progress schmogress

It’s finally here – race week (well, race one week!)! Admittedly I am more excited for race week number two in August, but still excited for this race too, nevertheless.  Sometimes I think of the amount of training still to come for the full one in August and I just think that is so much to go – two months, to be exact (give or take a couple of days).  Only have to double my performance, piece of cake, right?

On that note, training the past couple of days for me was a little lax (or a little more lax than I’d have liked).  Since the majority of the rest of the Triathlon Club were participating in the Pleasant Prairie triathlon, last week’s practices were mostly short in duration and high in intensity (like you should do for the race taper, or so I’ve been told).  It also happened to be a recovery week for those of us not participating in that specific triathlon.  So Mark and I had a hybrid recovery/taper/somewhat normal week with this week being our official race taper.  We’ll be focused this week on keeping our exercises short, but with bursts of intensity.  I don’t want to go too hard before the race and risk wearing my performance down, but also can’t just sit around and do nothing this week as well.

I say my training the past couple of days seemed lax, but that is definitely of my own doing.  When Mark and I first moved to Chicago, he got us involved in a program called Chicago Scholars, which is a great organization that pairs volunteers (mentors) up with high school seniors who will be first generation college students.  Our obligation with our group ended once they graduated, but we still keep in touch so had them over for a BBQ on Saturday.  Here’s me manning the grill:

We had a pretty good spread too.

And even a pig platter of brownies, yum!

You’ll notice that nothing on the spread was overly healthy – although I did try my hand at some veggie burgers in the event someone had dietary restrictions I was unaware of (which, they didn’t), which I ate instead of the hamburgers.  They were quinoa and black bean burgers and actually really good.  I think next time instead of buying them premade I’d try my hand at making them myself (Pinterest has plenty of recipes I am sure).

So needless to say, despite the training time put in, the past couple of days of not so healthy food really makes it feel like I didn’t train much at all.  Which has defeated my goal of staying healthy up to race day which I let you in on last week – but what are you going to do, right?  When life says have a BBQ, it also says eat brownies :)

Luckily, it’s summertime and my favorite snacks are in season – fresh fruit!  Aldi even had another sale this weekend, which of course I had to hit up – cantaloupe, plums, peaches, pineapple, and grapes.  They had other fruit on sale too, but this was what I could carry home with me.  Last time my fruit score went in the freezer for smoothies (which I have not even really put a dent in yet, despite making smoothies every weekday since then…so little goes such a long way in terms of smoothie making I guess), but this time it went in the fridge (well, almost all of it).  I just cut it all up and put it in a bowl (or bowls, depending on how much) and then when I want to eat it I just post up with my bowl on the couch and eat it like you’d see someone sitting there with a bowl of popcorn or chips.  Mark makes fun of me for doing this, but I really enjoy my fruit bowls!  Here’s what they typically look like.

I also kept my pineapple core and put that in the freezer to throw in the Vitamix for smoothies.  I love that thing!  I hate waste, and it helps me be even a little less wasteful.

Lately if it seems my posts have been less focused on being this ‘accident athlete’ and more on just my random thoughts and overall health goals, then you would be correct.  I hope I am not boring you by sharing this or it is detracting from the whole point of the blog in the first place.  I really just think that being an athlete embodies more than the training aspect, and want you to experience my thoughts as I deal with the entire process for the first time.  This post focused a lot on health and food (as have several others in recent weeks), and while I have never considered myself unhealthy, I have never made an effort to be more healthy in my choices as I do now.  I think this is an important part of becoming an athlete, and hope you all do too!