Planning my season

Having the wonderful opportunity to be a part of the wonderful teams that I am a part of comes with some great benefits.  But the cost of those benefits is usually a commitment on the athletes part.  And in my case, my commitment is to do a certain number of races during this race season, and represent these companies at my races.  And because the 2 marathons that I already ran this year took place before I was offered a position on any of these teams, I am in need of adding races to my calendar.

My goal race for the year is Ironman Arizona, taking place in November.  And since this is my goal race, I am going to be putting the majority of my focus on improving my Ironman performance.  Meaning my training will all be geared toward Ironman fitness, and ideally, so would any other races I do.  However, racing an Ironman comes with a pretty steep price tag.  And since I'm not a professional athlete, and I thinks it's a good idea to at least let me family eat twice a week, I probably shouldn't be spending an absurd amount of money on other races.

Another factor that comes into planning my race schedule is timing.  Since I don't work a Monday through Friday job, I don't have every weekend off.  In fact, because most races take place early in the morning, I can really only do races if they take place on my second day off.  So that limits my options quite drastically.

Fortunately for me, the teams that I am on are not very strict on the types of races I do.  They can be triathlons, 5k's, swimming events, cycling events, etc.  As long as they are considered "endurance" events, then it counts.  So at this point in time, I have a decently long list of races that both fit my schedule, and don't break bank.  The next step is to run it all by The Wife to make sure that there's no other scheduling conflicts.

To find my possible races, all I did was a simple Google search.  Maybe I missed something?  Let me know what races you have scheduled and maybe I'll add it to my list!  Once my schedule is finalized, I'll be posting it here, so you can find out where I'll be and you can track me down for some free samples!

My first 2 hour ride of the season

On Saturday morning, I decided it would be a great day to go for my longest bike ride in quite some time.  How long?  Well, the title says it all.  It ended up being about 2 hours and 10 minutes.  Not too bad.  However, I am feeling pretty sore right now!

Normally I don't feel too sore after a bike ride, but this time was a little different.  Not only did I do an hour and a half bike ride on Friday morning, but then I went ahead and did a pretty solid leg workout.  Unfortunately, I forgot about this little bit of advice:

I always seem to forget that I get pretty sore after doing after leg day, and doing a long bike ride the day after leg day is probably not a great idea.  And of course, I do understand that plenty of people would say that bike riding is "active recovery".  Well, that's only if you treat your ride like a recovery ride.  And I'm not really a huge fan of doing a 2 hour recovery ride!  Ha!

So Saturday morning came along, and I met up with The Captain.  He was riding his trusty steed in the form of a tri bike, and I was riding my old Trek 1000, with saddle bags on the back (I use this bike as my commuter bike).  Luckily, traffic was nice and the weather actually wasn't too hot yet, so the ride went fairly well.  I could tell I was getting a little tired toward the end, but I also didn't eat any breakfast and only had some Gatorade for nutrition.  Not my smartest bike ride!

Which brings me to today, feeling pretty sore, as I sit here writing this.  But the good news is that pain is weakness leaving the body (it cracks me up when people say that!).  Really, the good news is that I'll only be sore for today and should be back to my regular self tomorrow.  I guess I'll have to do another workout then...

My first taste of the Vega One bar!

A few weeks back, I posted a picture of a little care package that Vega sent me, which was one of the amazing benefits of being a part of Team Vega. Inside that package were some items I have tried, as well as some brand new items that I had never tried. One of those items was the new Vega One bar.

There's a few different flavors, including chocolate cherry, chocolate almond, and double chocolate. Now, to be clear, I am part of Team Vega, but they are not compensating me for writing a review (other than sending me some samples). So this review is my honest opinion based on my personal preferences.

Of these flavored, my favorite was the double chocolate, and my least favorite was the chocolate almond. The chocolate cherry was also very good, but not my favorite. I felt that each bar had a very good initial taste, with a bit of a "health bar" after taste. Not something that I would say was bad, but just something that I noted was there. I compared these bars to other health bars that I've had in the past (for example, Cliff), and I honestly place them near the top, if not the very top. The reason why they would actually be at the top of my list is because of what is actually inside of them.

In each of the Vega One bars, there is 15 grams of plant based protein, 6 grams of fiber, 1.5 grams of Omega-3, antioxidants, probiotics, and greens! The greens blend is a mix of alfalfa grass, spinach leaf, broccoli florets, and kale. And the antioxidants are from grape seed extract, maqui berry, goji fruit, açai berry, pomegranate seed, and mangosteen fruit! And there's also chia seeds! Even better, you get all of that for only 250 calories. It's actually pretty amazing.

The only thing that I could see as holding back anyone from buying these bars is the price. And I'll be honest, I have always thought that. But when I started to look into exactly what was in these bars, and thought of the cost of all of those high quality ingredients, it is actually not that bad. It's not something that I would eat multiple times a day, but it would be a tremendous on-the-go snack!

Overall, I would say that I was thoroughly impressed with the taste and quality of the new Vega One bars, and have found that it will become a regularly stocked item in my household. I highly recommend that you give them a try!

Team Aquaphor 2013!

Well, it looks like I have another team to add to my list for this season! And it's another one that I'm pretty excited about. It is Team Aquaphor!

Team Aquaphor is a team through ActiveAmbassadors, much like my Team Marathon Bar was for the last few years.

If you don't know about Aquaphor, take a moment to go to their website at www.aquaphorhealing.com. It's a great product, and I may have a few samples to hand out at my races this year...

Woo hoo!

My goodie box from Vega

Today I came home to a wonderful surprise. My box of swag from Vega arrived! I was sooooo excited to see that box sitting by my front door, because I can't wait to taste some of the flavored that I haven't tasted yet. And, as an added bonus, they also sent me some samples of the new Vega One Bar! Booyah!

I will be writing up some reviews on these delicious packets of health once I've fully comprehended just how delicious they are...