Sometimes I like to disappear.

But then I come back. Usually.

Anyway. I'm feeling better. I'm back on schedule. I went to my girlie doctor, and she said that my bloaty/crampiness wasn't because of anything girlie-part related, so she thinks it's more of a GI issue than anything. She told me to go for an abdominal ultrasound, but I put that off. The ultrasound she gave me was traumatic enough, thank you very much. And apparently I don't have a left ovary. But thats ok - I believe this is going to make me more aerodynamic on my bike, much like Lance Armstrong and his singular testicle.

But things have calmed down, and I'm attributing the ickiness to a change in diet - now that my body has had a few weeks to acclimate to a natural/organic diet, I'm feeling a lot better.

My training has been going very well. I had my first group run with my tri group on Tuesday, and while I was most definitely the slowest person there, I actually ran one of my fastest times ever. So much for a 40 minute run at RPE 3. Turned into a 35 minute run at RPE holy-crap-i'm-gonna-die.

I'm definitely feeling stronger in the pool, too, which is awesome. And I like how my shoulders and upper back are really firming up and getting stronger and more toned. It's exciting :-)

This weekend I'm snowboarding in Vermont, which I'm really looking forward to.

I Don't Know Whats Wrong With Me

But something is most definitely off. I'm exhausted all the time. I'm hungry all the time. I don't want to do anything except sleep, or lay on the couch and watch tv. I haven't worked out since Monday...I just don't have the energy. Physically I feel fine - I don't feel like I'm getting sick. I'm just ALWAYS tired and hungry.

Maybe it's just my bodies way of revolting against last week. Maybe I didn't eat enough during the week, and with all the calories I was burning (sometimes up to 1200 a day) I wasn't replenishing properly, and now I've crashed. Or maybe I'm not cut out to train for the Half-Ironman. I don't know. All I know is that I'll eat, and then be starving an hour or two later. Lather, rinse, repeat all day. And I CANNOT get out of bed in the morning. Forget my 530AM workouts. I can barely get out of bed at 645 to get to work on time.

Hopefully my doc tonight can at least point in me some sort of direction. Or tie my cramping/bloatiness into this lethargy/hunger. Or something....Because something just feels off.

Healthy You Check In Week 6; Training Update

I'm here. I'm working. I am EXHAUSTED. Training is taking much more out of me than I thought it would. But here are my updates:

Friday I missed my evening workout because I had an emergency client meeting that didn't end till 730, and then had a date at 8 that I actually had to push back to 9. Saturday was my rest day, and Sunday I did a 25-mile bike ride in a little less than an hour and a half, so that was good.

Yesterday...Yesterday I could NOT get out of bed. I think my ride was much more taxing that I originally thought. But I got a 40-minute run in last night.

This morning...Couldn't get out of bed. Missed my morning run. Will be combining my 30 minute recovery run and 60 minute easy bike into one workout tonight. And tomorrow I HAVE to get up early to swim. No excuses. I've been going to bed really late recently - between 1030 and 11. Considering my alarm goes off at 5 and I need at least 7 hours, I really need to be getting into bed at 9. I'll try to work on that tonight.

Tomorrow I've got an emergency doctors appointment. I've been having really nasty cramps for the past few months, all month (the monthly friend cramps, not muscle cramps), so I think somethings not right down there. There's also been a constant feeling of bloat. Imagine the physical symptoms of PMS, but all month. It hasn't been fun. Hopefully my doc can figure out whats wrong.

So yeah. Tired, bloaty, crampy...Not sure whats wrong with me. Blah.

Last Swim of the Week

As the title suggests, this morning was my last swim workout this week. Here's what it looked like:

Warm-up: 400 continuous, last 25 in each 100 is kick
Main: 8x100 EBEH (first 25 is easy, next 25 is build, next 25 is easy, last 25 is hard)
Cool-down: 6x25, each 25 slower than previous

I felt pretty good. The warmup was easy (I remember a time not too long ago where 15 lengths killed me. Now I'm doing 18 lengths as a warmup). The main was tough - I was sucking wind toward the last few laps. I had to cut the 8 to 6 though, because I was running out of time. Soon, I swear, I will get up when my alarm goes off, and not a half hour afterwards. But my catman came up on my bed around 330, and we were totally cuddling, and it was just too cute and I couldn't pull myself away at 5. Or 510. Or 520. I finally got up at 535 and was out the door to the subway by 545. So yeah, I totally blame the little man and his cuddling superpowers. Wanna meet him?



Meet Diablo-Muffin-Little Man-Dee-Fatty-Monkey. Yeah, he's got a lot of names. And a different personality to go with each of them. I'm not quite sure if he's got the personalities because of the multiple names, or vice-versa, but it is what it is. He's my main man. Actually, he's my only man.

Tonight I've got a 45-minute easy ride, tomorrow is an off day, and Sunday I'm meeting up with some people from my triathlon club to go riding in the local park. It's gonna be 50 degrees on Sunday!

Thursday Long Run, and Lost

My run this morning was absolutely fantastic. Have you ever had that workout or run where you felt as though you could just go on forever and ever and ever? Thats how I felt at 545 this morning. I got on the treadmill and just...went. I was going slow (for a long run I keep my pace at about a 12 minute mile, which is 2 minutes slower than my (hopeful)(projected) race pace. I went for 40 minutes (about 3.5 miles) because I overslept a bit, but i just felt absolutely.fantastic.

No workout scheduled for tonight - I'm meeting up with my Dad after work then going to the Ski Bums happy hour. Hopefully I'll be home by 930 and in bed by 10. Tomorrow I've got a swim in the morning and a bike in the evening, and then a date tomorrow night.

Did you watch Lost last night? Is you brain hurting as much as mine? I have a feeling that on Thursdays this blog is also going to turn into a "Quinn's Theories on Lost" blog. So here we go.

1. Charlie, Desmond and Penny's son, is ALSO Charles Widmore. Hear me out on this one. Desmond and Penny end up going back to the island, and of course they bring their son. The island gets all timey-wimey and then goes back in time. Desmond, Penny, and Charlie get stranded on the island. Desmond and Penny die, becoming the skeletons that Jack found back in Season 1 in the cave (Adam and Eve?). Charlie becomes the 'native son' of the Island, but because of power struggles with Richard Alpert, he ends up leaving the Island. Prior to this he's adopted his mothers maiden name in an attempt to distance himself from his father. After he leaves the Island, he gets married to...

2. Ellie. Or perhaps Ellie and he are siblings. Either way, there is definitely some sort of familial connection between Widmore and Ellie. I also have a feeling that Ellie is Eloise Hawkings, who is Daniels Faradays mother. This would make Penny and Daniel either siblings or cousins, depending on the relationship between Ellie and Widmore. So Widmore and Ellie get married, at some point Penny is born, and some years later she gives birth to her son, Charlie, named after the late and beloved Charlie Pace and NOT as an homage to her father. Ironically, her son ends up also BEING her father.

3. Miles is Pierre Changs son, who we saw at the beginning of Season 5, episode 1.

4. The nosebleeds are happening to people based on how much cumulative time they've spent on the island. Charlotte spent the most time there, so she got it first. Next was Miles, which fits in to the theory that he was the Asian baby from the beginning of the season. Now Juliet is having them, and she's been on the Island for 3 years longer than our Losties. We can expect our Losties to be getting the nosebleeds soon, too, as well as Daniel.

5. I'm still rather confused about the role that Charlotte is going to play in this.

6. I couldn't care less about the Oceanic 6 anymore.

7. Next week, Locke is going to die.

8. The whispers that the Losties were hearing during the first few seasons were not, in fact, the Others. It was actually the future THEM, time-traveling.

I feel like the past four seasons have been intense foreplay, and right now the Island is giving us mind-blowing (quite literal, in some senses) sex. I'm having a braingasm with each episode. And I have got the biggest fanboy crush on Charlotte ever. She's gorgeous. Just so you know.

Crapalicious Day

Yesterday SUCKED.

I was in the office from 730AM to 9PM. I got my morning run in, like I reported yesterday. And I snuck away from the office at 4 to get my cycling in. But I was back at my desk at 545 and stuck here for the rest of the night.

I got home at 945 and I was famished, so I made a single serving of tuna with a slice of cheese and some orange juice. Actually, a lot of orange juice. I think I'm kind of addicted.

I had sent my boss an email last night saying that because I was there for nearly 14 hours yesterday, I would be coming in a little late today. So instead of getting here at 730 like I normally do after a workout, I rolled in at 815. I know, such a rebel, sleeping late and whatnot.

But I am a rebel, because I'm taking today as an unofficial rest day. It's not bad, because it was a one workout day, not a double. I had a short swim this morning. But tonight is Lost, and I've got another deep tissue massage scheduled for this evening, so I think Wednesdays are going to be an added, unscheduled rest day. As long as I don't have a serious workout planned. My plan calls for six days of working out a week, and I know that if I do that, combined with working 10 or 12 hour days, I am going to burn out, and I can't have that.

So Wednesdays are going to be my mid-week, Lost, massage, pizza days. And maybe a beer during Lost, if I don't do the massage. I'm pushing my body to the brink five days a week - I don't think one day of pleasure is going to kill me. In fact, I think it will do the exact opposite.

Tomorrow morning I've got a long 60 minute run, then work all day. Then I'm meeting up with my dad after work to get some stuff from him (he's working in the city again! Yay!), and afterwards I've got a Ski Bums happy hour that I'm going to. Kevin's got some books for me to read, and it's always nice to see the boys from the Argentina trip for a little while. So I'm definitely looking forward to tomorrow, provided I can get up early enough to get a solid hours run in.

Yesterdays bike session was an easy spin - I kept my cadence up around 100, my speed averaging at 16.5 mph, and my heartratoe at a nice, fat-burning 65% for the entire time, which was my main goal. All in all, a successful workout. In 40 minutes I went a little over 10 miles, and wasn't out of breath at all.

HYC Check in: Week 5, Training update, plus more!

Since I posted yesterday I got in two runs. Here are the stats from my heartrate monitor:

PM Run, Monday: Aaaand crap. Apparently my watch only stores the most recent workout. Hm. Ok. Well, here are my notes from yesterday: "Cut to 30 minutes because of limits @gym - run outside from now on for 30+ min runs. TIRED, lethargic, legs felt heavy. Treadmill felt faster than my old gym. 2.5 miles"

AM Run, Tuesday: Duration: 21:24, 16:14 in zone; 236 calories burned

Tonight I've got a 60 minute easy spin. We're supposed to get hit with a nasty storm today, so there's a solid chance I'll be relegated to the bikes at the gym.

Other stuff:

My mom gave me a few new work blouses for Christmas this year. One is a really nice Charter Club light purpley striped number, size 12. When I tried it on the day after Christmas, I couldn't even button it closed. Today I'm wearing it, and it's loose! I'm rather excited about this.

I also bought some new clothes from American Eagle - new jeans, a sweater, and a henley. They were having some massive clearance sales, and I got all three for the actual original price of the jeans. So I was happy. But I bought them in smaller sizes than I usually do, because I wanted something to work towards. (I wear mens clothes, so take that into account). The jeans were 33x30 low-rise bootcut, and the sweater and henley were smalls. THEY ALL FIT! I was expecting the jeans to be a little tight, but they fit nicely! And the sweater is fitted, so I need to wear it with a looser pair of jeans (probably my 34x30 bootcut ones), but it looks good! I'm really excited. Hopefully soon I'll lose my muffintop, too!

I'm not dead. Yet.

I know I've been gone. Sorry for disappearing like that. I was just really out of it last week for some reason. Exhausted and whatnot. So I took some time off.

But no longer! Because we all know what today is! The first day of my real training! So here is what the training log calls for today:

Swim: Long day
Warm up: 200 meter swim, 200M kick, 200M pull, 200M swim (for those of us keeping track, thats a .5 mile warmup)
Main: 1x1500M, RPE 4
Cool down: 4x50m, each slower than the last

Run: 40 minutes easy, RPE 3

I did the swim this morning before work, but I actually ran out of time. I did a shortened warmup (150M swim, pull, swim, for a grand total is 450M), and the main got cut to a 1250 instead of a 1500, and the cooldown was eliminated altogether. But still, thats a daily total of 1700M, which is longer than a mile, and I was in the pool for about 40 minutes, including my rest between the warmup and main part of the workout. The 1250 took me 28 minutes, with pretty much even laps between 1min5secs and 1min10secs. My fastest was 1min5sec even, and my slowest was a 1min19sec, because I swallowed a mouthful of water and had to stop.

I was starving this morning. I stopped and got a fruit salad with some cottage cheese on my way into the office, so hopefully that will hold me until 10 when I can eat my oatmeal. And I forgot to bring lunch today, so I'm trying to figure out what I can buy that won't weigh me down for my run this afternoon.