city. The fellow joggers and people walking their dogs in the park all seemed to be fairly content themselves. At least that's the impression I got and it sent me off to a perfect fall-Sunday.