10 Happy Things

I'm headed down to Baltimore to do The Polar Bear Plunge today. It's supposed to be a high of 25 with a chance for snow... Wish me luck!!


Stephanie at The Princess Runner tagged me to answer a simple question: Name 10 things that make you happy. My 10 things in no particular order:

A Hot Mug of Coffee
I love starting my day off with a mug of coffee. I usually make my own coffee at home but a special treat is a cup from Dunkin Donuts with cream, no sugar.

Having my own lane at the pool
'Nough said.

My husband
He is awesome. He is always making me laugh with the silly nicknames he makes up for me and the songs that go with them. He takes good care of me but he doesn't spoil me which is actually a good thing. On Wednesdays he finishes swimming at 8:30 and he waits for me until I am done with spinning at 9:30.

Riding the NYC Subway
I hate driving and I love public transit and the NYC subway is the best I've ever seen. Some days it gets on my nerves, it is always warm fuzzies (like when a kid threw up on my feet or when a homeless man exposed himself to me) but for the most part I really enjoy it.

Traveling
I really enjoy traveling and exploring new places. We always took family vacations growing up. We always went West to places like Montana, Washington, California, Colorado, and Alaska. Sam and I are making an effort to visit every state in the US. If my count is correct we are somewhere around

A really good book
I just finished The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo after a recommendation by Leah (Because I Tri) and I can't recommend it enough. It was the best book I have read in a very long time.

Peanut Butter
I love peanut butter. I think it tastes good on everything. Apples, bananas, toast, pancakes, chocolate, and the list goes on. On Wednesday I ate English Muffins with PB&J for breakfast, a PB&J sandwich before spinning, and a piece of toast with PB&J as my post spinning snack. Yum. Yum. Yum.

Moving
I know that 99% of people think that this is crazy but I love moving. It is so cathartic! Getting rid of all the junk, sorting through your things, setting up a new place.

My Job
For the most part my job is a happy thing in my life. The work I do can be emotionally draining but it is very rewarding to and honestly I think I am quite good at it. I respect my boss a lot and I generally like my colleagues too.

Fresh Fruit
I love, love, love fresh fruit. If fruit was free I would eat and endless supply of grapes, peaches, apples, pineapple, clementines, raspberries, blueberries, strawberries... Except bananas. I got very sick after eating bananas about six years ago. The sickness was unrelated to the bananas but the smell of ripe bananas still makes me queasy.

What makes you happy?

Mental Toughness

I went for a run yesterday morning. It was my regular 4 mile run around the park in my neighborhood. I've been feeling a bit off this week and the run seemed to bring up all my problems. My legs were sore and tight from strength class, my head was pounding, I was tired and my stomach hurt. To sum it up, I felt like sh*t.

I wanted to stop and walk so, so badly. Negative thoughts were running through my mind...

"What difference would this run really make in the long run?"
"Who will know if I stop early?"
"If it hurts I shouldn't push it - it's the off season anyway."

I wanted to just go home. At the 2 mile mark I thought about the Suffer Section from a post by Carol at Triathlon Training Blog (her post was inspired by Go Sonja, another great blogger). This was by no means a long run, however I was suffering. So I told myself:

Self, this run sucks, I feel slow and I want to go home. So this run is not about speed or form it's going to be about mental toughness. I will finish the four miles because I know that my body is capable. I will not enjoy it but I will be all the more proud when I stop in front my apartment building. Later today I will not regret that I wimped out and cut my short run even shorter. And next time when my run sucks I will know that it is possible to push through and keep moving forward.

I finished the run in 40:25. It was slower than my runs have been lately but it was faster then my average time a few months ago. I walked into my apartment tired, sweaty and smiling.



What was the last workout that you had that required mental toughness?

Core to Pedal

I went to another Asphalt Green spin workout last night. Have I told you how much I love spinning? In some ways I love it more then actual biking because there is no risk of getting hit by a car or crashing (have I also told you I'm a scardy-cat?).

I spent a lot of time in the workout focused on my form. I have a lot of form issues on the bike - likely because nobody ever taught me how to ride a bike - I just did it (I guess this translates to my running problems too). In the spin workouts I can see my form in the mirrors and the coach calls me out on it too. There are a lot of important things to remember. Some of the issues are very obvious. In my case this includes allowing tension to build up in my shoulders, keep my elbows in, and occasionally too much of my upper body is bouncing around.

Coach Mike is always telling us - core strength is free speed - and you can tell he means it. His big mantra is "Core to Pedal." When I first did this workout he repeated it continuously and I thought he was saying "Quarter Pedal." Hmmm... what is a "quarter" pedal?? Well after I figured out he was actually saying "core to pedal" I understood. He talks about the core a lot and how important it is to engage the core so you can stabilize your upper body with the core and allow the power to come from the core, through the leg and output into the pedal.

He had us do a very interesting exercise to demonstrate the importance of engaging the core. First we let our backs slouch and relaxed the core and pedal for a little bit (bad form). Then we straighted our back and engaged our core muscles (proper form). I could instantly feel the pedaling become easier - it was like someone turned the resistance down a turn or two.

I tried to find some examples online and I came across this picture on Joe Friel's blog. You can see the rider on the left has his core engaged and a flat back and the rider on the right has a rounded back.

He believes in core strength so much that after 60 minutes of riding we put away the bikes and spend the next twenty minutes doing core work. We do all sorts of moves like bridges, bicycle kicks, flutter kicks, regular crunches, supermans. Then we always end with three sets of planks. OMG. The planks at the end always kill me. We rotate from center, left, right and hold each for 15 seconds, rest, repeat for 20 seconds each, rest and then repeat for 30 seconds each.

I really think all this coached spinning is really going to pay off once I'm back out on the road!

Did you have to re-learn how to ride a bike once you started triathlon? What mantra's do you have for keeping good bike form or focus?

MSP Polar Bear Plunge

It's going to be a very busy week! I'll be working a lot of overtime, then my office moves on Friday and on Saturday I am heading down to Maryland for the 14th Annual MSP Polar Bear Plunge.

I wish I could tell you that I was just going to watch all those CrAZy people run into the Chesapeake Bay but I actually signed up to do this thing! I registered last fall to raise money for the Maryland Special Olympics. Apparently when I signed up in the fall I did not think about the fact it would be the middle of winter! I lived in DC for several years so in my mind I was thinking "Well it's the 'South' - it's warmer down there." Well not on Saturday. It's going to snow!

But don't worry, Sam is smart enough to abstain and he will document the entire crazy experience for the blogosphere :)

P.S. If you feel so inclined you can click here to visit my Personal Plunge page and make a donation ;)

Running in Chicago

I was lucky enough to spend last Thursday in Friday in Chicago on a business trip. I stayed at an excellent hotel right downtown. This was the view from my room:

I arrived in Chicago very late on Wednesday night. I had to be ready by 7:45am so I decided that a quick workout in the hotel gym would have to do. I spent a half hour on the elliptical and then 10 minutes lifting weights.

I then spent all day in a conference room with no windows. I was free at 5pm and I had about an hour to kill before meeting my colleague for dinner. This was my first trip to Chicago so I spent the next hour walking around Millennium Park:

The Bean (an awesome stainless-steel sculpture that reflects the city skyline): After exploring I met my colleague and we headed to dinner. Being it was my first time in Chicago we went for a classic Chicago-style deep dish pizza at Pizzeria Due. It was excellent - the crust was much crispier than I expected. However, I still think NYC has better pizza. It's the water :)

{source}

Typically I take Friday's off but I really wanted to go running in Chicago so I decided to go for a short run on Friday morning. I set my alarm for 6:00am and then I set a second alarm for 7:00am just in case I wimped out. Of course I missed both alarms and overslept so when the first alarm went off at 6am I jumped right out of bed. I suited up in all my warm weather gear but it actually turned out to be a relatively nice morning - very similar to running in New York.

First I headed South and ran along Millennium Park and Grant Park. After about a mile I turned around and had this lovely view of the skyline:

Then I passed the Agora art exhibit, 106 headless 9 foot-tall cast iron figures, posed as if walking in multiple directions or standing still, frozen in time.

I turned around and headed North. After awhile I veered right towards Lake Michigan. It was a nice morning but I could feel it was more windy when I got to the lake shore.

I ran along the lake for a few blocks and was just about to head back to Michigan Avenue when I came upon this sign for "Honorary Chicago Triathlon Way":

My Garmin reported the run to be 3.5 miles in 35:37.


I really enjoyed my two short days in Chicago which is good because it looks like I'll be going back next week!

Heart Rate Training - Help Me!

I've been playing with my new Garmin 305 since I got back from Minnesota. So far I have discovered:

• My regular weekday run is closer to 4.05 miles than the 4.20 that I originally thought :(
• The watch looks big and bulky but it is quite light and I don't notice it while running
• I love seeing my mile split times while I am running, except when they are over 10 minutes ;)
• My first and last mile are the fastest. I think I am fresh for the first mile and excited to finish in the last - must focus on middle miles!

Heart Rate Training
I am still using the auto profile heart rate zones based on age, gender and weight. I tried doing this max heart rate test from BeginnerTriathlete:

• 5 min. warm up slowly to a pace at the end where you are beginning to breathe a little hard
• 5 min. maintain the pace, increasing a bit at the end
• 5 min. increase pace again to labored breathing.
• 5 min. on a gradual incline increase the pace from just breathing hard to breathing very hard. Transition directly into…
• 2 min. all out sprint on a steep hill to maximum speed!
• 1 min. push this max speed while still going up and hold for a minute or as long as possible!! Record MHR.
• 10 min. cool down at a very easy pace and stretch.
  ------------------
  33 min. total ( 18 minutes hard, 15 minutes warm up/down)

I followed this until I got to the 2 minute all out sprint on steep hill I felt like I was going to throw-up and my hands went numb. I held this for a minute and then I had to come back down because I was afraid I would fly off the treadmill. I analyzed the data and found my max heart rate in this session to be 190. However, since I did not follow this exactly I'm worried that I didn't push myself hard enough...


In order to determine the training zones I also need to determine my resting heart rate. But, I never remember to check my heart rate when I wake up and I'm afraid if I do it any other time it will be wrong. I read something that recommended sleeping with the HRM and look at the average. I tried doing this but it did not work very well (maybe because it was uncomfortable and I took it off while sleeping...).

Once I do figure out the zone thing I still don't exactly know what to do with it... I know a lot of you have fancy watches and heart rate monitors. How do you use them? Can you recommend any good resources for heart rate training? Help me!

My Crazy Husband & His Crazy Ideas

The other night my husband and I were watching TV and daydreaming about relocating West. While we plan to be in NYC for the foreseeable future, all signs point West for our next move. I am especially in love with Napa Valley and if money and employment were not a consideration it would be my #1 place to live. We first visited Napa in 2006 and we have gone back every year. It is also where we got married in 2008...

And where we rented bikes for a wonderful ride in 2009...


Anyhow, I'm getting off track. The point is that we have always imagined that we might take some time off between when we leave our jobs here and before we relocate West. On Saturday morning my husband woke up with the "wonderful idea" of moving across country by riding our bikes. When he told me I openly laughed in his face and told him to go back to CrAZy ToWn. Well, throughout the day he continued to make hints and by the end of the weekend I was on board (he knows my weak spots). Well, maybe not completely on board but I am considering it...
A little research found that a cross country cycling trip is a pretty common adventure. There is even a TransAmerica Trail which takes riders 4,262 miles from Astoria, Oregon to Yorkstown, VA.

We figured we could do the ride in about 60 days averaging 50-75 miles per day. My only condition so far is that we stay in hotels. There is no way I am riding across country and camping at the same time! (Especially since the last-and only-time we went camping he kept me up all night making bear noises!)

You can read more about people's journey's across America on bicycle here, here and here.

What do you think? Would you consider biking across the country?

Spin, Run, Swim!

Giveaway Alert: Stephanie at The Princess Runner is hosting a blogger giveaway! She won a copy of Sarah Reinertsen's book - "In a Single Bound: Losing my Leg, Finding Myself and Training for Life" - on my blog last fall. She is passing it forward and giving away the book to another lucky blogger. Just click here to enter for your chance to win. The contest ends Monday!

I headed back to spin class on Wednesday night and it was a great success - 100% better than Sunday's failed ride! My bike worked like a charm and I got a great workout in. I really love the coached spin workouts. I've never had any instruction about how to correctly ride a road bike so I find that I am learning so much in each workout!

On Thursday my legs had recovered enough from TriStrength to go out for a run. It was a short 4 mile run but it was a real challenge with my sore hamstrings. I was 2 minutes slower than most of the runs lately. I had to keep telling myself it was okay to be going a bit slower - the point was to get in the miles and not to break another record.

The weekend started off on a good foot with a Friday night visit to the pool. As a rule of thumb I never workout on Friday's so it was a pretty big deal for me to get there. On top of that, Sam started a stroke clinic at Asphalt Green so I had to go by myself (which also means drive by myself in NYC for the first time!!) and I needed to renew our memberships that expired last week. Even with all those barriers I still made it to the pool. It was surprisingly crowded for a Friday night but I managed to get in this 2000 meter workout:

300 warm-up
300 swim
300 pull
300 swim with paddles
300 swim
3 x 100 IMs (IM = 25 meters each of butterfly, back stroke, breast stroke, freestyle
200 cool-down

The plan is to do some strength training and a run tomorrow and then another swim on Monday. Then on Wednesday night I am heading out to Chicago for a business trip. I've never spent any time in Chicago so I'm hoping I can get a lakeside run in while I'm there!

{Running along Lake Michigan in Chicago}

I don't think it will be this nice in C-town but I'm sure with my cold weather gear I could still enjoy a great run along the lake!

The Giveaway Winner is...

First I made a list of all the entries. I re-entered the previous entrants and gave them a bonus entry (per the second chance rules) and then I added the comments from the second chance giveaway:

Then I entered the total number of entries in the Random Number Generator
and the result was #18, Rebecca DeWire!

Congrats Rebecca! Send me your mailing address to kristagager (at) gmail (dot) com and I will put your winnings in the mail!

Hulk Smash!

Today is the last day to enter the New Year Giveaway! Just click on the link and leave a comment for a chance to win the yummy nutrition goodies!

Sunday started out with a great 7am swim workout at Asphalt Green! The pool was set up with the Olympic distance (50 meters) - my favorite! The workout was:

Warm Up
8 x 50 with 15 second rest

Main Set
4 x 200 (100 with 12 single stroke left arm, 12 right arm, 12 together; 100 catch-up) 3 x 400 Swim
4 x 100 Swim

Cool Down
100 easy swim

2900 Total Meters

After swimming we went home and ate delicious omelets. Around noon we headed back to Asphalt Green for a spin workout. I was really excited after my awesome spin class earlier in the week. I even brought my own shoes this time :)

The workout had just started and we were beginning our first set of standing sprints (about 10 minutes into the 90 minute workout) and I hear a big BANG and my peddles stopped moving. #$@&(*$@*(!! I sat down and slowly started spinning again but right away the pedals got stuck and another bang. I check around and everyone agreed the bike was beyond a quick repair. I was sooo mad! I was really looking forward to the workout. Sam offered me his bike because he knew how much I wanted the workout but I declined and walked out of the class. I was so upset at the time that I wanted to scream. I wanted to smash it like the Hulk.

But I couldn't. So what did I do? I cried. Yep. I started crying and just could. Not. Stop. Luckily I managed to get out of the class and away from everyone else before the water works started. It was really ridiculous and embarrassing. I went down to the locker room and had myself a little pity party (similar to my pity party for one back in April, what is it with me and bikes?). I came out to go find a plain old stationary bike and I saw Sam in the lobby. It turned out that his bike broke about 5 minutes later! What are the chances of that?!?! I was too angry to do anything else so we got our stuff and headed home. It took me a good part of the afternoon and a nap to snap out my funk - the skies finally started to clear after a big bag of tortilla chips :)

I emailed the coach to give him a heads up with what happened - I didn't want him to think we walked out on the workout and I also wanted to be sure the bikes were reported so nobody else tried to use them. He wrote me back and it turns out a third bike broke in the same workout! So, 3 of 20 bikes busted in one class. They are all new bikes so I can't imagine how this happened!

Twenty-four hours later and I have no idea why I got so worked up about it. Shit happens right? I'm just looking forward to going back on Wednesday and getting that last attempt off my radar!

I hope you all have an amazing week!

A Global Triathlon

Don't forget to enter the New Year Giveaway! You have until midnight Monday!


Have you heard about Dan Martin's Global Triathlon? My dad sent me from a swimming blog, The Daily News of Open Water Swimming. On May 8, 2010 Dan will start a global triathlon where he will swim across the Atlantic, bike across Eurasia, trek arcoss Alaska, and run across America.

The Swim
On May 8th he will start a global triathlon by diving into the Hudson River at Battery Park in NYC. His journey will take him across the Atlantic to the Brest in France. He will swim 8 hours a day, six days a week, with no wetsuit (temps between 8-20 degrees Celsius). Each day at the end of the swim they will GPS mark the spot and return to that spot the next morning (no distance will be covered by the current while he sleeps). The expected distance will be 5,700 kilometers and the first man to swim the Atlantic.

Transition 1
Bike 450 meters to hotel.

The Bike
From France he will bike through Germany, Poland, Belarus and into Russia (and Siberia during the winter). He expects to bike 100 miles a day. At one point the road will end and he will follow tracks and trails to Anadyr in the Far East, up over the sea ice to Uelen just 50 miles away from Cape Wales in Alaska.

Transition 2
Dan must trek 1000 miles to get to Fairbanks, AK to start the run leg.

The Run
The run is 3000 miles and will start in Fairbanks, Alaska, move across Canada and the Rocky Mountains, across Montana, through Chicago, then Philadelphia and end in New York City. On November 5, 2011 he will run the NYC Marathon and run 5 extra miles at the end to return to the starting point in Battery Park.

The entire trip will be 30,000 kilometers. And you thought an Ironman was impressive?

The Global Triathlon from Daniel Martin on Vimeo.

I Heart Spinning

{source}

Well my first AGTC spin class was a success! The soreness from the TriStrength class was still nagging but it actually felt pretty good to get my legs moving again!

I showed up with my bike shoes in hand but before class started I asked the coach if they were the right fit and he told me that the pedals will accommodate a certain Look pedal but not Look Keo (mine). I came straight from work so the only other shoes I had were my dress shoes! Well everyone agreed that wearing my dress shoes while spinning would be hilarious to everyone watching, it was probably not a wise idea :)

The coach suggested I try wearing the bike shoes with my feet in the toe cages instead of clipping in. The bike I originally grabbed didn't have toe cadges so I went to find the one bike left with them (which of course is in the very front of the class). I jumped on and tried my bike shoes in the toe cages but logistically it was just not going to work. The shoes wouldn't stay in and the clips on the bottom prevented me from getting a good grip. I thought I was going to have to forfeit my spot and I offered it to the girl was first in line for drop-ins (the class is reservation only). She told me that she already had a bike from a no show and then she offered to let me wear her running shoes (she had the correct bike shoes). How generous is that?! Her shoes fit perfectly and I was able to stay in the session after all!

I absolutely loved spinning! The session had a mix of steady state, sprints and climbs with a good amount of recovery between each set. As the coach said, it's only January. No sense killing ourselves right now.

He talked a lot about using your core to power your legs and proper upper-body form. He also tried to keep us focused on our efforts and looking forward just like a real ride. I am guilty of zoning out sometimes and this happens the most on the bike. I am hoping these group workouts will push me to the next level and help me focus my efforts better.

I'm going to go to another spin workout on Sunday afternoon and I can't wait! But this time I will bring my own shoes : )

To Vomit or Not to Vomit?

On Monday night we headed over to Asphalt Green to try a class called TriStrength. We headed into the class with no expectations but hoped to learn some new tri-specific strength moves. The class was a cardio-strength mix with a lot of circuit moves. It started off with some simple circuits such as 10 push-ups / 15 sit ups /10 lunges and repeating as many circuits as possible for 6 minutes. After the circuit we would rest for awhile and then do another circuit. In the first 15 minutes of the class I was a bit disappointed - I was hoping for something a bit more challenging and innovative.

Well folks, be careful what you wish for! Those circuits were just the warm up. Things got progressively more difficult with less rest time. First, the instructor starting incorporating plyometrics into the circuits. Ouch! I was still doing okay and felt like I was holding my own until we got to the burpees. Have you ever done a burpee before? They are really freaking hard! One burpee is pure torture:

1. Begin in a squat position with hands on the floor in front of you.
2. Kick your feet back to a push-up position (advanced move to complete full push-up here)
3. Immediately return your feet to the squat position.
4. Leap up as high as possible from the squat position

5. Repeat, repeat, repeat

The instructor split the room in half. Half A would complete their set, while Half B rested and scoped out the competition* and then Half B would do their set while Half A rested. It was a decreasing pyramid set where you do 10 burpees, rest, 9 burpees, rest, 8 burpees, vomit/rest, 7 burpees, rest, etc. for a total of 55 burpees. Oh. My. God.

With about 3 sets to go I really felt like I was going to lose it. I wondered - do I take a break, wimp out and stop the burpees while everyone in my new club is watching* or do I keep going and risk puking all over the place. I decided to keep going because I figured that if I did vomit that could maybe considered hard core. Right? Right? Hmmm... maybe not. I did keep going and luckily the PB&J stayed put in my belly!

*I'd like to think nobody was watching me because they were too busy trying to hold in their own vomit, but you never know...

After the burpees we went on to do a set with squats. It consisted of 8 sets where you do as many squats as you can for 20 seconds and then "rest" for 10 seconds. The catch is that the "rest" is in the squatting position. Yep - more torture.

The instructor finally ended the torture by having us "cool down" with planks. WTF? Who does planks as a cool down?!

When I got out of bed on Tuesday I was a bit sore but not as bad as I expected. I had a short bike ride at the gym and then headed off to work. When I jumped up from my desk around 11am I practically fell on my face. My quads are like big concrete blocks and now, two days later, I'm still limping around like I just got off a horse. Pathetic. I'm heading to my first spin class at AG tonight. I think it will either stretch out my legs or kill me... I think it's fifty fifty at this point...

Getting off 'The Corn'

Sunday started my official two week hiatus from corn syrup. It's on my 101 in 1001 list and I thought the new year was an excellent time to make this commitment.

There has been a lot of debate and research on the safety and effects of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Alternet recently published an article, High Fructose Corn Syrup Proven to Cause Human Obesity, which outlined the health risks linked to HFCS. The study referenced in the article used a group of 16 volunteers who were give a strict diet which included high levels of fructose. Another group had the same diet but included high levels of glucose (regular sugar). Over a period of just 10 weeks the fructose volunteers showed new fat cells around their heart, liver and other organs while the control group showed no new fat cells. Just 10 weeks! Scientists believe this may be related to how the body breaks down fructose vs. glucose.

The use of corn as a sweetener is higher than average in the USA because of corn subsidies and sugar tariffs/quotas. Corn syrup has become so taboo that the Corn Refiner's Association started an ad campaign called "Sweet Surprise" to try to convince consumers that HFCS is the same as any other sweetener. You can find a lot more information and links to research and new articles on Wikipedia.

If you are interested in some deeper reading I would highly recommend The Omnimore's Dillema by Michael Pollan. It is an excellent description of food politics. I'm a big fan of Michael Pollan's work and I try to live by the philosophy from another one of his books, In Defense of Food. Seven simple words:

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

So anyhow, back to my goal of completely avoiding "The Corn" for the next two weeks. We went to the grocery store on Sunday and I was paying particularly close attention to the ingredient lists. I usually focus on whole foods and organic/natural brands but I did find corn syrup hiding in a few of our regular items.

• 100 Calorie Snack Packs. No surprise there! I know these cookies/pretzels/etc. are beyond processed "food" but sometimes you have to indulge :) They did have a couple options that were clearly labeled "No High Fructose Corn Syrup" so I threw those in the cart.
  
• Salad Dressing. Almost every salad dressing I checked had corn syrup. I know that I could make my own dressing but I've never tried before and I it scares me. I don't know why but it does. So, I found a low-fat sun dried tomato vinaigrette and tossed it in the cart.
  
• Bread. We usually buy Arnold Whole Wheat Light but it has corn syrup too. So, I checked out the small rack of natural/organic breads and found a relatively low calorie option with minimal ingredients. Score!

I think the biggest challenge in the two weeks will not be indulging in random snacks and treats. No cookies from a coworkers desk or candy from the dish because I won't be able to read the ingredient list.

How do you feel about high fructose corn syrup? Do you avoid it like the plague? Think that sugar is sugar? Somewhere in between?

New Year - New Giveaway!

The winner of my original Holiday Giveaway never claimed his prize. I made several attempts to contact John but I never heard from him. So, the good news for the rest of you is that now you get a second chance to win a fun gift package containing:

- 2 Vanilla Gingerbread GU's
- Honey Stinger Organic Energy Chews (Cherry Blossom)
- 2 Organic Clif Shot Energy Gels (Strawberry & Mocha)
- 2 Jelly Belly Sport Beans (Lemon Lime & Berry Blue)
- 2 Clif Shot Blocks (Margarita & Strawberry)

When John never claimed his prize I debated what to do. Pick a new winner from the original giveaway or redo it entirely?

Then my genious husband came up with the idea of automatically re-entering the previous entrants and giving them a bonus entry since they entered the first time. So, for the seven of you that entered the original giveaway on December 17th you are automatically entered for two chances to win!

For everyone else, all you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this post. Everyone also has the chance to win an extra entry by mentioning this giveaway on your blog and let me know you did that in the comments.

Entries will be accepted through Monday, January 11th and I will announce the winner on Tuesday, January 12th. Please be sure to check back to see if you won! If I can't contact the winner this time I might just have to eat up all these goodies myself! Good luck!

Pseudo-legal stuff:
- Contest only open to US & Canadian residents.
- You may comment now (on THIS post) until Monday, January 11th. The winner will be selected and contacted on Tuesday, January 12th

- The winner will be chosen at random by a random number generator or by drawing numbers out of a hat. If you’ve earned multiple entries, you will get multiple numbers, thus bettering your chances at winning.
- Check back next Tuesday to see if you won! (Especially if you don’t have a blog because I have no way of contacting you.)

A Minnesota Christmas

We spent a lovely week in Minnesota with my family celebrating the Christmas holiday. It snowed (a lot) but we still had a great time.

On the 23rd we arrived at my childhood home after 15 hours of travel. The ground was bare and I was grumbling on the drive home that it was going to be a brown Christmas (however I did consider this would be good for outdoor running). Well, the snow started over night and it snowed, and snowed and snowed some more. In the next two days Mother Nature delivered a white Christmas with over two feet of heavy wet, snow. Luckily my brothers were able to make it to my parents house for the Christmas Eve festivities before the snow was too heavy.

Santa was good this year and brought us many triathlon related gifts. I got the Garmin watch I've been dreaming of and Sam got a gift card to our favorite tri store. I also got a subscription to Runner's World magazine, bike safety lights, a great tri sticker for the car and some yummy Shot Blocks. Sam got a nice running shirt, a fancy bike tool, a subscription to Inside Triathlon and of course, Chocolate Gu.

By Christmas morning the roads were impossible to navigate. My brother attempted to leave in his giant four wheel drive truck and only managed to make it up about 400 feet down the road before he had to turn back! I got my workout in with the Wii Fit, snow shoveling and snow-man-making :)

Sam with his snowman...

My niece with the snow woman we made together :)

The snow finally stopped on Saturday and we ventured outside for a snowshoe adventure.

On Sunday we were able to leave the house and headed down to the fitness center where my dad works so we could get in a workout. It is about an hour from our house but totally worth the drive. When we arrived paid the shockingly low day pass price of $3.24, changed into our suits and met at the pool. The wonderfully large and empty pool:

After a 2700 meter swim we showered and headed up stairs and jumped on the spin bikes for an hour. After 3 days of minimal physical activity and maximum cookie intake it felt so good to sweat! Oh the endorphins!



We returned for more endorphin fixes on Tuesday and Wednesday. Over the 3 workouts in 4 days I racked up 7100 meters in the pool and 53 miles on the bike.

On Thursday it was time to head back to the New York. We packed our bags, said our goodbyes and jumped back on the plane.








I'm excited for 2010 and all the possibility's of a new year!

First AGTC swim!

We attended our first Asphalt Green Triathlon Club workout today. It was a 7am swim workout at the amazing pool in the fitness complex. It was hard to roll out of bed at 5:45 on a Sunday morning but it was worth it!

We left the apartment at 6am with plenty of time to spare which was lucky because it took us about 20 minutes to find parking (damn Manhattan)! We figure that if we want to attend any weekday morning workouts we are going to have to take the train which means we would have to get up super-duper early - like 4am early. Ouch! We might just have to stick with the evening workouts during the off season!

Anyhow, the workout was great! The pool was set up at the Olympic distance (50 meters) and the workout was 3100 meters.

Warm-Up
10 x 50 - 4 drill / 2 swim / 4 choice with 15 second rest
4 x 200 - 3 swim / 1 kick with 15 second rest

Main Set
3 x 200 - pull (easy / paddles optional)
10 x 100's - 80% effort, 10 second rest

Cool-Down
200 easy swim

3100 Total Meters

We only had an hour so I skipped a tiny bit of the warm up (200 kick) to make sure I could fit it all in. I ended with 2900 meters total! It was an excellent start to the day!

After the workout we went to the grocery store - so empty at 9am! Then we headed over to our favorite tri store to get a few "necessities." We needed another pull-buoy since we usually just share, Sam got a new pair of goggles and we each picked up a set of paddles. We are frequent shoppers so we always get a 10% discount. When the cashier pulled up our account he told us how much we had spent since we first shopped there last March... Needless to say it was an embarrassingly large sum of money... On the way back to the car we started adding up the other expenses from the year (bike, gym fees, club fees, race fees, etc. etc. etc.) Wow. After some discussion we agreed we could be spending our money and time on worse things :) Bring on the endorphins!

Happy New Year!!

Hey John (See John Tri) you still have not claimed your prize from the Holiday Giveaway. Get in touch with me at kristagager@gmail.com before Monday, January 4th otherwise I will need to pick a new winner!

Happy New Year! Our plane landed at 11:30pm last night and we made it home with just four minutes before midnight. We brought in the new year while standing at our kitchen table and sorting a weeks worth of mail :)

After an afternoon of weightlifting, spinning and running I spent some time catching up with my Google Reader (400+ new posts!!). I've really enjoyed reading everyone's 2009 reviews and 2010 goals. I already posted about my 2009 race season so I won't go over it again, but I did find a neat app on Facebook, My Year in Status. It selects a random assortment of 2009 status updates and displays them in a nice format. Enjoy!


As soon as I can load up my pictures from our Minnesota trip I will post a full recap. It started with snow, snow and more snow! After we dug out from the snow we found an awesome fitness center and swam and spun those cookies off :)

I'm off to watch Kona Ironman 2009 on the DVR. More blogging to come soon (and more regularity through 2010)! Happy New Year!!


P.S. Have you seen the ads for the Taco Bell Drive-Thru-Diet!?!

Yep, you read that right. "Christine" lost 55lbs eating at Taco Bell because she was "realistic" and did not want to "cut out fast food." If you visit the website you will see that the disclaimer for the Taco Bell Drive Thru Diet is: "Drive-Thru-Diet® is not a weight-loss program. For a healthier lifestyle, pay attention to total calorie and fat intake and regular exercise. Taco Bell's Fresco Menu can help with calorie reductions of 20 to 100 per item compared to corresponding products on our regular menu. Not a low calorie food." What is the world coming to?