Updates & Training

What you see below (click to enlarge) is my answer to getting it all done. We're two triathletes in training that work two full time jobs, cook most of our meals from scratch every day, take care of a 3 bedroom house, 4 cats (including the psychotic new kitten), with tons of dirty laundry, bikes that need maintenance, bills, write a handful of blogs and a slew of hobbies. It takes a lot of planning.

Here's a little list of other things I've learned lately:

• On Sunday, I take a look at our pantry and make up the weekly menu, a grocery list and edit and arrange our workouts (with pace times for running) and post it all on the fridge. It seems crazy, but it saves us a lot of time and insures that there is no room for skipping a workout.
• Each night's dinner is the next day's lunch.
• All breakfasts and snacks are identical for the week (we do vary flavorings, but the recipe is the same).
• Having an assortment of ice packs on hand is crucial! Ice therapy really works to reduce swelling, inflammation and decrease soreness. We like CVS Peas.
• Ice baths are MUCH better in the summer than in the winter! Cracking a cold coconut water and soaking sore legs is a lifesaver after long runs.
• Hot days + long rides + hard bike seat require chamois cream. I'm not saddle sore prone, but I don't like chafing or discomfort and this stuff is awesome.
• This stuff is ALSO awesome and highly necessary to training.
• Even two glasses of wine now will give me too much of a hangover. WTF?! 
• You can unlock tight calves by doing this (below) with a tennis ball and a yoga block. 

We're heading into a few big weeks training wise. The weeks are relatively merciful with the exception of Thursday's interval run and Wednesday's indoor spin class. The weekends, however, are going to hurt. This weekend we're tackling Glendora Mountain Road again on Saturday and then Sunday has a 1hr 15min swim (open water) and a 1hr 30min run. The one day a week of stregnth training is really pointing out my weaknesses! My hamstrings and adductors are super weak. I'm making an effort to incoporate some single leg exercises to equally stregnthen (right and left) as well as challenge some of the stabilizing muscles that tire near the end of long runs. I wish we could do more strength training and yoga, but there simply is NOT enough time. We've been diligent about stretching, foam-rolling and getting massages (costly, but totally worth it) and it's made a huge difference in our recovery time. I also try to get more stretching and rolling in on my lunch break at work!