So tired, so tired

Today I did 3 hours on the trainer again. I don't know what I did differently, but I am so tired and sore tonight! Maybe it is the fact that last time I did the ride while the kids were asleep so I was able to just relax, drink my recoverite, eat my PB&J, take a bath, and go to bed afterwards.

Today I did the ride after I put Elle down for a nap at around 2. I tried putting my new stem on, only to find out, after I've taken my bike all apart, that it's too big. I will have to go exchange it. At least I was able to put it back together so I could still ride. (Mindy took this picture, I'm so proud.)

I watched Failure to Launch with Mindy and Ethan. Of all the things to ask me about while watching that movie, they would just ask me why the various animals kept biting him. Elle woke up around the time it ended, then we put in Holes, and Mindy was the only one to really sit and watch that with me. (Poor girl, now she's getting sick.) That's such a good move. An even greater book. You should read it if you haven't. 

I was amazed at how well Ethan and Elle just played, even though they did eat most of the fruit leather.... Elle didn't even have an accident! All day! Yay! I was worried she would while I was riding, but I think Ethan helped her remember to go potty while I was on the bike. 

I got off just in time for dinner in the crockpot to be done. It was Mole, which I didn't really like last time I ate it so I don't know what possessed me to make it. I just knew Pete liked it, and I thought he'd be home in time for dinner, but he wasn't. None of the kids liked it, and I didn't really love it, but I ate it anyway. There is a TON left so if you want some, come on over!

Pete got home at around 9, just before I finally got Elle to sleep. Now I am so tired and my legs are already sore. I wonder if it was not drinking the recoverite when I finished. I don't know. I can't imagine being on the bike for at least 2 times the time I did today. I hope I get used to it! I looked at saddles while I was in the bike shop yesterday, and the one the salesman recommended was almost $200! Would it even make that much of a difference? It didn't look too different than what I've got. Seriously, I need a nice padded one or something. I don't think a small, aerodynamic one is going to really help me that much.

Not The Best Day

This morning my dad called to tell me that my little sister, Sabel, is back in the hospital. As soon as I heard the phone ring, I knew something was wrong, because who would be calling me at 7:30 am?

Calling her my little sister might be misleading. She is 25 and married, but she'll always be my little sister.

She was in the hospital for a week and a half back in October with her heart pumping double what it should have and gaul bladder problems. She was released just in time for Halloween, and she's been doing really well. Or so we thought. Here she is on Christmas with her husband, Garison.

Her heart is working too hard again, and now her lungs are having trouble. They don't really know why. They've got her in the ICU, and they've got something helping her breath. Garison has been up for the past 36 hours watching and waiting with her. He's amazing, we're so glad she has him! He says that she's looking much better than she did yesterday and sounds very positive that she'll make a quick recovery. We all hope that is the case, and we will keep her in our prayers.

Yesterday Pete went down to St. George with some friends from work to go mountain biking. That just leaves me and the kids so I couldn't go to the gym early. Elle is still sick so I couldn't take them in to the daycare either. The only thing I did today, exercise wise, was walk/jog the 2 blocks to the store with Elle in the stroller and Ethan on his bike. It was fun for him to get his bike out, and he only tipped over....well, let's say not as many times as last time. :) There was a lot of snow to run into on the sidewalks, though. I'm very proud of him for being able to ride his bike without training wheels at all. I didn't learn how until I was 7!

I did find a training plan that I think I will start following on Monday. It is even a 20 week plan, so that works out perfectly! And I did go buy that new 60mm stem for my bike ($80 wow!). I'm so excited to get it on, but I'm a little nervous to do it myself. I don't think Pete will be home in time to do it before I need to ride tomorrow, though. I might just have to get the tools out and have some faith in myself.

I might do some core exercises before bed, just to get something in. Maybe I'll run in place for half an hour. Ha. I'm a little jealous of those people who own treadmills at the moment.

New Dimensions

Last night I went to Mike Mamales' house from The Fit Right to get my bike fitted to me. Pete told me it would kind of be like going to the eye doctor, and that's how it was. He kept asking me how I felt and I'd just say, "good." Then he'd change something and ask me which one was better, but I wouldn't even notice a difference. I had that same kind of nervousness I get when I get an eye exam that I'm answering wrong because it's too hard to tell. I don't want to end up with the wrong prescription, and I don't want to end up with the wrong fit either. 

I was also a little nervous having this guy watch me ride as I looked at his little shelf with probably close to a hundred medals, trophies, several plaques saying "1st place," and stuff like that. Not to mention all his Ironman memorabilia on the walls, and tattoo on his leg. It was good, though, and he gave me a lot of good advice. 

I need to relax my hands when I'm in the aero bars or I will get off the bike with tired arms. 

He said my training should peek 3 months before the race, so around March 21. That's way sooner than I had planned, so I really need to get ramping up the miles. That makes me a little nervous, but Pete didn't peek until about a month before his race so I think I'll be ok.

I need to keep my rpms around 90-95, and I need to get some half-hour to hour long bricks in after my long rides, but that my long runs don't need to be more than 20 miles or so. I already knew these things, but it's nice to have them reinforced. 

He made a little mark on the side of my knee with a marker that is the color of dried blood. Today I even saw it and thought, "what did I do to my leg?" It took me a second to remember what it was. Overall he made me a lot more comfortable on my bike, but it still needs a new stem since the one on there is broken and too long for me.  Really the bike frame is just one size too big, but he said it should work. That's the price you pay for a hand-me-down bike. I really don't feel like shilling out a couple thousand dollars for a new one at this point so this one  will have to do.

I didn't think I would try it out today because I was planning on going to Spin class and Yoga afterwards, but that was not in the cards. Elle got sick with a cough and runny nose, and was awake for most of the night (or so it seemed to me) because of it. Well, I can't really take her to the day care like that so I was stuck with riding the trainer. This was probably good, though, because I need to get used to being on my bike. A LOT.

Elle went down for a nap really easily so I had some nice quite time to get on the trainer. I did it for an hour and made sure to do 90 rpm or higher the whole time. It was a good workout. My arms and shoulders felt pretty good, but I was still really uncomfortable on the saddle.  Maybe I just need to get a new one, Mike told me this one is more like a road bike saddle. I wonder if I can get one of those fat, padded ones like they have on the spin bikes. I like those!

And Elle woke up just around the time I got done, in time to tell me she had pooped and peed in her underwear. How nice.

"Anything is possible."

"You can be told that you have a 90-percent chance or a 50-percent chance or a 1-percent chance, but you have to believe, and you have to fight."

-Lance Armstrong

Core Work and Drills

I told myself that when I stop being sore from running, I would start doing abs. I was only really sore for my first week, so now I'm ready to throw more in. I started going through my running magazines, and I picked out a bunch of things I want to start doing. There was one about abs, but apparently doing crunches doesn't really help runners. You've got to really exercise your core. Not only will that make you stronger and faster, but it will also help you avoid injury. I like the sound of that.

Here is the article and the exercises I'm going to start doing.

The other thing is doing drills, which is kind of along the same lines as improving strength and speed and minimizing injuries. I read one article about doing strides, and one about drills (I can't find this one online, but here are some videos of some of the things I read about). I think strides are really a kind of drills so I should just say drills. Doing this speed work will help increase your stride rate (how fast your feet move). "By increasing stride rate, you not only increase your potential to run fast but also reduce the likelihood of injury." Now doesn't that sound wonderful?!

I want to incorporate these drills into my running workouts. The one about drills, that I only have in magazine form, said that you should start doing them about 20 weeks before your race, and that's exactly where I'm at so let's get started!

I went to the gym this morning, equipped to go running and swimming, but I decided to just do running because I was not feeling well and I didn't want to push it. Of course, I left my magazines with my new drills and core exercises sitting on my night stand so I had to go off my memory. We all know I have a terrible memory, but I think I remembered enough. First I ran a mile. Then I did "Superman", "Metronome", and some "planks" though I didn't really know how many to do. I did some lunges, then started running again, to finish out my 3 miles. I also did 6 sets of strides at the end of my run.

It took me about an hour to do all this, and I was totally ready to go home and shower when I was done. Maybe next week, I'll be up to swimming and running in the same trip again.

I'm going to get my bike fitted tonight, and I'm not exactly sure what that will entail so I had that in mind when I skipped swimming too. I'm excited to see how much more comfortable I am on the bike once it's fitted to me. Pete said it made a huge difference for him. I'll let you know!

Stress Relief

It's that time of the month where I start to get depressed, stressed out and lazy. I've found a new fix for this. Baking. Specifically, baking bread since that is kind of a necessary food item that you can feel good about making for your family. Plus you get to work out your frustrations in the kneading. Also you get something yummy to eat if you still need something to make you feel better.

I was feeling pretty stressed, then I made bread, and it just all went away. Now tell me that making bread takes too much time. Wouldn't that kind of time be worth it?

Skipping School

Today I did an hour on the trainer. It was a pretty boring workout, but it was still a workout. Ethan and Elle were watching cartoons and playing around me while I rode, and that gets a little distracting.

I've been so tired lately, and I've been waking up with sore throats. I really hope I'm not getting sick again. Just when I'm getting my training routine down.

Then I went to take Ethan to school, and he would not go in. Yesterday he did the same thing only the teacher dragged him in, and he ended up kicking one of the kids. Man, I would not want to teach preschool. He said he was sorry about it, and the teacher told me that he was good after that, but who does he think he is kicking kids? I just don't know what to do about it. So today I said, "fine." and just took him home, but I told him he doesn't get to watch a movie for a week because of it. He just gets into his little mad moods and I just don't know how to get him to change his attitude. Any suggestions?

Let's multi-task!

Today I dropped Mindy and Pete off, then went up to the gym where I did running AND swimming. We decided it was worth paying a little extra in daycare for me to do both my workouts at the same time for several reasons.

1. It saves on gas (though, this one kind of gets canceled out by the extra daycare cost).
   
2. It lowers my driving which saves me time and is better for the environment. (We'd prefer no more smoggy days, thank you.)
3. It's good for me to get used to doing cardio for longer periods of time (uh, like 14 hours of cradio...).
4. Running is a good warm-up for swimming (I mean, I swam my best last time after running!)

RUNNING:

I remembered to bring my ipod today, but I still don't have a new battery for my watch so I was stuck counting my laps and watching the analog clock they have on the wall. But acording to that watch, I did my 3 miles in about 29 minutes! See how much an ipod can do? It's really hard to run slow when Muse comes on. It's actually really hard not to run so fast that your head explodes when Muse comes on. If you don't have them on your running playlist, I suggest adding them.

SWIMMING:

I went strait to the pool after I finished my 27 laps so my 1 lap with the kick board and 4 with the paddles and pull buoy were kind of a cool down from running AND a warm up for swimming.

After that I rested and stretched for a while until I felt like my breathing was back to normal. Then I attempted to do 10 laps on 1:00 keeping them under around :55 each. I was worried I wouldn't be able to recreate this, but I did it! In fact, when I got done with 10 and it was still on :55 I decided to make it 11.

I rested for a little while then decided to see how many more I could do. This time I only did 3 before I fell behind so I stopped there. Then I did 2 more sets of 3, but this time on :55. That was pretty hard, but I could handle it for 3.

So, overall that was....25 laps.

I got the kids out of the daycare in a little less than 2 hours, so that cost me almost $8. It is nice that I'm all done for the day, though, and I don't have to rush through family night and getting the kids to bed so I can go back this evening. What will I do with myself with all this time?

Oh yeah, I still have the 4 or 5 loads of laundry to do, the dishes, the house to clean, dinner to put in the crockpot (Chicken Makhani, YUM!), kids to pick up from school, ballet to take Mindy too.... It never ends.

21 Weeks to Ironman

I was so tired when my alarm when off this morning. I pushed snooze for 45 minutes. Of course the kids sleep in when we have to get up and get ready for church.  Why can't they sleep in on Saturdays for crying out loud? I should try to start my 3 hour ride earlier next time.

I love Sundays. They are wonderful days to rest and be spiritually uplifted and re-filled. We also went up to Heber today to see my dad, and the kids always love that.  We also got to meet his girlfriend, and she was really nice, very pretty and lots of fun. We like her a lot. 

I made apple crisp, and tripled the topping. It was delicious! Of course, we only indulge like this every once and a while. Or twice.

The kids fell asleep on the way home and stayed asleep when we moved them into their beds. What a perfect day.

3 Hours

The air is MUCH clearer today! We were so happy when we saw blue sky! The sad thing is that smog is still out there somewhere.

Today I did 3 hours on the trainer. I listened to music for the first hour while Pete put the kids to bed, then he came down and put Gatica on for me. Great movie. Thank you Shane and Molly for letting us borrow it.

The movie ended just before my time was up. I tried to keep 90 rpm the whole time, though I'm sure it got a little lower while I was watching the movie. It seems like the hardest part was the last 20 minutes because at 2:40 I told myself, "10 more minutes to cool down." To my legs, I guess that means, "You can stop now." But, I kept going and finished out the 3 hours.

Riding on the trainer is a lot different than spin class and they're both different than riding on the road. I just hope my legs can't tell the difference.

When I got done I made myself some Reoverite and drank that while I stretched. Then I said, "I don't think I've had a peanut butter sandwich today...Oh wait, yes I have. Oh well, I'm having another one." I'm a big fan of the PB&J.

The trouble with starting a 3 hour bike ride at 7 is that you don't get done until 10. Now it's Midnight and I still need to go over my lesson for Young Women's tomorrow. Goodnight.

Donate to Against Malaria

Ever since I signed up for the Ironman, I wanted to have some kind of cause to do it for, but I didn't know quite how to go about doing that. I knew that I wanted to help fight Malaria because it is just such a terrible epidemic that we can do something about. It's unbelievable that so many people, mostly children, are dying from this every day. I have joined a website that you can donate to, and they will use it to buy mosquito nets and they get them to people who need them. They will even tell you where your donation ends up going which is pretty cool. Take a few minutes and help me raise some money. Go to againstmalaria.com/colleensironman to donate.

This morning I took Mindy to school, and did not go to the pool because of the bad air warning. I cleaned up a bit, I did (well, started) laundry, Elle helped me make bread, Pete gave Ethan a drum lesson, and I did not go to the pool.

I usually make our bread because then I know what's in it, and the only bread I can find at the store that doesn't have high fructose corn syrup in it costs $4 a loaf. We are just trying to not eat a lot of refined carbs like white flour and sugar. Let's just not talk about the half-sleeve or Oreos I ate last night. :)

Pete ended up getting a ride up to Bountiful to work from the home of one of his co-workers, and I was going to have to pick him up anyway so I decided to try and get a babysitter so we could go to the gym, even though it was very last minute. Amazingly, the first girl I called said she could do it! I was shocked, and so happy! Usually I have to call at least 2 or 3 girls, and that's even with more warning. An hour later, the amazingly wonderful babysitter showed up. I picked Pete up and we went to the gym.

First we ran. We did this separately because he prefers the treadmill and I prefer the track. I decided to take it pretty easy and do a nice steady 3 miles. I had forgotten my ipod, but I thought I could do my regular pace anyway. Not quite. I ended up doing the 3 miles in about 43 minutes (again, I did not have a digital timer). Super Slow Colleen. There was this one girl running, and I thought, "I can keep up with her" because she didn't look like she was running faster than me, but then, all of a sudden, she passed me! Then she passed me again. And this time she says to me, "You're doing great!" I'm thinking, "What the crap? Do I look that bad? Do I look like I need some encouragement or I might just lay down and die or something?" Of course I didn't say that, I said, "So are you, you're passing me again!" But she just brushes that off and tells me I'm doing a good job again.

This is a weird phenomenon I've also noticed during races when people pass me and say, "good job!" or "you can make it!" or whatever. Sometimes it just makes me feel so happy and I think, "I AM doing good, I AM going to make it!" But a lot of times I just think, "If I'm doing so good, why are you passing me?" Don't get me wrong, those people who give the encouragement are wonderful, and they make the races worth-while, but I have thought it was kind of funny at times when you just feel like, "No, I'm really not doing a good job, please don't remind me."

After running, we moved to the pool. Pete actually was down there 10 minutes before me, so I didn't want to take forever and make him wait, even though normally Friday is my long swim day. I did 4 warm-up laps, then I just decided to do one set of 7 interval laps on 1:00. Pete watched me and gave me pointers on my form. I got done with the 7th lap, and I was still getting under :55 and I still felt good so I said, "one more." I ended up doing 10, and they were all under :55! Plus I felt really good, I felt like I could have kept going. Pete said maybe I've had a breakthrough. I hope he's right. I'm kind of wondering if it was just having him there watching and encouraging me, though. And this is one of those good times for encouragement. Thanks hun. We'll see if I can do it again next time.

Driving on the freeway was like driving through some dreary wilderness. The smog was so thick and low that you could hardly see the billboards or the stoplights or the cars if they were very far ahead of you. When we got home, I asked the amazingly wonderful baby-sitter if it gets like this every year, and she said no. That this year is particularly bad. That's a relief. I was wondering what kind of post-apocalyptical wasteland we've moved into. It's such a shame too, because the Salt Lake Valley is really pretty. They say there's a big storm coming this weekend and that it should clear the air. Let's pray that it does. Maybe it will cover up all the gray snow too.

Hello

I have been keeping one blog on tumblr about my Ironman training, and one on here about my kids and stuff. Well it just got way too confusing and time consuming so, after obsessing and worrying about it for several days, I've decided to kind of combine them and just do this one. I don't know why I've been so worried about it, I don't think anyone is even reading these blogs. But maybe I'm wrong. I've brought all my old posts in, but it might be a little confusing since I posted them all today. Oh well, you'll get the idea. You can always go look at my tumblr blog to see these posts in their natural environment.

Back to the point, though.

Today I went to spin class, and it was great. It was fun and challenging, and the time went by pretty fast. I think I'll start going to it every Thursday. We did a lot of strength work today (hills) so that was good. I hear there are some pretty hard hills on the Coeur d'Alene course. I've noticed that doing hills is still hard, of course, but I think I recover a lot quicker than I used to. When I'm ready to get going again, I look around and a lot of the class still seems to be trying to recover. Of course, I don't know how I look. Maybe to them I look like I'm dying. Don't you hate it how the instructors always look so great with their hair all done and their cute outfits that they hardly even sweat in. I wonder if one of the job descriptions is, "Must look good after an intense, hour-long workout." I don't think I could ever be a Spin Class Instructor.

On the way home from the gym, there was a sign on the freeway that said this: "AIR QUALITY WARNING. TOMORROW LIMIT DRIVING." So I'm trying to decide how I can limit my driving tomorrow. Should I just skip swimming? I don't want to be one of those people who think they are an exception to a rule because they're "training for an ironman", or whatever. I know I'm not an exception, and I don't want to contribute to the smog so I'm going to look into taking a bus or train up to Bountiful, or just skipping it all together. What a bummer.

Inversion

[ Posted Wed, 21 Jan 2009 22:06:00 ]

(not my photo, but this is about what it looks like out there)

“In meteorology, an inversion is a deviation from the normal change of an atmospheric property with altitude. It almost always refers to a temperature inversion, i.e., an increase in temperature with height, or to the layer within which such an increase occurs.

An inversion can lead to pollution such as smog being trapped close to the ground, with possible adverse effects on health.”

Strike 1 against Salt Lake City: Inversion.

I’d heard about inversion, but never really knew what it was or experienced it until now. It is really bad today. Just driving around in the car for half an hour is enough to make my eyes and throat start to sting, and my stomach get upset. Elle said, “I smell pizza,” when we went to pick Pete up. I wouldn’t want to try that pizza, maybe it got burnt or something?

When we first moved here (May 2008), we were so set on not adding to the pollution any more than we need to. We road our bikes and walked everywhere, and it was a wonderful life. It’s hard to do that when you join a gym 7 miles away, it’s 27 degrees outside in the middle of the day, and the air is to polluted to breath. When I picked Min up, a lot of the kids were covering their mouths when they came out. Yuck. I wish I could say I at least tried to drive less today, but I still made 2 trips to the gym (7 miles away) and 2 trips into town (2-4 miles away).

By the time we got home today, and had dinner, it was time to get the kids ready for bed. Pete stayed home with the kids and I got in our big pollution spilling car, and drove past the factories with smoke billowing out of them, to the gym to run by myself. So much for my master plan.

I had a pretty good run, but I was a little disappointed in my time. I didn’t have a digital watch with me, so I don’t have an exact time, but it was around 29:45 for the 3 miles I did. I tried to run at a nice even pace until the last 2 laps of each mile, then I would run as fast as I could, then walk for half a lap before starting to run agin.

If nothing else, training for this Ironman will teach me how to count.

Nap Time

[ Posted Wed, 21 Jan 2009 13:41:00 ]

Oh sweet, beautiful, peaceful, quiet nap time. I actually got Elle to take a nap today! Now I can just sit here and do nothing, a very rare occasion for me. Of course, I’m not really doing nothing, I’m posting on my blog, but that’s close enough.

Today I went swimming, and did 3 sets of 7 lap intervals at 1:00. I tried to keep the laps under :55, though. I did good on the first set, with all my laps at :55 or under except for the last two were :56 and :57. I was ok with that. Then on my second set, I did a couple more around that time. On my last set, I was doing good to stay under 1:00 after my first 2 laps, but I managed to get in from my last lap at :56.

My shoulders (and forearms, now that you mention it) are still a little sore from rock climbing so, that’s gotta be why I couldn’t make them all under :55 right? :)

I tried counting my strokes like, “one one-thousand, two one-thousand, three one-thousand,” and thinking of each stroke as an increment of time instead of just a stroke. I was hoping it would help me be more consistent with my time, and I think it might have helped a little, but obviously it didn’t make me too consistent.

When I got home, Pete called and asked me to bring him his running things so he could run at lunch, and I said, “Sure, my love.” I hurried and packed everything up, and got the kids in the car to get over there before 11:30 when his friends were going to the gym. I made it in time and everything, but as I was driving away, my phone rang and it hit me that I forgot to pack shoes for him! Ah, man, I felt so bad! Oh well, it was all part of my master (subconscious) plan to get him to come running with me tonight. Mwwwa ha ha ha!

I Will Do This.

[ Posted Tue, 20 Jan 2009 16:50:00 ]

I just went to Ironman’s website and watched their Motivational Video. I have to fight back the tears as I watch it every time. This is obviously not shot in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, but it’s almost the same. Seeing them all take off at the start of the swim was quite an amazing site! I’m going to be one of the ones coming in after dark, crying as I cross the finish line. I just know it. Be careful if you decide to watch it, it might make you want to do one too.

Today, I had it all planned out to ride on the trainer for an hour while Ethan was at school, and Elle took a nap, with plenty of time to shower before picking the kids up. Of course, things never work out as planned. Elle wouldn’t take a nap so she ended up sitting downstairs with me watching Dora while I rode. I didn’t get on the bike until exactly an hour before I had to go pick Ethan up so I ended up doing a 50 minute ride, stretching while putting Elle’s pants and shoes on, and rushing to pick the kids up. I wasn’t late though, and I got to enjoy my shower when we got home.

I pushed it pretty hard on the bike, and the cool thing was that my heart-rate was lower on the highest gear then it was when I first started riding on the trainer. That was maybe a month ago. I’d have to be careful and not catch myself watching Dora, though, or my heart-rate would go down. I guess Dora’s not as inspiring as I thought. Elle sure liked it though. She sat there yelling out the answers to Dora’s questions, while I tried to focus on my music. At least it gave me something cute to look at while I rode. Elle, not Dora.

What A Great Day!

[ Posted Mon, 19 Jan 2009 21:54:31 ]

This morning I woke up with my wrist feeling just fine! Wahoo, no doctors for me! Then, after breakfast and clean-up time, we took our kids over to our awesome friends’, Adam and Rachel, house. They were totally willing to watch the kids for several hours while we went and climbed on some rocks. I really appreciated that! Plus our kids love to play with their kids so everyone was excited!

Next, we went and picked up Pete’s friend, Shane, and his little brothers, Justin and Isaac. We decided to go to the sunny side of Black Rocks because we were afraid it would be cold. It turned out to be the perfect temperature, maybe in the 60s. Maybe even a little too warm when we were on the black rock.

I just had so much fun hanging out and climbing with those guys. It reminded me of going climbing with Pete and his friends when we were still dating. Those are some of my favorite memories! I just love hanging out with the guys, I don’t know why, but I’ve never really had that many girl friends, and I’m just not as comfortable around a group of girls. I’m glad I could just be myself and have a good time.

I ended up getting to climb the route twice, and it was pretty hard. I haven’t been climbing in probably 4 years. It was great to get back and do it again. We really need to get back into it. It really made me miss living in St. George, being there in such perfect weather with such awesome surroundings. I love climbing!

After grabbing a pizza and picking the kids up, we loaded the Jeep back up and headed home to the 19 degree weather that we all just love. Brrr!

So, I didn’t do any Ironman training today. Maybe you could consider rock climbing cross training? I’ll be back at it tomorrow for sure. Time for my beauty rest.

If you worried about falling off the bike, you'd never get on.

Lance Armstrong

I Didn't Really Fall Off...

[ Posted Sat, 17 Jan 2009 22:57:27 ]

Last night we filled the Jeep up with Kids, clothes, sports equipment and etc, and drove the 5 hours to St. George where we are staying at Pete’s parents’ house. The kids were all excited about being at Grandma and Grandpa’s house so we didn’t end up getting them (Elle) to sleep until Midnight. Ug. But we had a nice morning with pancakes to make up for it.

At around noon, we left the kids here, and went for a nice bike ride. It is so nice here. It was probably close to 60 degrees today, and it’s 46 right now at 10:00 pm. We rode to Snow Canyon, paid the $3, and rode up it. It was really beautiful. Pete played photographer and took some pictures. Here I am entering Snow Canyon. It was a beautiful ride!

It was a good ride, and I practiced using my aero bars. I traded my road bike for Pete's Tri bike so it's taking a little getting used to.

Going up the last little bit of the canyon was pretty hard. My heart-rate got up to like 173 by the time I reached the top.

When we got to the top, where it opens out onto the highway that I ran the St. George Marathon on, I asked Pete if he wanted to go back down the canyon or along the highway. We had talked about going back down the canyon so we could see if some guys we saw climbing were going to go all the way up the multi-pitch route they were on, but Pete said, “well…”. At this point, I was starting to turn around to go back down, but I think his indecision threw me off or something, and I didn’t look before starting my u-turn. I got half-way around, and there was a car right there! It was hardly moving, but I hadn’t known it was there and it scared me so I turned too sharp and too quick. I just tipped over. It was so embarassing, and as I felt my helmet hit the pavement, I wished I could just dissapear.

Have you ever fallen and just wanted to lay there for a while? I heard Pete rushing over and asking if I was ok, though, so I knew I needed to get up to let him know I was fine. And I was fine, but we were still a little annoyed that the car just went around me and drove off. I skinned my right hand a little, and there were faint scratch marks on my leg, but mostly my left wrist just hurt. I was so mad at myself for doing such a stupid thing. A guy got killed last year doing that exact thing, and I was just lucky the car was going really slow. I was also mad that I hut my wrist because we’re planning to go climbing on Monday and I really don’t want to not be able to go.

I wasn’t too worried, though, and told Pete I was just fine for riding back. I didn’t want to miss the fun down-hill after what we just did! It’s really fun riding down the bike path that goes along the highway. It’s like a roller-coaster with lots of little steep ups and downs.

We were enjoying these ups and downs, when I realized that it hurt really bad if I pushed on the breaks with my left hand. It was still hurting when we came to a lady at the bottom of one of the dips. She had a dog who wasn’t on leash that just walked out right in front of us. I had already crashed once and didn’t want to do it again. I was going pretty fast and had to slow way down so I wouldn’t hit the dog, but now I didn’t have enough momentum to get started again since I was on the hill. I got off my bike, all mad, mumbling, “stupid dog!” under my breath. Not too quiet for the lady to hear, though. I stormed up the hill, my cleats clicking on the pavement, too mad to look at her or say anything directly to her. I heard Pete say, “That dog needs to be on a leash.” When I asked him about it he said, “I should have said, ‘You’re going to get somebody hurt.’” I agreed, and warned the next cyclist we saw that there was a dog ahead. I shouldn’t have gotten so mad, but I think it was amplified by my wrist hurting.

Our ride was about 2 1/2 hours long. I did something to my watch to stop the timer (maybe when I fell?) so I didn’t have an exact time when we got back. I’m always so bad at collecting my data like that. It seems like I always do something to mess my numbers up. Oh well, not a big deal. It was just a fun ride. Well, most of it was fun.

When we got back I put ice on my wrist and babied it while we went to dinner and went shopping. I got an ace bandage to put on it, but I think that actually made it hurt more so I took it off and took some Ibuprofen. It was hurting really bad when it was time to get the kids to bed. They didn’t go down easy either. Finally I just laid down with them to get Elle to go to sleep, and I don’t know exactly when she went to sleep because I think I fell asleep for a little while too. See what I mean about messing up my numbers? :) They were asleep by 10:00, though, and now my wrist is feeling much better. I can even type with it where before I was trying to type one-handed. I’m optimistic that it will be feeling better tomorrow, and that it just needs rest.

It’s interesting to note that last time I was on that rode, I broke my foot running the marathon, and today I hurt my wrist. Do I see a pattern forming? Maybe I should avoid that road from now on.

Who Needs Sleep?

[ Posted Fri, 16 Jan 2009 22:37:30 ]

This morning, Elle woke up at 3:00, and I didn’t get her to go back to sleep until around 4:00 after she had her cheese stick and raisins in her bed. Am I a terrible mother for allowing that? When I got her back to bed, I laid there forever trying to go back to sleep, but I couldn’t. I had too much to think about, and I started getting depressed about my computer being broken, and that I’m not doing wedding videos anymore, and about all the broken doors in our house (Elle’s door is coming off the hinges, and all the closet doors are falling, or already off). Is this what’s going to happen when I skip working out for the day? The night before, after swimming and running, my bed was so comfortable and I slept so good all night. I don’t know when the last time that happened, and it was so nice!

So, no more taking “extra days off.”

This morning, I took my time getting to the gym, but it was OK because Ethan doesn’t have school on Fridays so I didn’t have to rush back. By the time I got there, though, the day care was full so we had to wait around for a while before the kids could go in. Once I dropped them off, I went and swam for 40 minutes straight, after a warm up of 1 kick board lap and 4 pull buoy and paddles laps.

It was a good amount of swimming, I haven’t done a long swim for a while. I wish I could tell you how many laps I did, but I have no idea. I can’t count laps to save my life. Ok, maybe to save my life, but I have to do it like this: I count my laps using letters because I’m also counting my strokes, and that way it doesn’t mess me up. Then, in order to remember what letter I’m on, I think of an animal or object that starts with that letter (I’m around kids all day so this is pretty easy for me), then imagine counting those animals or objects as I count my strokes. I didn’t want to deal with that today though, so I was just counting my strokes. I can do this pretty well for the first 20 laps or so, “one, two, three, breath, four five six, breath…” But at around 30 laps my counting starts to sound like this, “four, five, six, breath, four, five, six, breath…” and I start getting really low stroke counts. Then by the time I get to 40, I’m counting like this, “hmmm, hmmmm, hmmmm, breath, hmmm, hmmm, hmmm…”

The funny thing is that I don’t feel real comfortable in the water until I do 30 laps or so. I need to remember this when I get out in open water. I’m going to feel perfectly comfortable in half an hour so just keep swimming.

Extra Day Off

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 16:10:34

Remember how I was feeling yesterday? Well, you wouldn’t begrudge me an extra day off would you? I mean, I don’t want to get burnt out. I always hear about how you shouldn’t rush into a workout program because you’ll just get burnt out and it won’t do you any good. So, I’m taking the day off.

I’m still going to stick to my schedule, but I just need a little more rest here at the beginning while my muscles are getting used to running again. I probably shouldn’t have pushed it so hard my first day back running, but it was just so fun!

It’s hard not to feel guilty for skipping a day, though. Maybe I’ll find myself on the trainer at 9:00 tonight. :) I’ll try to resist.

Just A Little Pain

So…I’m pretty sore. I can hardly walk. I always forget how running uses pretty much every muscle in your body, and when you haven’t been running for a while, then go run 3 miles pretty hard, those muscles are not going to be happy with you.

I went swimming this morning, and it helped loosen me up just a little bit. I ended up not having as much time as I would have liked (notice a trend here?) because I had to get Ethan to preschool, so I swam for about half an hour. I did 7 laps on the 1:00, but each lap was 55 seconds or under! I was pretty happy with that, even if I did rest for 5 seconds between laps. My first lap was 45 seconds, then 50, then 55 for the rest.

I took a little nap while Ethan was at school so that I don’t get burnt out. Then, I picked the kids up from school, we had a snack and did homework, I picked Pete up and we headed back to the gym. We deposited the kids in the day care there, then Pete and I went up to the track and ran 2 miles. He ended up doing his second mile on the treadmill, though, because the corners are too tight for him on the track. I still like the track better. It was a hard 2 miles because, like I said, I can hardly even walk. Plus I left my ipod in the car so it wasn’t as fun as last time, but it was ok.

I’m hoping in a week or two, I will stop being sore. Then I will probably add some ab work in because you’ve got to be sore right?

Spin, Spin, Spin

This morning, I dropped Mindy off early at school, then headed to the Gym for Spin Class. I got there 10 minutes late, so I was really worried that since the Gym’s been so crowded lately, I wouldn’t get a bike. No problem, though, there were plenty of extra. Since I had come in late, I just kept spinning while everyone else cooled down and stretched, but then the next class was coming in so I had to get off. I was really only on the bike for 40 minutes, not as long as I would have liked, but the intensity was pretty high so hopefully that makes up for it a little.

I put some Queen on for the drive home, and Elle was singing along with “We Will Rock You.” It was pretty cute.

I’m a little sore today. Hopefully I’ll be used to running in a week or two so it doesn’t kill me. I’m going to try and take a nap now, but Elle’s not cooperating very well.

Pain is temporary. Quitting lasts forever.

Lance Armstrong

Oh, Running, My Love...

I’m back!

I went back to the, again crowded, gym tonight to run on their indoor track. Once I got going, I did not want to stop.

It’s 9 laps to a mile, and I did 3 sets of 9 laps, walking for a minute between each. I averaged at a little over a minute a lap, but some of my laps were more like :54, and we figure :53 would be 8-minute mile pace.

I did my last lap so fast. It was awesome, I felt like I was flying by all the other people (ok, so most of them were walking, but still). It felt so good, and I was so into it that when I got to the end of the lap, I didn’t stop and I didn’t even look at my time. I had to run one more lap. Of course, I couldn’t keep that speed up for another lap, but I couldn’t just stop. I’m kind of mad at myself for not looking at how fast I did that lap. I’ll have to pay more attention next time. I also forgot to start my timer at the beginning, so I didn’t get my total time. I was just watching the time of each of my laps, and my dang watch only counts up to 16 laps so I had to add 16 and 13 to get my total laps (29 laps or 3 1/9 miles).

I stretched, then got up to leave, but then my favorite song to run to come on so I ended up running 2 more laps (so that makes it actually 31 laps or 3 1/3 miles). I could have kept running, but I was supposed to be taking it easy so I came home and had a piece of cake. Does that sound like an Ironman or what?

It’s still amazing to me that I love running. But I hate running. When you hear about someone with a love/hate relationship with running, that’s me. I never thought I would love running, though. I thought I would always just have a hate/hate relationship with it. When I was in high school I dreaded the day they would make us run “the mile.” I couldn’t even run the whole thing, and it would about kill me. I HATED running. Even now, when I think about running sometimes, I hate it.

I’d like to say that I also hated running during that last 6 miles of the marathon, but I don’t think I did. It was more like my true love who kept alluding me. I hated having to walk, it felt so slow. I would have loved to run those 6 miles. It felt so good to be running again for real today! I’m so grateful that my foot has healed and that I’m still able run, even after what I did to it.

Back to the Grindstone

Or, in my case, back to the pool. I started swimming again this morning, and I was a little nervous because I’m not quite feeling 100%. Pete reminded me to take it easy, so I just did drills for half an hour. I felt good, though. I had to stop and cough a couple times, but I didn’t feel too laggy or anything.

I’m trying to bring my stroke count down because I know I”m faster when I do fewer strokes, but I just can’t keep it up for more than a few laps. I did 6x6s and pull buoy with paddles and I just tried counting my strokes and focusing on making each stroke count. I was able to do 6 1-minute laps at the end of my workout without too much trouble. I know that’s not too fast, but I’m also working on being consistent.

Then I had to rush home because Pete was there with the kids, and he needed to get to work. He ended up being a little late. Oops. I think I’m going to start going at 6am. Yuck. It’s hard enough getting up at 7:30 to get Mindy to school, and it’s busier at 6:30. That’s ok, I can make it work.

It’s always interesting to go to the gym in January and see the parking lot packed, when just a month ago, it wasn’t half that full. I guess it’s a good thing that people are making New Years resolutions, but it kind of makes me sad that not everyone sticks to it. I hope they do this year. I hope I do too. :) Of course, I have to or I just might die in June.

Sick Days

I haven’t done anything since last Friday (a whole week ago!) when I did a really pathetic swim workout. It was pathetic partially because I took my 6-year-old daughter with me to give her little swimming lessons between my sets, but it was also pathetic because I was getting sick. I was really having a hard time making my 55 second laps, so when I could see that she was getting really cold, I decided to get out even though I had one more set of 6 to do.

That night I got a fever and felt awful, and I’ve been sick ever since with this dang cold and pink eye - care of my beautiful, but not germ-free daughters.

Whenever I miss a workout I get really scared.

I hope this doesn’t come back to bite me. When I was training for the Marathon, I hurt my hip and ended up taking like 3 weeks off, and that really did me in. Pete suggested I just drop out of the marathon because I have something bigger to train for, but I thought I’d be fine because my hip got better and I got some good long runs in. Unfortunately for my heel, I didn’t do quite enough long runs. I ended up with a stress fracture which made me unable to run the last 6 miles of the marathon, and unable to run for the next three months.

Ok, I’ve done 2-20 minute runs since then, but does that even count? I’ve been planning to get back into running with the new year. That meant this week. Now I’m sick, so it will have to be next week. I’m hoping that this is early enough in the season that it won’t hurt me too badly. I know that I need to give my body rest when it needs it, that’s just as important as getting the hours in training. I hope.

Being sick has also gives me a lot more time to spend on the computer. I’ve been thinking today how much I miss making wedding videos. I don’t have anything to be passionate about right now, other than my husband, my kids, swimming, biking and running…. Anyway, I was thinking I’d like to try and get back into it, but I think that will have to wait until I’m done with the Ironman like everything else. I’ll be plenty busy this spring without a bunch of weddings to go to, and I would like to see me family a little bit. I sure do love weddings though.

It does not matter how slow you go so long as you do not stop

-Wisdom of Confucius

In Training

I am officially “In training” for an Ironman.

It will be June 21, 2009 in Coeur d’Alene Idaho. Swim 2.4 Miles, Bike 112 Miles, and run 26.2 Miles. That’s all I have to be able to do.

I’ve been doing Triathlons for about 3 years now, and I am addicted. It started out with a Sprint in 2005 and 2006 at Jordanelle, then I did 4 more in 2007 (St. George, Echo, Spudman, Jordanelle). In 2008 I did my first real Olympic distance in the St. George Tri, and again at Echo. Please don’t remind me that I have never even done a half.

In July of 2008, my husband, Pete, did the Coeur d’Alene Ironman, and I watched it. Being there amidst all the excitement, and spending all day cheering myself hoarse, made me want to do it. I had already signed up for the St. George Marathon with my college roommate, Rachel, so I figured since I’m already doing that, now would be a good time. As I was considering signing up the next day, Pete’s friend called him and asked him if he should sign up. I said, “Tell him I’ll do it if he does it.” Of course, this wonderful friend went ahead and signed us up.

So I’m doing it, and my goal is to be faster than Pete. His times were: 1:32:12 swim, 7:53:19 bike, and 5:58 run with the total time at 15:44:48. That’s number 1796 out of 2058 people. Pete’s not doing it this year, he’s my coach.

I know, I’m crazy.

Marathon Musings

(Written after the St. George Marathon, October 5, 2008)

I must start out by saying that this week I have had a really bad cold (starting Tuesday). I had been praying really hard that I would be better by today (Saturday) so that I would be able to run the marathon. I was feeling a lot better yesterday, but still a little congested and not quite 100%. Then, this morning, at exactly 12:00 am, I woke with a start, sitting up in bed and coughing like my life depended on it. It actually felt like I had swallowed water or something. Once my coughing fit was over I was feeling pretty good, and was able to go right back to sleep for the night. I woke up feeling fine (other than my nerves) and I didn't even have a problem with my cold during the race, it was like I just had to cough it all out. Quite miraculous I think.

Of course, I did wake up at 3:30 am and kept checking my alarm to make sure it would go off at 4. I was planning on meeting my college roommate, Rachel (who got me into this whole thing), at 4:45 at the park across the street from Pete's parent's house, where we are staying. They had a billion school busses lined up to take the 7,000 of us up to the start of the race just past Veyo.

It started raining lightly while I was waiting for her, and this rain was relentless. I was able to stay dry with the tin foil blanket Rachel brought for me, until the race started, and I threw it off after about the first mile. I started out running with Rachel and 2 of her friends from California, and this was really fun. I didn't feel like we were running too fast, but we were making good time. They declared that we would talk about our first or most awkward kiss at mile 4, and at mile 8 we would make up a rap. I never got to help with the creation of the rap, though, because just after mile 7 we got to the big hill. My knee started hurting a little and I decided it wasn't worth trying to stay with them, though I kidded myself that I would catch up to them on the downhill. Of course, this never happened as they would have gone faster on the downhill as well.

It was still raining pretty hard, and by mile 13 I was listening to the sound of the rain hitting the brim of my hat, other people's shoes squishing and my soaking wet pant legs hitting together at every step. At mile 14, I folded my pants up into shorts. I was soaked to the bone, and my teeth started chattering periodically from here on out. Luckily I had my jacket. A lot of people were just wearing tank tops and shorts. Brrrr.

When I got to mile 17, I was triumphant in the fact that this was the farthest I'd ever run, but I was also starting to feel like it was never going to end. Then my left foot started hurting (on top of my right knee that was almost a constant ache now). I don't know if I stepped on my foot funny at some point or if it was just from all the pounding on the pavement, but it felt like it was something more than just sore. By the time I got to mile 20, it was 11:00 which was when I had told everyone to start watching for me. I saw a lady in an orange parka walking and telling someone on her cell phone that she was going to be later than she expected. I asked her if I could use her phone to call Pete when she was done, but he didn't answer. I decided to try running again, but I didn't get too much farther before I had to start walking again and she caught back up to me and I decided to just walk it with her. Her name was Kim, and we had a nice time talking and helping each other forget the pain. At about mile 23, we called our loved ones again, and this time I was able to get a hold of Pete so he knew about when to meet me. By now we had gotten in to a pretty good walking pace, and she said if it weren't for me she probably wouldn't have been walking so fast. Luckily, I'm just naturally a fast walker, and this wasn't hurting my foot too much.

The 5:30 pace girl passed us when we had about a mile left. We tried to run a little, but my foot would hurt so bad, I couldn't stand it. Finally, when we were just about to the finish line, Rachel came out to run in with us (she had finished just under 4:30!), then I saw/heard Katie and her friends cheering very loudly for me, then I saw Pete with the kids and his mom. I'm always so happy to see them! I was able to hobble-run across the finish line, holding hands exultantly with Kim as we crossed it together. What a relief! We finished in 5:39:57.

I was so cold, and they had ice cream at the finish line. I never wanted ice cream less in my life. I was so happy to be staying across the street! I limped back and got in a nice hot bath.

All in all, I'm glad I did it, and I'm glad I stuck it out and finished it, but it was pretty miserable, and I can't say I'm excited to do it again at the end of Ironman. I'll be better prepared, though. And hopefully it won't be raining the while time. :)

Echo Tri 2008

(Written July 12, 2008)

It was a very fun and busy day. It started out when we got the kids out of bed at 5am and loaded them into the car to head down to Echo Reservoir for my triathlon. Pete and the kids dropped me off, then went to breakfast and stopped in Heber. I haven't got my results yet, but I did get in under 4 hours, and that was all I hoped for so I was happy. My legs are not so happy, though.

Results of my tri: My overall time was 3:34:05.25 with the swim being 33:29, bike 1:40:00 and run 1:12:22. I was dead last in my age group. Dang it. Oh well. In order to place in my age group, I would have to be almost an hour faster. Ug. I've got a lot of speed work ahead of me. I was happy with my swim time, though. Especially considering my last swim time!

St. George Tri 2008

(written May 11th, 2008)

Oh. Man.

Yesterday was the long-awaited and slightly dreaded St. George Triathlon. I wasn't too worried about it. I was a little nervous about the run, but I actually have been really enjoying my 6-mile runs, so I thought it would be fine. I hadn't even considered the weather as a real player in the difficulty of the race. It was really cold and windy when we got there at around 6:30am, and we were really glad we had decided to buy some wetsuits a few days earlier. Pete was in the first wave to go, and I had lost him long before he got into the water so I didn't get to really watch him go, just his group of Intermediate (Olympic) distance guys under 35 or whatever it was. Then the 35 and older Intermediate guys went, and then all the Intermediate women. This was me. It looked like a long ways, and it was quite wavy, but I still wasn't really worried.

The gun went off, and as usual, it was pandemonium. Usually I am able to relax and just swim. This was not the case this time. Having people hitting me and running into me was just icing on the huge waves cake. I hadn't realized how bad the waves were until I started swimming. By the time I got about half-way to the first buoy, I was starting to panic. I was thinking, "This is stupid, I could die out here!.“ And I was just praying that I'd make it out of there alive.

There was a guy in a kayak a little ways away so I changed direction and swam over to him. He was like, "Do you know you're going to wrong way“ I nod. "Do you want to hold on to my kayak?“ I nod. "Oh, Ok.“ I held on to the front of his kayak for a few minutes trying to calm myself down (This is allowed, and will not disqualify you). Then he asked me if I wanted him to signal to them to come get me, but I didn't want to just give up because I was scared.

Pretty soon another girl came over to join me. She said she wasn't feeling well so I thought she would be getting out. We hung out there for a few more minutes, then I said, "I hope you feel better,“ and decided to set out again towards the first buoy.

I made it around the buoy, then I saw a couple boats with a lot of the swimmers climbing onto them. Those boats looked really tempting. Just as I was trying to talk myself into going on, the girl from the kayak caught up to me and said she wanted to keep going so she could do the bike and run, and that she was just going to go from kayak to kayak if she had to. This tipped the scales and I said, "I'm with you.“ So the two of us set out on our long journey to the finish line.

There was one other guy in the water behind us, but he ended up passing us. By the time we got to the next buoy, we had a kayak just going along beside us. That was very comforting and gave us something to focus on other than the waves. They kept asking us if we were ok and just kept an eye on us. There was also a guy on a jet ski, a few boats and a helicopter. It was just like we were out in the ocean, having waves even breaking on our faces sometimes. We swallowed a lot of water.

I was noticing that no one else was in the water, and around this time, we found out that they had canceled the swim for all the sprint waves, so we were the last wave into the water. Once we had decided to just take it slow, and we had all those people watching us, I felt a lot better and even kind of enjoyed it at some points. I finally got around to asking this girl, who had become my new best friend, her name. It was Crystal.

When we got to the end, and Crystal said, "can you touch?" and I could, I said, "Yes!" Then we were both laughing and hugging. We helped each other unzip our wetsuits (we were NOT cold anymore!), and started jogging to the transition area. The race director or someone, came up to us and was all excited. He was like, "You're the last ones out, but here's why: We cancled the sprint swim. (we were like, "we know") You guys are awesome!" We had been in the water an hour and 9 minutes.

I can't even explain the feeling of accomplishment and relief it was when our feet touched the ground. I don't know if I've ever been so happy! It was a great feeling, and I was just so happy after that, all through the bike.

Then I got to the run. It was really hard. I was pretty much running/walking by myself the whole time, and when I finished the first lap, it goes right by the finish line. Pete was there cheering and waving me on, thinking I was finishing. But just started crying, "I'm not done." So, I headed out on my second lap.

But by now, at least I was getting into the rhythm and was feeling better. Crystal had just finished before I got there and she ran a little ways with me, talking to me and giving me even more encouragement. Then she told me she'd be waiting for me, and I plunged on into the sand and up the big hill. I felt sooooo good when I finally came running in the finishing stretch. What a relief, again, and I was so happy that I hadn't given up! My total time was 4 hours and 35 minutes. Here's a picture of me and Crystal just after I finished.

A lot of people DID drop out (looks like 55 on the race results), and I was #83 out of the 84 that finished. I got a little sunburnt, but other than that, and a cough I think I picked up from getting too much water in my lungs, I feel fine today. What an adventure! When I got up this morning, my dad said that Ethan told him, “Mommy didn’t give up.” What a great Mother’s Day present to be able to have my little boy say that! Now, on to Echo Triathlon and the St. George Marathon. But first, I’m going to take a nap.