Don't Grocery Shop Hungry. Just Don't.

Last week I did a pretty terrible job at getting all of my workouts in. Ohhh, I ate too many crepes, I cannot possibly run that prescribed one hour. Or I'm too jet-lagged to pull my TRX out of the closet and use it. Etc. Etc. Etc. As the saying goes, there is no extra-credit in Ironman training. If you miss a workout, chances are pretty good you're not going to find the time to make it up. Do it or lose it. And updating Training Peaks?! HA - you slay me. I'm simply going to say that I was just giving Jen an opportunity to completely focus on the Illinois State Swim Meet by not filling in my Training Peaks for last week.

But this week - it's a new week. I woke up determined to start it off on the right foot. This consisted of waking up late, scrambling to find my yoga mat, scrambling to scribble down the bootcamp workouts, and forgetting my lunch on the way out the door at 5:40am (I'm still mad about that - so mad that I remade that lunch when I got home from work just so I could enjoy the veggie quesadillas I missed out on at lunch. It was my pre-dinner dinner). The morning did get better - bootcamp went well AND I ran into Kendra on my way to swim and we split the lane - SO GREAT to have someone else to swim with! Then I made the unfortunate mistake of stopping in at the grocery store while I walked from the Metro to my office. Never go to the grocery store post-bootcamp-swim workout. I walked in to grab breakfast and somehow found myself leaving with over $40 worth of snacks. Chobani, cottage cheese, strawberries, a loaf of olive bread (??), butter, and bagels. Whoops. And my co-workers love me because I now own half the real estate in our tiny office refrigerator with all my loot.

And the workouts I did manage to get in last week - they all went really well. This past weekend I was in Tennessee to see Erin, Ashley, and this cute little girl:

Reagan's pretty sharp - gotta watch what you say because she'll say it right back!

Can I just reiterate that the people down in Tennessee/Kentucky are the friendliest around? Not only did drivers wave at me while I was running and biking, but fellow runners gave me high fives, others joined me for a little bit to chat, neighbors and their kids waved at me from their yards. It was like living in Pleasantville. I could get used to that. Cars did not swerve near me or honk at me while I was biking - not that there were many cars around, most of the roads looked like this:

70+ miles of this Sunday morning.

I spent much of the ride out patting myself on the back for the speed I seemed to easily be holding and for how good I felt. Note to self: when you haven't been on a long ride in weeks, do not automatically think you've made magical gains in bike fitness. Odds are - you've had a tailwind that whole time. I was in for a rude surprise when I turned around and was slapped in the face by a nasty headwind. And so began the slower slog home - the skies were becoming grey and I was becoming hungry and cranky. Once I made a few turns and got out of the headwind (and downed some more PowerBars), I felt better and was able to pick up more speed and negative split. My quads were yelling at me afterwards for it, but this ride was worth it.

The only ruckus I encountered was when I was chased by a pack of dogs - twice. The first time was unexpected. Three dogs came bolting out of a yard, aiming straight for me. Two of them were short, fast little things that looked like they were ready to take out my ankles. By sheer luck, I avoided hitting them and/or falling off my bike and made it away unscathed. The second time I passed that house (no choice - I was doing an out-and-back route), I was ready for them. I ate a Clif bar to get my energy up. I rolled up my armwarmers (or rolled them down - whatever you did with armwarmers), put on my game face and started to sprint as soon as I got in sight of the house. I was cocky and thought about hollering at the dogs to egg them on, confident that I could easily outsprint them since I was expecting them, but fortunately I thought better of it. True to form, the dogs came charging out of the yard. I dropped two of them pretty fast but the third hung on for what felt like forever and he kept getting right near my front wheel. After a hundred yards or so, he got tired of chasing me and gave up. And that was my excitement for the ride.

Well, I'm off to eat the olive bread topped with Chobani, cottage cheese, strawberries and butter. KIDDING. At least I won't starve this week at work.