Eight Updates

Good morning, everyone!  Happy Hump Day!

This is why I love waking up early—pajamas and coffee.  I’m also rocking glasses and Medusa-like curls, but no one needs to see that.

First, thanks for your thoughtful comments on Monday’s post.  Doing the indoor triathlon was so much fun, and I loved putting my training to the test.  Needless to say, I experienced an exercise high for the rest of the weekend.  Those endorphins are the best, right?

Anyway, I have lots of updates, so it’s list time:

1.  I received a package this past week from Boxtera, a healthy snack delivery service.

So many noms!  Even though I have virtually no willpower, I’ve been pacing myself and not housing everything in one sitting.  My review should go live next week.

2.  The Chobani fairy visited me too!

I’ve been dying to try the new pear and banana flavors, so the CHO team decided to help a fan out.  I still can’t figure out why the Whole Foods near me doesn’t stock those two options.

3.  At Monday’s Full Throttle Endurance practice, we had a two-mile time trial on the track.  Even though there are some speedsters in my group who clocked in at 11 minutes (crazy, right?), I’m happy with my time of 14:4X (7:2X/mile).  I ran with two teammates, and we took turns sharing the workload and setting the pace.  We went out too fast for the first lap (Andrew said it was a sub-six minutes!), so there was some suffering during the final 400m—but it was totally worth it to finish more than one minute faster than I did eight weeks ago.  It’s all about progress!

4.  Speaking of Monday’s practice, a photographer from New York Road Runners showed up—at 5:45 a.m. nonetheless—to take pictures.  The organization plans to write a feature story about FTE, so he snapped shots of Andrew coaching and us doing work.

5.  My internship is going well—I’ve interviewed some cool ladies and gone to a handful of fun fitness events—but I got word Monday that due to budget concerns my hours will be cut, which means I transition from full-time to part-time this week.  Womp, womp.

6.  On the subway ride home Monday, I saw one of my teammates (small world!) and told her about the cut in hours.  Being positive and supportive, she told me to look on the bright side:  That will give me lots of flexibility to train and travel for races!  It’s highly possible I thought the same thing.

7.  Speaking of training, I’m still in the process of developing a strategy for Thursday’s swim-run “race.”  It turns out I had the distances wrong:  it’s 100 yards in the pool, 0.25 mile on the track, 200 yards, 0.5 mile, 300 yards, 1 mile, 400 yards, 1.5 miles, 500 yards, and 1.75 miles (total of 1500 yards and 5 miles).  I talked to MB on Monday and sent Andrew an email yesterday, and both stressed the importance of pacing and not going out too fast.  One of the biggest challenges will be keeping my heart rate under control when I hop out of the pool and hit the track, and Andrew said the race gets really interesting at the 300-yard mark—that’s when the people who start too fast hit the wall.

8.  My family is visiting this weekend!  We plan to eat our way though Chelsea Market and see Jersey Boys on Broadway (and hopefully watch SU basketball win a game.  Sigh.)

How’s your week going?