“Little by little, one travels far”

― J.R.R. Tolkien

Today’s blog post has been brought to you by Instacollage, RunKeeper, and the number 3.

(Just kidding about the number 3. I don’t even know him)  

Good Morning Friends!

Yesterday was pretty epic on a lot of levels.  For starters, I took a rest day on Saturday and spent some quality time with my family.  I got a chance to hang with my mom and buy some new workout gear (yea!!! I love Marshalls!), and then we binged on junk food and watched Frozen with my sister.  I must have really needed the break because yesterday I completely blasted through my workout and felt great while doing it (ok while doing most of it.)

I got to the YMCA early, and as you can see from this pic of the parking lot there were not a lot of other peeps excited to be up that early on the weekend.

Good thing I beat the rush!

My day started with Spin Class.  I was pumped to be there because the Mr. PEDAL HARDER! (the hardcore military instructor) had been replaced with one I hadn’t met before.  Granted his workout could have been equally sadistic, but he was good eye candy so I figured it was still a win regardless. Plus, I got to wear my new neon orange polka dot capri pants (orange pants and polka dots- like I said: an epic day).  Nothing like new workout gear to improve the motivation!

Since class was almost all sprints (including hills sprints… boo!), I was able to get in over 26 miles.  Thanks to the fact that it was more speed than endurance, my legs were feeling pretty good after.  I decided to take advantage and do a brick workout (in the correct order for a change).  I must have accidentally left my self preservation instinct at home because for some reason I thought it would be a really good idea to use the super incline treadmill.   I started out a 7 mph pace and quickly decided that 13%-15% incline was going to be a bit much to sustain for an hour, let alone the incline adjustments up to 30%!  I dialed it back a bit, but still did enough uphill to burn almost 1200 calories in 7 miles.  That was on top of the hour of spin.  Given that I was feeling pretty extremely dizzy and nauseated, I thought it best to take a short break before attempting to swim.

Ok, now I know what you are going to say, but I just got all this cool new swim gear in the mail and I REALLY wanted to test it out.  I also finally loaded music on my Waterproof IPod and I couldn’t wait to use it (literally couldn’t wait).

So as soon as I was feeling like I wasn’t about to die better, I pulled out my new suit, cap, googles, zoomers, and IPod and got ready to swim.  Just in case you are wondering, I had to get a new suit because my first one was getting loose and worn out.  The extra goggles and cap I bought because I read in numerous places that it is a good idea to have spares.  As far as the zoomers, Coach M recommended I get them to improve my kick (she says I need to spread my legs more).  Oh and the IPod you already heard about. 🙂

Before I left the locker room, I got a bunch of congratulatory emails from RunKeeper (Love them!.. They sure know how to make a girl’s day).  They wanted to tell me what I stellar job I am doing on tackling my mileage goals for the year.  According to their emails I am 25% done with the biking AND running. *happydance*  They also gave me props for my super fast spinning skills.

For the record, I did restart the treadmill and get in that last 0.1 miles!

Okay so back to the swimming.  All the new gear worked great.  In fact, my new TYR suit was super comfy and fit way better than my old one.  In fact, I think I may even return the speedo one I purchased (which fits like a straight jacket even though they’re the same size) and exchange it for the same one in a different color.

TYR I love you.  Thank you for making a comfortable, functional swimsuit that doesn’t make me feel like a stuffed sausage.

As far as the IPod, it was surprisingly simple to set up and use.  I do have to admit I had to have the hubs help with the safe lock things for the earbuds because I didn’t think it looked right when I did it.  Ultimately, I had no issues swimming with it.  The sound was great and the earbuds stayed in without a problem (I usually have trouble due to small ears but used the medium size provided and they fit great).  I choose classical music for my inaugural voyage and it definitely helped to keep me relaxed- which is generally my biggest problem when swimming (At least in my opinion, Coach M’s may differ).  Overall it gave me added ability to zone out, which is the reason I love swimming in the first place.  Of course, you don’t have to take my word for it.  You can read Swim Bike Mom’s review here.

Two Thumbs Up!

Perhaps it was do to my grooving tunes (or my inability to count laps even with a Garmin Swim), but I managed my longest distance yet in an hour of swimming: over 1.3 miles!  I used one of Coach M’s more advanced workouts and then added 200 meters of pull as a cool down.  I had to re-total the mileage of the workout 3 or 4 times before I believed I had swum that far.  I felt so slow during the workout that I just couldn’t wrap my head around it.  After logging it, I got yet another congratulatory email for RunKeeper on my new distance record.  (Aw thanks guys!)

Slightly edited to improve accuracy

Then as if that were not enough epic accomplishments for one day, I got this notification on my twitter account last night…

The Bloggess, supreme queen of the blog-o-sphere is following my Twitter account.

My response:

She had me at Beyonce…

Ladies and Gentleman, I have arrived.  Who needs thousands of followers when I have The Bloggess?  She is one of my top lady idols of all time ALL TIME!!! … Not that I have a lot of male idols, but the fact that she is a woman makes her that much more awesome in my book!  Someday I hope to be as successful at being my snarky self as she is.  In the meantime I will bask in knowing that she is aware I even exist.

So that, my friends, is all the epic awesomeness I have to update you on so far.

Happy Sunday!

#thriveon