A mini triathlon at 28 weeks pg

A friend of mine called me back in Feb and asked me to compete in a triathlon with her (her first). She had forgotten I was pregnant and I questioned whether I could do it at 28 weeks pg. But as the weeks went on I knew I could do it, the tri was a super short sprint distance. But the 8 hour round trip drive as well as the entry fee just to show I could do it deterred me from actually signing up. But I still wanted to prove I could do it so I set up my own triathlon this past weekend and did fine at 27 weeks 6 days pg.
So my guidelines were to follow the exact distances of the aformentioned tri.
Here was their description:
Swim:
The swim will be 400 yards (16 lengths), in the pool at High School. Enter through the north side gate to the pool. After the swim exit the south gate into the transition area.

Bike:The bike is a flat fast 9 mile course out and back. Leave the transition area heading east on the access road. The bike turnaround is located at the Airport.

Run:The run is a 2 mile course mainly around the school campus. Leave the transition area heading east on the access road.

My idea was to swim at my local pool, jump out and bike and run in the neighborhoods near the pool. However I was worried about biking on city streets being pregnant. So I revised my plan and decided to have a long transistion time between swim and bike and drive up to a trail to finish my last two events. I had a friend of mine ride and run with me just to have someone there in case of emergency.

My mini tri stats: 550 yd swim-completed in ~12 min.
10 mile bike ride-completed in ~42 min (I have to check my GPS for exact times.)
2 mile run-completed in ~23 min (once again I have to see GPS)

I felt fine doing the tri, I was even clipped in on my bike. (That was another worry I had, being clipped in while pg but being on a trail and my riding experience helped.) I was exhausted by the end of the day though. :)

On a positive note, I looked at finishing times for the tri and I would have been around 5th in my age group with my times. Well, there was only 10 total in that age group, I told you it was a small tri. Maybe next year when I'm not pg I can finish in the top 3. :)

Workout Playlist

Everyone asks for suggestions on music for working out. As a spin instructor I'm always looking for new music and my favorites I add to a "Running Playlist" to inspire me while pounding the pavement.
Here are some of my current fav's:

Song Title/Artist (Songs in italics are my ultimate or current fav's)
Rebellion/Arcade Fire
Days Go By/Dirty Vegas
One More Time/Daft Punk
Girlfriend/Avril Lavigne
Hey Ya/Outkast
Shine On/Sunloverz
Temperature/Sean Paul
E/Drunkenmunky
Here it Goes Again/Ok Go
Dance, Dance/Fall Out Boy
Get Busy/Sean Paul
Gotta Get Thru This/Daniel Bedingfield
Ya Mama/Fatboy Slim
Jump N Move/Brand New Heavies
Read My Mind/Killers
La Grange/ZZ Top
Oh Timbaland/Timbaland
The Way I Are/Timbaland
SexyBack/Justin Timberlake
Big Girl/Mika
Love Today/Mika
Shut Up and Drive/Rihanna
Don't Stop the Music/Rihanna
Feedback/Janet Jackson
Calabria 2008/Enur
Harder Better Faster Stronger/Daft Punk
Forever/Chris Brown
Bleeding Love/Leona Lewis
Mercy/Duffy
Untouched/The Veronicas
The Anthem/Pitbull
Umbrella/Rihanna
Stronger/Kanye West
Closer/Ne-Yo
Someday/Strokes
Just Dance/Lady Gaga
Disturbia/Rihanna
Shake It/Metro Station
Face Down/Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
Let It Rock/Kevin Rudolf
Hot N Cold/Katy Perry
An Honest Mistake/The Bravery
Breathe/Prodigy
X-Ercize 5/Ziggy X
Derb/Derb
Muzaik/Infernal
Don't Go/Andre Visior
Say It Right/Nelly Furtado
Just Like a Pill/Pink
Flathead/Fratellis
Another Life/Party Pimz
Krupa/Apollo 440
The Gutterati/Fratellis
World Hold On/Bob Sinclar
A-Punk/Vampire Weekend
Mr. Brightside/Killers
Little Sister/Queens of the Stoneage
Everybody Loves A Carnival/Fatboy Slim
Waterman/Olav Basoski
Born For This/Paramore
When I Grow Up/Pussycat Dolls
Break the Ice/Britney Spears
SOS/Rihanna
So What/Pink
Shadow of the Day/Linkin Park
Right Round/Flo Rida
Low/Flo Rida
Bleed It Out/Linkin Park
Our Time Now/Plain White T's

One of my favorite authors

Jodi Picoult is one of my favorite authors. I've read many of her books over the years and I'm proud to say I was a fan before her big break with "My Sister's Keeper" came out. She has a certain writing style that keeps me intrigued but I can't read her books back to back. She really likes to write the story through all of the characters involved. And there is always a certain mystery to the book that I try to solve before the ending. I just finished her book Plain Truth for my book club. I've had this book sitting on my shelf for years, at least 4 years because I noticed my maiden name is written in the cover. This book was great, I enjoyed reading it and I figured out the ending (well pretty much). I'm now starting her new book Handle With Care and though I don't like reading her books back to back I don't have a choice with this since I was the first to receive it from the library and I know there are many holds behind me.
Anyways, if you haven't picked up a Jodi Picoult book I'd highly recommend reading one.

Ewww, Gym Etiquette

Yesterday as I was enjoying my treadmill run I noticed the guy running next to me get off the treadmill without wiping it down. It was sweaty and gross. I know he had to have seen it because the display was dirty and he had to push buttons on it to slow down/stop the machine. I now know who the person is when I see the display all dirty. I've taken to wiping down the machine before AND after I use it. Come on people! Follow gym etiquette, clean up after yourself.

Surpassed my goal!

I thought I'd make it to 50 miles this year and end my running until after my pregnancy. This was just an assumption based on my last pregnancy running stats. But lo and behold, my talley is 246.82 miles left to run, meaning this year I have logged in 53.18 miles so far. My total miles while pregnant is 144.67. So far I'm still feeling fine so I'll keep at it. I have found treadmill is sooo much easier than outside. I guess the extra weight I'm carrying makes it harder on my body hitting the pavement.

Am I crazy?

I just signed up for a half marathon scheduled for 14 weeks after my due date! And I'm hoping to make another PR. We'll see how that goes. Here's to hoping this baby is early and easy. :)

Curious Case of Benjamin Button

I read the book Confessions of Max Tivoli years ago. Talk about a fabulous book. Then along came the Benjamin Button movie. It sounded so much like Max Tivoli, I got excited.

But then I found out that Benjamin Button was an actual book by F. Scott Fitzgerald. So I picked up the book before I watched the movie. OMG, this book sucked! It's one of the few times where I can say the movie was soooo much better than the book. I definitely recommend picking up Max Tivoli if you liked the movie, it's a really great read.

Running Review along with some numbers

I added another 5 miles this week. It's getting a little more painful to run now. My underbelly gets a little sore during the run, even when I'm wearing the belly band. It's funny though, after I'm 2 miles in I feel fine, no strain. But I've only been going 30 minutes which comes out to be 2.5 miles with the pace I'm at now.

Running talley: 263.09 miles to go. Though I think my running goal for during the pregancy part of this year is 50 miles, only 13 miles shy of that.
And when I do my running talley, this only includes running, not walking, not eliptical etc. Only running. Total miles run after finding out I was pregnant, 128.4.

My beef with indoor pools

This weekend I had the unfortunate circumstance of driving to the pool early Sunday morning and finding a swim meet going on. I turned around and went home disappointed that I wouldn't be getting a workout in. Looking around on the internet, I found a YMCA near me that had an indoor pool that had lap swim hours all day. I hate indoor pools but they also had Family Swim from 4-6pm which meant, my hubby and daughter could go swimming too! What a fun activity for a rainy day!

So 4pm we all troop to the pool. Hubby and daughter take toys and go to the family area, I grab my swim stuff and head to the lanes. After eyeing the lanes I picked a Fast lane and jumped in. After 1 length I realize they're too slow for me. So I hop into the next Fast lane and was feeling pretty comfortable in that lane. There were 3 of us and we seem to be timing each other well during circle swimming. Then someone else comes into our lane. Oh boy, this guy was super slow! Did he not read the signs? I'd even wait till he got near the end of the lane before I started swimming and still caught up to him. So much for getting a good workout, at least I got a little bit of pool time.

So here's my beef with indoor pools:

• The people that swim at indoor pools aren't avid swimmers. Only hardcore swimmers would jump in an outdoor pool in the middle of winter in my opinion.
  
• Indoor pools are usually at a gym so people work out and jump in afterwards to cool off and the water becomes all sweaty and murky. Ewww.
  
• Indoor pools are smaller (less lanes) which means more crowded lanes, circle swimming and people inevitably picking lanes that aren't their speed.
  
• You get a lot hotter swimming indoors.
  
• People hit you from the other lanes. Since they are not avid swimmers at indoor pools, stroke technique is totally off and they end up hitting you even if you're swimming in a different lane.
  
• Circle swimming! It's fine when you're in the correct lane for your speed and even if you're not, know the rules! Move to the side and let the faster swimmer pass you if you are going slow. You know who I'm talking about. Don't just look at me and continue swimming your really SLOW stroke, let me through!

Don't even get me started on the summer swimmers. The ones that show up to the pool just on hot days! A lot of these same pet peeves apply to them.

I'm trying to persuade hubby to get me an endless pool, then all my pool troubles would be solved. I keep saying next time we have 25k laying around, this is what we'll purchase.

Ohh, look at this spa option. I bet he'd go for that.

My Workout Schedule thus far

It being winter (dark earlier and wet), and being pregnant, and having a 2 year old, my workout shedule goes as follows.
Spinning (I teach) 2x a week 1 hour each
Running 2-3x a week, 30 min each.
Swimming 1x per week, 45 min.
Not bad, I'm starting to miss my Saturday long runs. I miss running with my running partner for an hour/ hour and a half chatting it up early Sat mornings. So do I really miss the running or the company?

Running talley 2009.
31.91 miles down, 268.09 to go.