I’m So Excited!

(And I just can’t hide it…)

You guys, Jess is awesome. She saw one of my posts about feeling like a dumb girl in the weight room and offered to help.

This morning, after I ran six miles, she came over and helped me through one of the workouts from Marc. I really didn’t feel confident enough doing the exercises in the gym, but she assured me I knew what I was doing and helped me where my form was off. We also talked about how when you’re following a strict training plan, like, you know, a marathon plan?, it sometimes feels like it makes more sense to just scrap a workout rather than do a workout other than your scheduled workout. Obviously, you should stick to your planned workouts as closely as possible, but if it’s between a class or no lifting because you are nervous to lift alone, take the class!

I’m now one strength training workout closer to my goal of two for the week, and I’m feeling more confident about hitting the weight room myself later in the week for the second one.

I’ve also made a killing on my to-do list these past few days, knocking out interview follow-ups and freelance proposals like it’s my job. (Oh, wait…)

This may be the lamest lunch ever, but I’m also proud of myself for hitting my [nearly bare] fridge and improvising rather than finding a place to grab a sandwich.

But what I’m most excited about? I just chatted with Coach Marc, and we talked VDOT, a performance-based VO2 calculator that helps you predict race times based on past race times.

Based on my sprint tri performance, I can apparently bust out a 1:48:40 half-marathon next weekend. While I’m a little doubtful of that, it gives me hope of shattering my sub-2:00 goal pretty handily.

Speaking of the sprint tri, that’s another thing I’m excited about today. NYRR finally updated the results, and mine are up.

Swim: 11:47 (241/424)

T1: 4:24 (340/424)

Bike: 1:09:26 (stupid, stupid flat) (421/424)

T2: 2:36 (317/424)

Run: 23:33 (I was wrong! So much faster than I originally thought.) (82/424!)

Overall: 1:51:45

So obviously there’s a ton of room for improvement, but I estimate the bike dilemma cost me at least 15 minutes.

Go play with that VDOT calculator. What kind of races can you achieve based on your past race times? Do you think I can really shatter a sub-2:00 half based on all this? (Either way it’s a win–you say something nice and I feel confident; you say something mean, and I get pissed and run fast.)