Random Friday Facts

1. I didn’t get on a airplane until my 18^th birthday.

2. I’ve never been to Disney World (but I’ll be going in January!).

3. I got a cat and then found out that I’m allergic to them (after a long period of a constant runny nose), but refused to give her up.  Bring on the Flonase!

4. I really want to get a dog but I’m not sure I’m responsible enough (and my current apartment doesn’t allow them).

5. I wish I was a couple of inches taller.

6. My favorite flavor of Gatorade/Powerade is blue.

7. My high school and college used the same exact mascot costume.  I was a Patriot and then a Diplomat. And in middle school I was an Admiral.  A very non-standard collection of mascots.

8. The older I get, the more I like cold weather and hate the heat.

9. My favorite book ever is Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. If you haven’t read it, you should.

10. In the beach v. mountains debate, I’d always pick the beach.

 

Culpeper Sprint Tri Goals

On Sunday I'll be competing in my second sprint tri and my last of the year.  It's been an interesting first summer of triathlon training and I hope that my added time on the bike and in the pool will pay off with improvements over my first race.  It's a relatively small race (about 450 when I last checked the registration list) which should hopefully make it relatively easy to get in and out of the transitions and move around on the course.  It should be a fun weekend and race since my brother is also competing!  We're planning to head down on Saturday afternoon to avoid an extra early wake up on Sunday morning.  This will also allow us to drive the course on Saturday which I hope will be helpful on Sunday.

Swim - 750m
My last tri swim was significantly shorter (300m) and in a pool so I'm not sure how much it really helps to compare the two.  In that race I averaged 1:44/100 meters.  I'd like to go faster than that in this race.  It was harder to pass in the pool and I had to stop/slow down several times.  I'm hoping that in the lake I can swim without those type of issues and that the lack of stopping will make up for the boost I got from turns in the last race. 
Goal - sub 13:00

Bike - 16 miles

I averaged 15mph in the BRATS tri over 12 miles.  Despite my recent struggles on the bike, I feel like I have made a ton of progress since that race and have seen the average pace of my training rides improve.  I'm still not averaging 15mph in training, but given where I was in training in May and where I am now, a faster pace is definitely possible. It will all depend on the hills on the course.  The race website describes it as "rolling" and fails to include an elevation chart - never a good sign with that type of course.  Emily did this race last year and told me that it is definitely hilly, but not awful if you are mentally prepared. (I know she eats hills for breakfast now, but she says she wasn't like that last summer.  Hopefully our idea of "not awful" is similar).  I plan to drive the course when I get there on Saturday afternoon and I may have to reassess after seeing it, but as of now my goal is to be faster than 15mph.
Goal - sub 1:04

Run

This is where I am a little less sure about my goal time.  I did a 25:51 (8:20 pace) in May, but I'm not sure if that's realistic for this race.  I feel like my running has definitely dropped off during June and July as a result of my focus on spending more time on my bike and in the pool, and because I needed a break.  I did only one brick workout (oops!), so I haven't really spent the time preparing my legs and my brain for this leg of the race.  The other course was pretty flat and this one has hills.  I also lucked out and got a pretty cool day for my May race, but it looks like it is going to be hot on Sunday.  All of this added together means that I really have no idea what I can do.  Assuming it isn't too hot and humid out there I'd like to keep my pace sub-9:00.
Goal - sub 28:00

I have done absolutely no transition practice so I'm hoping they aren't too slow.  I didn't have my bike shoes in the first race, so that should add a fun little wrinkle to T2.  I'm not even going to put a time goal on either of them.  Getting in and out as quickly as possible (without forgetting anything or putting my shoes on the wrong feet) is the goal.

At the very least, my goal for this race is to have a good time and be smart if the heat and humidity are high.  I jump into marathon training on Monday, so I'd like to end this tri season on a high note with a desire to do it all again next year!

CSA Week 3 & 5

I'm a little behind on posting this, but here is what I made with the produce I received in weeks 3 & 5 of my CSA (week 4 I was on vacation and my coworker took my produce).

Week 3

Cantaloupe, Patty pan squash, peppers, cucumber, yellow squash, green beans

Patty pan squash

I sliced this up, tossed it with olive oil and some basil and oregano, then roasted it in the oven.

I mixed a portion of the cooked squash with tomatoes and served over pasta with a little more olive oil. 

I did a poor job with photographing for the rest of this batch.  The cantaloupe, cucumber and green beans were all cut up and eaten as snacks.  I used the green peppers and yellow squash as part of the filling for veggie burritos (along with black beans, onion, tomatoes, and corn).

Week 5

Corn, patty pan squash, kohlrabi, peppers, cucumbers

Green peppers

I diced up the green peppers and mixed them into a egg scramble.  I served it with salsa and a bit of cheese.  Simple, but tasty!

Corn
I cooked up the corn on the cob and ate one (fresh corn, delicious!) and then removed the rest of the corn from the cob.  I used it to make a quick and easy black bean and corn salad that I found on AllRecipes.com a couple of years ago.

Dressing 

Cucumber
Sliced up for snacking.  I love cucumbers, so I've been pretty happy that they have been so plentiful in the last few deliveries

Last week I didn't do so well with cooking (and may or may not have had cereal for dinner more than once) so I still have the kohlrabi and patty pan squash left.  Hopefully I can report back next week on a tasty kohlrabi dish, I have my eye on a good recipe.

Week in Review - 7/17-7/23

Sunday July 17
Swim 3200 yds
I like swimming on Sundays because I feel no pressure to get up early and go.  I don't have to worry about the heat and the pool doesn't open until 10:30 so I couldn't go even if I wanted to.  This was my longest swim of the summer and the main set was 200s to work on holding a consistent pace over a slightly longer distance.

Monday July 18
Bike - 21.6 mi (AM), 5 mi (PM)
In the morning I did a loop of Arlington, hitting up the Custis hills and finishing with a lap around Hains Point.  The ride home after work was stressful and included an almost fall, leaving me totally frustrated by the time I finished.  Two bad rides in a row (my last ride before vacation did have a fall) definitely had me in my head and not in a good state of mind about cycling.

Tuesday July 19
Run 4.0 mi
I was going to run 5 miles but I snoozed my way through one of them.  Fortunately I did manage to drag myself out of bed and do 4.  It was a slow sluggish run, but after a week off I really just need to get the miles in.

Wednesday July 20
Run 4.05 mi
Another sluggish run.  I think my body was protesting the fact that I returned from vacation and jumped right back into three mornings in a row of workouts.

Thursday July 21
Rest

Friday July 22
Swim 3000 yds
I knew that Friday was supposed to be the worst day of the current heatwave so I decided it was the best day of the week to hit the pool.  Sadly, even the water felt pretty hot (much warmer than on Sunday), but I still managed to have a good workout.  I ended with 8x100 in a hard effort.  I've really been trying to find that sweet spot of a good hard pace, but not too hard at the beginning so that I die.  With my background as a sprinter I've definitely been known to start fast and die and I'd like to avoid that in my upcoming tri.

Saturday July 23
Bike 28.74 mi
Run 2.13 mi
I figured I was due for a brick workout before my tri next weekend and I wanted to get back on my bike.  I knew that waiting until Sunday would only have me more in my head about it.  It turns out this was a good idea, since my last brick was on May 22 (before my other tri)!  Pathetic. Definitely need to improve on this next year.  The good news is that I had a great, confidence building ride and a not totally unpleasant run despite the ridiculous temperatures.

Keys to a Successful Ride

After all of my recent bike frustrations, I am happy to report that I finally had a good ride on Saturday.  I took all of your comments to heart and went out with a goal of staying relaxed, not worrying about time and finishing on a positive note.  The only thing I did not manage to do was ride with a more experienced cyclist, but I'm just saving that one for another time (and accepting volunteers). :)

I think the ride was successful for a couple of reasons:

1) I went on Saturday and I went early - I have been doing my long run on Saturdays and trying to ride on Sundays but I knew that it would be better for me to get the ride "out of the way."  I hadn't been on my bike since Monday and I knew I needed to get back out there and silence the nerves.  I also planned to get out as early as possible so the trail would be less crowded.  This also turned out to be a good idea given the crazy heat that has been hanging around.  I ended up starting at 6:30.

2) I drove and rode where I knew it would be less crowded - For some reason I had been feeling like I really should be starting all of my rides from my apartment since I can be on a number of the local trails in minutes.  It seemed silly to drive somewhere with my bike to ride.  I decided on Friday that I should try to ride somewhere that would be less crowded (i.e. stressful) and that there was no shame in driving to a location where I could have a better ride.  I ended up looking up parking locations for accessing the W&OD trail and then driving out to Vienna and parking at the community center.  This was a great decision.  I rode west and the trail was significantly less crowded than it is around Arlington.  I had to pass groups of runners, but I never was worried about it because there wasn't a steady stream of runners/cyclists/walkers coming the other way.

3) I loosened the tension on my right pedal - This is the foot that I put down when stopping and it really calmed my nerves to know that I could get it out of the pedal with minimal effort.  I didn't really think that it was all that tight before, but it did require a more concentrated effort to release my foot.  Now it comes out easily and quickly.  I'm sure that this means I am sacrificing some power, but the loss there is totally worth the mental boost.  And it's not so loose that my foot comes out when I'm pulling up.  As an added bonus, I can get that foot clipped back in much more quickly when I start up again after a stop.

4) I had the right attitude - I really focused on being positive and staying calm and in the moment, rather than anticipating problems that might lie ahead.

It was definitely great for my confidence.  I'm sure there are still plenty of ups and downs ahead, but I just need to remember to focus on the right things and not anticipate the stressful ones and I'll have more good rides than bad ones.

Friday Followup and Blogger Dinner

Thank you all for your comments on my post yesterday about my recent bike frustrations.  I needed to vent and I appreciate all of you listening.  Rationally I know that I just need to keep practicing, but it's good to hear a bunch of other people say the same thing!  And I feel a lot better now that I put that post out there.  Sometimes I think I just need to get the negative thoughts out of my head and in the open to start moving past them.  So my plan is to leave them behind and go forward with a positive attitude.  I WILL get better and I WILL feel more confident. :)

On Wednesday night I had the pleasure of joining some fellow DC bloggers Gretchen, Jess, Kacy, and Katie for dinner at Ella's.

We started with sangria at happy hour,

and then moved on to salad

and pizza.

Katie, me, Gretchen, Jess and Kacy (photo courtesy of Katie)

It was a fun evening with great food and great people!  We talked about all sorts of things, but when talking about blogging I learned that my photo editing skills could most definitely use some work.  I just take them with my basic digital camera and put them up.  Editing? What's that?  These ladies are pros compared to me.  In addition, I appear to be the blogging slacker of the group, as everyone else managed to put up a post yesterday. 
Our original plan had been to go to Graffiato, but due to its popularity and a somewhat unresponsive scheduler, it didn't work out last night.  When we tried to pick a new location we came up with so many possibilities that we decided this should be a monthly event.  So, if you're in the DC area, please join us next time.  I think we've tentatively decided on the third Wednesday of the month, just to be consistent for planning purposes.  So, mark August 17 at Graffiato on your calendar!

Frustration (My bike and I - 3)

This is the third post where I am chronicling my attempt to get into cycling.  If you missed them and want to catch up, read Part 1 or Part 2.

I apologize in advance for the fact that this post is on the whiny side. 

Recently things with my bike have not been great.  I was hoping that at this point in my journey (about 5 months in), I would be feeling much more confident than when I started, but recently that really hasn't been the case.  I made the switch to clipless pedals in early June and, while I have been happy with that decision, I have gone through a fall-heavy period (at least compared to the previous few months which had zero)!  Most of them have been minor, with the exception of the one that really scared me.

As I noted in back in my first post, I came into this adventure with an irrational fear of crashing.  I was hoping that after a few falls I would realize that it wasn't all that bad and push that fear aside.  Unfortunately, it seems that my falls have solidified that fear, rather than lessening it.  Instead of a completely irrational feeling, it now has actual experiences to back it up.  What's strange is that none of them have been nearly as bad as what I imagined, but that still hasn't helped my mental state.  I think now that I have actually experienced falling, the anticipation of the next one has more behind it.  And, as with anything, I think that anticipation is either far worse (or better) than the actual event in question.  So before each ride, my nerves slowly build.  I've noticed that I don't sleep as well the night before a morning ride and start to get nervous as the clock ticks towards late afternoon/early evening and my commute home.

It is not worries about clipping in or out that stresses me out, it's the unknown other obstacles that I may encounter. Will I have to maneuver around people running or walking on the path?  Will I have to stop suddenly or go off the path if people won't move out of my way (which lead to my most recent spill)?  What are the cars around me going to do?  And let's not even talk about left turns.  I try to avoid them.

Another issue is that even when I have one foot unclipped, I am bad at stopping.  A lot of the time I end up taking a few little hops on my foot I'm putting down.  I'm not really sure why this is, so I haven't been able to figure out how to correct it.  As a result, I'm never 100% sure that I'll actually be stable enough to stop when I want and stay upright.  This becomes even more of an issue when I have to slow down and stop on an inclined surface.

Because of all of these worries, I am tense a large portion of the time that I am riding.  I know that this makes things worse, but I'm not really sure how to change.  I need to get out of my head and just ride, but that's definitely easier said than done!  They only time I feel really comfortable is riding around Hains Point where the road is wide and traffic is minimal.  Yet I know that I can't ever significantly improve if I spend all my time riding flat loops.  Plus, it's doing nothing to improve my overall confidence. 

Rationally, I know that they only way to deal with all of these issues is to keep practicing.  However, it's been hard to motivate myself to ride recently.  And it's not going to get much easier after my tri on July 31, when I will be done with tris for the season and on to marathon training.  It will be easy to choose other options for my limited cross training days when I know that riding has been stressful and leaves me feeling frustrated at myself.  But part of me hates quitting and thinks that if I just work harder and ignore these feelings long enough, I'll get through this rough patch and come out feeling better on the other side.  And this is one reason that I hesitate to toss my bike completely to the side for the next few months.  This seems like the wrong time to walk away since "leaving" with a bad taste in my mouth will only make it harder to start back up again next spring. (That is, I suppose, if I actually decide to sign up for more tris next year!)

What do you do to get your confidence back in a situation like this?  Is it really just practice, practice, practice?

Wordless Wednesday - Vacation

Two Weeks in Review - 7/3-7/16

I'm back from vacation and hoping to catch up on all of your blogs this week!  Since I wasn't posting last week, here's what I've done over the last two weeks.

Sunday July 3
Rest
This was a lovely (hot) day full of BBQs and a Nats game.  An excellent way to spend a day off!

Monday July 4
Run - 5.0 mi
Swim - 3050 yds
I got in a super sweaty run before heading over to WL pool to meet up with a large group of bloggers for a swim.  It was good to finally meet a lot of them in person and it ended up being a great pace workout.

Tuesday July 5
Run - 4.1 mi

Wednesday July 6
Swim - 3000 yds
I was really pleased by the pace work that I did on Monday so I tried to do a similar set again (and increased it from 8 to 10 100s).

Thursday July 7
Rest

Friday July 8
Bike - 28.5 mi (AM), 6 mi (PM)
I met up with Victoria for some early morning sprints at Hains Point.  This was my first time really trying to push my speed on the bike and I know it was good for me.

On the way home, I managed to fall off my bike once again.  I waited out the crazy storms and didn't leave work until after 6:30.  I was near the Jefferson Memorial where the bike path and sidewalk merge when I came up behind a group of tourists taking up the entire path.  When they didn't move over after I said "bike on your left" and other variations several times, I figured it would be easy enough to go around them in the grass.  Unfortunately, when I tried to get back on the path, I caught the edge at the wrong angle and wiped out.  It wasn't too serious though I did scrape up my arm and bruise my hip.  Of course, then the tourists stopped to point out that I was bleeding, but couldn't be concerned to move out of my way before!  For some reason it took me a long time to get my chain back on, but that was the worst part of the whole incident.

Saturday July 9
Run - 8.66 mi
My recent long runs have been about 30-40 seconds per mile slower than what I was doing during training for the National half marathon, even though they have been shorter.  When I first realized this I was frustrated, but I think that given the increased temperatures, this is probably a reasonable slowdown.  I've been meaning to go back and look at what I was doing last summer.  I'm pretty sure that this is an improvement over those runs, but I'll have to confirm that.

Sunday July 10
Rest
This was my travel day to Ocean City with my good friend Heather and her parents.  They invited me to join them on their beach vacation and I was more than happy to come along!

Monday July 11
Run - 0.5 mi
Yes, that's not a typo, I managed to run half a mile on Monday.  On Saturday evening my left heel started bothering me.  I didn't hurt during my run and I didn't remember hitting it on anything or stepping down particularly hard, but I was definitely noticing it when walking around on Sunday.  As soon as I started my run, it was painful.  I gave it a few minutes to warm up, but when that didn't happen, I decided to shut it down.  There was no point in pushing it.  I was also worried about injuring some other part of my leg if I changed my stride around to avoid the heel pain.  And since I was already planning to take it easy while on vacation, I decided not to attempt another run until I was walking around pain free.

Tuesday July 12
Bike ~ 16 mi
On Tuesday morning, Heather and I biked from Ocean City to Bethany Beach where we met her parents for breakfast at a tasty crepes place.  I was a bit nervous that the 8 mile trip would be tough on a beach cruiser, but it wasn't bad at all.  It helped, of course, that it was completely flat!  Heather wasn't feeling 100% after we ate, so her Dad agreed to make the return trip with me.

Wednesday July 13
Mini golf
It was only the most intense exercise for me during this vacation.  After a day at the beach (with a break to watch the US women defeat France in the World Cup), we played an exciting round of mini golf.  I ended up second, which sounds impressive until I say that there was a three way tie for first place!

Thursday July 14
Bike ~ 10 mi
Kayak ~ 90 min
In the morning Heather and I biked to have fancy donuts for breakfast (at the Fractured Prune) and went on ride around the bay.  Then in the evening we took a sunset eco tour in kayaks.  I could tell from the beginning that my upper body strength needs a lot of work!  Clearly swimming is not cutting it.  In particular, my right arm needs help.  It was sore long before my left one!

Friday July 15
Rest

Saturday July 16
Run - 5.65 mi
My heel was feeling pretty good by Friday, so I decided I would test it out with an easy run.  I didn't want to go crazy after a full week off, so I planned to run for about a hour.  I'm happy to report that everything was fine!  In fact, the most sore part of me was my right arm.  I think it was still sore/tired from the kayaking adventure and my bicep didn't like holding my arm in proper running form!

Training, Resting and Vacation

I'm leaving for a week at the beach on Sunday and I cannot wait!  I'm looking forward to a lot of relaxing, reading, sun and fresh air.  I tend to fully embrace the potential for extra rest and recovery.  I'm not going to bring my bike with me, but I do plan on a few runs and plenty of "swimming" in the ocean.  I may even attempt an actual ocean swim, we'll see.

As I mentioned last week I have been feeling a bit burned out, so I decided to try to add an extra rest day to each week in July.  I may end up taking an more extended break next week while I'm on vacation, but this week I decided to just go with two full rest days instead of my normal one.  Mentally I like the idea of spacing out my rest over the month, rather than taking a couple of days now and jumping back into my "regular" schedule.

I also decided to make more of an effort to do what I really felt like doing, rather than making sure I got in x number of runs, rides and swims in a given week.  What I discovered is that I am mainly lacking motivation when it comes to biking.  I've had a couple of good runs and swims this week and I was looking forward to all of them when I got started.  I suppose this bodes well for marathon training (which starts in August) since I've really been feeling like I would like to run more.  Hopefully that lasts for the next few months!  I'm not exactly sure where it leaves me with the bike though.  Today was actually my first day on my bike in a week.  I had a great workout once I got started but it definitely takes a little extra effort to get myself up and riding in the morning.  I'll be taking next week off (unless we rent bikes and go for a casual ride).  Then once I get back from the beach I only have two more weeks until my tri.  I'll make an effort to ride a few times before the race, but after that I'm not sure exactly what will happen.  If I really think about it, I suppose it doesn't really matter.  I have no obligation to anyone (even myself) to keep up a certain level of riding.  I imagine that once marathon training picks up, my bike is going to start gathering dust, at least for a few months.

CSA Week 2

Here's what I got this week:

Beets, Broccoli, Cucumbers, Yellow Squash, Onions

And here's what I made:

Beets

I love beets so I would have been happy just roasting them and eating them, but I decided I wanted to be a bit more creative.  I decided to make beet burgers and after reading a few recipes online, I used this one.  I was pretty happy with how they turned out, though there isn't a ton of seasoning.  If I were to make them again, I would definitely play around with that a bit.

Broccoli
When I saw the broccoli, the first thing that came to mind was Chicken and Broccoli, one of my favorite Chinese dishes.  I've never made it before and I wanted to avoid using a pre-packaged seasoning packet.  Once again I turned to the Internet for recipe help and used the one I found here.  I thought this was pretty good (especially for my first attempt), though it was a little heavy on the oyster sauce.  I might play around with the sauce ratios if I make this again. 

Cucumber
I used the first cucumber for snacking.

I made salad with the second cucumber from the cookbook The Vegetarian 5-Ingredient Gourmet by Nava Atlas.  Basically you combine tomatoes, cucumber, a plain non-fat yogurt (8 oz) and whatever seasonings you choose.  I used dill.   This was a very light and refreshing salad, great for summer!

Squash
I used the squash to create a ratatouille type dish.  I sliced up the squash and some of the spring onions and sauteed them in a large skillet with a bit of vegetable broth.  Then I added a can of tomatoes, covered the pan and let it simmer for about 15 minutes.  Then I threw some grated cheddar cheese on top (probably a bit too much, actually) and let it cook for another 5 minutes.

It was another good week for kitchen experiments.  I was happy with how everything turned out and glad that I managed to use almost everything I received in the delivery!  I did learn that if I am going to keep making "complicated" meals I am going to have to hire a dishwasher.  I have to wash everything by hand and it's definitely the least fun part of this whole process!

Week in Review - 6/26-7/2

I said last week I was feeling a bit unmotivated and I think it shows in this recap.  I have nothing much to say about the majority of my workouts last week.  I got the distance done, but none of them were particularly special.

Sunday June 26
Swim 3100 yds
This was my longest swim so far, by 50 yards.  I've been trying to work in a bit more speed recently, so I ended with 8x100 on a interval that required me to push the pace.  I broke it into two sets of 4, with the second set 5 seconds faster than the first.  I find that four is a manageable number for me mentally.  Basically, the fewer repeats that are in the "middle," the easier it is (three being ideal for this).  Four is nice because I'm halfway before I know it!

Monday June 27
Bike - 19 mi (AM), 5 mi (PM)
I headed to Hains Point in the morning for some loops before work.  It was raining a bit during the time I was there, but fortunately it never got heavy.  I've more or less avoided riding in the rain and was tempted to cancel on Monday when I saw the forecast.  I knew, however, that it was the best morning for me to go.  I'm glad that I fit it in and that the weather didn't ever get bad.

Tuesday June 28
Run 5.25 mi

Wednesday June 29
Run 4.25 mi

Thursday June 30
Rest
This was the day that I was going to let the exercise gods decide if I would work out.  I decided I would swim if my friend had to reschedule our dinner plans.  She did end up cancelling because a meeting ran late, but I decided I needed a rest day anyway.  I ended up heading to Performance Bikes instead to pick up some stuff that I had ordered.  I now have a bento bag for my bike, along with a new pair of shorts!

Friday July 1
Bike - 21.6 mi (AM), 5 mi (PM)
I met up with Victoria for a pre-work ride.  We had originally intended to go to Hains Point but it was closed for fireworks storage.  So we did a loop of Arlington/Alexandria instead along the Custis, W&OD, and Mt. Vernon trails.  I had been avoiding the Custis trail because of the hills, but I'm glad Victoria suggested we start there.  It was tough, but not as hard as I had built it up in my mind.  I definitely need to be tackling more hills if I want to improve!

Saturday July 2
Run 7.2 mi
This run was tough.  Despite my best intentions, I have had a hard time recently starting my weekend runs as early as I plan the night before.  During the week I do a good job getting up right when my alarm goes off (because I know I have to if I want to get in the full workout I've planned), but on the weekends I've been hitting snooze more than I would prefer.  As a result, I've been starting my runs when the heat is already starting to pick up.  I was thinking I might do 8 or 9 miles, but decided to turn around and head back a little after 3.5 miles.

June Recap

Miles: 62

X-Training: 14 (Bike - 9, Swim - 5)
Biking Miles: 221.54

Rest Days: 6

Race(s): Lawyers Have Heart 5k (or the 10k that wasn't) - 25:38 - a decent time in the heat, plus a 3rd place finish in the law librarian category!

New gear: Bike shoes and clipless pedals!

Workout goals: 
Keep up the biking and swimming - I did a good job here.  Better with biking than swimming, but I still managed to get to the pool at least once a week
New PDR on the bike - Increased my PDR for 20.5 to 30.5
Make a decision about bike shoes/pedals - Done.  I got these at the beginning of the month and am glad I made the switch
Get back over 90 miles running for the month - This did not even come close to happening.  In fact, it was my lowest month so far in 2011.


Non-workout goal: Try some new recipes.  I'm stuck in a rut, so it's time to add some new things to my regular rotation. Thanks to my new CSA deliveries, I did a decent job with this towards the end of the month.


Ice cream flavor of the month: Ben & Jerry's Clusterfluff (random sidenote, Internet searching reveals that this is being renamed What a Cluster.  Apparently the name was a little too risque?)

I made a lot of strides on the bike during June (new shoes, a fall) and significantly upped my mileage.  I'm really happy I made the switch to shoes and clipless pedals, even though there was an adjustment period.  It didn't take quite as long as I thought to feel comfortable with them and I do think they should make a difference in my next race.  My running mileage dropped off due to a lack of weekend long runs, so I didn't even come close to hitting my goal of 90 miles.  I'd like to increase this in July so that my body isn't completely shocked when marathon training starts in August.  I maintained my swimming, so I feel like I am in good shape for my upcoming tri.  I thought I might try to fit in a few more races, but just didn't end up feeling like it.  My motivation tapered off towards the end of the month, but I'm hoping I can find it again in July.


July Preview

Workout goals: 
Increase my running mileage over June
Take some extra rest days - marathon training is coming and I should take a break now :)
End July motivated and ready to train for Philly

Races: Culpeper Sprint Triathlon (July 31)

Non-workout goal: More new recipes.  The first two CSA deliveries have really motivated me to try new things in the kitchen and I want to keep it up once the new, excited feeling has worn off.