I HEART my friends!

This is just a little post that is dedicated to my girlfriends- specifically my girlfriends that are also my training partners.  I have a good handful of different friends that fit this category...chances are if you are reading this the post it about you!

We are alike in so many ways.  We are mostly high achievers and set big standards for ourselves.  I was just laughing with Alyson about how we are all pretty type A, and I bet we all did really well in school (well, except I tried to throw the bell curve on that one this last go-around).        

The great thing though is I have girlfriends that are just super charming, cute, smart, fantastic, witty, and....just frickin' great.  Dave is jealous, seriously.  He is jealous that he doesn't have friends as cool and amazing as mine are.  And my girlfriends are amazing at 5:30am swims and 10:30pm beers.  (again, I try to throw the bell curve on this one as I am the mawmaw... I am not very amazing at 10:30 in my pj's).  

We carry those same high expectations with us with sports too.   We just expect a lot out of ourselves.  Sometimes I hear my friends (and myself too!) get down on themselves or doubt themselves.  There is no place for me to chastise- I think I am the worst.  But, what I want to let all of my girlfriends know that you are awesome!  You are awesome athletes and I admire you.  I admire the balance my friends pursue as they juggle work, love, family, triathlon, and personal growth.  

And my girlfriends are fast.  Sometimes they don't see it- especially in the middle of the training rut.  But, it is there.  The beginning of the season always brings out the doubts- I am out of shape, I am slow, I haven't trained enough.  It is the same every year.  But, as the first races of the year start to roll around, I look forward to seeing all of my girlfriends kick some butt, reach some personal goals, and be their bad-ass selves.  

And it makes me feel good about myself because they are my friends.  

Kisses and hugs to happy March training and the beginning of the race season!   

Survived

Today on facebook I posted that I survived. What did I survive? My very first Peddler ride. (I did not say I actually hung on the whole ride, just survived). :)

Memphis people know which ride I am talking about. It is the one that I pulled up to this morning and saw only men, 40 or so of them, in team uniforms, way way faster than I can only dream of being. Practically every single guy on my team was there, and they are super fast. Then all of these super fast roadies. Then me. Thankfully Laura showed up for support.

This is the ride that I have found a million excuses to avoid, even though it starts a mile from my house. It is too fast for me. I will never keep up. I am not strong enough. I can't wake up that early to ride. I can't surge with roadies. I can't sprint. Lots of cant's.

The ride was exactly how I imagined it would be, and I liked it! This huge group heads down the road. It is pitch black and you can't see anything in front of you on the road. First scary thing was beating the train. Beating a train on your bike at 5:45 am in the dark. Smart. Then it was just riding with roadies- the movement, the weaving, going in and out of neighborhoods to get to the big roads. Doing everything possible to avoid being that person getting stopped at a light or by a car- because you will never catch back up.

Then came the sprints- or I guess the start of the real ride. I was actually hanging on. I even needed to pass some guys because I realized that they were falling back, causing me to lose touch with the group. I tried to focus on just staying with the back of the group. It was fast- but fun too!

I realized, though, that I couldn't see Laura. One thing we had talked about was not leaving each other on this first ride since we didn't really know the route. I had no clue if she was in front of me or behind me in the darkness. Well, you can't lose concentration on this ride or you will be off of the back, if you are a rider like me that is just barely hanging on. So, after a mile or so of worrying, I started to drop back and then got caught at a light. I waited for Laura but never saw her. A couple of guys were behind me, but they said they had not seen a girl. I could only hope I had missed her and she was really in front of me, or she had turned around and just did her own thing. (Found out later she had some mechanical probs and didn't know her way around the city enough to meet back up with the group).

Total edit, which I normally don't do to my blog. I want to make it clear that with a little lapse in concentration and completely burning quads, I was off of the back and fading. Waiting for Laura was just convenient- otherwise I was riding going to be riding with some strange guy that was dropping back too!

I finished the ride solo and still got in a good ride- especially for me in the early morning. Who would have ever though I would wake my very non-morning self up for a ride?

It was so fun to not have any more excuses to get out there. Yes, the ride is way too fast for me. But, there were other people that struggled to stay up. And, how will I ever get better at doing the ride if I don't get out there and do it? So I am going to just try to hang on a little further each time I go- make goals to make it to the next street or light before getting dropped. I am super proud of myself for actually attempting to get out of my comfort zone and forcing myself to do something I feared- I pulled up the BGPs this morning.

Forgot?

I had another fun night at track tonight. I ran half of my intervals at I pace and the last half at R pace for a good, steady mental workout. It is getting somewhat fun out there- steadily improving and watching my I and R paces get easy for me.

As I walked off of the track tonight, I thought to myself that my legs sure did feel tired, though. My calves were a little sore and everything was just a little heavier. It must be from the 3 faster workouts I did last week...everything just adding up.

I start driving home and then immediately call Joy, who heard me wonder aloud after practice about the growing fatigue in my legs. I blurt out- "I forgot- I played a soccer game last night." We both start laughing, I mean, how do you forget something like that? Of course my legs are frickin' tired! Hello!!!!! Bueller?

But, when you love something like the way I love soccer, it doesn't even seem to count as a workout, even though it is probably one of the best ones I get in the week. I count it as a rest day, I guess because I don't feel like I am training. Rest day....what? It is so not rest!

Dave even came to watch me play last night since we played our rivals in the final game of the season. At halftime, I walked over to Dave to say hi and he immediately said, "I know what you are doing." huh? He said, "you are purposely running more than you need to out there to get in a better workout. I know you." So not true- it is called hustle, Big Dave. Anyways, we lost in the final minutes which was a bummer- this was indoor so the game can change pretty quickly in momentum.

Some members of my women's team post indoor game.

Dave gave me some good feedback last night. He said I look great out there and I look the lightest on my feet than I have looked in a couple of years. He can't believe how injury free I look out there- which basically reminds me of how injured I had been playing for a long time. Taking the past year off was super, duper smart of me. I did feel good out there. I have, however, lost some of my ability to completely change a game, as Dave says, in the past I would not have let us lose that game. And Dave was right in saying there is no way I can try to be great at 4 sports- and I am in complete agreement. I just don't have time to devote to getting a lot of form back in soccer and trying to improve in triathlon. I mean, I played 4-5x a week in New Orleans. There is noooooo way I could do that now. I can barely fit in 1 day.

Which is no problem- it means that soccer is so much fun for me right now! If I can just stay in good enough shape and keep enough skill to hang with the babies, I mean young ladies (I swear, I just keep getting older and they keep getting younger!), out there, that is good enough for me! I love my women's team. Our outdoor season is starting this Thurs, so I will retain that night as my non-tri, fun night.

And I will try to remember that a soccer game is a workout and that I do get tired from it.