Mindy's 9th Birthday

While I'm sitting here waiting for Pete to get back from his bike ride so we can watch the next episode of Psych that we've got from Netflix just sitting here, I noticed that I never wrote about Mindy's birthday!

I can't believe she's 9!

We had her party the day of Echo. The kids had spent the previous two nights at Grandma and Grandpa's house, so we met them at the pool in Kamas with my dad, my sister, my brother and his wife and 2 kids. It was fun playing at the pool, and felt really good on my legs!

After the pool, we all headed for Heber to BBQ and spend some good quality time with family outside.

I made this Neapolitan cake as requested by the birthday girl.

The strawberry was Mindy's favorite so I made strawberry cupcakes for her actual birthday the following Tuesday. (not pictured, unfortunately) We went to Liberty Park with her best friend where they played in the fountain, went on some rides and had ice cream (strawberry, of course).

I think it was a success.

8 Mile Run, a Parade and More Temple Pictures

This morning I finally made that long run happen! It wasn't really that long of a run, but I needed to do it. I ran for 80 minutes so maybe I did 8 miles, but probably a little less since I took it pretty easy. It was fun, though, and the only problem I had was my knee started hurting for the last 5 minutes, but when I stopped and walked it felt better.

I ran up to North Temple and noticed a lot of people were carrying chairs and stuff like that which reminded me that there was going to be a parade for Pioneer Day today. Earlier in the week, I told the kids I would look into when and where it would be, so I looked it up as soon as I got home. It was starting in one hour from when I got home so I went down to where the kids were watching The Last Air Bender and told them to hurry and get ready to go while I took a shower.

Amazingly, we were able to get out of the house with 20 minutes to get there. It was nice that it was only a few miles away, and it was also nice that Pete has a parking pass for one of the parking garages down there so we didn't have to drive around looking for parking or walk too far. We did have to walk a few blocks, but we cut through Temple Square and it was really pretty so that was ok.

We worked our way through the crowds, and found a small open spot at the front where I had the kids go sit. The girl next to them was so nice and spread her blanket out for them to sit on. I noticed that she was sitting with a girl in our ward. A few minutes later, I noticed that her parents were sitting behind them in chairs. I went over to say hello and she offered me their extra chair which was perfect because it was time to feed George. I ended up sitting with the kids for a little while after that, then moved back to the sidewalk when George got fussy and got him to sleep in the stroller. It was really fun.

I think this was the first time I've taken my kids to a parade which is pretty sad. We used to go to the 24th of July parade in Heber every year when I was a kid. The one in Salt Lake is just so big that we haven't wanted to deal with the crowds or anything, but it all worked out just great today!

We left about half an hour before it was over (at 1 hour, the announcer said it was half over and we stayed a little while after that), but we walked by all the floats that were waiting to go so we pretty much saw everything. We walked through temple square again on the way to the car. Of course we had to stop and take some pictures with the pretty flowers.

We were all really hungry by the time we got back to the car so I told the kids I'd take them to breakfast. We ended up going to Denny's and they were all very happy.

Pete had a fun morning driving all the way to Orem to work only to find out that no one was there. He just came home, but that gave him the chance to mow the lawn, which had been badly neglected for the past few weeks and growing 3 foot-tall weeds. It looks so nice now! I think a nice townhome or something where we don't have to take care of the lawn would be good for us because when it comes to the choice between a bike ride or mowing the lawn, we always choose bike ride. Or being with our family, or sleeping, or cleaning the house, or whatever...

New Tri Suit and Lots of Pancakes

This weekend I missed my long run. I slept in until George woke up at 6:30 and didn't seem like he'd go back to bed. Elle woke up too. I hurried and ate my oatmeal, but then didn't know what to do. I asked Elle if I should go run and she said, "No, you should stay here and take care of George." How could I leave after that? I finally went in and asked Pete what he was planning on for the day, hoping to hear those five magic words, "I'm working from home today." But he had to go work in Orem, and he had to leave soon. So, I just gave up on the idea of a long run that day. And why not make it a proper rest day while I was at it? So, when Geroge when down for his nap, I went back to bed. I ended up sleeping until like 11! It was crazy! It was a good thing I got that good rest too, because after I got up, my sister-in-law called to tell me they were heading to temple square then to This Is The Place park so we hurried and got ready to meet them there. It was really fun, but we were all super tired by the end of it!



I only took a few pictures of the kids at temple square, and none with the cousins. I need to be better at that while they're here!



Even though I think resting on Friday was the right thing to do, I still felt a little bed, and I was worried I would skip my long ride too. You know, like I got the skip-workout ball rolling and it would be hard to stop. But, I did get up and get out on my ride by 6:30. It was nice out too, I actually wore a windbreaker for the first half hour. I rode 50 miles in 3:06.

When I got home, I fed George, then just did a quick mile or so run. Then I came back and got started on some pancakes. I had to make a triple batch because a double batch never seems to be quite enough. Man, my family's getting big!

I asked Pete to take a quick picture of me in my new tri suit, and it turned into a little photo shoot, with the kids in the house yelling for me and, waiting for their pancakes. We were all so hungry.

I got this suit mainly because I'm sick of getting sunburnt on my lower back, but I also like how sleek and fast looking it is. Plus it matches my bike!

We had a fun picnic with the cousins at Sugarhouse park after Pete got his bike ride in, where the kids all played in the river and had a blast. Then we hiked up Ensign Peek with Pete's brother. The kids were awesome little hikers! I held Elle's hand and had George in the sling, and every time we went up a step (log) she'd jump up and George would just laugh! He thought it was so funny, and it was really cute. We got to the top just in time to watch the sunset over the Great Salt Lake, but back down before it got dark. Of course, we told the kids to slow down like a million times on the way down, and they almost made it to the bottom without incident. But then Ethan fell and scraped up his knee so that wasn't fun, but I think overall it was a fun experience for them.

Now, I must get to bed so I can make up that long run in the morning!

George - 6 Months

George turned 6 months old on Saturday so that was exciting! We celebrated with some peas.



He didn't really love them. But after a few days of trying little bits at a time, he's starting to get used to the weird stuff in his mouth. The funniest thing is that he likes to blow it out when I put it in his mouth. He's so cute!

He's also getting closer and closer to crawling. He can roll around and pivot really well, and he really just enjoys playing on the floor. He just needs to figure out how to get up on his knees.

Again, he's SO cute!

Other than that, this week has been super fun because Pete's sister and her family are here visiting from Switzerland! The best part is the kids getting to play with their cousins. So fun! We're looking forward to seeing them as much as possible during the moth that they're here.

It's also been really fun because I've jumped back into training hard again! Yay! It's fun to actually be able to do all my workouts again. It seems like forever since I've been able to do that.

Monday it was a run and a swim, Tuesday it was a bike/run brick in the morning and a swim in the evening (where I did 12 100s every 1:50 instead of 2:00 like I usually do, so they were all in the 1:38-1:42 range), and today was just a run. But it wasn't just a run because I ran for an hour, and I ran up a really steep hill to the capitol. It was awesome.

Things that haven't been fun this week are that Mindy and Ethan both had the flu on Monday so we had to switch our swimming-with-the-Swiss-cousins plan from Tuesday to today just to be safe even thought they both felt better on Tuesday. On Tuesday, since we weren't going swimming, I decided to get Elle caught up on her immunizations and sign her up for preschool. That was not fun, but I'm glad it's done. Her leg was hurting the rest of the day and this morning. Then when it was time to swim, she just wasn't feeling well and her leg was still hurting. I didn't worry about it too much, thinking it was just from the shots. But she was just shivering in the pool and not having fun. I didn't realize until we got home that she's got what the other kids had on Monday! Duh! I never would have taken her swimming if I would have realized that. I just thought her leg was sore and that the water would help it. Now she's just burning up. That's always the worst to see your kids sick. Poor girl. I hope none of the cousins get sick too, and that she's better tomorrow!

Crazy Recovery Week

So, Sunday night I didn't feel like I needed another rest day, and I certainly didn't feel like I needed another recovery week. With all this trying to get my foot better, I feel like the past 6 weeks have been recovery weeks! They haven't of course, I've been doing my fair share of swimming and biking, but it just doesn't feel the same without running.

Physically, I didn't feel like I needed to recover, but mentally I did.

So, I took Monday off as planned. I can't even remember what I ended up doing that day. I think I slept a lot.

Tuesday I rode my bike for half an hour, doing 3x3:00 intervals. Then I ran for 30 minutes. I didn't take the GPS so I didn't worry about how far I went or my speed, and it was a great run! I really enjoyed it! I've decided that I need to do that for a while. I'm just going to run for time and run as slow or as fast as I want for a while. At least until I'm out of this funk.

Wednesday I was supposed to run for 30 minutes, then do a recovery swim. I swear I left for my run at just a little after 6, but by the time I got back from my half-hour run, it was 7. How does that happen? Again, I just had my timer and music and had a really fun run! When I got back, I realized that I needed to help Pete move all the furnature out of the bedrooms before he left for work at 8:30 because the carpet cleaners were coming so I just had to skip the swim.

Thursday morning, I didn't workout because I had to take Mindy and Ethan to the dentist at 7:00 to get some fillings, and oh my, was that traumatic! Mindy actually was really brave and didn't have any problems. She said it didn't even hurt. Ethan, on the other hand, was screaming and yelling and fighting and covering his mouth and threatening to bite. It was not a pretty site. They had to stop half-way through his first filling to let him calm down. Then he would not let them finish. It finally took me and 3 other people holding him down so the doctor could finish and he wouldn't have to go home with a hole in his tooth. He wouldn't let them give him the laughing gas either. We were there for an hour and a half! He still has one more filling, but he's going in on Monday when Pete can go with him. Hopefully it will go better!

I let the kids watch a movie when we got home, and I thought I'd do my bike ride on the trainer. I got all ready and brought my bike downstairs, but then remembered... I couldn't get to the trainer. All this stuff was in the way still.

So, I just decided to get as much cleaned up as I could while George slept, which didn't really put a dent in the mess. Then it was time to take the kids to get ice cream since I had promised them we'd do that after getting the fillings (though, after the way Ethan acted getting his filling, that kid should not be allowed to eat any more sugar!). We ended up going to McDonald's which they thought was the greatest thing in the world because I usually avoid that place like the plague. After ice cream, we went to the library where they were having a zoo animal presentation. It was really fun! We go to see and touch a sugar glider, a tortoise, a turtle, some parrots (didn't get to touch them), a snake, 2 lizards, a chinchilla (so soft!), a guinea pig and (Elle's favorite) this big white dog that kills wolves but I can't remember the name of it.

George was just cute and sat in his sling.

While I was at the library, my sister-in-law called to let me know they were heading to the hospital to have her baby soon so they were going to bring their 2 boys over. We hurried home and got ready for that. She was due on July 1 so it was starting to seem like she was never going to have this baby!

Friday, I couldn't very well leave Pete with all 6 kids, so I didn't get any workout in. We did walk to the park though.

Today I was scheduled to do a swim and a 45 minute run, and I had also thought about doing my usual Saturday long ride instead. But I decided I needed to do a long run the most so that's what I ended up doing. I don't know how far I went, but I just ran for 1:12 so around 7 miles. That's not a terribly long run, but for someone who hasn't really been running much for a while, it was long enough! By this evening my legs were so tired and pretty sore.

So, yeah, it's been a pretty exhausting recovery week!

I'm excited to get back into serious training again next week.

Echo Triathlon 2011 - Olypmic

Echo Triathlon - July 9, 2011

I was so excited for this race. It had been more than a year since my last tri and I felt like I was ready to go! My foot felt all the way better and I was planning on pushing hard and just giving this race all I had.

I took my kids to my dad and step-mom's house on Thursday so I thought Friday would be really relaxed and that I'd have plenty of time to get ready. Oh, but I had to make a birthday cake for Mindy's birthday party that would be right after the race. (I will probably not do this race again since it always does fall on the day we celebrate Min's birthday) She requested a Neapolitan cake. I guess this is what I get for making 3 cakes for Ethan's birthday. Now it's expected. So it pretty much took me all day to shop for ingredients and make the cake, along with taking care of George. Then I still had to clean up and pack so I was feeling a bit stressed by the time Friday night came around!

Luckily I've packed for triathlons a few times before so it really didn't take me too long. Though I kept feeling like I had to be missing something. Of course I didn't sleep well, I never do the night before a race, and I woke up feeling sick. Like usual. I made myself eat some granola before we packed everything up for the race, and the party afterwards. We left by 5:45 - only half an hour behind schedule.

When we got to where Pete was dropping me off, I had to wake George up to feed him. Too bad he wasn't interested in eating at all. He was just looking around like, "What's going on? Where are we? Oh, there's Daddy! Hi Daddy!" Big smile. "Hi Mommy." More smiles and looking around. It was 6:30 and my wave started at 7:05. I still had to ride down there, set up transition and everything so I didn't really have time to mess around. I just had to put him back in his car seat and told Pete to find me in transition and I'd feed him then. Pete told me it would have to be T2 because he was going to get breakfast and probably wouldn't be back by T1. So, that's 2.5-3 hours for George to go without food. Let the worry begin.

I tried not to worry about this once I left because there was nothing I could do. I set up my transition spot, got body marked then set about getting my wetsuit on. While I was doing that, my new friend from my gym, Chris, found me. This was her first outdoor tri and she was doing the olympic! I was glad she found me because we helped each other zip our wetsuits up, then had someone to talk to while we waited for our start. We got into the water and it actually didn't really feel that cold! It was also nice and calm, and such a beautiful day! I swam around a little and just tried to put my face in as much as possible so I wouldn't panic when it was time to go. I told her to do that too, and she kept gasping when she'd put her face in. Finally I told her to try closing her eyes when she put her head in and to pretend she was in the pool. She said that helped! It got close to start time so I told her good luck and moved a little bit closer to the front.

SWIM 1.5k - 34:03

The swim was nice this year because they had us swimming in the opposite direction so the sun wasn't in our eyes the whole way back in like it has been in the past. I was pretty nervous that I'd have a panic attack since I hadn't even been in my wetsuit this year, let alone done any open water swimming! But I felt fine the whole time. Phew! I felt like I swam really well. I didn't really find any feet to draft off, but I stayed calm and swam really strait and smooth, passing a lot of people. From the last buoy to the exit is always my favorite part and I went a little harder to finish the swim.

I was shocked and really disappointed when I got out, looked at my watch and saw that it had taken me 34 minutes! I was hoping to be more in the 29-30 minute range, and I thought I had done so well! Last time I did Echo (3 years ago), I did the swim in 33:29. That was just so frustrating and disheartening when I thought I was getting so much faster.

(Now that I think about it, I've been swimming in a yard pool, and 1500 yards is less than 1500 meters! So it really takes me 29-30 minutes to swim 1371.6 meters, not 1500. Dang.)

T1 - 6:01

Going into T1, I was in a bad mood because of my swim time. Usually I'm excited from the swim and ready to get on my bike, but I just didn't feel like that this time. I did try to hurry, though, since my swim was so slow. But then I was getting my shoes on, thinking something didn't seem right and realized I still had my wetsuit on! Gah! So, I had to take my shoes off, then struggle with my wetsuit for what seemed like forever! I need to practice taking that off I guess.

BIKE 40k (24.8 miles) - 1:26:38

The first part of the bike was really fast and I was excited to see my average speed at 20mph, but then it got a lot slower for the rest of the way out. That meant the way back was really fun, though! It's a weird course because it totally looked like we were going uphill on the way back, but I know it was downhill because I was cruising! It was really pretty and fun. I tried not to worry about all the people who passed me. I did, though. Worry. I had a few moments when I really thought, "Maybe I should just be done with triathlon." I was just feeling so sick of being so slow.

I also tried not to worry about George, but he was always there in the back of my mind - I was working out how I'd do my transition and feed him the whole ride. I started thinking how nice it would be just to be done. Maybe I would just feed him and be done. I didn't want to run. I was already so far behind anyway. Then I would remind myself that it didn't matter how far behind I was, it's not like I was ever going to be close to placing anyway.

T2 + RUN 10k - 1:10:08

I came in from the bike planning on a really slow transition, and I was scouring the crowd for Pete and George, but I didn't see them. I was sure they'd find me before I left on the run, though, so I still took my time. I got all ready, even stopped at the port-a-potty, and never saw them. I didn't know what else to do but just get out on the run and try to get back as fast as possible, so off I went.

I was still feeling sorry for myself for being so slow for the first part of the run, but after a while I actually started to enjoy it and started giving encouragement to the other runners out there. I felt amazingly good. For some reason I couldn't make myself go any faster, though. I kept looking at my heart rate and thinking, "I can push harder than this," but I never really would. I guess my heart just wasn't in it. And I was still worried about George. It's amazing how something like that can affect your performance. You'd think it would be separate, but a lot of triathlon is mental, and I was mentally not there. I just didn't feel like I had any drive in me to go any harder.

Pete was at the finish line holding George, who was crying. I kind of slowed down when I saw them, my instinct telling me to go right to him. But then I heard the announcer say my name, then she said, "Come on, Colleen!" and I remembered that I was about to finish so I sprinted across the finish line!

FINISH TIME - 3:16:51

My knee was hurting a little towards the end of the run, but other than that I didn't even feel that tired. It was disappointing. I had planned on being ready to collapse at the finish line, not just walk away with a plate-full of food.

We found a shady spot for me to sit and eat and feed George. He's such a great little baby, and Pete said most the time he was fine. I think he might have gotten a little dehydrated, though, because it seemed like he constantly wanted to eat for the next few days and he was more fussy than usual. Poor thing. I really shouldn't have signed up for any races while I'm nursing. I figured all that mattered was for my body to be ready, but I'm just not mentally prepared. I have to do twice this distance in a month too! Yikes. At least I'm not trying to go fast for the half, and George will be eating solid foods so that should help.

Looking at my results, it turns out I was 4th out of the water in my age group! That ain't bad. :) I was 7th, on the bike, and 11th on the run. I came in 9th out of 13 total in my age group. Not great, but my looong transitions sure didn't help my speed.

I watched Chris finish while I was feeding George, then saw her afterwards in transition. I rode up to the parking area with her and she said something that really hit home. She said, "I may have been last, but I was last out of a really amazing group of women." That is so true. These other ladies are just so fast! I'm always amazed and humbled by how fast they are. I really can't compare myself to them. I'm there for me, to have fun and stay in shape, so I shouldn't worry about what place I am or who passes me or whatever.

I got all depressed about not getting a PR, when really I should just be grateful that I was able to do this distance without any problems 6 months after having a baby. I really am grateful. I just need to look at it in a different way than I have been. It was a fun race, a great training day, and I'm glad I got to do it. And really, it was a 17 minute PR for this course. Last time I did it, it took me 3:34:05. I really have nothing to complain about!

Pictures are here. I'm number 154 if you need to look me up. You can totally see me stop in my tracks when I look at my watch getting out of the water, and the unhappy look on my face when I'm taking my goggles off. I also love the one of me running to the finish line where you can see Pete in the background holding George and cheering. Zazoosh did a pretty good job with the photos, and I'd totally buy some if they weren't $9 for one little digital copy. I just can't justify it. But, I also can't justify stealing their photos to put on here (especially since they name them "dontstealourphotos.gif") so you'll have to go to their site to look at them.

Thanks for reading! Have a great night. :)

No Lake Today

I was planning to do my swim tonight in Sand Hollow Reservoir since we were going to go down to St. George, but that ended up not happening. My sister in law is due to have her baby today and we are going to watch their kids when they go in so we need to stick around for that.

So, this morning I went to the pool as usual. After a long warm up, I did 1500 yards in 29:11. I tried not to push too hard since it was my long swim not a time trial, but it's always fun to see how fast you I can do it. I'm going to shoot for that or faster at Echo.

I found out yesterday that there is going to be a free swim clinic and tri at my gym on Monday. I was planning on missing it since we were going to be out of town, but now it looks like I'm going to be around so I think I'll do it. It's just in the pool and by time instead of distance. It'll be a 20 minute swim, 40 minute bike and 30 minute run. I'm scheduled to do a 1000 yard swim and a 30 minute run anyway so I might as well throw in a little bike ride too. Does that sound like a bad idea with Echo being 5 days later?

If you're interested in doing this tri, here's some more info. Let me know if you want to do it!

There's also a swim clinic at Echo tomorrow morning that I would really like to go to just to be able to get in the lake once before the race. But it starts at 8, and that's when I'm usually back from my workouts to feed George. The lake is about an hour away too so that causes even more logistical problems with George. Not to mention the fact that our Jeep has a flat tire. Hmmm, I think I'll just stick with my original plan and do my long ride in the morning. It's easier that way.

I was also going to do the Kiss Me Dirty run tomorrow, but I've decided not to do it, first because we were going to be in St. George, but also because it just seems too risky to go running in mud and jumping obstacles when I'm just getting over a foot injury and the race I care more about is next week. I'd be so sad if I sprained my ankle or something. So sadly, I'll be skipping that too.

A long bike ride will be nice in the morning.