Diva Half, Good Nutrition and 10%

It's been a great few weeks here in MS triathlon training land.  A good friend of mine and I competed in the Wahine Diva Half Marathon the first weekend in April.  We joined up with a new work friend at the start and tried to clear the cobwebs out for the 6am start.  It seemed a bit too early for a run only race until I passed about 7:30 and the sweat was rolling off of me.  I joked with a fellow racer that we could probably walk the whole thing and still end up drenched.  It was super muggy!  It is a rather crazy event with women running in all shades of pink, often including tutus.  About a 1/4 mile from the finish line, they hand every woman a tiara and hot pink feather boa to carry across the finish line.  Let me tell you how much I didn't want to have a hot, fake boa around my neck at that point, but what the heck, it was all in good fun!

Although I am still traveling at a much slower pace than my goals, I was able to cut about 1 1/2 minutes per mile off my overall pace from January.  I'm pleased that I am making progress however the competitor in me wants the pace to increase much more rapidly.  My legs felt really good after the race, which was a pleasant surprise although they were darn sore on Monday at work.  I'm convinced I'm just allergic to the office and my body will try any excuse to make me want to work from home ;)

Justin and I have also embarked on a revamped nutrition plan in an effort to better regulate our caloric intake as well as the caloric timing.  The first 6 days of "weeds" for lunch was less than optimal and my stomach was loudly protesting at times.  Of course one of my co-workers had to tell me about this great filet mignon he had just to make my mouth water even more!  I survived the week and we are now back to eating carbs.  My training definitely took a dip during our carb-free ramp up but overall I think I feel better.  It never hurts to retrain the palette to eat a little less bread and butter - even if mine goes kicking and screaming.

I also sailed past 10% of my donation goal!  Thank you so very much to all of my incredibly generous family and friends out there.  I am using your support to buoy me when I feel tired and tempted to skip a session.  Every day I get a little closer to both my donation and athletic goals.  7 weeks until race day...

>hugs<