Elements of Erin 337

I have mentioned my obsession with podcasts before in my blog, so when I was invited to be the first guest on the Kelownagurl Tris podcast I was beside myself. OK, I did offer to be her guest if she started the podcast, she didn't exactly call me out of the blue. I have included a picture of Kelowna, BC Canada to the right. Many people wonder why Kelownagurl is named Kelownagurl. You guessed it, she live in Kelowna, BC Canada. Kelownagurl and I both agree that there was a void in the triathlon podcast world when it came to women in the sport. There are many great running and triathlon podcasts out there but very few (1 or 2 tops) that are hosted by women from a woman's perspective. Thank you Kelownagurl for filling this void and having me as your first guest. If you find it interesting, I would be happy to give an update in a few months. Check out Kelownagurl's blog and the podcast at: Kelownagurl Tris Blog Kelownagurl Tris Podcast Hope you enjoy it, feedback is welcomed...

Ever wonder why the name of my blog is Elements of Erin 337? Well, the simple answer is I am the proud owner of a Honda Element SC in Galaxy Grey . If you are active and need a fuel efficient practical vehicle that can carry 2 bikes and all your training gear plus 2 people, then the Element is for YOU!

This post ends with "And that is why I love Live Your Passion , BUY STUFF FROM THEM!" So, for those of you who have the time to read, here is the full story. Quite a few months ago I started following @liveyourpassion on Twitter . Seemed like a good company offering nice looking after workout casual wear. Right up my alley. In December, my husband surprised me with a trip to Las Vegas. In addition to booking the flight, hotel and restaurants, he had signed us up for the Run with Santa 5km run in Henderson, LV. It was a really fun and very well organized event. My husband came 1st in his age group and I came 3rd in mine. To top it off, my husband won a door prize of a $25 gift certificate to Fleet Feet Las Vegas . After returning to the hotel for a shower and big breakfast, we headed out to find Fleet Feet and take advantage of the $25 gift certificate before we left town. Just a quick drive from The Luxor , we easily found Fleet Feet. The staff were extremely helpful and mor...

So, I guess any Ironman training would not be complete without an 'issue'. I am calling it an 'issue' because I am not ready to call it an injury. Thursday night I went for a 30 minute interval run on the company treadmill at the end of my day. I was running late so I quickly toweled off, jumped in my car, drove home, wolfed down a protein shake, showered and then went off to a PAC meeting at my son's school. The meeting ended around 8pm and I was home and in bed by 9:30pm setting my alarm for 5:20am the next morning for swim practice. When I woke up the next morning, I immediately noticed that my left hamstring was tight. Although this was odd, it was not painful. I arrived at the pool and stretched it out before doing my 2500m swim workout. Again, my hamstring was tight but not painful and I hardly noticed it during the swim. Here is where the story changes. After showering and changing, I joined my swim group at Starbucks for our regular Friday morning coffee. W...

I went for a great 2hr run today in Vancouver with my SAA buddies. The great part of the SAA is that we are pretty tight group and come from a variety of backgrounds. Today, I had the pleasure of running today with 2 different members that I had never run with before. On a 2hr run, you can certainly learn a lot about someone. During this run, we were recounting our running history, what motivates us and why we are doing IMC 2009. This made me think that I have never talked about this on my posts. So...here it goes. In 1996 my husband gave me a copy of Oprah book with Bob Greene called Making the Connection. I read this book in about two days and found it motivated me to get in shape again. My weight has never been an issue but in 1996 I had not really workout since high school when I swam with a local swim club. (For the record, my nick name has always been 'solo sport', I have NEVER been competed in team sports). I started with the Sun Run training program and slowly worked...

Here is the next four weeks of Ironman Canada training for me. How do you like the IMC 2009 countdown clock? Thanks to Iron Newman for giving me that idea. Happy training!

Today I had a 1h 45m trainer ride scheduled in my garage. Well, I just completed 1hour and I am done. My body feels good but my brain says "this is really boring". I am going to research some trainer workouts that are interesting that will keep me motivated. Simply riding for 1h 45m is not stimulating. I was watching one of my favourite shows, What Not to Wear, but even that couldn't keep me on the bike. Any suggestions on trainer workouts?

This week was my recovery week in my training program. I did enjoy the shorter one a day workouts but I am still extraordinarily hungry. As part of my unspoken New Year's resolutions, I have planned to try and eat 1/2 as much as I usually do. This has proven to be challenging. I know I still need to keep a balanced diet but portion control is a challenge most of the time for me. Today was a good example of a typical eating day for me (not 'on track' however): Breakfast Peanut Butter Sandwich 12 oz Accelerade Grande Vanilla Ribios Tea at Starbucks Snack when I arrived at work Cup of fat free yogurt Large spinach salad with 1 hard boiled egg and dressing Lunch Butter Chicken with rice from Wok Box Snack Orange Another cup of fat free yogurt Dinner Authentic Chinese food dinner for a friend's 1 month baby party I really need to focus on not getting over hungry and staying on track. I have been able to avoid alcohol and doughnuts with little effort in the first 9 day...

Well, January 4th and my first post of 2009. New Year's Eve was pretty quiet at the 337 household this year. No big party or night out, just a relaxing evening with movies. We did go to Gudrun for early evening appetizers around 5:30pm but we were back at home by 7pm watching movies (Get Smart and Mama Mia). I was pretty good with my training over the holidays and managed to keep myself mostly on track. There were a few workouts missed because of the snow, not to mention a few days of work. This year, I plan to track all of my workouts in Buckeye Outdoors . It is a great free on-line training log. This way I can track all of my kms on my journey to Ironman Canada in August. As for New Year's resolutions, I do have a few. It wouldn't be a New Year's post if it didn't have a few. 1. No alcohol until after Ironman. This will not be too much of a problem for me given how little I drink now. Plus, drinking doesn't make me feel like it used to. I have really turned i...