Girl, You Have No Faith in Medicine

Girl, you have no faith in medicine
Oh, girl
You have no faith in medicine
Acetaminophen - you see the medicine
Oh, girl
Is there a way to find the cure for this implanted in a pill?
It’s just the name upon the bottle which determines if it will
Is the problem you're allergic to a well-familiar name?
Do you have a problem with this one if the results are the same?
-Girl, You Have No Faith in Medicine (The White Stripes)

I'm pooped and resting for the rest of the week. Trying different things with the timing of my pills, but everyone knows I have no faith in medicine. So, when The White Stripes wrote that song, I think they were talking about me.

!*!&#!)!*@(!)!(@------------------

Today was my last official "slack day." I had a serious sit-down with the club coach last night, and the first words out of his mouth were: "You don't eat enough."

I almost turned around to see if there was another girl behind me. "I thought you were going to say I eat too MUCH."

"Nope. It's no wonder you gain weight when you train and you're grumpy all day and then you eat a cheeseburger and fries for lunch! You're not eating anything. Your body is hanging on to every pound it can hang onto."

I felt like smacking msyelf. As much as I know about nutrition, it never once dawned on me that I'm eating too little. I think this is because I was hungry all the time and not really eating the best kinds of food, so I automatically assumed that I was just eating too much of the wrong stuff. Not so - I was eating not enough of everything. Hector actually thought I had myself on a diet!!! So I have to try harder to hit my goal of approx. 2000 calories a day, and I'm not getting enough protein. No wonder I crave it nonstop.

Lemme tell ya, it's hard work eating a lot!!!! I forgot how to eat 5 times a day. It really made me realize how bad my eating habits have gotten - not in that I eat so much "bad" food but in that my amounts and intervals are not regular. I don't eat enough or frequently enough, so when I DO binge, I binge BIG TIME (like cheeseburgers and fries.) Of course, I feel so satisfied today that I don't care about a cheeseburger. That doesn't mean I won't wake up tomorrow and want a chicken biscuit, but tomorrow I have a 6:30am time trial and I doubt I'll wanna ruin that. Then I have a run on Sunday morning and another workout on Sunday at 2:30pm. And after that, it's back to training.

Here they are . . . my 2008 Goals:
-HAVE FUN!
-Don't look like an ass at Nationals (well now that's just common sense, i'n't it?!!)
-Lose 24 lbs.
-Gain 2mph on bike
-Lose 1 min/mile on the run
-Lose 20-30 sec on the swim

And the Club is trying to talk me into doing the Miami Man (Half Iron) in November, but that's purely dependent on my financial situation. I'm kinda thinking of doing this ride called the Horrible Hundred. We shall see.

But I have a feeling . . . this whole eating better thing is going to help with the medicine issues. Now I have to go find a metronome and a track where I can re-calibrate my footpod.

Spin, Spin Sugar . . . and the NEWS

Ok, so yesterday I did it. My first spin workout. And let me just say two words: holy crap.

Maybe it was because I haven't cycled in so long, maybe it was because Hector is a tough coach, but either way . . . that was a serious ass-kicking. It was about a 30-40 minute spin workout followed by strength. It was fun as hell, and everything everyone said it would be (except that I don't think my ass hurt as bad as Duane's! LOL!) There was good music, black lights, cool people. (And, in case you were wondering, I dressed perfectly - some older sneakers with my Philly Marathon tee and some tri shorts.) I could have brought my cycling shoes and clipped in, too, but I am pretty sure the clips were speedplay. It's been so long since I stared at my pedals that I didn't really recognize them. (Isn't that sad? Good thing it won't last long.)

I'm really enjoying the group workouts so far. Granted, I've only done two, and the social aspect is immensely uncomfortable because of my inherent shyness, but I am doing it. Today was a swim - coached this time - and I couldn't wait to hear some of Hector's tips on swimming - but I elected to sleep in. I don't want to attack this first week too aggressively, hit every single workout at 100%, and burn out before I get to my peak. I have a long 6 months of training ahead of me and I want to ease into it, do it right and have a good time. I'm ready to get down to running, too, which we haven't done yet as a group.


There is another reason I am not completely diving in, too, and it involves my very big NEWS. I made the decision this week (like my tri-sister Jayme) to enlist the help of the one . . . the only . . . Elizabeth Fedofsky, also known as the ELF. I don't know yet how this will jive with my club workouts, but you'd best believe that I'll do whatever The Elf tells me to do. I've been fighting with myself for a very long time about getting a coach. Of course because it means budgeting is tighter, but also because . . . well . . . this sounds kind of stupid when I say it outloud, but I'm going to say it nonetheless. Yes, I wanted to be one of those self-assisted phenoms that rose to age-group placement in races armed with a few books, some friends on some forums, and a general knowledge of and love for the sport. I've realized, however, that I can't do it alone - not with everything else I have going on in my life, and not during my first year of major-distance races. My official training with her begins in January.

So, stay tuned, ladies and goims. I'm sure I'll have more updates as the weeks and months progress.