My Favorite Things

Making lists of favorite things is, for me, a task ridden with anxiety.  What if I've accidentally excluded something I love?  What if I discover something new tomorrow that I love even more?  -- Sara Zarr

There is something accurate about the quote above - I have a lot of favorite things, and I may forget to mention many of them here.  Also, things that used to be my favorite have been surpassed by other things...for example, I used to just love the Moving Comfort Fiona running bras.  Now I hate them, so I'm trying new ones and I have a new favorite.  But who's to say that my new favorites won't be eclipsed...Anyway, I spend a lot of time complaining - something I'm hoping to do less of in 2016.  I figured a good way to counteract my complaining personality is to actually spread some praise and compliments.  :)  And so, a short list of a few of my favorite things.

My Favorite Goggles:  TYR Special Ops
I have a weird shaped face, I think.  And until I started using these goggles a couple years ago, I was never happy.  Either they would leak like mad or I would get a raging headache when I was wearing goggles.  For some reason, these are just perfect - no headache, no leak.  Yeah, I still look like a raccoon after morning Masters practice, but at least I get a good swim in with no major side effects.  Plus they're polarized, so I can wear them inside and out and see fairly well...well, as well as I do at any given moment.

My Favorite Running Bra:  Kiava Endurance Bra
As I mentioned above, I had been using Moving Comfort Fiona bras for years, but they started to really irritate me - something about the band was chafing my skin, no matter what I did.  Plus I managed, through overuse and lazy washing techniques, to mangle the hook-and-eye closures.  Anyway, it wasn't pretty.  So I was shopping for new running bras and I saw that Kiava was having a clearance sale around Christmas and some folks on the trail runners Facebook page were raving about the clothes.  So I bought a couple on sale.  LOVE THEM.  I've worn them for a couple long runs and I can't even begin to tell you how comfortable (and supportive, of course) they are.  Thumbs up!

My Favorite Dinners:  Blue Apron
Last year at the end of summer, during IM training, I gave up on trying to feed my family.  I love to cook and we try to eat fairly healthy, but I just couldn't manage the menu planning thing anymore.  So we gave Blue Apron a try...and here, months later, we're still using it.  Sure, there are probably cheaper ways to go.  And yeah, there are some meals we haven't liked.  And yes, meatless is pretty much a no-go in my house, so I occasionally add sausage to the meal (like tonight's lemon ricotta and brussel sprout pizza).  But on the whole, my family is eating well - lots of seasonal vegetables, seafood or fish on a much more regular basis than I ever managed, better portion control.  Plus I still get the "cooking" thing, since the meals only come pre-planned and pre-bought - the cooking (right down to the peeling of garlic) still falls on me.  The cooking is fairly simple, but one problem is that it doesn't work as a "holey crap, everything ran late and we need to cook something in 10 minutes in order to make it to the next thing we need to be at" kind of meal.  But usually, within 45 minutes, we have a decent dinner...and I like it.

My Favorite "I Need Sugar Now" Treat:  Nerds
OMG.  I love Nerds.  I used to think they were vile candies, but I have come to see the light.  They are incredibly efficient sugar-delivery mechanism and they're super easy to handle and transport.  I have little plastic containers that I use to carry them with me on the bike and run; I just flick open the top and pour the Nerds in my mouth.  The best.  OK, I know - not healthy...but seriously, sometimes you just need an infusion of sugar, and short of a dextrose drip, Nerds get the sugar in you right when you need it.

My Favorite Ride:  Virginia Capital Trail
I've been envious of my friends who live places with bike paths for a long time.  Now, there's finally a good bike path that isn't too far out of my way...and it's 52 miles long - so I can get a century ride in without ever having to ride on the roads.  That's pretty sweet.  I'm not afraid to ride on roads - I know people who are.  But sometimes, especially if I'm trying to work on being in aero more or if I'm out for a long ride and want to focus on my nutrition or my hydration or anything other than traffic...it's nice to be on a bike/pedestrian only path.  My only complaint is that it's pretty flat - so training for IMLOU can't happen only on the trail - although when you're out there long enough, it doesn't feel flat at all.  :)

That's enough favorite for now.  I couldn't go from complainy to complimenty all in one day.  I'll have to save some other compliments for later.  :)

Mission? Accomplishment

You have to remember that the hard days are what make you stronger.  The bad days make you realize what a good day is.  If you never had any bad days, you would never have that sense of accomplishment. -- Aly Raisman

I've realized over the last couple of days something that I've been missing recently -- that feeling of accomplishment.  You know, the swelling pride that you feel when you make it through a tough race or noticed for completing some project.  I think that I have missed out on that feeling, in part because of some of my failures this past year and in part because I haven't been looking for it.

But over the last couple days, I have definitely felt that again...and I do want to thank my coach - she's been a big part of making me see what I've accomplished.  On New Year's Eve, I swam 7300 yards.  That's 100 yards more than last year.  It wasn't the greatest feeling and I had to use fins.  A lot of fins.  But I swam for three hours, minus a few breaks, and I racked up some serious yardage.

On New Year's Day, I ran a 5K - the First Day 5K.  Here is a picture of me and my younger daughter before the race, acting silly and rocking our race swag hats.

I didn't PR the race, not even close.  But I did better than I did at the 5K I ran a couple weeks ago.  And I didn't walk at all - not up the little hills and I didn't bother with water.  But why I feel so good about it is that I executed it exactly as my coach told me to.  She had given me instructions about HR to follow over the course of the race, and I did it.  And I finished at a crazy high heart rate and I'm super proud of my effort level.  That feels pretty darn good.

Finally today I had 2 hard workouts on my training plan.  I didn't feel like doing them, especially after yesterday's effort with the race.  But I did them -- and I did them right.  And tonight I'm feeling pretty darn accomplished.  It feels good.

Maybe the quote above is right and you need the bad days to really feel the sense of accomplishment.  It probably also helps to have someone say something about it.  Which means my coach is pretty awesome.  Plus now, having felt this again, I I want to keep feeling it, so I guess I better keep working this hard!