One month down!

Well folks, this is it. The last day of January. And it's 61 degrees outside! What's even more remarkable than the weather, however, is the fact that this is my 31st day without a single donut. As many of you know, donuts are one of my biggest weaknesses. I gave them up for new years and haven't looked back...for the most part.
I will admit to being tempted. Saturday I drove by Krispy Kreme and the "hot now" sign was lit. I had two dollars in the visor of my car, enough for two original glazed sugary puffs of air and fat. But before I could get into the turn lane I remembered: I'm not supposed to be eating donuts. It's not congruent with my goals. So I drove on.
This morning I was tempted again. I was driving to work and had some time to spare. A QT chocolate covered creme filled sounded really tasty. This time it was harder to drive by. Only when I realized I would have to update my "PAL board" and tell everyone what I did was I able to drive on.

This "PAL board" thing is a new thing we have at the new gym. We each get a rectangle of dry erase board, with our picture and name at the top. We have spots for long term and short term goals, spots to track last week's nutrition, spots that show how much weight we've lost this year, this month, and this week, and a "status". The status is my favorite part. We can basically write whatever we want in that square. Mine currently says "Still donut free!" and I sure would like to keep it that way. I PLAN to keep it that way.

In my short term goals I have listed that I want to finish Trek Up The Tower in less than 19 minutes. This is a lofty goal for me, and I'm not sure whether I will achieve it or not. Last year my time was just shy of 23 minutes. And last year I not only trained for it, I had no injuries to speak of. This year I have not trained at all, and have been battling a knee injury for months. In addition, I sadly also weigh around 15 pounds MORE than this time last year. (Depressing? Yes. Discouraging? Yes. Defeating? NO!) This means a very challenging race to the top of the First National Bank building here in Omaha. It's up 40 stories, 870 steps. It's a long, tough race. The elite runners finish in 5-10 minutes. Normal people take between 10 and 15. I will be ecstatic if I just beat last year's time, but finishing in under 20 minutes is what I want. The only way to get there at this point, with my knee injury and with so little time left (the event is on February 25th) is just to push myself harder that day than I think I can go.
Last year I took it fairly easy at Trek. I rested after nearly every flight. At least every other, after about the 20th floor or so. I would just stop for a second, catch my breath, rest my quads, and then move on again. This year I won't be able to do that if I want to beat my time. My goal is not to make it all the way up without resting at all, that would be insane. But I do hope to do at least 3-4 flights before taking my short breaks this year. I feel more fit, cardiovascularly, and I feel like my legs are stronger despite the bad knee. I think I can do it.

My long term goal is to complete a Century Ride. For those of you who aren't down with the bike lingo, that's a bike ride of 100 miles. My goal is to complete this on August 25th. That's exactly six months after Trek, and I've scheduled a few days off work to prepare, complete, and rest and recover. I'm hoping some friends will ride part of it with me, or meet me at spots with supplies and cheers. It'll take some planning and coordination, but I'm really excited for this. Luckily the new gym has brand new, really nice spin bikes, so it's easier than ever to train.

In the 6 months between Trek and my Century Ride I have oodles of other events planned that I'm excited about too. In May there's the Lucky Bucket (a 7k trail run, actually called Mud Sweat and Beers) and also the UNO TRYathlon, a miniature indoor/outdoor tri. In June is the Omaha Women's Tri, and the Saturday after that is the Warrior Dash which I just signed up for today. Then in July I have the Papio Tri, and possibly a Cornhusker State Games event (either the Hot Dog Chase again, or one of the open water swimming events or bike events).

All in all this race reason is shaping up to be challenging but FUN. It all starts in three weeks with Trek Up The Tower. I'm getting excited. :)