THR33 Things Thursday

ONE: Feelin' Craptastic  

Since the weekend, I have been feeling a head cold creeping on...I would feel "kind of crappy" but it never really got worse. Yesterday, I was feeling quite fabulous, got out for a great run in some crazy winds. No biggie...then about 1:30pm yesterday I felt it attack. Literally attack me...and my entire head and neck.

My ears felt full. My throat was sore. My nose got all stuffed up. This incredible sinus headache took hold.

BAM!

Just like that...sick. I don't have time for sick.

I HAD to work last night and by the time my last appointment was there, I was feeling chills and my body was hurting. Went home and got right into bed. I was freezing!! 3 giant, thick, fuzzy blankets on me and I think I finally warmed up. I did not sleep well since my back and neck were just SORE. I could only breathe through my mouth so I kept waking up, drinking water. 

I have a TT swim on the plan today-just tried to get ready for it and when I felt dizzy just putting stuff into my swim bag, I decided maybe I should not be trying to swim--or drive with Lola in the car---for that matter. Looks like today is a rest day.
Sadly, I do not feel relief knowing today has been declared a rest day.
I feel like a failure. I have NO CONTROL of this and that is utterly frustrating to me.

Ok....totally done whining now.

TWO: VEGGIES

So, Coach Awesome totally sent a "warning" email regarding this recovery week-

You are extremely susceptible to illness this week. I just want to warn you, you will be on a tightrope so do all that you can to remain healthy and use hand sanitizer.  Extra rest, extra lemons, and extra kale are all extremely good ideas. 

(she's so freaking smart)

Now, I have been been doing lots of thinking the last couple weeks about food and nutrition. I am always a supporter of eating clean and have been considering adding more vegetable based meals to my current repitoire. I don't have any intention of going meatless but I don't see any harm in cutting back a bit on the meats and trying something "different". I am getting kind of bored eating the same things over and over-I love veggies, so why not, right? I even had a Meatless Monday this week. 

Seeing that I am making more veggie based meals and incorporating more spinach and kale into my everyday eats, Hubby expressed concern about me going VEGAN (not sure why he thinks this or why he'd care but....) I assured him that I do not have any intention of going vegan at this time however, expect to see even more veggies. He would be content if we only ever ate pork tenderloin and grilled potatoes. 

THR33: WIAW 

What I ate Wednesday (literally) in pictures:

Breakfast:

Old Fashioned Oats with blueberries, 2 egg whites and almond milk.
I topped the oats with a small drizzle of honey for a dash of sweetness. I used Wyman's of Maine frozen wild blueberries to make the oatmeal and added fresh blueberries.

We LOVE blueberries.

Post Run Snack:

Blueberry & Spinach smoothie

My GIANT sized bag of Wyman's Maine blueberries

fresh, organic baby spinach

Blueberries, Spinach, Almond milk, Greek yogurt and a small scoop of protein powder

Added a tablespoon of chia 

Afternoon Snack:

A cup of Earl Grey tea and fresh pineapple

More tea:

Coach's secret brew with the addition of green tea x 10

On the GO!
Off to work so I needed something easy and quick!

 A slice of whole wheat bread with Justin's almond butter, a giant jug of water and Coconut water

Eating while driving and yes, taking pictures.

DANGER!!!

By the time I was at work, I was feeling pretty awful. I had a big iced tea at work and refilled my water jug.

As soon as I got home, I filled a bowl with some leftover Navajo Stew, some steamed broccoli and topped it with some avocado.

Did you enter my Tough Chik giveaway ??

Week #1 Winner & Week #2 Giveaway {Tough Chik love}

Thanks for all who entered my 400 Follower Celebration

and a big, happy welcome to the new followers!!

There were 66 entries for the first giveaway! Who won? Read on to find out!!

I am excited to announce the awesome WEEK 2 giveaway!!

If you have been reading my blog for a while, the you know that I am a Tough Chik through and through.

Tough Chik and Team Tough Chik have exploded in 2011! I am so happy to have been able to be a part of the excitement watching the brand grow and then see the team come to fruition.

Tough Chik was with me (literally) for every single race of 2011.

From the first race of the season

The Nor'Easter Reverse Triathlon-

 to the final run of the season

The Nor'Easter Reverse Triathlon-

with honorary Tough Chik Dude, Marc

and everything inbetween!!

Tough Chik was with me through every mile of my first 70.3-Timberman!

 

I think Shannon summed it up very well in her blog post about how EPIC 2011 was for Tough Chik~

I know that Rev3 has her muscles for the 2012 season, but Tough Chik has her heart!

While I do love my Rev 3 Team so, so much and I am ecstatically happy to be rocking the R this year, Tough Chik will always be very, very special to me and have a place in my heart.

So what would a celebration be without giving away some Tough Chik awesomeness??

First, let's announce the winner of the week one giveway.
Who's gonna get a big ole bag of SWEETNESS from me??

Random.org picked entry #61

Congrats to Suz and Alan from Cows and Lasers and Everything in Between
(coolest blog name EVER!!!)

The winning comment?
I honestly enjoy everything about your blog do more of the same is perfect! Sorry I'm so behind on reading. Have a great weekend

Please email me (jsmall14(at)maine(dot)rr(dot)com) and I'll get you hooked up with your goodie bag of yummy stuff like Gimme Vitamin packed chocolate, GU, CarbBOOM! and much more!!

Thanks for being a follower!!

So you wanna win some Tough Chik love too??
One lucky reader will win a Tough Chik visor like the one I rocked all year long~

How do you enter?
Easy-you must be a follower of this blog. If you are not already, just click that little FOLLOW button on the right side of the page>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Mandatory Entry:

• Leave me a comment telling me how you are going to be TOUGH in 2012??

BONUS ENTRIES:
please leave one comment for each entry

• Like Tough Chik on Facebook and leave her a note telling her how awesome Tough Chiks are!!
• Follow the Tough Chik blog
• Follow Tough Chik on Twitter
• Share the Tough Chik love-spread the word about this giveaway on your blog, on Facebook, Twitter, email, write it on the bathroom wall...one entry per method of sharing per day.

This contest is open to followers of Miles, Muscles & Mommyhood. Contest starts on Monday, 1/16/2012 and entries will be closed at midnight on Saturday, 1/21/2012. A random winner will be selected from all eligible entries and the winner will be announced shortly after. 

Disclosure: I am not compensated in any way for lovin' Tough Chik and the prize for this contest is donated by Shannon, the head of the Tough Chik empire.

2011 Rewind

What can I possibly say about 2011?



So much awesome in one year.

January started off great and I welcomed 2011 with a run with Dawn. I remember the weather was amazing for January in Maine...

But just days after that run, I was dealing with some terrible knee pain (PFPS) and ended up in physical therapy for a couple of months. But that little set back actually turned out to be a blessing. Jared at OA fixed me right up, we made some changes to my run and I've running pain free since (knock on wood!)

In January, I introduced my readers to Tough Chik! Tough Chik would be with me during many miles of training, at every single race and even hanging out with triathlon royalty (see March).

I am so happy to see how much Tough Chik has grown in the last year and I am excited to follow the Tough Chik team through 2012!!

February brought all kinds of great news!

I decided that 2011 was the year of BELIEVE!
I welcomed Tiger to the family (thanks to my Daddy) and I made it onto the Dailymile Team.

I was over the moon! I was (and am) so honored to be a part of the Dailymile Team!!

I was profiled on Another Mother Runner

In March, Dawn and I ventured to Boston for the MultiSport World Expo where I saw Jamie but he ignored me, so I hung out with Dave Scott instead.

He shared Chrissie's training secrets with me (and a thousand others) and got me stoked for an awesome 2011 racing season.

Oh, it was there and then decided that I was going to do my first half iron distance race in 2011. My pick was Pumpkinman - but who would have guessed that a snafu later on would turn out so awesome??!!

In April, I had my first overall podium finish-3rd overall female-at the Nor'Easter Reverse Triathlon! Then I did a crazy little #bikestreak, #runstreak and #swimstreak. I had some fun giveaways working with Outside PR, Tommie Copper and I was ready to get Tiger out and on the road!! Half iron training would commence!

Road from home to NewHampshire and back to Maine

May was aMAYzing!! I had my longest bike ride with Tiger since getting her (64 miles) while participating in the club event, The Budgetman 70.3! This is also when I started training with triclub buddy, Marc. Who knew I would literally drag Marc all over the state of Maine and New Hampshire on my swim/bike/run adventures!!

May is also when I discovered the now world famous tee shirt from Triathlon Rocks "I PEE ON MY BIKE". Later this year, this tee shirt would literally open doors for me.

June brought me into heavy training volume outside, a new 5k PR at The Run for Cash, and fun times at The Pirate Triathlon!! Summer was here in Maine!

The KBTC Crew

July was a month of learning, fun and a time I will remember for a long time to come! 

I got to work at The Tri for a Cure with MANDY and talk about her IMLP awesomeness!!

But, things fell through for my planned Pumpkinman half and for about 12 seconds, I was devastated. But then, Dawn, being the calm and cerebral one of us quickly handed me her iPad, in the middle of gym shift where I swifty registered for Timberman 70.3-I was scared, I was nervous and I was excited. The Pumpkinman course is flat, Timberman is not. But who's afraid of a couple (dozen) hills??? NOT ME!! And Dawn reminded me that Chrissie (yes, Chrissie Wellington) usually did Timberman. Now it was time to really focus on training and get ready for August!! I'd be doing my first half ironman three weeks sooner than planned!!

And I got to run this little Maine 10k race called The Beach to Beacon with friends Stephanie and Dawn!
Jamie was there but he ignored me again (actually, I could not find him in the sea of 10,000 runners)

Are there really words to describe August??

I trained, I was ready and I was excited.
Oh, and I hung out with Chrissie.

My favorite tri tee shirt would get noticed by Chrissie's photographer and get me into a private event where I got to hang out with her one-on-one. She was so nice AND funny!
We talked about pee'ing on the bikes and I asked her if she gave those behind her warning before she'd go. Her answer? No, if they get sprayed then they were drafting and deserve it.
LOVE HER!!

There was a pre-race meeting and Q&A with the pro's~Chrissie, Rasmus Henning and Cait Snow.

Damn! we're a good looking pair!!

Then it was here! It was race day. It was ups and downs-literally and figuratively-but each moment was amazing, awesome and in hindsight, downright comical! I got my medal and a hug from Chrissie when I finished!!

Dream = Reality!!

Sweet September!!

I got to race with Dawn, Meg, Melissa, Allison and many friends from my local tri community! I got to meet Jason face to face finally and it was a great way to end the season. The beginning of September I was high on my Timberman awesomeness and Chrissie tweeting a pic of us and writing on my FB page. See, we are BFF's...anyway, it was time for my my favorite sprint tri, The Mainiac and I placed 2nd in my age group and finished 7th overall female. 

Then the post race letdown happened. I felt lost and a little lazy. But I started teaching group exercise classes at my Y, I was getting ready to get ready for 2012. I still had lots to do before the end of 2011~

It was time to start thinking about those REALLY BIG DREAMS that I wanted to come true.

October aka RockTober!!
brought Lola's 3rd birthday-my baby is not a baby anymore. 

I got run the Harvest Half with friends, I got to meet Porter and hang with Mandy again.

I had been thinking of getting a coach and after a couple considerations, serendipity stepped into my life once again and I was going to be coached by Sonja, an amazing woman whom I'd been stalking following for quite a while. I was so thrilled that she agreed to coach me!

Coach and the feet that brought her to a 10:08 Kona finish.



It was KONA time and I was GLUED to the computer all day!! My girl Chrissie just crushed it with an amazing win and Sonja simply rocked it.

The applications to the Rev 3 Team had gone live at the end of September and I knew I had a long couple months of waiting ahead of me. I had been following Team Trakkers/Team Rev 3 now for about two years (after following Sonja) and I knew that someday I would be on that team. I BELIEVED. It might not be this year or next but some day, I would be on that team. The only person on the face of the earth who knew my hearts desire was Dawn. We talked at length heading into 2011 that this is what I would spend the next year (or two or three or four) working towards.
Even if they only accepted me because they were sick of my application coming in year after year.

November
November made my head spin-
I was asked to be an Ambassador for FitFluential!!


I won an INSPIRATION contest on GOTRIbal!!

and got news that would change my entire year. 
I had made the Rev 3 Team.
Mere words cannot even describe the emotions I felt and still feel about this.
AMAZING.
I am so happy and honored to be a part of the Rev 3 family. And yes, they are already like family to me.

December
I started training with Sonja and had some great breakthroughs in the pool.
I logged some serious laps, some nice trainer miles and started enjoying track workouts.


I embraced HR training and enjoyed the last month of the year with a birthday celebration, an amazing Christmas and time with family.
I enjoyed this year so much.
It has been amazing. wonderful.

2011 by the numbers:

• Swimming: 71.46 miles (22 of those in December alone)
• Biking: 2,814.2 (502 in December)
• Running: 971.84

add in some miles walking, hiking and on the elliptical and per my Dailymile account, I had a pretty active year in 2011!!

TOTAL: 4,032.07

2011 was awesome and
2012 will be EPIC!!


What were some of the exciting things that happened for you in 2011??


What are your 2012 goals??

Techy Voodoo Jinx

I wonder if all this time in the pool is giving me technological voodoo jinx??

Maybe being wet for so long is causing me to short out any electrical devices?? I have had NO LUCK this last week with anything technical.

Last weekend, hubby put our desktop in peril with a virus that caused lots of damage and several hours were spent cleaning it up.

Then THIS weekend, the keyboard on my laptop just went kaflooey and stopped working. No rhyme or reason, just STOPPED. While I was in the middle of a document. Luckily, Dell is going to take care of this little problem but that means I will be laptopless for about a week. All my Garmin training files, Training Peaks device manager, Tanita scale stuff, picture files, music, etc are in there. CRAPTASTIC!!

Then today, I went to use my barely a year old iPod Nano and blam! that little thing stopped working too!!
Anyone have a 10 year old then can lend me to fix all of this techy stuff??

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

So other than my innate ability to destroy anything electrical, at least my training is going great.

I am having lots of fun, enjoying trying new things and I am stepping outside of my comfort zone with swimming. I will run and bike to the point of puking on any given day but for some reason I don't ever push myself that hard in the pool. I'll swim easy and long but I would avoid any kind of tough swim workout. That's changed.
I am sure there is lots of change on the horizon for me with training this season.
Quassy is only 6 months away and while I don't have any specific time expectations for this race, I do want to be strong and finish happy. And with my quads intact!! I am confident that I have found the Coach who is going to get me there.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

In other news, as of this writing I am at 386 blog followers. If you recall, when I hit 400 followers there is going to be a HUGE giveaway celebration to celebrate this epic number!!

Cool stuff from Tough Chik, Triathlon Rocks, Tommie Copper, and some other great surprises!!

So get your friends to follow if they don't already. If a new follower leaves me a comment telling me that YOU referred them, you each get a bonus entry into the giveaways!

Fall Friendsy & A Winner

Whew!! What a fantastic weekend.
First, I am so sorry for the delay in getting this post up but I am having issues loading pics from my camera. I really, really, really wanted to share some of the awesome pictures I took this weekend and I have been working tirelessly to try and figure out the problem.
I have yet to find a solution so...you will have to deal with pictures I have lovingly hijacked from Facebook!! ha!

Now, don't be TOO jealous but on Saturday I got to spend time with these amazing lovelies

Dawn pushing Lola and Porter in the BOB!

I know!! Awesome!!

Mandy (aka Caratunk Girl) and PORTER!
Mandy made her way "down south" for the weekend and we made plans to meet up in Portland to walk around the Back Bay. My bestie Dawn was able to come along so it was going to be a fun afternoon!
We were hanging out at the meet up spot when I saw this adorable little ball of fur in front of me I squealed with delight!! Lola, Dawn and I ran out of the car and I'm screaming OH MY GOSH!! IT'S PORTER!!!!
Really, Mandy--I was just as happy to see you too!! I promise!!

The Happy Couple

Lola is IN LOVE.
Bigtime.
We were in TJ Maxx yesterday and she saw a bunch of dog treats and insisted we get a bag for Porter
Shhhhh-it's for Christmas!!

Thanks for the pics Mandy!! As soon as I get my camera situation figured out, I have a ton of awesome photos to share :)

It was fantastic to see Mandy again and discuss all things tri. Between the 3 of us, it was a trigeek meeting for sure!
It was a beautiful afternoon and I had a blast spending time with Dawn, Mandy, Lola and Porter.
We decided that next summer when Jason comes to Maine to race Rev 3 Maine we are all going white water rafting. How fun is THAT going to be??
Who is coming to Maine for the Rev 3 Half in August 2012???
Join the fun!!

l

Lots of friends came out to run the first Harvest Half-can't miss me in that bright orange Saucony gear!!

Sunday with the first Harvest Half Marathon. This race was put on by the Northern York County YMCA all along the Eastern Trail. It was a perfect day to run too! Cool and sunny.

I have been helping my friend, Marc train for his first half marathon so I agreed to pace him for his first race.
He set a goal of 2 hours but I knew he could (and would) push a little harder.
He was even made an honorary TOUGH CHIK for the day and wore my new PINK Tough Chik visor for the race!

Only about 5 miles left to go!

He finished in 1:53:56!!

It was pretty impressive, the winner of this race ran a 1:09....Um, hellzya!! (in my dreams...)
Dawn also ran her first half marathon with another good friend, Jen.
Jen has become a running fool over the summer and this is her 3rd half in several weeks!! GO JEN!!




Jen, Dawn and Todd on the way out



on the way back & smiling-always a good sign



Stephanie just ran the Maine Marathon a couple weeks ago in the POURING rain. Talk about miserable conditions-she decided last minute that it would be a good day to run so she joined the fun.

a happy girl running for an "easy" 1:46 finish (she's an animal!!)

I was super psyched for my Y buddy, Keith. He nailed a 1:30 half.
I wanna run like Keith when I grow up!!



So as you can see, it was an amazing weekend spent with friends doing things we love to do!!

Now, for the winner....

There were 218 entries for the Tough Chik contest. Each eligible comment was put into a spreadsheet for easy reference. Then I used Random.org to pick the winner for me

Random.org picked #39

Comment #30 was from
Carrie @ Maine Mom on the Run!!
"follow you on Twitter"

Congrats Carrie!!
Please email me at jsmall14(at)maine(dot)rr(dot)com
so I can get you hooked up with your Tough Chik prize!!