Perhaps I Should've Gone For a Half Marathon

I know that sounds a bit dramatic considering how much more difficult that would be than a Sprint Triathlon. However, I am finding that I absolutely suck at both biking and swimming. Running seems to be the only thing that I can manage to do. In the fortunate situation of the triathlon, I will probably even suck at that since I'll be so exhausted from the swimming and biking.
I biked to my parents house last night for dinner and on the way I decided a few things about biking.
1. I am the slowest biker ever.
2. I think I actually hurt my knee biking. I've done some research on why this may be the case and I've concluded that I might have my seat in the wrong spot. I may bring my bike to a bike shop to have them help me. Of course then they might tell me how much my bike sucks.
3. Being the slowest biker is not going to be helped by my mountain bike.
4. If somehow I am not in last place after the swimming portion, I definitely will be after the biking.
It was during this bike ride that I was questioning why I did not just train for a running race only. Yes, a half marathon would be really hard, but at least I would probably not finish last.

Then, this morning I woke up early to go swimming. Last Thursday I did not swim in the morning and then by the time I got out of work and tutoring, there was no more lap swim at the Y. Sunday's swim work out was really tough so I had to get up. I knew I was not going to swim the 35 minutes I was supposed to, so I decided to run on the treadmill first. Good thing I did because I barely made it 20 minutes in the pool. First of all, Lesson #1= do NOT do Level 3 of the shred and then swim the next day. I did about two strokes before I realized what a horrible idea that is. My arms were literally throbbing. I don't even think I made it through the 23 laps I've been trying to do every time. Oh well, hopefully Sunday will be better (and I will not do the shred of any kind on Saturday!). A few things I noticed about swimming:
#1- I am still trying to navigate lane etiquette. I always feel like I should ask people if I can join their lane. But at the same time, it is really not THEIR lane...I don't ask people if I can use the treadmill next to them. Is this the same? Probably not...
#2- Also on lane etiquette, are you supposed to just go on one side of the lane? Or circle swim? Or, is this something you are supposed to work out with the person when you ask them if you can be in their lane? I had actually never seen any other way of sharing besides circle swimming until last week when the woman I was sharing with just stayed on one side. I wondered why I had never seen this before. It makes a lot more sense than circle swimming because really one person does not take up the whole lane and this way you don't really have to wonder about passing people. Although, circle swimming is probably for more than 2 people?
#3- Chlorine. Look, I know the point of it- I do. However, I really do not enjoy the fact that I can still smell it on my hands now 13 hours after swimming, after SHOWERING and of course washing my hands probably at least six or seven times. Also it makes my hair and skin feel nasty. So while I can appreciate the point of it, I still hate it.

In better news, I still love running and I am so looking forward to my outside run on Saturday morning (if somehow it finally decides to not rain). I tried out my new sneakers today (I exchanged the other ones) and I love them. I literally broke a sweat at the store trying them so many times because I did not want to get ones I didn't like again. I was afraid I was bias because they have pink on them. But it turns out they are pink and amazingly comfortable, so perfect.
Also, because my legs were absolutely killing me, and I've done every aspect of the triathlon (biking, swimming and running) in the past 24 hours, I decided to treat myself to some frozen yogurt. There is a place in the center that I have been going to since I was probably 6 so I decided to take Eric there. It's called "Candy Castle" and it was pretty much my favorite place in the world as a child. I haven't been there in at least six or seven years so I decided to give their frozen yogurt a try. It turns out they now have (or maybe they always had...) soft serve frozen yogurt with mix ins so I got a yummy vanilla with Butterfinger mixed it. So basically a healthier version of my favorite at Coldstone Creamery. Speaking of which, Coldstone is also doing a mom gets an ice cream free thingy so if your mom likes Coldstone, check it out :) Here is my beautiful frozen yogurt:
Well it looks a little melted, but trust me it was delicious.
And last but not least I have to tell you guys about this awesome game I play with my darling kindergarten kids today. It's been raining all week in Boston so our outside time has been limited and stir crazy is not quite a strong enough phrase to describe my kids right now. I found this game on one of the Self Magazine blogs and turned it into a kids game. However, it is also used for adults who need some child-like motivation to guide their work outs. Basically, you grab a deck of cards and assign each suit to a different exercise, like this:
For adults you may want to do lunges, push ups, squats etc. Or use the kids ones :) Then I had the kids spread out throughout the classroom and each take a turn turning over a card. The child would say out loud what they got, "10 of hearts!" and the kids would then all do 10 jumping jacks. If they got a King of Spades, they'd all do 11 frog jumps. By the end my kids were exhausted and I was happy :) I could see myself getting bored with my work outs one day and playing this game as an adult. It could be fun! If you have children at home or work with them, I highly recommend this game for rainy days.
That's all for now.
Don't forget only one more day for the giveaway!!! If you want to win a No More Trouble Zones dvd, quick send me an e-mail! And even if you don't want to win, follow my blog anyways just for fun.

Fancy New Gear

Today was a crazy day at work because I got a new student in my class. She does not speak a word of English, which seems to be the general theme for my kindergarten class this year. I'm beginning to think I should just not talk, because 1/2 my class doesn't understand me and the other half doesn't listen anyways!
This weekend I did some shopping for training/racing gear. First, I had a recommendation for a triathlon book so I set out in search of this book. Lucky for me, the only place that had the book in the area was a bookstore in the center of the town I work. I knew this meant I would see someone I know, so I dragged Eric with me and headed to the bookstore. Fortunately I only ran into one kid that I know and he hid behind his mom while we talked to her haha. This is probably one of the least shy kids I know, but something about seeing a teacher in the wrong environment confuses even the most comfortable of kids. I wanted to get some frozen yogurt, but I saw some more families I knew outside of the store so I decided that was my cue that I didn't need any dessert. Here is the book I got:
I haven't read every word of it yet, but I have skimmed through and it is already answered a lot of my questions about what to wear, how to go from one sport to another, and what to do on the day before/day of the race itself. I am sure I am going to be referring back to this book a lot as the race gets closer.
Also, with all of the training that I am doing I decided I should really get myself a serious pair of running shoes. My sister recommended a place called Marathon Sports where they actually look at your foot shape, how you walk/run etc and then recommend a couple of different shoes. I decided to try it out since I clearly have no idea what I am doing when it comes to running shoes. I headed over to the Cambridge location on Sunday. I love Cambridge because there are all sorts of great restaurants and stores there, but there is absolutely no where to park. It took me forever to find a space. The store was crowded but I still got a good amount of attention from one of the guys who worked there. He told me that I do not overpronate (yay) and that I do not need a ton of extra support in a shoe (does this mean I can buy cheaper pairs guilt free?). I brought up my recent problems with my knee and past history of shin splints, so he recommended I try a shoe with a little more cushioning. He also said that I should go up a 1/2 size because my feet will swell when I run. I had never heard this before but I figured he probably knows what he is talking about. I ended up with these:

They are actually Asics, which is completely different for me because I am very faithful to the Saucony brand. However, the Saucony shoes the guy gave me were not as comfortable (possibly because they were a 1/2 a size bigger than I am used to!) so I decided to try something completely different. I'm planning to run on the treadmill (aka completely torture myself because it's going to be raining and I'm sure its better for my knee to have the cushion) tomorrow morning so I'll let you know how they go. I also had a small impulse buy at Marathon Sports (if you are wondering how I am affording all this new gear- it's my new tutoring job and my travel point earning credit card of course!).
This is going to hold my ipod on my arm so that I don't have to hold it in my hand anymore. For as long as I can remember I have had serious side aches while running and I have had all sorts of theories about why I get them. However, my latest (supported by both my mom and sister) is that I need to have my arms more relaxed while I am running and holding something doesn't really support that. So...here is the solution: The Nike Sport Armband!
I really love work out gear...probably more than I love working out. But it is certainly a good motivator :)

Finally, for all the ice cream lovers out there- I just found out that TCBY will be giving out free frozen yogurt to Moms on Sunday. So if you are a Mom, or have a Mom, or have some kids that you can borrow to pretend you are a mom (hmm, do you think any of my kindergartners would pose as my kids for the day? they call me mom all the time so it wouldn't so hard)- go to TCBY on Sunday!