Workouts, Weddings, and WTF?

Ahh yes, this weekend was full of fun. We went back to Texas to head to my sister-in-law's brother's wedding. We made our first stop in the sauna that is Houston in the summer. I remembered something I dont miss when I stepped off the plane - summers in Texas. It was 8PM and I looked like I had just run a 10K. I dont like the cold (as you can probably tell by the places I have lived), but living in Hawaii and Mexico has also made me realize I dont miss that kind of heat. Everyone there kept telling me that it wasnt that bad and just wait until August when I have to return. After a night out with probably too much wine with some friends, I got up bright and early with my mom to wait for it... SWIM!!! I cant tell you how happy I was to be able to hit a pool again. And to realize that I probably could fake it through a half ironman at this point (although it would be really slow) after a year and a half here in Mexico with no pool. It wasnt as easy as it used to be, but I got out and was shocked to realize that I had done 1.5 miles without stopping and I would have kept going (probably forever) but we had to get on the road. I left my cap/goggles/splish at my mom's so I can be sure and swim every day I am there in August because I know running outside will be out of the question.

Other than the swim, my workouts were nothing to write home about. A couple of runs inside with legs that felt like jello. It probably was all the wine consumed at W #2 - the Wedding.
The wedding was in Dallas so we made the 4 hour drive with my mom. Only in Texas will you see this sign.

And my mom said we had to stop on both trips. The place was amazing and apparently famous because when I told my friends we went to the restroom hall of fame they all asked if it was Buc-ees. I guess they all stop there on their way to the UT/OU game. And yes, the bathrooms were top notch and I highly recommend that if you are ever in Texas traveling to seek out one of these bad boys to stop at because no other public bathrooms will compare. The rest of the wedding was downhill from Buc-ees. Well not really, the food, wine, company and party were all good. Some photos below. It was actually great because the only people any of us really knew were part of the family/inlaws so we all got to catch up instead of saying hi to a million people.
Some of the fam..

My sister-in-law and me

Mom and baby bro.

All in all a great weekend.
Now for the WTF - I love the Houston half marathon. If you have read my blog for a while you will know that it is my all time favorite race and I love going home to run it. Well this year there is a change, and the race is going to be a lottery. Apparently because it sold out in 60 hours last year they want to make it fair to everyone. I'm beyond pissed. If you really want to race it you will get to a computer or have someone else get to a computer to sign your ass up. 60 hours is plenty of time to sign up. The other catch is that there is no limit to how many entries you have and they dont charge your card when you register for the lottery. Um, so basically that means that I will spend even less time blogging and more time signing up for these unlimited lottery entries until it closes in August. At least the Austin half/full is just two weeks after and that (as of now) is not a lottery.

Progress

Yesterday's run was 6 miles of 400s (plus a 2 mile WU and CD). I normally run them on the treadmill to keep my pace, but the gym is closed so I had to do it here.

Somewhere in that large park is a 1000m loop that was perfect for 400s because each 100 was marked. I was pretty nervous about keeping pace, but had the garmin to keep me honest. I was surprised that the first one was right on target. The last one was the fastest and I only had one 400 that was slower than the previous one. I kept the pace between 6:30 and 6:50 min pace, which is pretty much right on track with where I am on the treadmill. I'm not gonna lie, I thought I was gonna puke more than once and my legs were like jelly when I finished, but lesson learned. I am able to keep pace and run outside with these 400s, so no more treadmill for these track like sessions. Im headed to Texas this weekend and I have another track session next saturday. I cant wait to see what my times are like there.
I am not the only one who has made progress this weekend. Chris finally finished his first video for his new company and IT. IS. AWESOME. He started the project as a gift to his friends from his HPU/MA Com class, but he included almost everyone he met in Hawaii. I love it and he is uploading it as I type. If it ever finishes I will put the link here for those of you who are reading and are in the video (Hi Mom). Ok, off to do my long run. It is gorgeous outside and apparently the president is making an appearance on the street they close off, so I have my camera in hand and will post photos if I can get any. Happy Memorial day to those of you that are in the US! I will be working tomorrow unfortunately, but our offices in Miami and NYC are closed, which is where I get 90% of my emails from. Work tomorrow will consist of a lot of facebooking.

Sunday

I did it - I got the Mexico City PR- 54 minutes and some change. It is still just under 12 minutes slower than my real 10k PR at sea level, but I will take it. In this same race last year I was just under an hour, so I can definitely see some improvement at altitude. Hopefully this will translate to races back at home. The race was not without its comedy of errors though. I was supposed to wake up at 6, but snoozed until about 6:30 and finally got out of bed and dressed. I had a banana and some water and headed on over to the race. I biked over to the last eco bici drop off and then ran to the race which was about a mile away. Great warm up distance for me. My legs were pretty tired from Saturday's training, but once I finished the warmup they were feeling much better. I got in line at the race at about 745 and realized something. My number was a completely different color than everyone else's. Um, WTF? Was I supposed to run from a different gate? I talked to the person next to me and she informed me that there were two races today on Reforma and mine was another mile and a half away. I guess I knew that my race started at the Auditorio Nacional, but I just followed people who looked like they were running a race and didnt really pay attention. I guess that's what I get for not drinking any coffee. By now it was just before 8AM (race time) and I had to maneuver my way out of the thousands of people lined up. Once I got out I ran as fast as I could to my race start. The race had already begun and the officials let me cut in through the pro gates instead of going around the extra half mile to the normal person entrance. I didnt cut any of the race off, but by the time I was there they had removed the timing chip mat so that the other racers from the other race (confused yet?) could run through the street, so I think my official start time was the real race start (just under 10 minutes earlier). But I started my Garmin on time and it showed 6.26 miles, so I am going to go with what it says.
After the race I looked everywhere for Chris and decided that he probably slept in and so I headed home. About 20 minutes later I saw him running over to the race. Guess what - he had gone to the wrong finish line too. I have no clue why there were two races. Although we may have been the only dumb gringos to make this mistake. Here is the only photo from the race (or just after the race). I dont have one lumpy boob - it is just my unfinished Gu gels stuffed in there.

Here we are on our post race walk home. You have no idea how many takes this took to get both of us in the photo. Apparently I had zoomed in instead of out. Woops.

Mexico like all other countries in the world except the US and Canada is getting ready for the World Cup. There were hundreds of photos from past World Cup games set up. It was really fun to see them all.

Go USA!


We got home and showered and headed to the international festival that was along the other side of Reforma. All the countries had their booths with food, clothes, jewlrey, and information on visiting the countries. I must say it was very interesting to see booths from Iran, Paletstine and North Korea although there really was nothing in this booth other than one representative from the country. She didnt look completely malnourished, so she definitely doesnt actually live there. I got a bag from Palestine - I figure it is the closest I will ever get to visiting there. Here is Chris playing the bongos in Cuba. Fully clothed of course.

Eating in Argentina

Posing with an alpaca in peru while drinking my wine from Argentina.

This one's for you dad and Mary (the Peruvian side of my family)

All in all a great day and now I am sitting in recovery socks totally bummed I cant watch Lost tonight. Apparently dish is moving around the satellite and since we have such a weak signal in Mexico City it will take about 8 days to get service again. I can only imaging what is going on. I keep thinking of my Garmin asking me every day if I am still indoors or if I have moved more than 100 miles from the last time I used it. I guess the same thing is happening here on a much bigger scale.

YUM

This has been my dinner for the past two nights and I have sent my wonderful boyfriend to the store again to stock up on enough ingredients to get me through the weekend at least. Once I find something I like I eat it until I get so sick of it I never want it again. And since this is not something that Chris can exist on for dinner, he is not happy having to cook two dinners a day. I must say, I was a little hesitant to eat these white sweet potatos, but they taste pretty much like the orange ones I am used to.

My body is already feeling better eating this than it was last weekend after a Krispy kreme overdose.

World's easiest job

There are many things so incredible about Mexico City that I find myself wondering if I can go back to a normal life in the US. I have a driver that picks me up every day and does all of our errands/maintence work on the house/watering plants/etc, a housekeeper that cooks and cleans three times a week, some of the best food around, markets with cheap fresh fruits and vegetables that are open every day, I could go on. Then there are the things that I have to sit back and say, well, it's Mexico. Like the time I was trying to buy something at Sears for the house that I really needed and there was no price tag. In the US, the sales person would look up the item and charge me for it. Here they tell you they can't sell it to you even after pleading and offering what is more than twice the value of said item. Obviously they arent working on commission. And then there are the times that I scratch my head and really have no idea what is going on. Today I came back from lunch and as I was crossing the street I saw this:

Two people helping cars go through a, wait for it, GREEN LIGHT. Now, this isnt rush hour by any means as you can see in the photo, so I am not sure why there are two people waving cars through. Especially since I know that in a few hours when there are thousands of cars jammed in those few lanes the traffic cops will be nowhere in sight. I didnt think too much of it until I walked about 10 meters and saw this:

Yes cop number three obviously working hard for the money. And then as I crossed the next block (yes these cops were all 1 block apart) I see this:

Three cops helping the few cars go through the green lights. There were 6 cops in 1 block directing about 15 cars through green lights. They will all finish work before the 6:30 rush hour, leaving hundreds of us fuming as we wait forever to go through this exact street light. I guess they are doing their job, but it would be really nice if they could work during the races on sundays so cars wouldnt try to run you over.
This Sunday is another 10K in the park, and I am hoping I dont repeat last weekend. There is no way that I will come anywhere near the top of my division since there are only a few: Women, Men, Military and Masters. My goal is to get a Mexico City 10K PR. This week's training has been going pretty good, but I am realizing I need to work on my endurance more than my speed. This will be the focus over the next few weeks - more long slower runs. I have been doing 3+ track and tempo workouts a week, and I am going to cut that down to no more than 2 with 1 long run and one medium run a week. I will continue that through the summer half marathons here. Hopefully that, plus another accidental Mexico cleanse that can get me to racing weight, will give me a PR in Chicago!

I am still here

I haven't been writing much, because, well there isnt too much going on. I guess I could write about the cooler weather, constant power outages in our neighborhood, or the fact that I went on a sugar binge on saturday and ate three krispy kremes, but it didnt seem like anything worth mentioning. I think the sugar binge caused me to sleep through my alarm on sunday. This has NEVER happened. Not in my years in school, not all through university and never after. I have no clue what happened, except I know I woke up to a dogs arse in my face at 8:20AM. So needless to say the race was missed. I was totally bummed, but realized that there is a race here every weekend and I could use the time to get on the trainer again.
I am one week into Pilates and I love it so far. It is a totally new way to exercise for me and I am definitely using muscles I havent ever used or havent used in a log time. I am taking a semi private class twice a week for one month and may bump that up to three times a week next month. It may just replace the hole in my heart left from not being able to swim. As much as we love Mexico City, it has been a huge change in so many ways. Most of them are good, but the worst change is that racing tris here is pretty much hopeless. I cant wait until the day we are back in a place that is easy to train in and has races within driving distance. I was especially bummed out because one of my favorite races was this past weekend - the Honolulu Tri. Congrats to everyone racing it! I was thinking about you all when I was on my trainer on Sunday and I think it made me go extra hard!
Even though it isnt feasable to train on a tri bike in the city, there are other ways to ride. I cant remember if I mentioned this, but Mexico City has started a new program called Eco Bici. It is very similar to what they have in Paris, Spain, the netherlands, etc where you basically pay a fee for the year (here it is less than $25 USD) and you can rent the bikes. You go to a stand and pick up a bike and ride it and then drop it off at any other stand. They dont have them all over the city yet, but they have started them in our neighborhood and all by the park and my office. It took about 5 times as long as it should to actually get a card and we had to visit the office three times, but we finally have full access to these bikes. Mom, no comments about not having a helmet - I am just testing out to make sure the card actually works here.


Unfortunately it rained the entire weekend so we havent had a chance to use them yet, but I think Chris is so excited he has decided to walk the dogs using the bike instead of his skateboard.

Finally May!

First of all I have to give huge congrats to everyone that raced this past weekend in Utah, San Fran, Mexico City and everywhere else, especially Beth who rocked her first IM!
My month of work hell is over! I love my job, but sometimes everything piles on at once and I can barely breath. But it is finally over, and I am back to normal (whatever that is). Unfortunately there is no race report. The virus that Chris had ran through him and over to me and I woke up sunday feeling like I was going to die. I started to get dressed and then Chris talked me out of it reminding me how bad it would be for me to go out and run a half marathon when walking to the bathroom winded me. I am really glad at times like these that I have a smart person in my life. Plus I have a 15K in a couple of weeks so I dont have to go too long again without racing. This week is another 50+ mile week mostly on the dreadmill. We are getting air quality warnings, so as much as I hate it, I know I have to stay inside. It makes me miss the Vog that I used to hate so much.

This morning was one of those extra hard to get out of bed mornings. Especially when I woke up to this.


Yes that is my little friend that sneaks under the covers at night (not to be confused with chris the cover stealer). He pretends to sleep when I leave at 6AM so I wont move him, and I have to say it works. This morning I was so unmotivated to run that when I got into the office I did what any sane person would do. I went shopping. Normally I would hit one of my staples - Lululemon or zoot, but today I made an unexpected change. I purchased a new garmin 310 along with the hookup for the bike trainer and foot pod since 90% of my workouts are indoors. My old garmin is in the crapper and takes about 30 minutes to even find satellite signal, so I definitely need an upgrade. I dont get it until I go back home in a month, but even the thought of it brings about some much needed motivation. I debated between that and the 405 until I read all the bad reviews and saw that there is a $50 rebate on the 310. Also, I am trying to change things up a bit so I dont get so bored from running. I am on the trainer about 10-12 hours a week, and since the hills marathon has been deleted from my DVR, I am getting bored of the trainer as well. Since I cant swim here I decided to look for a new event. About two blocks away from my house is a pilates studio (with machines and all), and I decided to make this my third sport. I have my first private lesson on Friday to assess my skilz. I have lost a tremendous amount of flexibility from my days of dancing and gymnastics and even more now that running is such a big portion of my workouts and figure that if I cant swim, at least I can learn a good party trick.