Things are getting back to normal

First a WC update. After yesterday all three of my teams are now officially out, which means I have to find someone else to cheer for. I am a little torn between Argentina (where everyone in my division at work is from except my boss and me, so if I want to grow in my career...well, you know), Brazil (I really like the colors and am going there right after the final match so it would be fun to see that celebration), and Portugal (because I can really watch Ronaldo play all day long). Since the US snd Mexico are out, things have gone a little back to normal. After a booze and food filled weekend, I am back to my healthy eating and limited alcohol consumption. Although thankfully I have the Tour to watch once the world cup ends while I am riding those endless hours on the trainer.
There is that little event called Ironman happening in my hometown. I am seriously contemplating it (assuming it didnt sell out between last night and today). But I have to find somewhere to swim if I am going to do this. It will also be the only triathlon I do between now and then, so that might make it difficult. But having my family and friends there would more than make up for it. And I have a marathon not too long before, which means at least my run training will be there. Either way, I know there are a ton of people racing it, so I will head to Houston to watch. And to those of you who are saying how hot and humid it may be, be careful. I did a tri that same weekend a few years ago in Houston and it was wetsuit legal. May is a crap shoot there. It probably will be hotter than what you are used to, but the 105 heat indexes usually dont come until late June or July.*

*Although this year it was hotter than hell the first weekend of June, so you never know!

Week of rest and world cup action

This week has been pretty mellow. Last friday at 7AM was the opening ceremonies of the World Cup. This also means the beginning of a month long holiday here in Mexico and the rest of Latin America, Europe and anywhere outside of Canada and the US. I figured I would get up to the gym and watch the opening ceremonies from the tready and then head to the parties to watch Mexico vs RSA. Getting up I felt like total crap, but thought it would get better once I got to the gym. How wrong I was. I am not exaggerating when I say that walking at 3.8 was HARD. Harder than the last 6 miles of a marathon hard. So after 20 minutes I stopped and decided to head to the hotel to watch the game and partake in the festivities. I could barely stay awake so I had three cups of coffee. That didnt help, so I decided to give in and have 2 coronas. I dont think I have had a beer at 9AM since college, but Im sure in college I was way more fun after 2 beers. All I could think about was sleep. Thankfully noone works, so coming back to the office to "work" wasnt a big deal and I suffered until I made an early exit. The rest of the weekend I slept. After 50 hours of sleep, I still felt bad Monday and nausea had started to kick in. The only thing I have been able to think about eating is steamed spinach (odd huh?) and have sent Sr to the store every day to get another 2 lbs. So after 4 days of nothing but spinach, water and ginger ale and going to sleep at 7:30, I am starting to feel a little bit better. I think it was my body's way of telling me to take a rest week. Tomorrow I will see how I feel, and if I am back to 100% and have eaten a normal meal, I will give running a try.

For those of you not following the games, Mexico beat France in a huge upset today. This is what is going on outside my window.



It is a little hard to explain on conference calls with my gringo co workers why they can hear horns and screaming in the background. It is going to be even harder to find a way to get home today. Tomorrow at 9AM is the US game and if we win I might just go outside and celebrate with the people still leftover from the Mexico celebration. Vamos USA!
Chris pointed this out to me the other day. Only in Mexico would this be on the sidewalk in a nice neighborhood.

More Marathon Info

Wow, the backlash to the Houston lottery system is pretty big. People are pissed! There is a FB group - say no to the houston marathon lottery and this is one of the posts that is going around.
All is now explained. The CHM paid $1.7 million to get the Olympic trials and they plan to fund it from the proceeds of OUR race. Cut corners on medals and t-shirts. No pasta party. Can't afford to extend race time, move off MLK weekend. etc. They can't raise money from sponsors directly so you get to sponor.
I went ahead and signed up for the Austin marathon right when it opened, because I have a feeling it will sell out fast with this new lottery in Houston. It is two weeks later and a 2 hour drive from Houston. Other than the hills, it is like running the same race. If I get into the Houston half I will run the full in Austin, if not, I will run the half in Austin. Or maybe I will run the half either way since the holidays and training dont mix with me.
Apparently work and training dont mix with me either. I have a 15K race this weekend. I have run exactly 0 times since I got back from Dallas. I am considering this my taper.

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.