Sigh of Relief

Time for a full life update. Last week was a big one on all fronts. Had that big presentation to give, lots of work to do, talks with new people about potential new work, more shopping for the new place, lots of structured training (for once!), and last but not least... school projects, finals and the end of grad school. I was fired up to get all of it done with my best effort.

Starting with the presentation at the PT clinic. I was nervous as hell, but I really enjoyed the whole experience. Can't wait to do another one. Let's just say it was very different than presentations in school. No grade on the line, but possibly potential clients/business ;) A couple pics:

With Matt Fitzgerald and my friend/boss/training partner Mike, who owns my gym, SPI (we're both doing IMC):
Presenting:

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Training. After three weeks of mediocre, unstructured and overall "weak" training, I was itching to get back at it and do quality work. I did. Yay. Ended up being about a 15-hour week that provided a lot of stimuli to make my body go "hot damn that's gonna leave a mark!" I cannot believe how sore I am today. Not just fatigue, but actual soreness/DOMS.

Besides some really solid workouts at my gym involving everything from bike trainers and run intervals to deadlifts and sledgehammer swings, the highlight was the weekend.... what I was waiting for.... I made sure to eat my beets and chia seeds all weekend in hopes of any extra boosts for the training on tap ;)

Saturday:
3,200 swim
11-mile hilly trail run

Swim - solid, uneventful, feeling stronger, put me at 10k for the week. Run - I was planning to run 14 street miles, but last minute I decided to hit up El Moro in Crystal Cove. Anyone who knows this trail, which is where one of the Xterra Trail Run races takes place, knows that the trail/terrain/ascents/decents are NO JOKE. I have not run my beloved trail since I did the Xterra race early 2010 due to injury, and then later rain storms destroyed the trails leading to a long closure. But all is good now, not to mention my place is only 2 miles away. It's definitely going to be back in the routine on a regular basis!

Here's the course profile. You run up for about a mile then run down an extremely steep trail that puts you close to sea level again. (So steep you have to go slow.) Then it's up, up, up again for a hard 1.2 mile death climb, then more climbing ensues but it's not as relentless. Basically the first three miles are torturous (in a good way), probably some of the hardest running terrain I've ever encountered. It never gets easy, either, because you're always going to push your limits. I like that.

Btw, the last Crystal Cove/El Moro Xterra race I did, I got 1st AG and did well overall I think. Don't know if I ran it that well this past weekend haha. Better believe I'll be racing it this year!

Sunday
70-mile/4-hour bike ride
3.5 mile/28 min t-run

Instead of doing another 5-hour'er in the saddle sans t-run, I opted to cut the ride a little short, go harder and do a t-run after. It was my first time ever doing a t-run after a bike that long. My legs were definitely feeling Saturday's El Moro run big time as soon as I was wheels down, but I just sucked it up and did work. Only took one quick pit stop to pee, which I did at my parents' house. After the 70 miles I was wary about the run. My Garmin had died and I didn't feel like finding my HR monitor, so I ran by feel. I figured in my condition I'd produce 9-min miles, so I settled on doing a 27-min run (I'm all about even mileage numbers haha). The run ended up being 28 min, and I later mapped the route and it was 3.5 miles... hm, a little faster than I expected.

On both Saturday and Sunday afternoons/evenings I was totally worthless. It wasn't just the training, but the nonstop week of stuff that was taking its toll. I was tired, smashed and unable to do anything productive except grocery shop and eat food. It was nice not having 10 million other school or work things to do and even nicer not driving AT ALL... but it also felt weird just being able to relax and chill at my new home. One thing I'm loving in Laguna is exploring all the good eats here in town! The Thai here is to die for. Sara and I found a new Thai place Thursday and I ended up finishing both the main dishes we ordered (curry = yummmmmy). This pic isn't from the night with Sara, but yet another amazing night of Thai:

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Next, grad school. I'm done! Except for comps. But classes are done forever and I can technically now call myself "Tawnee Prazak, MS." Sa-weet! It's weird to think that this grad school adventure is already over. Feels like just yesterday I began, but it's been nearly three years. Good times for sure.

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Last but not least, now that things are starting to calm down a bit I am so excited to start focusing on my work with all of my heart and full attention. I love my jobs and all the great clients and people involved. I'll also try to start increasing the blog frequency ;)