2 weeks later . . .

Two weeks ago all was going along fantastic, my training was near perfect, my intake of sugar was non-existent and then BAM! Life hits.

My 4 year-old daughter got sick with a bad cold (who knew snot could come out your eyes???) and so that severely hampered my ability to do much of anything. I couldn't go to the gym because she couldn't go into the Kids Club and come evening time when my husband would get home I was so exhausted that I just didn't have the energy myself to go workout. But I couldn't blame her cold for long but soon it was my cold, as well. Which I can say that I'm still trying to get over today but at least I know I'm finally back on the way up. So since the 1st of June my workouts consisted of that Monday - I did an hour of recoery cardio (yawn, boring, hate it), Thursday the cold had hit but I was going stir crazy and put her in the jog stroller and went for a walk/jog to the RedBox to get her a movie and back (1.9 miles), Friday Megan was doing a bit better so she went to Kids Club and I went to spin class. Spin felt decent at the time but was a huge mistake and I felt HORRIBLE from that point on. Sunday we had the Elephant Rock bike tour which we'd registered for weeks ago, thank goodness we'd only registered for the 7 mile family ride. I made Jay put Megan's seat on his bike and after that 30 minutes of exercise I came home and napped for 3 hours. Then by Friday I was starting to feel a little human and went out on a bike ride with a couple of friends, one of which is very pregnant, so I knew that would force me to slow down, which I needed. And that felt so good just to get out and was a huge plus for my mental health that I went again with another friend, who is just starting to ride and again would force me to slow down, on Saturday. Saturday night I actually slept through the night for the first time in over a week! So this week I'm going to try and ease back into my workouts again.

But wait, wasn't I training for a duathlon? Why, yes I was. And no, I didn't do it. It was a really hard decision to make but I decided that pushing myself for 2 hours for the race would set me back even further and it was best just to get over this cold and start training for the next one. I was pretty depressed for a few days last week, making that decision, being sick, and everything else I'd had to cancel over the past 2 weeks: 2 facial appts (the original and the reschedule), a shopping trip with girlfriends, a girls night out, many workouts, work, group bike rides, etc.

So my goal is to run for the first time since May 31st this coming Friday for 2-3 miles and just see how much ground I've lost. Then I can start looking for the next race.

And finally, SUGAR. The 33 days of no sugar have come and gone. How did I do? Not too bad, considering. I made it 23 days totally free and clear. On the night of girls night at the Melting Pot I had a 7-up since I could feel the cold coming in my throat, but I did not have any of the chocolate fondue. Over the next 2 weeks I had countless glasses of Diet 7-up since that's all that ever seems to sound/feel good when I have a cold and lose my voice(which for me is a given with any cold). I also with absolute purpose went out to DQ one night because my throat hurt so bad. (I did ended up going to the doctor at one point last week because my throat was so swollen I couldn't eat anything solid - no strep just swollen glands). And I caved the night after Elephant Rock and had some Frozen Yogurt when we went to dinner at Sweet Tomatos that night (although I didn't have the cookie that came with our lunch after the ride.) I'm sure there were some other bites of sugar that happened over the last two weeks that I'm forgetting - but all in all not too bad.

So what now? I did have some birthday cake on Saturday at a friends and a mini Snickers (not even funsize) that'd been in our freezer for weeks (end of day 33), I've had a bite of Megan's cookie at Tokyo Joe's on Sunday. So I think I will see what a renewed attempt at moderation looks like, now that I know I can survive without it. But what I haven't done is weigh myself and I have no intention of doing so. I plan to leave the scale in the cupboard and have decided that other numbers are more important to me: pace, speed, distance, races, workouts, friends (not all necessarily in that order!)

21 days done

I've been dessert, candy, treat, sugar free for 21 days now and what am I craving most in 12 days??? The scale.

Not ice cream, not a cookie, not even creme brulee. I want to know what I weigh. That seems so wrong and I don't think it's really had any effect on my weight. Nor has all this training I'm doing. Some clothes fit a little bit better but I'm not seeing any significant changes but then again I was the last one to see it when I'd lost the weight equivalent of a 3rd grader.

I've decided I can't weigh myself before my race on Day 33, the last and final day of this challenge, because that's what I need is some emotional baggage before a big race. But then if I don't then I can't weigh until the next morning, so does that mean that I can't eat any sugar after my race? What a sad, pathetic person I am to even care and perhaps I should just never weigh again.

Seriously, think about it: my training is kicking ass, I feel great, I've gone 3 weeks without knowing and what difference does that make?

A lot, actually. I think I, like most women, are so attached to that number on the scale that we can't think straight regardless of what it says. It's above the magic number? Oh Crap! Stop eating! Get to the gym! More exercise! Bust out the fat pants!

The number below that magic number? Wow, Nice Job! I think I'll reward myself with this Twinkie. I can handle it. I think I'll skip the gym today and buy some new clothes in a smaller size that I know I'll be wearing soon.

And heaven help us if it is on the magic number. What?!? Still? What about all my hard work? I didn't even have seconds last night? I'm so depressed I think I'll watch TV with a box of Ding Dongs.

So enough of my inner turmoil, but think I have to say I'm leaning toward the not weighing at all - ever, ever again and one day I'll just get over myself.

So I had to steal this from Katie:

This what Laurie looks like 5:30 am before a 5 1/2 mile run and 15 1/2 mile bike ride:


And this is Laurie after:



Not as dramatic as Katie's but it was fun. And speaking of fun, I won't say that doing the run/ride brick is fun, but it does seem to be getting better, a little tiny bit. And I did find I was looking forward to it and a little bummed that I had to wait until Sunday to do it because I didn't have time Saturday morning. I've got 12 days until my duathlon and I'm feeling really good about it - not that I'll win, place or be anywhere near the front, but that I'll finish, have fun and be proud of my effort.

Feeling a Mid-Life Crisis Coming

And it will probably look something like this:

Days 16 & 17

Guess I should have posted again sooner looking at my last post looks like I was totally about to bite it off the back of the wagon and be dragged behind for a few 100 feet. But rest assured that all is well - I'm still a sugar addict, but I'm still clean after 17 days. I'm halfway there!!!

I guess it was more of a boredom thing than a PMS thing. I've been really busy since Tuesday following Memorial Day weekend and sugar hasn't really been an issue.

I did have one - OH SH*T! moment today when I realized that next week's Girls Night Out will be at the Melting Pot and that means no chocolate fondue for me - WHAT THE HELL AM I GOING TO DO?!?!

Also this week, I don't know if my training has really reached a peak, or this no sugar thing has really started to take effect, but I have had an awesome week of training so far. I had track practice on Tuesday night and blew away my assigned goal times by almost a full minute for each of my 1k intervals and then on Wednesday I felt strong enough to add in a second lap for each of my sprints into my weight/cardio circuit workout that - normally I only do one and last week because I was feeling some knee pain I did the eliptical instead. Today I got up at dawn and went for an hour and half bike ride which was such a great way to start out the day. I hope it's not so much a peak as a new level since I don't need to peak 3 weeks before my race - that would suck!

On my ride today I was struck by a few random thoughts:

- My bike still needs a name, initially it was White Lightening but that doesn't feel right. I Love Rock & Roll came on the tunes and I thought I should name my bike "Joan". Joan Jett. But I'm not sure that's girly enough for my bike - it's pretty damn girly looking. Then after I about hit my 4th bunny rabbit of the morning I decided that "Bunny Basher" was probably a better name.

- People who workout in the morning are a happy bunch of people - lots of "Good mornings" and smiles to and from all the other bikers, joggers and walkers I saw out today.

- I'm really liking a quote that I've heard a few times in the last few months from the actor, Will Smith: It's easier to stay ready than get ready.

Days 14 & 15

Hi my name's Laurie and I'm a PMS'ing Sugar Addict who hasn't had any freakin' sugar in 15 days!! What the hell was I thinking?!?!?

Let's just say this weekend was a bit tough and I don't see any relief for a week or so. Not sure how much of the problem is PMS and how much of it was that I had too much down time this weekend. I don't do well unless I'm busy - I am a big time boredom eater. And all weekend Jay was working on the house getting it ready for someone to come paint the exterior. It took way longer than he figured and so we didn't end up doing anything this weekend. I spent the entire weekend watching and taking care of Megan and waiting for him to be done. So not a good thing for me.

Going into Day 16 and I will stay busy and strengthen my resolve - I'm about halfway there.

Days 11, 12 & 13 & Tokyo Joe's

13 wasn't so unlucky, I may still be a sugar addict but I'm still clean.

The last few days weren't bad, but this is starting to get tedious. I'm tired of saying no. There have been a lot of cookies that have passed in front of, rather than into, me. We went to one of our favorite places for dinner/lunch, Sweet Tomatoes, which is a big build-your-own salad, pasta, soup bar and they have a frozen yogurt machine for dessert and I love that after my meal but I said no since I'm not doing substitutes either and I know frozen yogurt is still yogurt with a lot of sugar in it, real or fake.

Yesterday was my big workout day where I ran again 6 miles, and this week followed it with a 10 mile bike ride. I didn't do the same hilly route that I did last week, which helped considerably I'm sure. I still didn't feel strong but I wasn't stumbling the last mile either. So I'm still holding to the plan of keeping this distance each Saturday (adding bike miles) until I feel more comfortable. I have 2 more Saturdays to train before the next duathlon, The Big Sky Duathlon. The distance for that is a 2 1/2 mile run, a 15 1/2 mile bike, and another 2 1/2 mile run. My working theory is that if I keep running 6 miles and work up to a 15 mile bike that I'll be fine. The bike route is very flat and the bike is my strength so I'm not worried about that. And the 2nd transition to run doesn't worry me since I'm so warmed up at that point it doesn't hurt my knees. And I'm thinking (dangerous territory, I know) that if I'm running 6 miles and biking consistently leading up to the race that the race will actually seem easier than what I'm doing now. I will let you know in 3 weeks if my theory holds true.

What I can't seem to figure out it where that runners high is and where all the energy I'm supposed to have after working out goes. On Saturdays after my long workout I'm done for and good for nothing for the rest of the day.

So enough of that stuff now on to the most exciting thing to have happened in a long time. First a little back story: Some friends of mine and I all take a spin class together on Wednesday mornings, over the winter we each got a road bike. I made a pitch to them a couple of months ago that we all do this women's only bike tour at the end of August called the Venus de Miles which is not a race but just a supported ride. They have 3 distances 32, 50 and 62 miles - I was campaigning for the 50 miles but the 32 miler was agreed upon on since at least a couple in our group hadn't even ridden a real bike in years before buying their road bike. So here we are all signed up for this ride and starting our training and I hatched this plan that we should all have matching jerseys for the ride and be a team. I first spoke to the cycling director at our gym since we all have that in common, but while she was excited and understanding she did not think the owner of the gym would go for donating jerseys to us at this time. So then our spin instructor suggested some places that do custom jerseys, but I was hesitant to take on the challenge of thinking up an idea and then designing something that everyone would agree on.

The one day after spin class when we make our fairly regular trip to Tokyo Joe's for lunch, it hit me while I was ordering my ever-yummy Nikko Salad that Joes has a their own pro-bike team so I asked if they sell their jerseys. She said no, not in the store, but I should email Larry, The Man, at Tokyo Joe's and ask him. I thought that sounded a little crazy, emailing the president of a company, but for some reason when I got home I did just that - I sent him a very short email simply saying:

A group of friends of mine and I are doing the Women’s ride up in Longmont at the end of the summer called Venus de Miles and are looking for a cool jersey for us all to wear to be a “team” and we were thinking a Tokoyo Joe’s jersey
would be cool, since we are largely fueled by our addiction to Nikko Salads. Do
you sell your jersey’s to the public,and how can we get some?

I didn't even expect a response but I got one the very next day saying:

Fun ... Tell me your sizes and we'll see if we have some of last year's team jerseys for you all.

So after a few more emails back and forth - sometimes more than a couple of weeks apart, making me think that the whole thing had fallen apart - I went on Friday to my favorite Joes location with one of my "team", Heather, and was handed a bag full of pro team jerseys AND shorts - just like their team wore last year!! I can't believe how very cool the whole experience has been and how great and generous the Tokyo Joe's company to a bunch of strangers. I was already an addict for their food (love me some Nikko Salads and MoJoe bowls) as is my husband and my 4-year old daughter, but I will be singing their praises even louder now and proudly be wearing my new gear.

It does exist!

Ever have a memory of a place that you swore you'd been to as a child and couldn't remember where it was. I have this it was fairytale garden and I remember a pair of red shoes that danced by themselves in this big Plexiglas cube and a frog prince that spit a fountain of water out at you when you walked by - oh the wonderful things that sticks in a child's memory. Well I swore I'd asked my family before about this place and nobody knew what I was talking about making feel like I was going crazy with these memories. But last week when sitting down at the table with my whole immediate family I asked again and my mom immediately knew what I was talking about and I made her write down the name of the place Marchengarten in Ludwigsburg, near Stuttgart, Germany (my dad was military and stationed in Stuttgart)

I'm not crazy!!!

SEE!!