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Sunday, April 19, 2009

Allez France!

Soooo, about that waiting one week to post again…hmmm, sorry! This week has been busy and seemed to fly by!!
Good news is that my bike is unpacked and assembled; I even rode it a few times! We had a mini snow-storm so I eased back into the bike riding on the trainer with a few episodes of survivor. Next week, I might venture to the pavement.
















As mentioned previously, I am sorting out a number of things to give my season, yet another “kick start in the right direction”. Honestly, it feels like I am getting another chance to make the most of the training/racing year because it is still so early!! How cool is that??

And the kicker…I am going to be spending 9 weeks in the French Alpes!! Time to grow some quads and toughen up! Two major events/races while I will be frolicking in the mountains; the first one is La Marmotte, a bike race that takes you over three summits and is a whole day event. The second is the Alpe D’Huez long course triathlon. I hope to come back to the states with some stellar climbing skills so I can rock the rollers in Wisconsin!

Note to Self: Change out crankset! ….last year I made the mistake of riding in the Alpes with a 42 as my smallest!! Lots of grinding!

Now, as for the “issues” I have already started to address to turn this season around and be the strongest I can be:
1. Nutrition: Getting enough calories and carbohydrates. It was very apparent to me in hind-site due to me not paying proper attention to my nutrition and the restricted diet, that I was low on energy/glycogen in the muscles. Megan, once again is coming to the rescue and making sure I am on a “plan” to keep me “topped off” and energized for my training/racing.
2. Allergies/My Health: This past week I feel like I spent more time at the doctors/allergist/nutritionist than I did at my desk! I wanted to do a thorough check-up to make sure I am healthy before I start training again for the basic reason that a training block can take a lot out of you. I am A-ok for the most part; I did find out I have an egg allergy and am waiting on the final panel of food allergy test results to come back next week. Good news is that I should be able to eat eggs in small quantities (like Pamela’s cookies!!!) and use egg replacement while cooking…just no more omelets for me.
3. Training with My HR Monitor: I haven’t used my HR monitor nearly as much as I should have. My easy days were not easy enough and my hard days, not hard enough. The HR monitor is going to be strapped to me for every running/biking workout. Enough said.
4. Rest Days: Rest days do not mean “catching up” on everything you fell behind on during the week, and on top of that doing a recovery run/bike/swim. I need to make my “off” days “off” …and yes, that means sitting still, a thing called “rest”
5. Keeping The Head Screwed On Straight and Enjoying: Let’s face it, triathlon is not my job, and I don’t think I would want it to be. But, I do take everything I invest time into seriously, like training! So when things don’t go as planned, I get a little caught up in it and tend to “question” everything. Thank goodness I have a husband who keeps me grounded!! I had an off day at Oceanside, but I am YOUNG!! I need to remind myself to be patient, go with the flow and only train/race if I enjoy it! So, a goal for the next few months is to make sure training doesn’t get the best of me…I want to get the best of it!

OK, enough about training and racing. I want to talk about my work! Since I will be in Europe for an extended period of time, the next few weeks will be spent on finding “clients” and beefing up the project –list so I will have enough work to keep me busy. If anyone knows of or needs a website update/rebranding, or a “from scratch” site, I am your lady! I am constructing a portfolio of my work which should be ready soon.

Alright, time to enjoy the rest of the day…hard to believe there was a snowstorm Fri/Sat and now the sun is shining, everything is almost melted and we are going to hit the 70’s and 80’s this week! HOLY MOLY!!

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