My Ironman Cap

Thank you so much for your sweet comments on yesterday's post! One, in particular, about made me cry, and it wasn't even from someone I know. I get in these "nobody likes me" moods sometimes even though those are supposed to go away once you graduate from high school, right? Sometimes I just wonder why anyone would want to read my blog, and I want everyone to like me. I tell myself that I doesn't matter what people think and that I should do what I want, but I think I'm thinking that just because I think it's what other people would want me to think! Haha I'm a little crazy like that. Anyway, it really means a lot to me whenever you comment and I can see people are actually reading and enjoying my blog. I guess I'll just keep doing what I've been doing, but I will try to add more pictures like this one of George being my coach while I rode on the trainer yesterday:

He seriously sat there and watched me ride for 45 minutes! Isn't he the best? I really love this kid!

This morning I wore my Ironman swim cap to the pool. I haven't worn it since the big day for sentimental reasons, but I couldn't see the one I usually wear in my bag. (Turns out it was in there, but I couldn't see it because it was dark.) I knew this one was just hanging on the wall so I grabbed it. I didn't want to seem like I was showing off by wearing a swim cap with "Ironman" on it, plus it still has my race number written on it in marker. How tacky. :) But I decided to use this swim cap as inspiration for the day. To remember why I was there, what I've accomplished and what I hope to accomplish this year. And I really think it worked!

My workout today was 4 x 75 with the last 25 in each backstroke to warm up, then 3 x 400 (easy, medium, hard) as my main set, and 200 cool down. So a total of 1700 yards.

My first 400 took me about 8:06 (counting stopping to fix my goggles once).

I did my second one in 7:42 and I thought, "Wow, that was quite a bit faster! I wonder if I can knock 20 seconds off again." So that's what I tried. It was pretty much all out for the whole 400, and I tried to cut at least 5-6 seconds off the clock each lap. I decided I really like doing 400s because it's long enough to use some endurance, but short enough that you can really push it!

I finished in 7:13! What?! That made me really happy, I'm pretty sure I've never done 400 that fast before! I was excited to have finished one in 7:50 last week!

While I was swimming, I thought a lot about how excited I am to be doing a half ironman this year, which I've never done. When I was training for the full Ironman, it was all pretty much about getting to where I could finish before the time cut off and not die. I didn't really worry about speed very much. Now I've done that so I know I can do the distance and I can really work on some speed this year! When I get a little farther into my training, I'm going to set a time goal, and make it a hard one.

As I was recovering from that awesome 400, the guy next to me (the same guy who told me I was fast last week) asked me if I knew how to do flip turns. I told him I kind of did, but that I never do them because I get water in my nose. I tried to kind of teach him how to do it, but I'm not a good teacher for that since I don't really do them my self. It did make me want to try a few, though. And, yes, I still get water in my nose when I do them!

What about you? Do you do flip turns? If so, how much of a time benefit does it give you? I've always justified not doing them because they don't really help me out in a "real life" situation since you don't do flip turns during a tri in open water.

Help Me Help You

Glancing back over my last few posts is really overwhelming. Why didn't you guys tell me my posts are so ridiculously long? All of them! I'm going to try and condense my thoughts a little better from now on, and be a little less specific and rambly about each individual workout. Seriously, does anybody really care what I was thinking about at mile 3 on my run yesterday? Should I even tell you about my workouts at all if I've got other things on my mind?

Of course, if you like the detailed accounts I give of every single thing, I'll be happy to keep it up. :)

I have a really hard time expressing myself, and I'd like to do some more theme-based posts. This leads me to some questions for you:

• Which of my posts have been your favorites?
• Is there anything you'd like to know about my training or just me in general? If so, please ask away!
• Do you have any basic triathlon questions you'd like to ask me?
• What topics would you like to read about?
• How can I get people to comment more? (haha)

Pretty much give me any feedback you have. I'd love to hear from each of you, and I could really use some tips to help make this blog better. Thanks!

Foot update: Today was a swim/trainer ride day, and I was a lot more careful with my foot. I kept it wrapped up all day, and tried not to walk around on it at all unless I had it wrapped up and shoes on. I also iced it several times whenever I had the chance. It's been feeling really good so I'm thinking one more day of this treatment, and I should be good to go for the 5k on Saturday! I'm excited for my first race of the season!

I'm Free

Last night I dreamt that I went for my run and it hurt my ankle really bad so when I woke up, I was extra nervous about running. I got up with George at about 5:15, but didn't get out of the house until 6:10 because I just kept putting it off.

Starting out was really delicate and I was kind of limp-running, but after a mile I was feeling pretty good. It did take me almost 14 minutes to get there, though. I stopped and stretched, then just decided to head home. When I got to the street I needed to turn on, though, my feet just kept going strait and I kept running. It was so great to be out running again!

I ran around a little more, never getting much farther than a mile from home, and got back to the house after 3.5 miles. That was my plan last night, to do 2 3.5 mile loops. I stopped inside to use the bathroom and checked the time. It was already 7:05. I wanted to run some more, but I'd told Pete I would be back by 7:30 so I didn't have time to finish the 7 miles. I decided I had time for 2 more miles, though, and headed back out. It kind of hurt to start going again, but soon it was feeling fine. There was kind of a dull ach the whole time, but it never got worse so I took that as a sign that it was ok to keep running. I actually felt great for the last half mile, and really didn't want to stop!

I was so happy that I was able to run without much pain! I ran 5.69 miles and it took me 1:17. Even though I didn't do my 7 miles, I was running so slowly (average pace was 13:35) that it took me the time it would usually take me to run 7 so I think that's good enough. After all, the point of the long run is to get your body used to running for a long time.

I was so excited to be "better" that I wasn't careful again, just like yesterday, and now my ankle is really sore again. It didn't help that I went and tried on new shoes so I was shoving my foot in and out of shoes a million times. I just had finally had it with my narrow Bioms and having my feet hurt after every run. Maybe that's just the way it is, but I don't remember having any problems with my feet until I started wearing those shoes. On the other hand, they really did help fix my running form, and I think they might have even helped me get a little faster (last year, I'm still slow this year!) so I was really hesitant to switch them out. I don't want to lose anything I've gained from them, but I want a wider shoe.

I finally decided on the Nike Free. I, of course, haven't tried running in them yet, and I'm still not sure if it was the right choice since they didn't have all the shoes I've been wanting to try. I just always have buyers remorse whenever I buy anything. I just hate spending money. I'll let you know how it goes. I have a 5k on Saturday so that might be when I try them out.

Foot Update

Just a quick update. :)

Lets see, I hurt my foot on Wednesday, went swimming on Thursday then took Friday, Saturday and Sunday completely off.

Sunday, we had a little adventure because our washer totally flooded while we were at church. Luckily Pete had stayed home because he wasn't feeling well, so he stopped it from being much worse! It flooded the basement a bunch, and Pete used every towel in the house, and some blankets, trying to sop up the water. It's kind of funny because my sister was in town for Easter and had brought her laundry to do while she was here. It was her first load that the washer broke on, and her clothes were all soaking wet so we took them to the laundry mat to finish them up. First we went to the one just a few blocks from our house, and the place was packed! Why were so many people doing their laundry on Easter Sunday?! Seriously, there were no open machines and everyone looked at us like we were crazy when we walked in, so we drove down to the next closest one. This one was much bigger, nicer and practically empty. Weird. Anyway we got her laundry all done, and a diaper load because I didn't want to run out before we got our washer fixed, then went home to have a really fun and delicious Easter dinner with my brother and sister-in-law who got there while we were at the laundry mat.

That night I was heading to bed early so I could wake up and swim, when I realized there were no clean towels. At first I though, "oh well, I just won't bring a towel, I've done it before." Just because it was an accident last time doesn't mean it didn't work out. :) Then I realized that we still had the dish towels so I just packed a couple of those to bring with me, and went to bed. When Pete came to bed later, he told me that he'd washed a towel by hand for me, and put it in the dryer! Isn't that the sweetest thing ever? What a great husband I have! He was like, "No wife of mine is taking a dish towel swimming. " It was really nice of him to do that, and I enjoyed a full-size towel Monday morning at the pool.

Of course, Monday morning I slept in and had to cut my swim a little short, but it was still a good swim. It was my long day, and instead of doing 1500 for my main set, I just did 750. It was kind of fun towards the end because I was watching the clock and trying to cut 3 seconds off each lap, and I was able to finish in 14:47 . Or around that, and that included having to stop and fix my goggles on like the second to last lap. It's so much nicer swimming when you don't have water in your goggles! Speaking of goggles, does anyone have goggles that don't make you have raccoon eyes for half the day after swimming?

Today I got up and was so happy to find my foot feeling pretty much better. I was able to walk on it pretty much without limping, and very little pain! Yay! So, I did an hour-long trainer ride, and really pushed it. I did a 15 minute warm-up on the small chainring, then shifted to the big one and did 5 minute on, 5 minute off high intensity intervals for half an hour (So I guess just 3 intervals). With each one I'd click it up one gear harder so that by the end I was on the hardest gear. I really felt that! Then I did a 15 minute cool down and stretched. I was so happy that my foot didn't hurt at all on the bike! I was able to completely forget about it!

After that ride I pretty much decided I would be fine doing my long run tomorrow. It's only 7 miles so it's kind of a short long run, and I think I'll do 2 3.5 mile loops just in case it does hurt, then I won't be so far away. I'm getting more nervous about it now, though, because after a day of feeling like my foot was better, not icing it, not wearing compression socks, not wrapping it, not taking ibuprofen, and walking around on it a lot, it's pretty sore. I''m icing it now, and just hoping that it will feel good when I wake up and try to run on it. If not, I guess I'll wait.

Sitting Around

Ahhh, this is my second day of just sitting around and I already feel like I'm going crazy!

My foot feels much better, though! I was so nervous getting out of bed this morning, but I can almost walk on it normally now! I'm not going to, though. I'm going to baby it for another day.

I was tempted to do a trainer ride too, but decided against it. Partially because I didn't want to hurt it more, but mostly because I'm hopeful by how much better it was today. I'm thinking that if I do the same thing as yesterday, my foot will feel this much better again tomorrow and I'll still be able to do my long run! That's my hope.

My sister just texted me that she did 9 miles today! Way to go, Katie! She's doing such a great job! It only makes me want to get out and run more, though. Please, please, please be better tomorrow!

Or is that crazy to try to run again so soon? What do you guys think I should do?

Not an Injury!

Things have been going so well with my training. I've been getting all my workouts in, working really hard and loving it! So, what do I do? I go and hurt myself, of course!

Yesterday morning, I slept in and made cinnamon french toast for everyone, so I didn't get to the pool until George's morning nap. It was a pretty quick workout: 250 warmup, 2 x 500 for the main set, and 250 cool down for a total of 1500 yards.

When I got home, I thought about just heading right out on my run, but just as I was thinking that, George woke up. By the time I got him fed and taken care of, it was time to take Elle to her play date. I had planned on doing my run while she was there, but when I got home George showed no sign of sleeping and I didn't want to leave him with Pete awake because he had work to do. So I just sat around waiting for him to fall asleep, getting more and more depressed about my day not going as planned. I kept thinking, "I shouldn't have slept in." or, "I should have just ran from the gym real quick instead of waisting time walking home." When he finally went to sleep, it was time to pick Elle up which would use up most of his nap time. I was being pretty grouchy about this, and Mindy said, "You're nicer when you run." Oops.

I decided I would just run later in Heber since we were heading up there to visit my dad after lunch.

Even after I decided this, I still felt kind of depressed and it took me a little while to fix my attitude. I knew it would be nice to run in Heber so I just kept telling myself that. I don't know what my problem was. I need to be more flexible and not get so upset when things don't go exactly as planned. It's hard because I have to plan out my days in order to get all my workouts in, and it's scary when that gets messed up because the chances of me running in the evening are very, very slim. I always hate working out at night.

We got in the car, I turned on some Vampire Weekend, and we stopped at Ruby Snap on our way out of town. They have the most delicious cookies known to man, especially during April when the cookie of the month is Billy Ann (a coconut carrot curry cookie with coconut cream frosting = Heaven!). This helped my mood considerably!

We got to my dad's house before he got home from work so we just relaxed for an hour. When he got home, he gladly took George (who was being a dream baby of course) so I could go run. I headed out on what I thought was a 5 mile loop that I used to do when I lived there. It took me about 5 steps to look around at the mountains and be so grateful to be running there! It was so beautiful. After about a mile, I passed a heard of shaggy cows. I tried to take a picture, but you can't really tell what they look like.

After another mile I realized that it was not going to be a 5 mile loop so I decided I'd just add a mile on at the end. I was having a nice time and felt really good so this didn't really bother me.

There's a small section of this loop that goes on the highway so I ran clear off the road in the gravel. It was uneven, but nothing crazy. Besides, I want to do a lot of trail running this summer so I figured this would be good practice. Well, I must have taken a wonky step or something because when I had about 2 miles to go, my ankle started hurting.

I stopped to take this picture, then regretted it when I started running again because my ankle was really hurting.

I decided to try to run it off, and that I just wouldn't add the extra mile on the end if it kept hurting too much. After a little while, it did start to feel better, and I was putting in a really good pace on the downhill!

I hit 4 miles and decided my ankle was ok, and that I really wanted to make it to 5 miles so I kept going. I really shouldn't have done this! It started hurting more, but I still brushed it off as sore muscles from not being used to uneven ground. I got home, to this lovely site:

I stretched really good, and thought it wasn't going to be a big deal because it wasn't really hurting. Then I stood up. Ouch. Ok, it still hurt. They didn't have anything to ice it with there so I didn't get ice on it until we got home, about 3 hours later. By then I knew it was really hurt and spent the rest of the evening with ice on it, hoping it would feel better in the morning.

When George woke up during the night, though, I almost cried when I stepped out of bed and put my weight on my foot! I got another ice pack when I went back to bed, still hoping it would feel better in the morning.

It seemed worse this morning, though. I could hardly walk on it! I got up at 6:00 then woke George up and fed him real quick before I went to the pool. This seems to work the best for making sure I'm back before he's hungry again, and he goes back to sleep really well.

I felt like an idiot, limping into the rec center, but I just wanted to see how it felt swimming. If it hurt, I'd just get out, if not there was no reason why I shouldn't get my long swim in.

My workout was 6 x 100, concentrating on different part of stroke each 100 for the warmup. Main set: 4 x 400, keeping each 400 even pace, (alternate 3 x 400), and 2 x 150 pull to cool down for a total of 2500 yards.

It didn't really hurt my foot to swim. I just had to be careful about pushing off the wall, and I'd get a twinge of pain if I flexed it wrong or something, but it wasn't bad. I tried to focus on my form and swim hard, but I couldn't stop thinking about my foot. Worrying about how long it will take to get better, wondering if I'm going to have to skip my long run this week and get even farther behind on my training plan. We're supposed to be at 10 miles, but I was already planning on doing 8.5 instead. Now, who knows!

I finished the 3rd 400, and thought about doing the alternate choice and being done because I did have a hurt foot after all. I was standing there contemplating this, when the guy next to me said, "Hey, you're pretty fast! You're way faster than me!" All I could think to say was, "Thank you," and smile like an idiot. That just totally made my day! He wasn't an old guy or anything either! All thoughts of finishing early left my head, and I hit my last 400 really hard! I think I did it in under 7:50! The other ones were all close to, or even a little over 8:00.

The moment of truth came when I got out of the pool. OUCH! I had to limp pretty badly to the locker room, then back to the car. I really can't put much weight on my foot without it hurting really badly. I was almost crying when I got home, and had decided to go to the doctor as soon as possible. Then Pete looked at it and said it really just seems like a sprain so I decided to wait a day or two and see what happens. I've been trying to ice it and stay off it as much as possible today. Luckily, today seems to be one of George's sleepy days. Let's just hope it feels better tomorrow!

My Bike

Ah, spring break! This morning was so nice not to be rushed at all. I was able to sleep until George woke up at 6:30 (though he did wake up at 1:30 too). I fed him, got him back to bed, had breakfast and got ready to go then decided that I'd just ride my cruiser over to the gym.

When I got out there, the tire was totally flat, and I don't think I would have been able to get it out of the garage anyway because the car was in the way.

Ok, so I ran back inside and grabbed Pete's keys to just take his car, and ran back out. I went to turn the car on, and it was dead! I had left the lights on all night. Dang it!

For a second I thought I'd just walk, but I was kind of limping because my heel was hurting from this weird lump I discovered Sunday night. It's kind of painful and I wonder if I should be worried about it. I was able to run on it ok since I don't land on my heels anymore (thank goodness), but walking and standing around kind of hurts.

I ran back inside again to switch keys, and got in the Jeep, wondering if there was going to be something wrong with it too, but luckily there wasn't! I got to the pool at about 7:15, then my swim was pretty quick, lasting only about 35 minutes so I was home long before George woke up again. It was a speed day and I did 10 x 100s on 2:00, and here are my times:

1:57
1:57
1:52
1:54
1:54
I rested for one minute here.
1:57
1:54
1:57
1:54
1:51

Total Distance: 1500 yards

After I got home and made breakfast (I love me a good second breakfast!), I hung out until George went to sleep again before heading out on my bike ride. It seemed like a pretty nice day so I really excited to ride outside again!

When I first started the wind was a little nippy on my ears, but I warmed up after about 10 minutes then I was happy as a clam! I did about the same route as Saturday, but turned around sooner since it was only supposed to be for an hour.

I ended up going for 1:05 and covered about 16 miles. It was a really fun ride, but I was kind of hoping I'd gone farther than that! I've decided to try for an average of 20 mph at both Echo and The Utah Half. Is that too ambitious? I just really need to push myself on my mid-week rides.

My Bike

A while ago, someone asked me in the comments what kind of bike I recommend so I thought I'd talk about that for a minute. (sorry it took me so long!) I'm not really a good person to ask about this kind of thing because I've really only ridden one brand of bike, but I'll try to tell you about that.

I started out riding the bike Pete bought when he signed up for his first tri. It's a Giant road bike... I don't know what it's called or anything like that. It's the silver one. I remember when Pete first taught me how to ride it, I was so nervous, and I never thought I would be comfortable clipping in! I didn't even use it for my first tri because Pete was using it. I had just done a lot of spin classes then rented a bike for the race. I don't know what kind of bike that was either. That was a long time ago!

After we moved to Heber, Pete got a job at Pearl Izumi in Park City so he could get a really nice discount on bikes and gear. He bought 2 more Giants: a tri bike and a mountain bike. He started training for Ironman and the road bike now belonged to me!

Not a very good picture of the bike, but it was the only one I could find.

I loved that bike! I started riding a lot and getting more and more into triathlon, and I did get used to clipping in. I can't imagine trying to ride without clipping in now!

Then I signed up for my Ironman and Pete was ready to take a break so we just switched bikes. I was actually really hesitant to do that because I was so used to my bike and didn't want to change. Here I was again on a bike that made me nervous, and I never thought I'd be comfortable in the aero bars. I was wrong again. I got the bike fitted to me, and just started riding it a lot so I got used to it pretty quickly. Now I seriously love my bike!

This is the Giant Trinity Alliance. The top part is Carbon and the bottom is Aluminum. It feels smooth and fast. It shifts nicely and is really comfortable.

I joke around a lot about getting a new tri bike, but I'm not sure what I'd want. Sometimes I find myself drooling over the old (2009) blue and gray Cervelo P2. Isn't it just beautiful?!

The P2 is what Chrissie Wellington rode when she won her first world championship.

And sometimes I think the Cannondale Slice is what I'd get if I had an extra couple grand since that's what she's riding these days. (Big fan much?)

But, really, I'm happy with what I have. It's a great bike!

So, there you go. That probably doesn't help at all! But I do know of a couple ladies who are selling some nice Cervelos if you want to check them out:

Cervelo P2SL -I would totally buy this one if I didn't have a bike. I think it's a bit lower end than mine since it's all Aluminum, but, again, I don't know much about bikes since I haven't ridden many. Love the color!

CerveloP3C -a much higher end bike than mine, but probably more than a slow girl like me needs!

What kind of bike do you ride? What do you like/dislike about it? I'd love to get some feedback here in the comments!

Mile Intervals

Pete thinks its funny that I kind of think of my blog friends as real friends. But they are real people and they really do affect my life and inspire me! Today while I did my speed work I was channeling the Boston Marathon runners and thinking about the ones I "know," Sam, Page, and Adrianne (who had a baby even more recently than me, and yes, I said she was running Boston!). I can't even imagine ever qualifying for Boston so these people amaze me!

Then tribirdie's theme song came on. It took me a minute to figure out what the song was because I've only listened to it a few times, but once I realized what it was and who it reminded me of, I clicked my speed up a notch and gave that interval all I had! Tribirdie's really fast too, she's training to try to qualify for Kona this year!

Anyway, the intervals I did today were miles. Three of them! I was going to do them on the high school track, but when I walked outside, it was pouring rain so I decided to just run to the gym and do my intervals on a treadmill.

The gym is almost half a mile away so I ran around the indoor track for about 5 minutes after I got there, then stretched before getting on the machine. I was not looking forward to running on the treadmill because I knew it would be hard and that I would just hate it, but I figured it would be good for keeping me at the pace I wanted to try for.

My goal was to do 9 minute miles. I know that doesn't sound fast at all to some of you, but to me, right now, that was plenty hard!

I did the first mile in 9:13 just because it takes a minute to get the treadmill going fast. Afterwards, I walked for a little while, then jogged until I had recovered for a quarter mile before starting the next one.

I don't know exactly how long it took me to do the next mile because I forgot to look at the time when I started, but it would have been right around 9 since the treadmill was already going.

I took a break, ran to the bathroom and got a drink before I started my last mile, then it took me 9:08. That last one was really hard! I actually had it turned up a notch faster than 9 min/mile pace for most of it, but had to turn it back down for the last quarter mile. I actually almost stopped there because I didn't know if I could do it. I was worried I would pass out or just fall off the treadmill! I didn't stop, though. I finished out my interval! Then I went slow for .25 before heading back home. I felt a little dizzy as I slowly jogged home, but it was fine. I was just happy I was able to do it all!

In total I ran about 4.5 miles and it took me about an hour.

When I got home I had to hurry and stretch then take Ethan to the doctor to get some antibiotics for his ear infection. The poor kid has been miserable all weekend! We thought maybe it was getting better last night, but it wasn't. The guy at the pharmacy asked me if I was a runner, and at first I was flattered, but then realized he probably just saw my BAM shirt and figured it out. :)

Once I got all that taken care of, I did a 15 minute workout on my Nike Training Club app called "Ab Burner" and they weren't kidding about that! I'd say this is a good start to the week.

It's spring break for the kids so I'm going to have to think of ways to keep them from killing each other or driving me crazy for the next week, but I also won't have to hurry back from my morning workouts to get them to school so that's really nice!

Back in the Saddle Again

This has been an awesome training week. I did 8 out of my 9 scheduled workouts. Actually 10 out of 11 if you count strength training as separate workouts. Pretty impressive hu!? I'm really happy about it, and excited to be back into training agin.

One problem with being back into training full swing is that I have a harder time watching what I eat. It's like every day I feel like I've earned this or that treat, and it adds up! I need to start just having treats after my long runs or rides or something.

A while ago someone posted on twitter something like, "Eat as many treats as you want, as long as you make them yourself."

I really liked this, and thought it would be a good rule to live by. Of course, I can really make a lot of treats, as I've proved lately (ahem, cake, cookies, peanut butter carmel popcorn, granola... the list goes on) so my rule says: "You can have treats sometimes, as long as you make them yourself."

Well, I'm breaking that rule right now because Milka bars were on sale - 4 for $5. That's a great price, and they're so good that I just couldn't pass them up!

This actually breaks 2 of my rules. The other one being: "Just because it's cheap/on sale, doesn't mean you should buy it!"

Sigh.

I also told myself, and the kids, that I'm not going to buy any Easter candy. This isn't because I don't like Easter candy. It happens to be my favorite. This is more out of principle because I'm disgusted by how much space in the store is taken up by Easter (or whatever holiday) candy and how we are made to feel like we have to buy it. The sad thing is that if we didn't buy (and eat) so much Easter Candy, they wouldn't stock so much in the stores to tempt us and make us feel like we have to buy it. So I decided to just have homemade treats for Easter, and not buy into and add to all this madness. Sorry Cadbury.

Technically this isn't Easter candy, but I can't help but think that the reason it happened to be on sale is because Easter is so close...

But enough about chocolate.

Today I rode my bike outside for the first time in almost a year! Seriously, the last time I rode my tri bike was during St. George tri on May 15th - almost exactly 11 months ago. Then I found out I was pregnant and didn't dare get back on my bike.

Oh, that reminds me, George is 3 months old today!

Anyway, I was kind of nervous about getting out on my bike again. I don't know why. Probably because I just get nervous about everything. But, it turns out that riding a bike is just like... well... riding a bike! :)

I still know how to do it and didn't have any problems. Ok, so I couldn't clip in/out as easily as before, but that is partly because Pete switched my peddles out for his so they were different.

I had such a great ride, and enjoyed every single one of the 90 minutes I needed to ride. It was a little bit chilly and wet, and I got rained on a tiny bit, but it was not bad at all. I also explored the section of The Legacy Parkway Trail that they've added on since I was there last, and it was really cool! It kind of winds through a swampy area by the river. It's not all the way finished yet, though. It doesn't connect back to the Jordan River Parkway like I had hoped, but it goes quite a ways.

At the end of my ride I stopped by the Gateway to watch my friend finish the Salt Lake Half Marathon. It was her first half and she did an awesome job! The clock said 1:52 when she finished, and she said she didn't even get across the start line for several minutes so she was even faster than that! I'm so happy that she had such a good experience. I'm hoping to talk her into doing a tri with me this year - though she'll probably totally beat me with such a speedy run! :)

What a great day!

I had a fun night last night too:

Mindy and I went to the ballet! We saw Bolero at the Capitol Theater. It was so much fun to get dressed up and go out with her, even though she was super tired by the end. The ballet was beautiful and very creative. I'm so glad I got to go see it! It was the first time going to a real ballet for both of us. She's getting to be such a good little ballerina herself, I'm so proud of her for how hard she works!

A Sad (mouse) Tail

On a sad note, we got the mouse who's been living in our kitchen towel drawer today.

That should be a happy note, but I can't be happy about it.

I cried.

Like, really cried.

Like he was a beloved family pet or something.

In a way, he was. I mean, he'd been around for a while. He kept eating the peanut butter off the traps and leaving little presents for us under the towels (which we stopped using). I even saw him a couple times when I'd open the cupboard under the sink. He was a quick, smart little guy, but in the end we outsmarted him, and that makes me sad.

I had just opened the drawer, being used to seeing the mouse trap just sitting there, and there was a little dead mouse. I screamed, and Pete came to the rescue. He was supposed to take care of that. I wasn't supposed to see that! I feel like a terrible person. After all, I bought the traps. Poor little thing.

It reminds me of our other mouse story, that ended much happier. What if this was one of the baby mice we saved?! I can't think that.

Now I need more popcorn!

Off Schedule

Our schedules were a little messed up this morning. George woke up at 4am so I didn't dare go swimming at 6 (when the pool opens) because I was worried he would wake up hungry before I got home. It's a good thing I didn't go because he did end up waking up at 6:45 so I would have probably been in the middle of my swim.

I was bad this morning and made Banana Oat Muffins for breakfast. They were so good though! Usually I want some carbs before my workout, and usually that's oatmeal when it's still dark out, then I make eggs or something like that for everyone when I get home. But carbs it was this morning, and no one was complaining. Here's the recipe. I used a little less sugar, 2 bananas, apple sauce instead of vegetable oil and about a cup of mini chocolate chips (yeah, that was the bad part...and the good part!).

I asked my friend to watch Elle and George for me while I went swimming, and luckily she was able to do it on such short notice! Elle had a great time over there, and George ended up sleeping most of the time until just before I got back when he squirted her while she was changing him! Oops! Thank you so much, Rebecca!

My swim workout was awesome! It was the first real workout I've done for my half ironman training plan, which is from the same site I got my full ironman training plan from. It was fun to have a real workout to do instead of just going to the pool and splashing around for half an hour. Here's what I did:

Warmup: 4 x 75 with the last 25 of each backstroke

Main: 3 x 400 starting easy and getting harder/faster with each one

Cool down: 150 easy

My first 400 was nice and easy, and it took me about 8:04

The second one too me 7:55 so at first I thought I'd shoot for 7:30 for the next one, but then I though, "Now let's be realistic" and decided to go for 7:40. Guess how fast I did it, though!?

My third 400 took me exactly 7:30!

Yay! I love having goals and meeting them! It doesn't matter if it's in a single workout, a day, a training period or a year, meeting your goals is awesome!

Total time: 35-40 minutes

Total distance: 1650 yards

When I got home I got on the trainer after having a quick Mix1, and did an easy ride for 45 minutes. That's workout #2 on my training plan! I'm just ticking them off. :)

George was awesome, he just sat there and watched me ride my bike for half the time, then fell asleep. What a great boy. I was starving when I got done too! I'm used to having a second breakfast between those two workouts (at about 7:30) then lunch right on time (about noon) when I'm done. Today I only had one small breakfast and didn't get to lunch until around 1:00.

It sure is a lot harder to plan my workouts around George's eating/sleeping schedule, but it's totally worth it. I'm so glad I have him.

Today Pete thanked me for making him lunch while he was busy with work, telling me it was too much trouble for me. I told him that feeding the ones I love is what I live for. I was almost just saying that, but then I realized that it's true. Training is fun and important to me, but taking care of my family is much more important. I'm so grateful that I'm able to do both most days, and for the people who help me be able to do it. Thank you!

PS - I made peanut butter and honey carmel popcorn tonight, and it's to die for. I can't stop eating it! Must. Put it. Away.

Who Decides Your Fate?

Monday was speed work again, and this time I had my lap counter so I couldn't skip any laps. Sure enough I must have skipped them last time because I didn't get any numbers that low again. I did 4 x 800 (or about 800ish) and my times were:

4:16

4:19

4:24

(then I rested a little longer)

4:06

Tuesday was a swim/bike day which I really love. I don't know how long my love for these days will last, but lets hope for at least 20 weeks because that's when my half ironman is! Yikes! I actually forgot to look at my workouts from my training plan which started Monday, but I was planning on sticking to the half marathon plan for the runs, and I still got in a bike and a swim so I think I'll be ok.

Today was tempo run day and I actually had an awesome run! Yay! It was beautiful outside, I even remembered to put on sunscreen and a hat.

I ran the first mile nice and slow:

10:52

then picked up the pace for the second mile, and tried to keep it at 10:00/mile:

10:00 exactly! (Nailed it)

then I decided to shoot for under 10:00 for the third mile:

9:48 wahoo!

I ran the last mile nice and slow to recover/cool down:

11:12

I felt really good about this run, and I was happy to be able to run as fast as I did on the tempo parts!

Total Distance: 4 Miles

Total Time: 41:57

Average Pace: 10:30 min/mile

I slowed down quite a bit at the beginning of the last mile after my really hard third mile. I know it's really important to teach yourself how to recover while running when you're training for a marathon or a half marathon. I never would have thought it possible to recover while running, but you really can do it! Even if you have to go down to like a 13:00/mile pace like I did for a while. I know, at least for me, it's easier to keep running then to stop and walk and have to run again. I know some people prefer the walk/run approach, though. What do you do?

I've been thinking a lot about how much my music affects how fast I run and how good I feel. I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing. It's almost like the music on my ipod is deciding my fate for each run. But at the same time, I really think it helps me. There are a lot of times where I'm hurting and not wanting to go on, and a song will come on that just gets me through it. I mean, when Bon Jovi says, "take my hand and we'll make it I swear," it's really hard not to take his hand and run as hard as you can with a smile on your face! Even if you're tired and your feet hurt. I mean, after all, "Whoa, we're half-way there...."

Who decides your fate when you're out running?

Ethan's Birthday

Yesterday was a really fun day. There was a metric century going on in the morning, and I volunteered to direct cyclists at an intersection a few blocks from our house. It was really cold, and snowing so I felt bad for the people doing the ride as well as the race organizers. That's got to be one of the hardest things about being a race director, you just can't control the weather.

You can't really tell in this picture but big fluffy snowflakes were falling. It was really quite beautiful and I was grateful to have a reason to be out in it for a little while. It didn't, however, make me wish I'd signed up to ride 62 miles in it. My post was only about 2 miles into the ride so they were pretty fresh when they passed me. I hope it wasn't too miserable for them. Some people went all out with their gear and were even wearing face masks and ski goggles, but I was surprised at how lightly some of them were dressed. I saw one lady with just shorts and leg warmers, and I could see her leg sticking out between the two. I was kind of doubtful that she would make it, but who knows.

There was also a little reverse tri at the rec center a few blocks from my house that I almost signed up for. I was glad I didn't. Even riding 10 miles in that wouldn't have been my favorite.

Anyway, I was really glad to help out even in a small way, and it really just put me in a great mood to start the day off.

We went to Heber to celebrate Ethan's birthday at my dad's house with my family. Here's the cake I made:

Isn't he a cute shark?

I'm pretty proud of it , even if it didn't turn out quite as good as the one I got the idea from. I used the lemon cake (tinted blue green) as the water and the red velvet as the shark. I thought the lemon one turned out really good, and ate way too much of it!

Ethan had fun and got some great presents including a nice new helmet to go along with his new bike. (sorry, I don't have a picture of either of theses...)

Sadly, my camera is missing, so I only have iphone pictures lately. I have no idea where it went, and really hope it turns up somewhere. This is my second one to get lost/stollen.

I had a good time hanging out with my sisters. We did our nails and sat around chatting while George slept and the guys went to the bike shop to get Ethan his helmet. Later I also went for a walk with my sister, Katie, even though we had to brave the frigid wind. It was funny because we had our hoods pulled down around our faces so we could hardly see. It was good to get out and move a little, though.

Then my dad watched the kids for us so Pete and I could go out. It was kind of a late anniversary gift. We really hadn't been out on a date since George was born so it was really really nice. We drove up Dutch Hollow just a little bit because it was really muddy, and just got out for a minute. It made us excited for trail running this summer, and reminded us how much we love Midway. We decided to make it our 10-year plan to move there. It's crazy that in 10 years (as long as we've been married) Mindy will be almost 19, and probably away at collage. How does time go by so fast?

We also had dinner at our favorite restaurant, Tarahumara, in their new Cantina section which is actually the bar, but it was nice because hardly anyone was in there, and no kids. If you're ever in Heber/Midway, you should go there, and get the shrimp tacos. Yum!

Bake Me a Cake... or Three

I was afraid when I posted about how awesome a sleeper George is that it would jinx me. Sure enough, he woke up at 2 this morning. Then he slept until 6:30 when I was planning on getting up at 5:30 to get in a nice leisurely trip to the grocery store without kids. Instead I ended up having a hurried trip to the store with Elle and George to just get enough food for breakfast and lunches and cakes.

That's right, I said cakes. :)

Anyway, we got home in time to have a smoothie and some eggs (I just had a smoothie) before I took the kids to school. George had just fallen back to sleep when I took them so when I got home I hurried and got ready to run, put a movie on for Elle (Pete was still sleeping) and headed to the gym since it was way to wet/snowy/cold for me to dare run outside.

Today was my long run day and I was supposed to run 6 miles. After about 3 miles on the treadmill, I wanted to kill myself so I moved to the track for the next 3. I was worried about counting laps for 3 miles because it's 15 laps per mile, but then I remembered my phone has a stopwatch with a lap counter on it so I just used that. I had to do 45 laps. Ug. But when I got about to lap 12, I got a text from Pete saying that George had been crying since 8:30 and that the heater was broken so "please come home when you're done with your run." It was now almost 9:30 so poor George must have woken up right after I left! Well, I couldn't just let him cry for probably 25 more minutes so I just stopped when I finished that mile.

I got a total of about 4 miles in today. I'm a little worried about this since I'm supposed to run 8 miles next week, but I just couldn't go back out after getting home and feeding George. I had cakes to make!

It's Ethan's birthday on Monday, but we're celebrating it today and tomorrow. We were going to have a party this afternoon with his friends from school, a party this evening with some of our friends, then a party tomorrow with my family so I made 3 kinds of cakes/cupcakes:

Red Velvet Cake with mini chocolate chips and cream cheese frosting

Chocolate Zuccini Cake with creamy chocolate frosting

and Lemon Cake with cream cheese frosting for tomorrow (can't wait to taste it!)

No one ended up coming to the afternoon party because we didn't invite very many kids, and we didn't give them much notice. Ethan only told me he wanted to do it a few days ago. I had just been planning on the the Heber party. Am I a failure as a mother? *sigh* Anyways, we ended up having a really fun party tonight with friends so I don't think he's too sad about it. Plus, he got a new bike!

Here's me and my friend, Sara. Our babies were due on the exact same day, but neither of them got the cool birthday of 1/11/11. Her baby was born about 3 weeks before George, and look how tiny she is!

The Early Riser = Me!

I've always hated getting up really early, especially since I've been getting up with one kid or another during the night for the past 8 1/2 years. Believe it or not, but I hardly ever got up early to workout even when I was training for Ironman.

How is that possible you ask? Well, I'm lucky enough to be a stay-at-home mom and my husband was able to work from home most days, or at least long enough for me to squeeze a run in before he left. I also did a lot of runs and swims at a gym that has childcare so I would take Elle in there a lot - every day some weeks! I was so lucky to have all these things, otherwise I don' t know if I could have done it! (See entries from Jan-June 2009 to see my Ironman training)

Enter baby #4.

I thought my sleeping would be much worse with a new baby, and it was at first. But actually, a wonderful thing happened. We moved Elle downstairs. Up until George was born, she was still waking up at least once or twice every night. Man, I was so tired and sleep deprived when I was pregnant! Now she hardly ever wakes up in the night anymore, or if she does, I don't know about it! On top of the 4-year-old sleeping all night, my 2-month-old is also usually sleeping all night! (knock on wood)

He seriously is the best baby, I say that everyday, and I'm so so so thankful for that! He goes to bed at the same time as the other kids - 8:30 or so. Then he sleeps until 5:30 which is the time I want to get up anyway to get to the gym by 6. I'll feed him and put him back to bed, and he'll sleep until at lest 7:30 or 8, by which time I'm home from the gym and getting the kids ready for school. Can I get any luckier than that? No, I can not! I'm seriously loving this schedule!

I'm not trying to brag, I'm really not. I'm so sorry for those of you who are getting up several times in the night with your kids. I've been there, I know how it feels. Don't worry, it will pass. Who knows how long my good luck will stick around, but I'm enjoying it while it lasts!

Anyway, my point is that I can't believe how good I feel now that I'm getting sleep at night, and I'm actually loving my early mornings at the gym! I love that by 7:30 I'm home, done with my workout and ready to start the day. Or ready for workout #2! Oh yeah!

Tuesday morning I got to go to a free Master's Swim clinic at my pool, and that was really cook because there was only 2 of us so it was almost a personal lesson. After getting the kids to school, and George down for his nap, I went downstairs with Elle, turned on Spirit of the Marathon on Netflix and got an hour ride done on the trainer!

Wednesday I got to sleep in, but I actually had a harder time getting up at 7:00 to get the kids ready then I do getting up at 5:30 with George. Weird hu? During George's nap time I went for my 3-mile tempo run, and Elle came with me on her bike for 2.4 of it! She's such an awesome little biker! I probably didn't go as fast as I should have with her with me, and I felt like I was just getting going when it was time to stop. I'll take that as a good thing, though.

Today I did another swim and trainer ride morning. For my swim I did my homework from the clinic on Tuesday and timed my 1000 yards. I did it in 21:02. Then I came home and watched Emma (Love that movie! And I actually only watched half of it so I get to finish it next time.) while I did four 5:00 intervals during an hour ride on the trainer. It was a nice hard ride and I was sweating pretty good.

One of my favorite things about having such short hair now is that I don't worry about taking 2 showers a day. I used to hate to do that, and it would make me not want to do a second workout sometimes. "But I already showered!" Now my hair is so easy and quick to wash and dry that I don't worry about it too much.

Two more things.

1. I decided not to sign up for another Ironman until I'm faster. I've already done one just to finish so it seems a little crazy to spend so much money to just finish again. We'll see how I feel at the end of this season. Doing halfs might keep me busy enough.

2. I just signed up for the Dirty Girl Run at Wheeler Farm on July 2. It's a 4 mile loop around the farm and I guess you get all muddy. Maybe there's an obstacle course too? I don't really know much about it. I just signed up for it because they couldn't give me my money back for BAM since I actually signed up for it in 2010, but they could give me a free entry to one of their other races. I'm sad they didn't have another tri I could do, but this one should be fun. Anyone want to do it with me?

Speed Play

This is an old photo, but it's so cute, I had to put it up. Don't they look like they're having fun?

Today was the first official day for our half marathon training plan, and why not start right off with some speed work?

For some reason I was feeling kind of nervous about getting up early and doing speed work today, but everything just worked out perfectly! George woke up at about 5:15, a little before my alarm, so I had plenty of time to get him fed and back to bed, then have a little peanut butter banana oatmeal and get ready to go.

The only thing that didn't go smoothly was the ice on the car. It snowed yesterday, but we didn't go anywhere so the snow just melted a little then froze again onto the car. I tried to chip out off, but it was really slow going. I was standing out there in my capris and light jacket freezing so I decided to let the car warm up a little and before trying again. After about 5 minutes or so, I put some gloves and a hat on and tried again. Luckily it came off easily this time! Whew! I made it to the gym by around 6:15.

I ran for 10 minutes to warm up, then did some stretching. I paid special attention to my hip because a tight hip leads to a sore knee and I'm hoping that's why my knee was sore Saturday.

I was supposed to do 4x400, but I got mixed up and did 800s. Actually it wasn't exactly 800 because the track is 15 laps to a miles so I did 7 laps. I set my ipod to Muse and just started going. I really had no idea what time to expect so I decided to try for 5 minutes since I was averaging 12 minute miles on Saturday.

I got done with my first one in 4:19, and I wanted to do each one a little faster. I walked a lap then jogged one or two in between sets.

#2 was 4:16 and my heart rate was 197 when I stopped.

# 3 was 3:42 with my heart rate 199

what?!

I figured I must have skipped a lap so I was really careful on the next one.

#4 was 3:41 with my heart rate 196 (but I forgot to look for a minute, I was really tired!)

Hmmm, so even being extra careful with #4, I still got around the same time as #3 so does that mean I didn't skip a lap, or that I skipped laps on both of them and that I have an even harder time thinking while I run than I thought?

Who knows.

It was really fun, and I got to run fast. That's all that matters to me. I'll try to count better next time, or do it somewhere other than that little track.

When I got home I made myself my new favorite breakfast: an omelet with 2 eggs, onion flakes and spaghetti squash mixed together with cheese and spinach inside. Yum. I also made myself drink and entire coconut water with it because I was going to go donate blood and I wanted to make sure I wasn't dehydrated. Did you know that they used to use coconut water in blood transfusions when there wasn't blood available!? Crazy hu? I usually don't really like to just drink coconut water, but if it's really cold and I'm thirsty (like today) it's not bad at all and it's got a ton of natural electrolytes, but not salt so you've got to eat or take salt with it. Don't worry, I had salt in my omelet. :)

Note - I wasn't sure if it was ok for me to donate blood since I'm nursing, but I looked it up and asked the lady at the Red Cross. It's fine as long as it's been at least 6 weeks since you gave birth and you make sure to stay hydrated - which you need to do anyway if you give blood.

I've been really obsessed with food lately, and we were not very good this weekend. We were all home all weekend watching Conference and for some reason that tends to lead to treats.

There were chocolate chip cookies, M&Ms (left over from Christmas though!), pancakes and pudding. Plus I I've been eating bread and butter like crazy. Oh yum. I love butter! Then today I had some cookies at the Red Cross before and after giving blood to make sure I'd get home ok. But from now until Friday I'm going to be really good! Then it's birthday cake time again! :)

PS - having such an awesome workout this morning really made my day! And my knees don't really hurt at all! I don't know if that was from stretching before or not, but I'm going to start doing that from now on.

The 10k That Wasn't

This morning I headed out on my run first thing in the morning. Well, second thing, after feeding George.

I drove up to my old 10k route from last February that I did in 55:14. I ended up messing up on the route because once I got to the top of the hill at the 1.5 mile mark, I had to turn around and run back down to the bathrooms. Then I ran back up and tried to figure out where my new turn around point would be, but I didn't get it quite right because by the time I got back to the car, I was only at like 5.75 so I ran past the car a little and turned around too soon again, and ended up just stopping at 6 miles since my knee was hurting It was also just taking a long time, and I was worried about George getting hungry again. I mean, it took me a really long time! It seems like I left home at a little after 8 and it was almost 10 when I got done.

Total Distance: 6.01 miles

Total Time: 01:12:08
Average Pace: 12:00 min/mi
Best Pace: 8:15 min/mi

Again, I need to remind myself that it's ok if I'm way slower than I used to be. By body is just not used to running any more at all. It's frustrating, but it's ok. Every time someone passed me (which happened a lot) I told myself that they probably didn't have a baby 2 months ago and tried not to worry about it. My legs feel good, but my knee hurts so I'm icing it right now.

For the rest of the day we watched General Conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It will be going on again tomorrow from 10-12 then again from 2-4 MST, and you can stream it live from here.

Happy Beautiful April 1st!

Today was the most beautiful day! I was so happy to wake up feeling all better, with a little help from George my super sleeper! He did wake up once during the night, but then he slept until 7, which is when I have to get up anyway. That was so nice to be able to sleep in a little. I was supposed to do a 10k today (just my own, not a race or anything), but I was hesitant to because of my fever last night. It was so weird how suddenly it hit, and how quickly it went away. But, hey, I'm not complaining!

I decided to do my 10k tomorrow, and spend the day cleaning out closets and cupboards instead. Ah, what a nice feeling it is to de-clutter a little! I still have a lot to do. It's hard enough to keep up with the regular cleaning (laundry and dishes) along with making sure everyone is fed and happy, let alone keeping the house in any sort of organization.

I did go on a little bike ride to the park with the kids, and actually got a little sunburnt! Wahoo, the first sunburn of the year! I don't know why I have to be reminded every single year of my life that my skin burns easily and that I need to put sunscreen on pretty much every time I go outside. The kids pretty much played outside all day so that was nice!

Right now Pete's up snowboarding, and I'm making chocolate chip cookies with *gasp* white flour. They look so weird and pail...