There's a new big health-related initiative going on in my office and as a result, one of my coworkers brought in a blender for people to use to make smoothies!

I envision lots of these for breakfast in the future:


However, I am far from the most creative smoothie recipe person, so please share your favorite smoothie recipes in the comments! I'm game to try just about anything!

The Good News:

On Saturday, I finally pulled the trigger and signed up for the Philadelphia Olympic Distance Triathlon to replace the cancelled DC Tri. I realized I needed to register ASAP when I was still telling friends that I was training for two tris, a sprint in May and an Oly in June. So after soaking in a little endurance sport motivation while marathon spectating, I hopped online and registered.

The Bad News:

Ever since then, I have been having the weirdest triathlon nightmares.

The dreams have nothing to do with running or swimming, they all relate right back to biking, my weakest of the three sports.

Apparently I'm so nervous about figuring out all the bike stuff for my tris it's started to seep into my subconscious.

Dream One: In one nightmare, I dreamed my bike got stolen. Not out of transition or anything, just from my friend's house. In the dream, I went from being super sad, to super pissed, to super panicked that I'd have to buy a new bike and get used to it before the race.

Dream Two: The next dream was a little more detailed. I dreamed I parked my bike in the lobby of my friend's apartment building while I ran upstairs to see her real quick. When I came back, my bike had been completely dismantled. The gears and the shifters and the pedals had been stolen. The rear tire was gone. It looked like my bike had been to the chop shop. All I was left with was the frame and the front tire.

The funny thing is, I'm not at all worried about the sprint race. It's a TriRock event, put on by Competitor group just like the Rock N Roll races, and I know they are very beginner friendly.

Philly just seems so intense. I've read tons of race reports about people picking up penalties on the bike, or people who swam on top of other people in the swim. (I have no problem with getting kicked and punched a bit in the swim. It happens. But if someone tries to swim over me, I will probably have a panic attack.)

It doesn't seem like a beginner friendly race and I'm worried I'm going to finish last, or accidentally break a rule and get a penalty or crash on one of the many hairpin turns on the bike course. I'm also worried that I'm going stand my newbie-ness is going to be ridiculously evident.

In More Good News:

I had an awesome ride on the trainer last night and I practiced some one-handed riding -- hand positioning mostly -- since I knew I couldn't fall over. As a result of the awesome ride, I didn't have a single bad triathlon dream last night.

Perhaps the answer to my bike nightmares is even more time in the saddle.

Update: Emily, who ran the marathon on Saturday, just informed me she had a dream about my tri last night. (Weird!) and in it I kicked butt and made a sweet video for the blog. I like her dreams much better than my own!

Last week was kind of an off-week of training for me. Between the bike crash on Sunday and then finding out my A-race was cancelled on Wednesday, it's safe to say I was not in a good place mentally for training last week.


I still managed to fit in a few of my workouts, but after the announcement about the DC Tri being cancelled, all motivation went right out the window and the rest of the weekend was a wash.

Previous Weeks:

Week One
Week Two
Week Three
Week Four

This Week:

Monday: Rest

After crashing my bike on Sunday my knee and shoulder were extremely sore and I thought it was smart to take Monday as a rest day to heal.

Tuesday: 30 minute bike outside


I knew after the crash it was important to get right back on the bike or else I'd be too scared to do it later. Tuesday the weather was gorgeous and I decided to brave riding outside in traffic for the first time ever. This was pretty much an epic fail. I was too scared to ride in the drops, the road was too narrow and I was terrified the entire time. Not to self: no more riding in traffic for a while.

Wednesday: 6 mile run

You know how the first hot run of the season really kicks your butt? Well that was Wednesday's run. I finished all six miles, but they were at a slow and ridiculously hot crawl. I took many, many walk breaks during this run and polished off all the water I had carried with me. There was no shade to be found anywhere, which certainly didn't help things.

Thursday: Rest

And here is where the motivation backslide started. I was still mourning the loss of my A race and decided I'd rather sit on my butt and watch basketball all afternoon than do my pool workout. Plus my shoulder was still sore from the bike crash, and I legitimately wasn't sure if swimming would be a good idea. I could have subbed another workout though, but I just wasn't feeling it.


Friday: Rest

This is my scheduled rest day. I debated doing a run here since I knew Saturday would be hectic, but again, no motivation. Also, there was lots of basketball on.

Saturday: Marathon spectating.


I will always believe that marathon spectating is a killer workout. You're on your feet all day and running from point to point to cheer on your friends.


Sunday: 9 mile bike ride

It was a nice day out and Beach Drive was closed to traffic, so I figured I should take the bike out. It took me a little while, but I did manage to get into the drops, though it was the most awkward transition ever. I am still extremely nervous taking my hands off the handle bars, especially since that's what caused my crash. I know I need to practice this more or else I'm going to be SOL when it comes to fueling during an actual race.

Cyclists out there, do you have any tips on how I can practice riding one-handed without crashing my bike?

All-in-all it wasn't a great week of training, but it wasn't an awful one either.