SOME NUMBERS FOR YOU NUMBERS PEOPLE...

since everyone likes to post up their numbers and graphs and whatnot, i thought i'd post up some important numbers of my own. previously i mentioned that my goal for the week was to get 8 hours of sleep every night, and here's what i got in:

1. monday - 8 hours
   
2. tuesday - 8 hours
3. wednesday - 9 HOURS!!!
4. thursday - 6 hours
- dinner with my two coaching site assistants i hadn't seen since our runners did their marathon in early december. we had a lot to catch up on. so i'm taking from my extra balance from wednesday night, but yeah, i'm still in the red.

5. friday - 6 hours
- this is due to my attempts at getting everything ready for my long ride the night before and then having to get up early for a 7am start time. still though, it beats those rides on 4 hours sleep!!
6. saturday - 9 hours!!!
- which means two things: (1) i'm a loser who doesn't have plans on saturday nights anymore, and (2) we didn't start our run 'on sunday til 10 am. so sue me...
7. sunday - 6 hours
- but if you count the 3 hour nap i had to have after my run, that brings me to 9 hours again!!!

total hours of sleep - 52 hours, averaging out to 7.42 hours per night. NOT. BAD.

ok, so if nutrition is the 4th event, no wait transition is the 4th event, so nutrition is the 5th event, but right up there with it is the the 6th event, SLEEP. i've got to make this a regular part of the regimen as i'm certain that it had everything to do with me getting through this insane weekend. great, so now i have 6 events i have to train for!! and with more on the horizon, as coach says february is going to bring my highest volume, i gotta keep my eyes on the prize and get me some proper zzzzzzzz's. no more of this staying up all night reading blogs and other tri geek crap, sleeping for 3 hours, working on a crazy 10 hour shoot, then dragging my sorry ass to the pool for some mediocre laps. NOPE.NOT.GONNA.DO.IT.

got to the pool this morning before yoga to do my 1000yd time trial. kicked it out in 17:49.8. i really have no idea what that means. i just know it's faster than my last marker over a month ago which i kicked out in 18:19.16. that may not be fast to some of you out there, but i don't really give a crap about you. it's all about ME ME ME. and I I I am getting faster in relation to ME ME ME. isn't that what it's all about?? so if you're getting faster than YOU YOU YOU, then we're all good. oh, today's swim was also with a fucked up shoulder and i have yet to learn how to do flip turns. so there. so watch out, once i get my flip on, you're gonna see that number drop again. then again, how the hell is a flip turn gonna help me during Ironman?? yeah, not so much....

not enough numbers you say??? well, hold on......


taunting me, mocking me.....
as i walked through the lobby of the gym on my way to yoga, i saw this truck parked outside. it wasn't there when i rolled up this morning, but there it was as i walked past on my way to get my zen on, taunting me, mocking me, saying "you really don't have enough numbers in your life." so i took the plunge, literally....


The Dunkinator
i already had my bathing suit, still nice and damp from my swim earlier, so i changed into it and hopped on the scale so dunk tech Linda could take some "dry measurements." first, she asked me what i THOUGHT i weighed. are you for reals?? what do i THINK i weigh?? what, is there some grand prize if i'm the closest by 1 tenth?? i haven't weighed myself in weeks, lady, so let's just get on the scale and get this over with. 139 pounds, sounds about right. ok, next my height. 5' 5 1/2". really?? cuz last i checked i was 5'7" and i'm pretty sure i haven't shrunk or been cut off at the ankles. wanna take that measurement again? oh yeah, silly her, the numbers had rubbed off on the ruler. it's actually 5' 6 1/2." i still think she has it wrong, but whatever, it's just the number that'll have everything to do with the final outcome...

i had to sit on the edge of the stainless steel sink facing outward with my feet on the outer step, then pivot my ass around, put my feet in the water, stand up, turn back around, and walk backwards into the sink. i think there were like 5 too many steps involved, but maybe it's an insurance thing. then i had to put this weight belt on my lap to hold me to the bottom of the sink. next, i was to hold my nose while i expelled ALL THE AIR OUT OF MY LUNGS, leaning back into the water and whatever i did, NOT LET GO OF MY NOSE. it suddenly dawned on me that if you were at all claustrophobic or not comfortable with dunking backwards into water, this would be torture, but all the years of perfecting my Nestea Plunge in the backyard pool as a kid in the 70's and 80's finally came in handy. so i had to dunk backwards and hold it their until she tapped the side of the tub for me to come back up. i would do this a total of 3 times. first time, ok pretty good, but i didn't expel ALL the air out, but i had two more shots at it. second time, i felt like my lungs were gonna collapse in on me. there's no way there was any air left in there. 3rd time, she told me to engage my abs and push ALL THE AIR OUT. so i engaged the abs and gave it a good exhale, this time nearly passing out. BINGO!!

final result - 21.1% body fat

so turns out for my age and height (that was wrong in my opinion), i'm in the low end of the "good range" just above the transition line to the "healthy range." which is all fine and well. also according to the info, i only have 3.6 pounds of fat to lose to hit the healthy range. makes sense considering that i'm hungry ALL THE TIME and haven't been very discriminating about what i satisfy that hunger with (i.e. Denny's Lumberjack Slam after my 14 miler yesterday). in the end, i felt a bit silly for spending what i did on a whim for such a test. gotta love marketing. plus, there was one factor that didn't get considered into the equation: I'M A BIG-BONED BLACK GIRL. yep, that's me. so the "good" and "healthy" ranges are kind of a moot point since the test didn't take into account the "booty factor." i'm pretty sure that's where about 18 of the 21.1% is sittin'....

so there you have it, my latest numbers. but no matter how many hours of sleep i get, no matter how fast i move through the water, and no matter what my body fat percentage is, i still have to drag my ass across 140.6 miles. so tomorrow, i do it again, another cycling session and then to the weight room. ok, gotta bounce now if i'm gonna get my 8 hours....