run this amazing day

It's time for another giveaway! CSN contacted me about doing a giftcard giveaway, and of course I said yes - what an awesome gift for one of you!  I'll be giving away a $60 giftcard.  CSN hosts a whole range of websites, where you can buy anything from a blender to  kitchen tables  to barbells.  Scoot over there and take a look at what they've got!   Now the really exciting part....how to enter!  I'm going to give you 3 awesome chances to win. 1. Become a follower or tell me that you are one AND ( I've shamelessly stolen this idea from another great mind ) ask me a question.  I'll answer ALL of the questions, so go freakin' nuts. 2. Go follow me on Twitter & tweet this giveaway.  Include "CSN stores" and @thisamazingday in your tweet so I can see it and give you credit.  Be creative! 3. Take a look at their site and let me know what you would buy with the giftcard.   I'll randomly choose a winner next week when I get back

I've been in PT for 2 weeks now - that's 2 weeks with NO RUNNING AT ALL, for those of you keeping track at home with notches on the bedpost.  No?  Only me?   The good news?  I already can tell that my shoulder has made a lot of progress.  I have long stretches of no pain at all, and when I do have pain, the intensity is much less.  Hopefully the adjustments I've made to my lifting program based on the PT exercises will continue to let my shoulder heal properly.  I swam 1000 yards on Saturday morning - 10x100, increasing speed on each one - and while my shoulder muscles felt very definitely fatigued at the end of this set, I had no pain.  I'm hoping to get in 2 swims of similar length/speed this week, probably around my hot pool running dates.  I think the key here is to do short stretches, to strengthen the little muscles in my shoulder and back that weren't being used for so long. As for my IT band, there's really no way to tell what that little bastard is do

Instead of random Friday facts, you guys are getting casserole porn.  I make the rules. Inspired by Liz and her delicious-looking casserole , I hit the grocery store yesterday for my own version of the same.  Yum! Ingredients: 1 red pepper, chopped 1 green pepper, chopped 1 large onion, chopped 3 tomatoes, chopped 2 cans of chopped green chiles 1 can of chopped jalapenos 1 package of whole wheat tortillas 1 package of mexican cheese 1 package of prepared southwestern chicken 1/2 jar salsa 2 servings of brown rice chili powder cayenne Preheat the oven to 350.  Heat a saute pan to medium heat.  Add peppers, onions, chicken, chiles, jalapenos.   Saute until veggies are tender, adding chili powder and cayenne to taste (I added a lot). Remove from heat and mix with rice, tomatoes, 1/2 jar (it was a small jar) of salsa, and a handful of cheese. In a large casserole pan, line the bottom with tortillas.   Layer cheese, the mixture, tortillas, cheese, the mixture, tortillas, cheese. Cov

1. I HATE the elliptical.  Aqua jogging I can tolerate when I have people to yap with, and the stationary bike I don't mind because I think of it as junk cycling miles.  This week I'm trying to lay off the stationary bike and just concentrate on my outdoor recovery rides, but I need to do something on the in-between days, so I'm back on the elliptical.  It's just so dull, and so tough to read my book AND get my HR up.  Ugh. 2. I'm hoping that the crazy egyptian man will clear me to run this weekend at PT today. 3. Still eating ice cream every day.  Hope is lost.

I  used to be blonde.   Weird, huh?

My body still isn't quite right.  I couldn't manage to eat dinner last night - swallowing makes me actually nauseous - and instead just picked at little snacks all night.  I don't feel that sore, but then I'll lean over or stretch in bed and notice that my quads are exhausted.  I took a whole entire rest day yesterday.  And life goes on. I've got two rides this week that will definitely be at at serious "recovery" (read: barely moving) pace, and I go back to PT today for another beating.  I'm halfway through the 2-week ban on running, and I'm looking forward to spending some time both pool running and swimming this week.  I also find that when I lay off the lifting in preparation for a race, I really miss it.  I know that I don't lose any real muscle by taking 5 days off lifting, but it feels so good to go back. As far as what's next - not sure.  I've got a little bit of the "now what?" going on.  The next week or so at

So, no surprises here.  I decided Saturday night to go ahead and do the full (under serious pressure from my running-turned-triathete college buddy over the last 3 weeks, as she didn't want to do 100 miles alone).  I had a great long ride last weekend, my legs were feeling good, I had new expensive softness for the biscuit, and that meant I could stuff down even more delicious bread with dinner.  A solid win, right? Right. Stats : 106.4M, 7:32. The good : I finished.  Before the free ice cream truck left the finish line.  I could still - mostly - feel my hooter.  Fantastic rest stops with great crews.  73 degrees at the start.  I didn't cry, walk my bike, crash, flat, or puke, although I hoped for all of those things at various points throughout. The bad : Less than 6 miles of flat on the course that my friend called "a little hilly."  Surprise! The ugly : 20 miles of steep climbs and quick drops on unshaded blacktop, scheduled right at noon when the gr

1. I cannot wait 2 more weeks until just before vacation for a bikini & eyebrow wax.  I'm going insane here. 2. Still having problems on the bike with a numb biscuit.  I'm going to take my bike to the shop today and see if they can adjust the angle of my seat down a little bit to reduce the pressure.  I am not choosing between cycling and sex. 3. When G has to go out during the day, he comes over and sits next to me and puts his head on my leg.  This week, he's been doing it several times a day, but it turns out he's bored and wants to play.  Maybe it's time for him to work on an MBA and have a job. Do I have to pee or do I want to play? 4. There is no one at my gym before 8:30am.  I love it, but, wtf? 5. I can't wait to carb-load tomorrow night for the century ride.  That's why we do endurance sports, right?  So we can eat pasta. 6. I guess these are not random facts, but more random updates. 7. I am counting the minutes until I go on

1. This no-running thing sucks a big fatty.  I didn't realize how much 9-12 miles per week was keeping me sane.  And thanks to the rain, 2 morning rides have been rained out this week.  My ass is pretty tired of the stationary bike.  Oh, AND I didn't go pool running this morning because I decided that eating my weight in melted cheese then chocolate fondue and then drinking the better part of a bottle of wine and sleeping in until 8AM (yep, I'm a sloth) sounded like a better idea.  Ugh. 2. I totally suck at reading a calendar.  I did a long ride last Sunday thinking I had 2 weeks to the Reston Century.  I was planning on doing 2 20-30 milers during the week, and a short ride of 35-40 this weekend to let my legs taper just a bit, as my quads are still pretty trashed from the long ride.  Errrm, oops.  It's this weekend.  I'm a genius.  Oh well, FREE ICE CREAM at the finish!  Woohoo! 3. I just realized I didn't have any ice cream yesterday, for the first time

  Before.   Before.   Supplies.   During.   After.   After! After!!!!!!!!!

So yesterday was my first day of PT.  I've been in PT enough to basically know what to expect.  When I got there yesterday I bounced happily in the door, confident that my 9 months of lifting 5-6x a week have put me in a good strong place, and I could take whatever craziness was handed to me. Of course you see where this is going. There are many muscles in my body that are quite strong.  Quads, calves, tongue, biceps, all tough as nails.  However, all it takes is for one physical therapist to say "push against my arm" and I crumble like a sack of sandwich wrappers.  First, I walked him through my IT band disaster, and then my right shoulder disaster.  He looked at my shoes and watched me walk.  Then he did the "push" tests where I discover that I'm so weak I shouldn't be able to walk and open the door.  The verdict: my hip flexors and psoas are tight, which is royally effing up everything south of my belly button.  He said that my hips don't mo

I'm getting a little tired of this IT band crap.   It's been 6 months full of progress mixed in with huge setbacks.  I'm trying to inch back up to where I was a few weeks ago, but I'm just really tired of having to be so careful. (whining over) Friday morning I had a long ride planned, but woke up to thunderstorms, rain, and crazy debris all over the road.  In light of my recent love affair with the pavement , I decided to nix the ride.  However, Thursday night I had eaten a huge meal of bread and pasta, trying to load up my muscles for the long ride.  And then when the ride didn't happen.....ugh.  I felt heavy and bloated all morning.  I went to the gym to lift, and decided to hop onto the treadmill for yet another cautious test run.  I did 2 miles (18:15), walked and stretched, and then did one more mile (8:20).  There was a lot of tightness throughout, and some pain started up near the end, so I quit.  I've been stretching and icing and foam rolling like cr

1. When I meet people, I always look at the size of their upper arms.  Usually they are much skinnier than mine and I am jealous.  This probably makes me a bad person. 2. If my dog was a person, he'd be a heart surgeon, based on what he does to all of his stuffed animals. 3. I don't like it when the people at my gym say goodbye to me.  But I feel bad ignoring them, so I always turn my music down so I can hear if they say it. 4. I HATE shopping in stores.  I don't like when salespeople talk to me either.  Despite having worked in retail, where I know the sign of a good staff is lots of offers for help, I much prefer stores where people just leave me alone. 5. I realized yesterday that I've biked/run almost 3x as many miles as I've driven in the past month.  And that includes my 130-mile trip to PA.  This makes me happy. 6. I haven't purchased makeup in probably a year.  I'm okay with this. 7. I desperately need a bikini wax, but now that I&#

1. I'm very glad that I drank 3 beers last and decided not to ride this morning, because if I had gotten stuck in the storm that just came through, I would've been hopping-around-pissed-off. 2. The nice people over at Reflect Sports  sent me some Hoo Ha Ride Glide to try a few weeks ago.  Holy wow, folks.  I was having some chafing issues in my no-no place, and let me say - this stuff is AWESOME!!!  It's got some peppermint in it, so my crack has an ice-cool feeling to it the entire time I am riding.  I can't really speak to any other chamois creams/chafing creams because I haven't tried them, but I heart this in a big way.  Getting surprised in the shower by stinging skin was NO FUN.  I went out and bought the big huge giant bottle, and I still have some samples hidden in my bike bag (no one wants to get caught with a chafed booter).  I also love that it says "Don't ignore the needs of your Hoo Ha!" on their website.   Hope you're listening!!