After a break in November, this winter’s training quickly ramped up. I started a fun and challenging new weight program. I feel a lot more power when swimming and on the bike. The YMCA added a TRX class, where you do resistance training using bands that attach to the ceiling, or for lack of a better place, the climbing wall. I talked my friend Susanne into doing it with me. We do TRX, yoga and then swim. My hope was that if I kept adding workouts in before swimming, I would tire her out enough that I could keep up in the pool. No luck, but I am swimming faster than I had been, so I guess it’s still beneficial.
I got a new bike in January. It hasn’t made riding indoors any less boring, but it does make me even more anxious to get outside. We haven’t had much snow so I have been able to ride outside a few times, but it was right before my new bike came in. Grrr. Soon though. My friends Phil and Adrianne have kept me company on the long weekend rides inside. We’re catching up on movies and a few cooking shows. There are 216 noodles in each can of Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup. I wouldn’t know that if I hadn’t spent the day on my bike flipping channels. So there are some advantages.
In my spare time, which ended up being less than I thought, I wrote a cookbook. It will be finished today! I’m excited and a little nervous to see the finished product. It is a compilation of my favorite gluten free recipes and recipes that can be adjusted to be gluten free. Hopefully it will show that gluten free eating doesn’t have to be boring and repetitive. If you aren’t gluten free, the recipes are still good everyday meals that anyone can enjoy.
Tomorrow I will be back in race mode (hopefully only for about 35 minutes) for Cross Country Nationals, which will be held here in Spokane. It looks like a fast field with past Olympians racing. I’d like the change to watch the race but it will be fun to be racing against these fast runners too.
At the beginning of March I’ll run the Snake River Half Marathon. It’s a fun out and back race along the Snake River. It’s completely flat but you never know which way the wind will be blowing. The first year I ran it there was a tail wind going out and a terrible head wind on the way back. The following year it was the opposite. Having the head wind on the way out seemed good because I thought I’d have an easy return trip. Unfortunately, I think it was harder since I was more fatigued from the first half. We’ll see what happens this time.
For now I’ll continue with training and trying new recipes, I’m getting tired of testing the same recipes again and again.
© Copyright 2010 by Annie Warner