Fitness falls FAST!!

My alliteration above is nonetheless totally TRUE!  I ended my mandatory rest from everything triathlon today with a five mile run with my friend Jenn.  And right now -- I feel like I've run a marathon.  I need a nap in the worst way.  

When I first starting doing triathlons last year, I would race and then be WIPED for the rest of the day.  This year, I felt like that for the first couple but then, it started getting easier and easier.  I would race and then be ready for the day.  Five miles has done me in.  I am sooooo tired.  Three weeks and I definitely feel my fitness level has fallen. :(

Not all is lost -- I did run five miles.  And it actually went by super fast.  Jenn and I chatted the entire time about everything and I got to try out my new Garmin and loved every time it beeped at me for the mile markers.  I don't quite know how everything works yet but I really really love it.  And now I can't make any excuses to my coach for not following goal pace.  But coach I'm really really bad at math -- literally I would try and do simple addition and subtraction after finishing a zone 4/5 interval and it was like rocket science.

So coach said that I was supposed to run a few times a week for the next month when I felt like it - "keep it easy."  Check!  Got that one in for the week.  Next up will be masters swimming on Tuesday and Thursday.  Hopefully I will be able to just cruise more than push for speed.  But my friend Kristen and I have now announced that ours will be the "fun lane."  I need ideas on how to be "fun" in a masters swim practice.  How about rubber duckies and beachballs?

The last thing I am going to start to focus on is the nutrition piece.  I got a HUGE wakeup call from Jenn about high fructose corn syrup (HFCS).  I kind of already knew it wasn't good for you and all that, but hearing her explanation about the bodies inability to break down the chemicals that have been engineered into HFCS and I got scared!  So.....I went on a little walk through my kitchen cupboards and right now I am HORRIFIED!!!!!  So many things that my family eats is loaded with the stuff.  Hello.....even my favorite bbq sauce - Sweet Baby Ray's - lists HFCS as its main ingredient!!!!!  All of Elijah's fruit snacks, Twinkies, cookies, Wheat thins, OMG!!!!!!

I have been able to lose weight during this three week break.  Surprisingly, all I had to do was bring fruits and vegetables for snacks at school and have a lean turkey sandwich.  Clean eating.....who knew?  I can't promise that I won't eat anything with HFCS, but I am going to make a more concerted effort to make better choices at the grocery store and read more labels.

Here goes another school week.  Second blog post and on a roll. :)