#TeamTreadMillRacing

"If you're on the treadmill or bike next to me, damn right we're racing"

If you were to ever meet me in the real world, you'd find me a very quiet, unassuming, painfully shy, bookish person. This is in direct contrast to me here or on twitter. It's a study in dualities for sure. Most people wouldn't even think I have a competitive bone in my body. 

HA!

Lurking beneath my lazze-faire demeanor is insane competitor. I mean I'm nuts about it. A lot of people expect to finish their first multisport race. I'm going for a place. Will I get it? Odds are no, but I'm still going to shoot for the podium. And keep shooting until I get there.

It's the way I'm wired. I can't NOT try to win. Even when I'm training. Yes, I'm competing against the person next to me. I don't care if they just got on the bike or treadmill and I've been on that bastard for 2 miles. We're racing.

It seems like I'm not the only one who thinks that. A couple of people on twitter said they do the same thing. And then #TeamTreadMillRacing was born. I guess you gotta be really into this stuff to find that funny. Or crazy. I'm both.

I was really pissed yesterday. I had a great week training and yesterday was my off/recovery day. When I say great, I mean I was crushing my training. Beast mode never turned off. Then I woke up yesterday. A head cold. It landed right on my head. Stuffy nose, achy body, the whole shebang. My inner competitor was screaming "NO! No more lost training time!" So recovery day was just that. Work, rest, lots of hydrations and laying in my bed reading book 2 of the Wheel of Time series.

I was nervous about getting back at it today. Would the work out (granted I had a light work out scheduled for today) be a miserable failure due to the cold? Would I puke? Pass out? Thankfully Jen over at One Lovely Run put my mind at ease. "If it's just in your head, go for it" she advised in 140 characters or less. So I went for it. 

Along with the rest of the newly found #TeamTreadMillRacing, I had plenty of encouragement to go faster. I had to, the kid next to me was going faster. Must. Win.

Next time 20 something kid, I'm gonna own you. 

I normally don't see young people when I work out. I'm one of those morning work out people. Up at 4:30 am and at the gym by 5 am. I put in a good hour there and walk back to Geek Central. It's only 2 blocks so I count it as part of my cool down. Today I hit the gym AFTER work. Now this isn't anything against my gym. It wasn't crowded, or loud. But, I like my morning workouts. They just get me up and going. Sure it makes for a long day. But it's also quiet time for me. And I feel like a bad ass as I'm walking home thinking to myself "Hey sun! Get your ass up, I've already done X miles, what have YOU done so far today?!" See? Competitive, even with a very large solar body. I'm hopeless.

My diet is changing a lot lately. Not so much on the red meat, but a lot more chicken. I'm NOT a fan of chicken. I'm slightly allergic to it, so if I eat to much of it, I get all itchy and scratch.

I'm really trying hard to treat my body as a finely tuned performance machine. It's hard though. I love Papa Johns, I love Yueng Ling Lager, I love pirogi smothered in butter and onions. But since I want to kick ass at my races, I'm eating less of that and more things like trail mixes, fruits, veggies and clif bars (I do love clif bars, even if they are bioterroristic)

Who knew they had a bioterrorism rating?

What's really helping is work. Yes, I said my day job. I've been swimming in free samples of organic, gluton free and other healthy foods. Some of it even tastes good!

I can really see the difference too. My body is responding and performing better than it did a year ago, I've lost my beer baby belly and I'm actually starting to feel really good about myself. Back demons of self image, I got something for your punk asses!

Look Mom! No Belly!

So I'm ready for tomorrow, which is a brick work out day. Bring the rain, bring the pain. Shut the hell up legs, I'm going for the win.