Don't Stop Believin'

It was supposed to rain today so I had already decided to just do my 2.5 hour ride on the trainer. I had also decided to do it early in the morning so I could get it over with and spend the rest of the day with my family.

Then I ended up staying up late last night so we could get caught up on our Parks and Recreation! Love that show.

So, I decided to sleep in, and I really did get to sleep in. George slept until 9! It was awesome. Then, I looked out the window, and it was NOT raining! Yay! I took the kids to the park for a little while. Then we came back, got Mindy ready for her ballet rehearsal and had lunch. Pete took Mindy in and I got ready to head out on my ride. I told him I'd be back by 3:15 - thinking that way he wouldn't have to bring all the kids with him when it was time to pick her up at 4.

I got my water bottle all ready with EFS and set it on the counter. Last week I did 2 hours and only brought water so I was starving by the time I got home, and didn't want that to happen again! I grabbed some chocolate chip cookies to take with me since I am out of gel. (turns out these are really yummy, but a little tricky and quite messy to eat on the bike, especially if you keep them in your pocket!)

I couldn't find any keys, but I figured Pete would be home when I got back so I just hurried out and locked the door. Then I realized that I had left my water bottle on the counter! Two and a half hours without a drink would not be good so I tried, unsuccessfully, to break back into the house to get it.

The good news is that our house is not that easy to break into! The bad news is that I still didn't have a drink and I had now waisted 15 minutes of my time. I decided to just ride around a little until Pete got home, then I remembered I had some money in my little emergency pouch so I just went to 7-11 and bought a bottle of water. Easy peasy! Why didn't I think of that before!?

Anyway, I still wanted to be back at the time I told Pete so I just decided to do 2:15 instead. I ended up turning around when I got to the end of the bike path at the Farmington Frontrunner station, right by Lagoon. I checked the Garmin and I had gone 18 miles in 1:08 so it was the perfect place to turn around! It's so fun to be able to ride that far! I felt really awesome and was able to go a lot faster than my last few long rides. It really helps to have the Garmin so I can see my speed and I tried to keep it above 17 mph on the way there, and around 20 on the way home! So much fun! This is a really good route because it's mostly flat, and that's how Utah Half is.

After today's ride I feel hopeful that 20 mph average is not too crazy of a goal and I might be able to do it for Echo at least because it's only 25 miles, and I did 36 today in 2:09 which is almost 17 mph average. That's counting the time I spent in the gas station too.

When I got home, I was really confused because the door was locked, but it was the dead bolt, not the door knob that I had locked so I knew that they'd been home. Then I checked my phone and Pete had texted me, "Was I not supposed to pick her up at 3?" He had gone all the way across town to pick Mindy up an hour early. I called him and told him she got done at 4 so he headed home, and told me where he'd left a key for me. This was kind of nice because I got to stretch and take a quick shower before they got home, but poor George was so hungry! Poor little guy. He ate and was happy again, though. No harm done. Pete had to just turn around and head back to pick Mindy up for real this time. What a pain. We're kind of excited to have a little break from ballet after next week!

I've also decided it's harder to train for a half Ironman with a baby than to train for a full with a 2-year-old. But we're making it work.

I'm super happy with my training this week! A fun 12 mile run yesterday and 36 miles on the bike today. Love it! The weather has been cooperating so nicely too. It was a really nice day, maybe a little chilly and cloudy, but not bad until after I got home. It's raining really hard now.

I was making dinner when I looked at my arm and wondered if I'd touched it on the pan or something, then realized I had missed a spot with the sunscreen:

This is what happens to me when I'm outside for 2 hours - even when it's kind of cloudy! I'm glad I put sunscreen on at all so all my skin that was showing didn't end up like this!

Ok, seriously, time for bed!