Thank goodness it’s Friday!  I have a packed day, but I’m really looking forward to my packed weekend.  🙂

I woke up to a delicious breakfast:

I made two Hodgson’s InstaBake whole wheat waffles with a little dash of cinnamon added in.

I topped my waffles with 1/4 cup Oikos yogurt, maple syrup, and strawberries.  Yum!

After breakfast, I did some parts of the C&K 10 Minute Strength Routine, including:

• 30 Push-ups
• 100 bicycle crunches
• PT knee strengthening moves
• 10 10-second wall squats

In other news…. My college bestie Bethany and her boyfriend Justin donated to my Team in Training efforts.  Thanks!

Interview With My BFF Lauren

A few weeks ago, I described how one of  my friends, Lauren, sat me down in college and had a life-altering "intervention" with me about my unhealthy habits.  Lauren continues to motivate me with her athletic habits, and she’s even flying from New York to participate in the Disney Marathon with me in January! 

Lauren was one of my bridesmaids and is a great friend.  Here’s Lauren at my wedding (she’s on the left).

What’s so impressive about Lauren is that she works a CRAZY schedule (Sound familiar? Now you know why we’re such good friends!) at a high-powered Wall Street job.  Lauren’s traveled the world for work and even lived in India for several months.  Despite how busy she is, she manages to stay in shape.  Here’s how:

• Question:  You are training for a long-distance triathlon right now, and you work a crazy-busy job.  Tell me readers what a typical training/work day looks like for you.

Lauren:  Training is a bit extreme right now because I am competing in an Olympic distance triathlon in five weeks.  I’m preparing for that by alternating swim/run days with bike days, and then a long bike and a long run on the weekend.  I usually do all my workouts in the morning and swim after work.  This gets tricky though because I need to coordinate around 12-15 hr work days.

• Question:  How do you find time to do it all?!?

Lauren:  Lucky for me I require little sleep.  :)  Seriously though, it definitely helps to have a goal as motivation.  Plus, I eat healthy and really do try to make sure I get enough sleep so I have plenty of energy for my workouts!

• Question:  Why do you like to participate in triathlons or races?

Lauren: The number one reason is I love competing.  I’ve been a runner and an athlete most of my life, but when I started working it was tough to find a team I could play on where I could actually make practices or games on a regular basis, etc, so I started running competitively.  That eventually led to triathlons, which I just started last year.  There is really no greater feeling than running down the home stretch to the finish line, it’s elating!

• Question:  How do you stay motivated to work out when you work so much?

Lauren: It can be hard, but working out is like reverse inertia.  Once you stop it’s really hard to get started again, but once you start it’s almost impossible to stop. Sure, some nights swimming laps seems like a chore, but most nights it’s something I really look forward to.  Working out can be very therapeutic for me, I feel really great and positive after workouts.  Knowing how great I’m going to feel after a workout is great motivation to keep me going.

• Question:  What’s the hardest part of a triathlon?  The bike, run, or swim?  Any tips?

Each leg definitely presents its own challenges, but I would actually say the run is the hardest, and I’m a runner! Going in to my first triathlon I severely underestimated how tired I would be after biking and swimming.  My advice would be not to take the run for granted because once you get to the run you’re going to be pretty beat, make sure you find a balance in your training between all three sports.  My advice would be to stay positive and to break up the race into smaller "finish lines".  Think of each leg as its own little race and then the whole thing doesn’t seem so overwhelming.

• Question: How do you eat healthy with such a busy schedule?

I will admit I did fall off the "healthy eating"  wagon when I first started this job, but that was because I was never prepared and found myself getting very hungry and then overeating or ordering take out to the office everyday. I noticed my mile time was getting slower and I wasn’t feeling that great. Now, I map out all my meals on Sunday and prepare most of my dinners Sunday night also so I have them for the rest of the week.  I pack a full day of meals and take it to work with me, that includes breakfast through dinner plus snacks.  My diet is high in protein, lots of fruits and vegetables, whole wheat products, and very low in fat.

Do you have a friend who motivates and inspires you?