Today's Workouts and Weekly Totals: Call me Desdemona Tutu!

Yesterday afternoon I went in search of the perfect rhinestone tiara to wear during the Disney marathon in 3 weeks. I went to a local craft shop, Michael's, since I had been there several weeks earlier and looked briefly at their tiaras in the bridal area.

I narrowed down my choice to one that had both rhinestones and pearls (all fake, of course), and another one that was not as tall, but all rhinestones. I had to try them on, and then I went in search of a mirror. None to be found, but I finally located the ladies' room and went in there to try them on. The taller one weighed a little too much for my liking, and I wasn't sure it would stay on my head. The other one was actually meant for a "flower girl," i.e., a young girl, so it was smaller, yet it seemed a perfect fit for me. So it was the smaller one that I went with.

I stopped at the grocery store on the way home just to pick up a few staples for the coming week.

Of course, when I got home, I HAD to put the tiara on, rationalizing that I needed to get used to it. It is quite cute! I only left it on for about :30, though, as by that time I was extremely hungry (even though I had eaten about 2 hours before) and tired.

I did watch most of The Sound of Music, cutting it off at 10PM, after watching the VERY BEST SCENE where Maria has just come back to find out whether she's in love or not, the Baroness gets the heave-ho from the Captain, and then the very lovely scene by the gazebo where Maria and Captain Von Trapp kiss for the first time.

During commercial breaks, I was reading from a book I recently bought: How to Practice: The Way to a Meaningful Life by His Holiness the Dalia Lama. This is going to be a book that I read slowly, because it's very "meaty." While I believe that I have made great progress since September on being in the moment, being more self-aware and more mindful, I also know I have a ways to go. First, I will seek to become more conscious of not practicing any of the 10 nonvirtues of Buddhism:

1. Killing
2. Stealing
3. Sexual Misconduct
4. Lying
5. Divisive Talk
6. Harsh Speech
7. Senseless Chatter
8. Covetousness
9. Harmful Intent
10. Wrong Views

I think I've got 1-4 and 8 pretty well covered, but I know that 5-7 and 9 and 10 need some attention. Sometimes I think blogging is "senseless chatter," but I am trying valiantly to not do that here.

At any rate, it was a nice evening to watch a happy movie and get a little enlightenment advice!

I slept like a log and awoke at 7AM. The day felt a little ominous, as this is the last big training day before I start to taper tomorrow. I had wanted to be running by 9AM, but I figured that wasn't going to happen with such a late awakening, but that's OK, I didn't have much planned for today except my workouts and some housework.

The one thing I had to do before I went to run was to sew my tutu. Can I just say that working with tulle is not easy? The stuff sticks to everything! Maybe you don't want to visualize this, but I had to remove my clothes so it would stop clinging to me. I had bought 4 yards of hot pink tulle, and it is about 64" wide, so my plan was to fold it in half lengthwise to yield a width of 2 yards, and then fold it twice on the width, giving me 4 layers of tulle in the finished product. Well, getting any of this stuff to stay where you want it is challenging, so first I just folded it in half crosswise, and then I basted through the center to hold the pieces together. Then I was better able to make one more crosswise fold, and then I sewed a tunnel on one edge for the ribbon to go through. Voila! I sewed one end of the ribbon to the tulle, but left the other side unattached so that I can fold this thing up since I have to take it with me to Disney. It came out great! I tried it one with my fuel belt, and I was ready to go run.

Needless to say, walking into a cardio room with hot pink top and shorts, a hot pink tutu and a small rhinestone tiara on attracts a little attention. Most people smiled, though. One of the trainers and the overall director asked me about the outfit and I explained it to them. A few people thought I was practicing for the Nutcracker ballet. What????? I wasn't aware that practicing for ballet involved running for several hours. Oh well, it was impossible to do anything but smile at anyone who asked about it.

I didn't defizz my Ultra Violence well enough, and when you fail at that, it has a sneaky way of finding its way out of whatever bottle you put it in, so while I was prepared to wear the Fuel Belt, I had to leave it off unless I wanted Ultra Violence all over my beautiful skirt! I did put the bottles on the treadmill, though, as I was definitely going to drink them.

10:54AM Run 2:10 as 30' Easy, 50' Steady, 20' Upper Steady, 20' Mod Hard. You will notice that that adds up to 2:00. I ended up adding 10' of Steady time on the end. More on that later.

As soon as I started running, I couldn't help but feel happy. I mean, how can you have any bad thoughts when you're dressed all in hot pink and wearing a tiara? Yet I knew this was going to be a run requiring lots of focus, so I just settled in.

About 1:00 in, I told myself to go inside my head and just enjoy it there. So I did. Even though I kept increasing the speed, my heart rate didn't elevate much out of my aerobic zone today. Guess I've gotten fitter! I kept doing checks on my leg conditions--they felt fine. So that's why when I got to 1:30, I decided I should probably add some time to the run in order to come down from the ending 20' of tempo work.

When I got to 2:00, I felt really good, and decreasing the speed felt nice, and then I thought, "hmmmm....I could run forever at this pace." That's a GOOD thing! I think that means I am about to peak just perfectly. At 2:10 I wanted to keep going, but that might be too much of a good thing, so I finished off by walking for 5'. I also did some stretching before heading to the pool.

2:35PM Swim 1300 yards straight pull, about 26' (not really sure; didn't time myself and I may have swam more anyway; it doesn't matter). The water was a nice 83 degrees, and it felt good to cool down. I could feel my body really cooling down; see this is why you wouldn't want to put a swim at the end of a triathlon--your body temp just starts heading down and cool water just accelerates the process. When I got out, I wished there was someone there waiting for me with a mylar blanket.

After the swim I hit the sauna for about 10', and that felt great. I have eaten some food now, but I know there are a bunch more calories due to be delivered.

Weekly Totals

Swim: 7,250 yards in 2.6 hours

Bike: 5.03 hours

Run: 5.58 hours

Strength: 1.65 hours

Total Hours: 14.86

Average Sleep: 8.86 hours per night

Stretching: 1.68 hours (I will do another 15' or so later today)

New Phenomenon: I can once again get my straight legs all the way over my head with toes touching the floor! My back flexibility has improved. This is important, as I don't feel too beat up from all the running I did this week, and that is what will get me through the Goofy Challenge.