As you may have noticed, I haven't posted anything since my race report as my journey from Hilary to Ironman was finished. It's been almost a year since the race (?!) and I can let you know my pride hasn't diminished and life is busier than ever. I haven't done a single race this year and am not signed up for one until the New York Marathon in November. Don't worry though - I still have been getting to the gym/working out pretty much a similar amount. I just have been focusing on doing what I want to do on any given day versus following a training program. After four years of constantly training for something, I am loving the break!
What have I been up to since the race? A month after the race, I was sent to London for two months for work. I spent the time traveling (Dublin, Barcelona, Bath, Munich, and Paris) & learning about different cultures. My office is full of people from all over who have either grown up in the UK or were visiting for a few years. It was great! And yes, I was closely following the arrival of my future king ;)
Cliffs of Moher! I am absolutely in love with Ireland.
However, I came home ABSOLUTELY exhausted. After the holidays, I had traveled (via car, plane, or train) 11 of 12 weekends in a row. I also just felt pretty awful/run down from all the eating out/holiday food.
I used to love to cook but I had fallen out of the habit, particularly as the Ironman training went into full swing. With a long bike ride and run every weekend, the grocery store was an afterthought, usually Monday nights on my way home.
Starting in January, I made a conscious effort to cook almost all my meals and to focus on making them as healthy/fresh as possible. For the first month or so, I was pretty strict with myself & only ate out once or twice a week. As I learned from when I made the conscious effort to start going to the gym, it takes about three weeks to get into a routine/habit and I was focused to turn this into one.
Since then, I have been pretty dang successful! After the first month, I loosened my "I have to cook all but one or two meals a week" rule, but I have found for the most part I have stuck with it. Also, anyone who trains for something like an Ironman is by nature slightly (at least) obsessive. Since I have not been focused on a racing this year (until now - why do you have to start training for a fall marathon during the hottest part of the summer?!), I have been diving deep into cooking. In the last 7 months I have taken an amazing beginner and intermediate cooking boot camp series (www.cookology.com) and various other classes. I even took one in London when I went back in June for a few weeks! I also bought a kitchen aid stand mixer and have been enjoying learning how to make a variety of delicious baked goods in order to get my money's worth. Yes, it breaks my "healthy" focus, but moderation is key and my coworkers make good testers!
Cooking class in London
Macaroons!
Now, as the calendar prepares to turn to August, it has hit me that I will be signing up for another Ironman next month (Mt. Tremblant in Quebec!). I said after Wisconsin that I planned to do it, and now the time is actually here to turn that broad thought into an actual plan. It will definitely be hard to get back into the swing of hard training again. However, I loved the process, including getting to make so many new friends. Also, while I am happy to have finished, especially given my struggles race day, I feel like I could really improve my performance and I have some unfinished business.
With that thought, I have decided to start up my blog again. However, giving due appreciation to my love of cooking and all the "training" I have done this year, I want to turn it into a dual purpose cooking/training blog. This will help me make sure I focus on nutrition in addition to getting the workouts in. It will also help me share all of the knowledge I have learned and will hopefully prove to people that it's super easy to make a meal that is healthy/delicious and will impress your friends. Fear not! My new love of baking will also steal the show on occasion. After all, what's the point of all the training if you can't indulge every once in a while?
I can't promise how successful I will be at turning this dream into a reality, or how often I will post, but I hope you enjoy following along!
(P.S. Spell check does not recognize Ironman. For shame!)
No comments:
Post a Comment