Trying for a Tri

First and foremost, thank you so much for all the congratulatory comments!!! I was on cloud nine yesterday, and continued floating today after seeing all your kind words In case you missed it, read my triathlon recap here. I’ve also done a lot of reflecting on aspects of the race, which I’ll get to at the end of the post.

Secondly, I signed a lease today!! Yup! It’s that apartment I looked at last week. Chris and I drove past it last night, and I realized it’s right on my running trail. All I have to do is cross the street, and I’m on a gorgeous path that runs along the river. I’m pumped! I move in at the end of August.

I also forgot to share my crazy heart rate monitor stats from yesterday:

184 max!!! That’s nuts!!! That is by far the highest heart rate I’ve ever had, I think my previous highest was around 174 during my 5k in May. I wish I knew what part of the race it was at. Most likely one of the moments I wheezed my way uphill during the run.

My resting heart rate after the race remained around 90-110, when it’s usually 55-65!

I thought I was going to be starving after burning a thousand calories. But, I just felt off. I think I did a good job of keeping my calories up before and during the race that I didn’t feel weak or anything after. In fact, I wasn’t even hungry when I had that veggie burger at the race bbq, my body was just drawn to it. Although, I felt like I was going to burst after eating it I was so full.

Chris went home right after to go to bed (he’d come off a night shift) and I plopped down on the couch at home. By coincidence, NBC was showing the Des Moines triathlon, which was SO fun to watch having just completed one.

And a Canadian won to boot!

Bastard finished an Olympic tri in the time it took me to complete half that!

Hunger started to creep up a little around 2:30, so I made a yogurty mess for some protein and quick sugars.

 
It was a pretty big bowl of yogurt, cottage cheese, strawberries and mango.

I started feeling empty around 5pm, so I had a random meal. Or snack. Or “sneal.”

An english muffin with an egg and turkey slices. And a juicy gala apple.

After this, I felt stuffed again. Chris showed up at 7pm ready to eat – much earlier than I expected! I’d previously chosen Frank’s Finer Diner to splurge on some fish ‘n’ chips and pie after my triathlon.

Hey! See that? Blue sky caught on film!! That’s a rarity these days!

This is definitely a novelty place, full of Elvis photos and waitresses on rollerblades.

Except, I was still full from my random meal/snack a couple hours earlier. I could not bare the thought of trying to stomach a meal. Sooo I skipped the fish ‘n’ chips and went straight for the chocolate pie!!

It was huge!!!! I was definitely happy I opted for just dessert. This totally satisfied my tummy and tastebuds. How’s that for a “recovery slice of pie”

Chris was a champ and had both the meal and pie.

 
I had a few french fries. I’ll have to do another triathlon just so I can get my recovery fish ‘n’ chips

It was a valiant effort, but I had to claim defeat.

Pie: 1, Susan: 0

After this, we went over to a friend’s place and chatted till my bedtime. That “empty” feeling returned, so I snacked on a couple pieces of wasa bread and cheesestring. I then promptly passed out the second I closed my eyes.

I woke up after only 6 hours sleep today. Not impressed! I cannot sleep in for the life of me. Going to bed early is the only way I can get extra sleep.

I felt I needed blueberry pancakes to cheer me up.

1/2 cup rolled oats, 1/2 cup cottage cheese, 1/2 cup egg whites, cinnamon, baking powder and vanilla extract. Pancakes never fail to cheer me up. I happily fell asleep for another 45 minutes after this

I spent the morning catching up on blogs and life after yesterday’s triathlon madness. I did a little mid-morning carbing with a cinnamon raisin bagel and chai marmalade.

These are “light” bagels, so not very filling. Kind of like chai flavoured air.

Lunch was some typical noontime fare.

 
Pita pizza with Eden Organic pizza sauce, Yves meatless pepperoni, mushrooms, tomatoes, onions, red pepper and cheese. The usual carrots on the side for my mandatory orange fix.

I made the rest of my diet coke cupcakes for Chris this afternoon as he was heading back to work today. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but this was the best cupcake I’ve ever had.

As I mentioned before, I don’t like icing. But I do love peanut butter. So I whipped up some Pbu (peanut butter stirred with almond milk) with splenda and vanilla extract and added some crushed chocolate chips. It’s official, Pbu is awesome on everything. 

Supper was another veggie burger and side of orange in the form of butternut squash fries.  

This was a Sol spicy bean burger. I think I may like the original better. This kind is actually a touch too spicy for me!!

Oh! And I want to show you the suh-weet shirt I got from the triathlon:

 
It’s an Asics running shirt. It’s even got a little zipper in the front! Much better than the cotton t-shirt I got for the 5k This will be great for all the races I hope to do this fall.

Well first off, I’m happy to report I’m only slightly sore today. I’ve been worse off after a rough day in the weight room! My hip hurts, but nothing more than it usually does after a run. My knees were stiff yesterday and this morning, but feel fine now. My shoulders are surprisingly quite sore. Must have been all the fighting I had to do in the water!

Of course, I’ve also been thinking about what I could have done better. Let me put it this way, if I ever decide to do that triathlon again, there are a few things I’ll do differently. First, I’ll get a wetsuit or trisuit. I’ll do waaay more hill training. In my practice rides, I was biking 20k in 45 minutes on relatively flat routes. In the triathlon, I went through the extremely hilly course in 53 minutes. That’s a huge difference. More hill training would have made a world of difference.

I will also do more brick training. Everything I read said the bike/run brick was the most important one to practice. But I was quite spent getting on the bike after the lake. I think all combinations of bricks are important.

Oh yes, and I won’t injure my hip so I can do the running portion of the training

I’m also working on some goals and “where do I go from heres,” which I will share tomorrow. I feel a little lost without a big scary race looming over my head, but I’m also really excited about all the directions I can go in from here.

Hope everyone got a great start to the week! I can’t believe we’re already almost week into July. Summers go by too fast!