I'm back... to Vienna

Christmas Break was a big, fun, blur. I loved being home and seeing my family and friends. Let's see... some quick highlights, seeing my family, I cannot explain how cute my niece and nephews are, meeting my cousin's little girl, Christmas with my Dad for the first time in six years, continuing training, shopping, dinner at the place my brother cooks at now, more food than one should consume in one day all in one meal, meeting up with old girlfriends, the Lam's, they sure are growing up!, birthday brunch and nails with Missy, Starbucks with a tier one friend, a fun lunch at McMenamins with my best friend from kindergarten, how funny is that, 30 years later...spending so much time with my mom and a zillion other things I am probably forgetting. I guess it's a lot of the same things I do every time I go home. I did some serious damage shopping this time, even with paying for an extra bag I had to take things out in order to meet the weight limit... I was that person that you definitely didn't want to be behind in the baggage check lane, iPad, laptop, boots, jacket, carry on, massive purse... Oh, and as usual, my bags didn't make it back to Vienna with me.

When I arrived into Vienna I met Steph and her mom at Dots Sushi for a delicious meal and then came home and unpacked a bit and did much of the same on Sunday, couldn't be bothered to leave the house really. Drank coffee and ate Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies for dinner.

Monday and work came way too fast. I was wide awake at 3:00 and I finally got up and did my long bike ride at 4:00 because I will be in Amsterdam this weekend, so that was nice. Well, nice until I just about fell asleep while trying to work that day! I managed to make it through the day and decided to skip the gym and head home to do some grocery shopping for my new Paleo Diet, which I'll get to in a minute... but anyways, I also found out that my luggage was supposed to arrive, so I had to be home between 6 - 9 anyways. So, I decided I would do some sit ups, push ups and other at home weight training activities. So, I went to Billa, made myself some dinner and then started with my workout. Next thing you know I hear the buzzer ringing. I had somehow managed to fall asleep in the middle of my push ups? Sit ups? Arm lift things? Who knows...?! My luggage did arrive though, so that was nice. I quickly unpacked and went to sleep, obviously, I was tired.

So, back to the Paleo Diet thing... and ironman training. Like I mentioned before, I signed up for the Zurich Ironman on July 15 and the St. Polten Half on May 20. I'm not really sure what exactly I was thinking, except that I guess it has just become an obsession. So, I was doing a little research and wanting to add in something different to my training this time around and knew that I would need to improve my swimming technique so I signed up for a 10 week swim course and also decided I would focus on strength training and nutrition. After some research I decided to try the Paleo Diet, which is basically eating like a caveman, lean meats and all the fruits and vegetables you want. It doesn't allow grains or dairy. So far, 2 days into it, and it's fine, except for one thing. It's not giving up grains, or cheese, or even soy milk, it's SALT. I am going crazy without it! I made turkey fajitas last night (with a lettuce wrap) and as delicious as it was all I wanted was salt, just a tiny, little bit...!

In one of the MANY books I bought, I think it's something like the Paleo Diet for Endurance Athletes, it talks about the five stages of eating and what is allowed in each, and which foods are usually not allowed in the Paleo diet, but can be eaten in moderation during Stage II/III and then salt is ok if you are exercising at a certain temperature for a certain amount of time, or are losing a certain amount of sweat, oh, it is all SO confusing. Then it goes on to try to explain the percentage of fats/proteins/fruits/etc. that you should eat during the different phases of training, base, build, peak, and then when you are just about to race an A priority race you should limit your calories the week before, I get tired just thinking about it. I also bought this training journal to help plan the workouts and write down how they go and what I eat for the day. I was working on transferring all of the plan into it and was getting exhausted just writing it down, let alone when I am actually doing the long training weeks! Right now it is only 8 or 9 hours + whatever strength training I do (and I don't get to count the time sleeping). I am really excited about the new diet, strength training and my swim class. My ultimate goal is still to complete the ironman, but, it sure would be nice to be faster this time too!

Oh, and to add to my ironman obsession, I would also say I can't stop listening to Colbie Calliat and reading about and watching youtube videos on Kris Carr. I bought a juicer on groupon today...

Ok, off to bed. Hope I manage to sleep through the night.