How to Put on a Wetsuit

Depending on where and when your triathlon is, you may need a wetsuit. I never knew there was a right and wrong way to put one, I thought you just struggle through it, get it on and you’re good to go. I was wrong. Last night at my tri team swim practice our coaches gave us a demonstration, good to know! Here’s a pic from my first triathlon and my first attempt at putting on a wetsuit-hilarious.

And HERE is the correct way to put on a wetsuit (from blueseventy):

Anonymous asked: Happened to see you as a new (I think!) addition to the Fitness Spotlight and I've fallen in love with your blog. I'll be reblogging you a lot in the future! -Lita, BackOnPointe

Thank you so much for your sweet note! Will be sure to check out your blog as well!

Juice Cleanse: Day 2 Recap

Made it through the second day! I maaaybe cheated a little. I felt ok throughout the day, a little tired but otherwise I was doing fine. I added some extra lemon juice to some of the green juices because I just could not get through them otherwise (actually, I threw half of one out because I couldn’t handle any more, other thank that, I drank them all).

While at work I was fine, but I knew I had a training run after work and was getting nervous with my low energy levels- this is where my cheating came into play. When I got home from work I blended my 4th green juice with half a banana, 2 mango chunks and a couple of blueberries. It made it taste SO MUCH BETTER. I did this about 45 minutes before my run and while I was tired on my run, I made it through. It was 82 degrees last night and we ran a 6 mile loop of Central Park (8:45 pace). I’m glad I made that smoothie beforehand because otherwise I’m not sure how I would have gotten through the hour. I did feel weaker than I normally do running, but I suspect part of it is mental. I knew I hadn’t eaten anything so I felt weak, but if I didn’t think about it so much, perhaps I would have felt the way I always feel running in the heat.

When I got home I did another little smoothie and finished the night up with Juice #6.

Today is Day 3- the final day of the cleanse but my juices haven’t arrived yet (the first day they delivered 2 days and said they would bring the last day today). If it doesn’t come in the next 30 minutes or so I may consider breaking it…let’s see what happens.

Juice Cleanse: Day 1 Recap

Made it through the first of 3 days and I have to say, it wasn’t that easy! Each day I’m supposed to have 6 juices and lots of water. Considering I’m not eating anything, that might not seem like a lot, but it’s a LOT of juice to drink. The Liquiteria juices aren’t so easy to get down quickly. They are VERY green. I’ve done other cleanses where the green juice has apple and lemon, making them sweet, but these are way greener and less sweet. It took me until about 10pm to get through all the juices.

The six juices are 2 greens, 2 greens + lemon & ginger, 1 green + carrot, and then a beet pear fruity juice. The fruity one and the carrot one were pretty good but the greens are rough.

I tried to drink the juices every 2 hours and slowly sipped them, with lots of water along the way. If you are considering a juice cleanse I highly recommend you schedule it out far in advance so you don’t have any plans during it. Last night I had a concert at City Winery with friends and it actually wasn’t so terrible sitting there drinking juice while everyone else chowed down and drank tons of wine, but it wasn’t ideal. I also got home late and was exhausted/hungry so I would have rather been in bed earlier. Tonight I have a training run and then I can lay low, looking forward to that.

One more thing about juicing- I’m always cold! When you aren’t eating and you’re only having cold juice, expect to be consistently cold. Wear pants, have a blanket at work, etc.

SO, day 1 is over. It was ok- I made it through, I didn’t cheat and I drank all my juices. My energy was a little low but I wasn’t falling asleep at my desk or anything. I’m also a coffee drinker and felt fine without it. This morning I woke up HUNGRY. I’m scheduled to work out tonight, but if it was this morning, I’m not sure how I would have done. I may try to work out tomorrow morning so I can report back on how that goes.

Liquiteria told me that if I absolutely need to eat something, a handful of raw almonds is ok. I’m going to try to avoid that (currently at home all I have are dark chocolate covered almonds…that’s probably not what they were talking about) and see how I do without any food during the cleanse.

So today starts the second of 3 days. To help the flavor of the green juice I bought some lemons on my way to work and adding the juice helps a bit.

Will let you know how day 2 goes!

Juice Cleansing While Training for a Race

I’m a big fan of juicing. I’ve done a few 3-day cleanses in the past and I think it’s a nice way to jump start clean and healthy eating habits. If you’re not already a healthy eater, an all-juice diet for a couple of days can be brutal, and also probably isn’t your best option (instead, you can make smaller healthy changes to ease your way in, then think about cleansing). But if you’re generally healthy but fell of the wagon a bit, this will get you right back to where you want to be.

I was wondering if cleansing while working out is a good idea. I always work out a lot, and especially now with my triathlon only 2 months away, my training is at an all-time high. So, can I complete a 3-day juice cleanse and keep up with my normal workouts (with the same amount of energy)? I’m going to give it a try and let you know how it goes along the way.

A special thank you to Liquiteria for sending over a complimentary cleanse (I’m doing Level 2 which has 6 juices per day for 3 days). Stay tuned and hear how it goes. Right now I’m on Juice #1- All Greens (Kale, Spinach, Romaine, Celery, Parsley, Cucumber).

Liquiteria just dropped the cleanse off at my office and gave me some helpful hints- the biggest one is to drink a LOT of water while cleansing. You should drink a juice about every 2 hours and in between make sure to drink tons and tons of H20.

Let’s do this!

Equinox Indoor Triathlon: Quickie Recap

On Saturday I competed in the Equinox Indoor Triathlon (top finishers get free entry into the Malibu Triathlon) and it was a lot of fun! It was pretty low key; I got there around 3, jumped in the pool 15 minutes later and was racing away.

The tri consisted of a 10 lap (20 lenghts of the pool) swim, a 10 mile bike ride in the spin room and a 3.1 mile run on the treadmills. We had about 10 minutes between each event to get changed (although no one was actually timing). It was fun to challenge myself at the gym as opposed to just on real race days.

Because everyone had different start times you really were just competing against yourself. I’m naturally a competitive person so I pushed myself pretty hard throughout and I felt great at the end. I think the most important takeaway for me was that I can push myself MUCH harder when I’m at the gym. This was really just a for-fun race, yet I got myself working way harder than my typical weekend visit to the gym.

Here were my times:

• Swim: 10:11
• Bike: 27:05
• Run: 24:30

I was by no means the fastest person out there, but I left feeling like I gave it my full effort. If your gym hosts indoor tri’s I definitely recommend signing up. And if they don’t, create your own one day and give yourself a challenge!

Happy Bike To Work Day!

Who is celebrating? I am! I road to spin class this morning and then to the office. I was pleasantly surprised to even get a free breakfast along the way. Thanks Transportation Alternatives!