Good morning and welcome to a new week!

Jessica checked in yesterday to say that she completed her triathlon and beat her goal of 2 hours. We're anxiously awaiting Megan's report on her competition and more details from Jessica. You guys rock!!

My weekend was a mundane blur of cooking and cleaning. How was everyone's weekend?

I'm off to the gym after another mug of coffee and will check back later, hopefully more coherently!

Good Monday morning, maintainers!

I have a very busy day ahead, but my first stop will be the gym.

Good morning everyone! I posted the full details of the triathlon on the tri thread in the exercise forum here. My official time was 1:49:05 and the breakdown was:
swim - 15:07
swim to bike transition: 5:29
bike: 45:42
bike to run transition: 1:28
run: 41:18

My overall rank was 565/573. I could have done better based on the fact that I wasn't totally exhausted at the end, but I was more focused on finishing than finishing fast.

The scariest thing ended up being the swim, which I hadn't been worried about at all. So, I trained in a pool that was 3 feet deep at the shallow end and 5 feet at the deep end. The event was in a pool that was 4 feet deep at the shallow end and 14 feet deep at the deep end. I knew that going in and didn't think it would be a big deal. Luckily I had the chance to warm up in the pool before the event, because when I was swimming along and the floor dropped out from under me I totally freaked out! It was good to get that over with before the actual race.

Anyway, my legs are sore today but not too bad. In other news my thyroid tests came back great so no problem there. OTOH after celebrating my triathlon victory at the Cheesecake Factory, my weight this morning surpassed the dreaded 150. This week I'm dedicating to coming up with a new weight loss plan, and once I've got a plan in place I going to FOLLOW IT until I get back to goal. 20lbs is a lot. This gain ends now.

Good morning maintainers!!

Congratulations Jessica! That is so exciting to accomplish such a big event. Most people wouldn't dream of trying and you took the chance and did it!!

My weekend was also a blur. I worked, studied, tried to catch up on life with my dh.... not sure what else! Oh, dh and I walked over 6 miles on Saturday delivering door hangers reminding voters to vote in an upcoming election. My kitty seems much better. His sister still isn't snuggling with her, but she's stopped hissing and growling at him.

I hope to get back on track with the gym this week. I had several days last week when I couldn't go and I feel out of sync as a result. The temps today will be over 90! I love warm weather but I'll be inside working.....

Good morning!

Way to go Jessica! You did great!

Blur of a weekend here, too. Lots of cleaning, lots of laundry some sleeping, a family birthday party, more cleaning... Got a lot accomplished but am worn out. No formal exercise, but I figure 10 hours of heavy housework has to count for something! I have blisters on my hands from it!

Today I plan to get back on the formal exercise wagon - I'm having a bad day already, so plan on beating on the weight bag when I get home to work out the stress. I lost the accountant candidate I had been working on, so I've conceded to a staffing agency to find me a person. I don't have another four weeks and 700 resumes in me...

Michele - glad your baby is feeling better!

Good Monday everyone!

Hi everyone,

Jessica, awesome job on the triathalon!!! How awesome that you broke the 2-hour mark! Sounds like you figured out all the logistics you were worried about just fine. So when is your next triathlon?

My powerlifting tournament went pretty well, and I'm happy with the results. My benchpress ended up being 110#, and my deadlift 205#. I didn't make my third benchpress of 120#, but there was a miscommunication and I didn't have my benchpress shirt (trainer Tim had it, but he thought I had it...). I'm not sure how much of a difference that made since I've been getting 115 consistently but faltering around 120/125.

The tournament itself was really interesting to watch. There were about 35 entrants, and ranged from quite a few beginners/first contests to people who held world records in their age/weight class. The organizers were my trainer Tim, and a former world-class competitor, George Herring (and his wife Sandra, also world-class competitor). Before my last deadlift Sandra came over to me and gave me some advice, which was pretty neat. There were only 3 female entrants, myself, training partner Cathy, and a third 18-year-old (George Herring's niece) who is the world-record-holder deadlifter for her age/weight - 365#. Wow! There were also a lot of guys who were the kind of over-developed, jumping up and down to the rock music playing, the sort of stereotype of the male lifter (though very nice guys off-stage). That is definitely not the direction I want to go - I wouldn't say powerlifting is going to become my "thing", but it was a really good experience, and since this is an annual tournament here I'll do it next year. It's also an exposure to a different type of training. While I believe it's important for me to keep balancing my cardio & weightlifting, and I'm pointedly trying not to bulk up (hard for women anyway, I know, but I do tend to build muscle easily), strength training is an interesting type of more functional training in my eyes.

Not sure what I'll do next...

Drove an hour to do a Walmart grocery run yesterday and they were out of my Jenni-o lean ground turkey! Bah! (Nobody sells it any closer to me, or anything comparable nutritionally.) I'm just trying to get back to it - plan out healthy meals, stay in my workout groove, and organize my personal life that I've been putting aside...

How was everyone else's weekend?

Yea, Jessica and Megan!! I am so proud of you both!!!

My weekend was busy as usual. Volleyball games (DD #2 is finally getting her serves over the net Woohoo!!). DD #1 finished her drivers ed and passed her test so now I need to call and get her on the insurance. She got her braces off a couple weeks ago and has got her ACT and SAT scores. Just warning ya'll now, I'm gonna be a wreck when she moves out.

Other than that, same old, same old. Gotta shop for groceries, clean, help kids with homework, drive all over creation, work....and I'm blessed to have all that. I have semi mentally committed to a full marathon in October so I added a half a mile to my long run this weekend. Look out!!

Meg, I was watching a show on Food Network last night called Chopped or some such where chefs are given a set of ingredients and need to make a dish out of them. One of the ingredient sets was salmon, radicchio (sp?) and strawberries. The chefs appeared puzzled by the combo of salmon and strawberries and I thought of you! A perfectly normal combination around these parts! They don't even know what they are missing.

Have a good day everyone!

I gave you a Facebook kudos, Jessica. WTG!

Megan~glad you did well in your competition. Does the shirt really help that much?

I had a great weekend. Saturday morning was filled with errands and then we went golfing with the in-laws and stayed there for dinner. It was hot! I didn't dry out until I got home and took my bra off. Eww, gross!

Sunday I went to Target to pick up some miscellaneous stuff and they were giving away free reusable tote bags for celebrating Earth Week. How nice! Then I made some fabulous seafood enchiladas for dinner. I served it with a marinated salad from Cooking Light. The recipe said it served 4, but it must have been 4 main dishes! I have more than enough for DH and my lunch today.

It is supposed to be over 100 degrees here today. Reading about people on the forum that are still getting snow! Amazing! But I'm still not ready for triple digits.

Heh.

Well I just called the insurance guy to see about adding DD to our auto policy (ack! heart attack!) aand I asked about buffing up my life insurance policy. He starts talking about different levels of discounts based on fitness and said that there is one level that anyone hardly ever qualifies for cause you have to be a healthy weight and pretty fit. I described my running regimen to him, and he thinks I'll qualify for that. Very nice!!

Great job at the tourney, Megan! And I hate it when my store is out of my turkey - I get the Jennie-o ground turkey breast from Target and they have been out a lot lately...

Allison - 100 degrees... wow... I think it is going to get to 65 here and I was excited by the warmness!

Midwife - who is your life insurance with? Fitness discount is pretty cool!

Megan and Jessica.....

very very very very cool stuff


Congrats to you both,

Kitty

Thanks everyone!

Megan, great job!!! There are three more sprint triathlons in my area this summer -- one in June, one in July, and one in August. I'm thinking about maybe signing up for the August one but I haven't decided yet.

Congrats to Megan and Jessica! You are amazing!! Jessica, how far do you have to run, bike, and swim for a triathlon?

2 cups of coffee in to the week, and I'm OVERWHELMED! I'm trying to consciously take time to relax - really relax, and not just check my email or something as a break. I think taking real breaks will help me to focus when I'm working! Here's hoping!

Iris, the triathlon I did was a sprint distance which is about half of the standard distance. It was a 400 meter swim, 10 mile bike, and 5k run.

I honestly couldn't sense a big difference in how much I felt I could lift. I did feel different, b/c you get used to wearing this constrictive clothing whenever you're lifting and suddenly it was gone when I didn't have my shirt Saturday. The head organizer George talked a little bit about the shirts when he was giving us the "rules" early on, and I learned that their actual function is to protect shoulders. He said they were developed about 20 years ago, and over time as newer ones were made they started making them tight in places that would help people lift more weight, and some swear they can lift 50, 100 lbs more w/ the shirts (I guess these are the guys that are benching 500 lbs...?).

But even if they don't help me lift more, if they truly are protecting my shoulders I think that's worth it! Shoulder injury = bad.

Thanks for the support everyone!

midwife, that is awesome! Just another perk of leading a fit & healthy lifestyle.