Sometimes you just have to skip the plan! Leading my first indoor cycling and skipping my tempo run to SKI!

This past week was a great week.  I got in my trainer ride on Monday like planned, and didn't have to work on Friday, so I also planned to swim.  I nailed my track workout on Tuesday, and then after that, I checked my email and saw that there was a group from Oldham County Multisport doing an indoor spin on Wednesday night at the Buckner Y.  It wasn't an official spin class.  Wednesday night, indoors, at the Y...I could do that!  Usually I can't ever go to their activities because they are outside on Wed (Ryan's night to ride) or Thursdays (Keira's ballet).  And, to make it even more exciting, I volunteered myself to lead the class.  WHAT?  This is a new group of people and I'm not cycle class certified, but I am group exercise certified (and I disclosed that).  So, I taught my first indoor cycle class.  I was super paranoid about my music selections, because I thought they were great, but since this is a new group for me, what would they think?  I kept it mostly to adult alternative, because that is what we have, and kept it very clean since its the Y.  Some of the classes I have been to have not depending on their audience at other facilities.  Also, since I knew this was a bunch of triathletes and not "spinners" I knew that we would want to do intervals and climbs, none of the goofy "jumps" that while may give you variety and build some strength, don't really have any place in road riding.  I definitely asked everyone's opinions of what they wanted to do and tried to incorporate them, so it wasn't as structured as a real spin class, but it was fun to be up front!

I also was able to finally run outside for a long run on Thursday!  Yay!  It was still below freezing, but it was a step back week for me and I had to run 13 miles.  It would be tight, because it was the day of the mother/son father/daughter dance at Soren's school, and I needed to be there by 12.  I had 3 hours total to drop off Soren and pass out his valentines, come home, run 13 miles (at 8:04min/mi pace) cool down, shower, and get back to school by 12.  It was crazy, but I had everything ready to go before I left to take him to school, water, clothes, shoes, garmin, food, ect for running plus my whole outfit for the dance because I had to be dressed up for it.  I finished my run just 26 seconds over my goal, and I had an average of 8:06 min/mi.  I was very pleased with that because last year, I had a tough time with this run.  I really needed the step back, and with all my indoor running, I haven't dealt with wind or hills really.  It was a beautiful day for it too.  I took this at mile 4, not quite a third of the way in:

Hopefully I'll be back outside this week. Here's Soren and I at our dance:

I did my swim on Friday like I was supposed to, and then I was really dreading my Saturday workout.  The schools got out early because we had a snowstorm.  Ryan and I had reservations for a valentine dinner in Germantown, and thankfully the snow did not stop that from happening.  Since we did get so much snow, we opted to drive to Indiana to go skiing at the local "hill" in Paoli.  Its mostly to get the kids on skis again.  It is a small place and there were only a few easy runs that the kids could do.  Also, it meant that all the people who had no clue were also there skiing those same runs.  Towards the end, I was getting really stressed out for the kids because some of these newbies were so inconsiderate and out of control that I was afraid one of my kids was going to get mowed down.  I had someone snowboard over my skis and push off my body on one run, and I went nuts.  I screamed that they had better stay far away from me and my kids.  Really, when I ski, I am more afraid of dumb people causing me to crash than anything else.  I didn't fall because I am not a complete disaster on skis, but I know it would have sent my kids tumbling downwards in a second!  I think it was by God's grace that Keira wasn't knocked down on another run.  I told Ryan that it wasn't my day to beat someone over the head with one of my skis for hitting my kid.  Also, I got my poles "borrowed".  Ugh.  Skiing in Indiana!!!!  I went to the rental area at the end of our day to ask if anyone had turned in a set of non rental poles because mine had been stolen.  The attitude of the guy in rental return was just as infuriating to me.  He was just like "someone didn't steal them, they just borrowed them" and figured they would eventually turn up, and I could come back tomorrow.  Um, no thank you.  It was just annoying the lack of respect for others that everyone had here!  The worst part was that my poles were hanging with my skis and we had put a pin through the end of the hanger, so the person had to actually open up the door on it and make an effort to take mine over theirs.  Or someone else was equally disrespectful and took theirs first.  Soren finished up skiing before Keira, and we spent the final minutes waiting on them looking for my poles.  Amazingly, I found them in a pile of other gear in the locker room area where you weren't even really supposed to have gear anyway.  I was shocked they turned up, and part of me wanted to wait there to see if someone came back, but there were two other people there and they had said that the gear pile had been there at least 2 hours and they hadn't seen the people that left it.  I did ask them if it was their stuff before taking my poles, but they were clearly mine.  They are 12 years old and have a scratch down the entire side of one that I did at Snowbird on Little Cloud.  I showed the one guy a picture of me and my poles from Crystal Mountain and he agreed they were mine too.  Here is a picture of us (me with rental poles).

I know it sounds like I am complaining a lot about the skiing, but it was great for the kids, despite the fact that I was a nervous wreck that they were going to get hit.  They did great jobs and made a lot of improvements.  Soren really improved, and Keira had ended at Crystal with a huge crash, so it was important that she didn't have to wait another full year to ski to go out on a good note.  There is another resort not too much further from us in Ohio that we will probably go to next year.  Soren was free at this one due to his age this year, but next year, the other resort will be about the same price, maybe a tad cheaper even, and its better. 

Up this week, maintaining my swimming!  I also have another 20 miler, and I think it will be outside.  Yay!  We also need to get the kids healthy.  Keira was really sick after we finished skiing, I was ill yesterday, and I didn't take any chances with Soren today after an odd burp, and kept him home from work today.

Earthfare Earthlete, OSMO Nutrition and more indoor running!

2014 is shaping up to be incredibly cool, and I haven't even done a single race yet.  I am pleased to announce two more sponsors!  Earth Fare- The Healthy Supermarket and OSMO Nutrition.

I was able to get involved with Earth Fare mostly because of my friend Ginger.  She is a great friend and sometimes that voice of reason in my head when I am just being unreasonable due to the weather or other "act of God" type situations that threaten my workouts.  She is not an endurance athlete, but nutrition and healthy living is important to her as an aerobics instructor and mom of three active children.  She got me started going to Earth Fare once the opened near our homes.  It is a great grocery store, similar to Whole Foods, with an assortment of already prepared foods for immediate consumption, raw ingredients, and packaged foods.  They carry premium brands as well as their own line of items.  I really love Stonewall Kitchen products, and I am pleased that I can purchase them there.  One of my fellow Landsharks, Luke, is an Earthlete as well, and when I saw his advertisement on our club page for coupons, I jumped on it.  I got coupons for Ginger too, and then when it was time for Luke to refer athletes to their application, he chose me!  I will find out more information about the ambassadorship next month, but, I already know I love the store and the food there. 

My next announcement is with OSMO Nutrition.  I was fortunate to be able to attend a call in meeting with Stacy who is the founder and has been doing the research.  I took in so much information, and may completely redo my nutrition strategy for running.  With all my treadmill running lately, it gives me the perfect opportunity to really play around with my nutrition on the run without a sticky drippy camelback, with a drinking fountain, and bathrooms!  I have product on the way, and once I get to use it I will do more posting about it.  It really sounds that although my current nutrition on the run is fine, it could be great with OSMO, and I want to find out how I can make it that way.

Also, I left off my previous post that Ryan and I attended the Landshark social for our 11th wedding anniversary.  I know its a funny thing to do for a wedding anniversary, BUT, it is a great time.  We have a lot of friends there, and dinner is included so the cost of a babysitter is about a wash for the evening.  Plus, I have had pretty good luck with the door prizes.  Last year, I won a gift card for a restaurant, Rira Irish Pub (formerly at 4th Street Live).  Here we are enjoying the evening downtown at Louisville Slugger Field.

 

 Ryan and I

 Ryan, Me, Erin, and Dan

Erin and I

This year, I won a pair of shoes!!  Yay!  Also, my friend Lisa gave me a pair of shoes for Keira that her daughter didn't like.

Also, we had a huge ice storm this week.  It caused us to only have 2 days of school.  Kind of crazy.  I did another 20 miler on the treadmill.  It wasn't as bad as the first one, mostly because I knew I could do it.  Part of me was worried it would be worse than the first one, just because I did know what it felt like.  I had a lot of friends come in and run with me and support me.  Its kind of fun to do it inside and see how well I can hold my paces.  I varied it a tad ever half mile.  The ice was super dramatic outside.  It was pretty gray the first few days, but then on Friday, the sun came out and the world looked like it was covered in diamonds.  The trees looked all sparkly.  I was addicted to taking pictures, but they didn't capture it nearly as well as the eye saw it.  This one was my favorite picture at night:

Here are a couple daytime ones.

Hopefully everything will thaw out soon.  Its been so slippery that even short runs have been done inside.  I have yak tracks, but since I am really trying to hit particular splits, I just haven't wanted to risk it.  I feel lame.  I sort of miss running just to run.  This week is a shorter run, 13 miles, which should fit in nicely before I have a mother son dance with Soren at preschool.  I am looking forward to it.