If you’re in Upstate NY, I don’t have to tell you how crazy the weather was this weekend. Snow on Saturday (boo), Sun and 50 degree temps today (yay!).

Pure craziness – also, not so much fun when you have a 3 hour bike scheduled and it’s snowing. <– Stuck on the trainer again. Dun Dun Dun (aka, find some really good movies or shows to watch just to survive.) I made it through the first 90 minutes without too many issues, the last 90 were a bit tortuous. I resorted to breaking up the last 60 minutes by doing a 30 second plank every 15 minutes. (If you know me, you know it’s bad when I think doing a plank is more attractive than continuing to just ride through.)

Anyway, I’m just pumped to see the weather starting to turn. This week I did get my first bike ride in OUTSIDE on Wednesday. It was so nice to get out! But I swear I’ll stop talking about the weather. I know this does not make for particularly interesting reading…

Other happenings of the week included finding out that I definitely need to say goodbye to my Felt – the bike has never fit me properly and despite the fact that a 54 cm should fit someone who is 5’8″, it’s just too big for me. Expensive lesson to learn, but I’m working on selling my bike and then finding a new Tri Bike that does fit me properly. (Anyone looking for a time trial bike? It’s an amazing bike with higher end components – sadly it’s just not right for me…).

Also, the same day that I had the bad news about the bike, I received some good news! Along with being an ambassador for Ragnar Relay, I will now be joining forces with Nuun! I’m very excited for the opportunity to help spread the word about how amazing Nuun is – just check out their products – there is something for everyone and their flavors are delicious!

Ok, I don’t feel like I have particularly interesting things to say right now, so if you’re ready to read something more interesting, maybe I’ll just direct you to the following articles. 🙂

One of the best articles that I’ve ever seen about the whole Organic v. Conventional debate. It was written by a mother who wanted to really understand the health benefits, and what she was really getting when purchasing organic. It’s not what you might think. In the U.S. we seriously have one of the safest food supplies on the planet, I think it’s great that we have choices, I just wish that food marketers would not try to pit one type of food against another.

75 Thoughts Every Runner has While Out for a Run – Thank you Buzz Feed. This is essentially my stream of thought.  (And similar theme to my articles from last week.)

Oh, and this little nugget. If you don’t know about this, you’re welcome. Hack the Menu <– Secret menus for all your favorite fast food joints. I love fast food more than I should, so it’s a good thing that I workout as much as I do. (Although I do find that the more I work out, the less I enjoy fast food. Drat the body craving wholesome food…)

For anyone following along to hear about my athletic adventures and training for the week – This week was a peak week (Recovery week next week!):

• Monday – Bike 1:00 Recovery Ride
• Tuesday – 2400 yd Swim – Progressive 100’s –
• Wednesday – Short Brick – Bike 1:00 and Run 0:30 – YAY for being OUTSIDE! AND for having some speed work mixed in – put down a couple speedy 7 minute miles!
• Thursday – Easy Z2 Run – 6 Miles on the Parkway
• Friday – 2500 yd Swim – Steady Swim 400s
• Saturday –  Endurance Brick 3:35 – 3:00 Bike and 0:35 Run
• Sunday – Endurance Run 2:00 – 13.6 Miles

Totals Ended at:

• Total Training Time 10:30
• Total Run Miles 27.2
• Total Swim 4,900 yds (2.8 miles)
• Bike 5 hours (I can’t fairly convert this to miles since indoor and outdoor mileage is two very different things…)

Since I haven’t had an actual rest day since being sick and I missed my workout on Friday March 21st – I think that’s the longest I’ve gone without a true rest day. Tomorrow’s rest day is going to be amazing!

And finally… the weekly photo dump (aka where you can find puppy pictures – I like to think that my blog brings something for almost everyone – runners, CNY residents, people interested in food topics, AND puppy enthusiasts!)

Cafe Kubal – how I love thee… and your vanilla mint lattes. I also love that I have a partner in crime that loves this cafe just as much as I do! (I may or may not have made 2 trips this week.)

The most AMAZING thing I have ever received. I also loved that I received it at work at the return address was for Tribute Sports – my first thought left me wondering if I had just entered the Hunger Games… while not leaving me volunteering as Tribute, the actual contents were awesome, even if I wasn’t off to go fight my way to stay alive.

Biking outside! (Yes, I’m back to my road bike until I get the Tri Bike issue sorted.)

The end of my brick run – it’s a little darker in the image than it really was outside, but you get the idea – beautiful evening to be outside!Roxie understands the importance of rolling after speed work. (Or at least the importance of an available lap…)

Busted out the food processor to make my latest version of Energy Bites for food while biking. While I was excited about making these, I was not so excited to find out just how sharp those blades are. Reached in and promptly sliced open my finger. As someone who does not deal with blood well, it will probably take me a while to recover from this ordeal and use the processor again…

The finished energy bites (no worries, no blood contaminated the dough.) Essentially these are a mixture of peanut butter, banana, honey, and whey protein rolled in crushed coconut and almonds. (I’ll try to be all professional and post a recipe sometime this week.)

The sign of a good day – passed out puppy. He was my running buddy on my brick run Saturday afternoon. It’s good to get him out and have some company on my runs. He’s becoming quite the champ! 

Sunday morning was filled with Spring Cleaning – I don’t know that I have ever officially done spring cleaning before this year, but it was really nice to clean the house, the windows, the oven, the fridge and so on. And the pups really enjoyed just basking in the sun outside while I worked away inside…

I’m not sure about the true facts behind this ad, but it sure is interesting to think about.

 Ice covered today… hard to believe I’ll be swimming the 70.3 here in just a couple months!

Because 18 mph would just be ridiculous. Pretty sure I break this limit on my bike all the time.