6:26

That is a number I love to see on my Garmin!

Even if it's just for a few seconds.

Even if it's while I'm running downhill.

Even if it's after stopping to take this picture at the top of my run:

It's almost the new year and the off-season is O-ver! I'm ready to bring my training to the next level. Today I did my :30 hard/:30 easy intervals, and I did them on the hills up by the capitol. I usually just do them for 15-16 minutes, but today I did them for 21 minutes. It was awesome!

When I got back to the car, I wasn't quite to 4 miles, so I saw a little path that went down the hill a little, looped back up then had some stairs. I did that twice to finish out my 4 miles. Then I had to walk a little! And take this picture:

Then I came home and did the "Train Unleashed" workout on Nike Training Club.

Awesome. :)

Come Swim, Bike, Run With Me!

SWIM

This morning I dragged myself out of bed at 5:45 (was supposed to be 5:15) for Masters for the first time in a while. I almost slept in more, but George was kind enough to wake up and make me get up. I fed him then hurried and ate, then just sat there for a minute debating.

Should I go? Would it be bad for my wrist? Would more sleep be better? I had pretty much been awake since 2am with Pete coughing. Plus it was dark and cold outside. Going back to bed sounded so good!

But I knew that I wouldn't really get to sleep that much more. The kids would be up and demanding attention in about an hour. And I knew I would feel so much better if I went. I always do! So, I stopped thinking about it, grabbed my bag and just headed out the door.

It really wasn't that bad getting there. It's always harder in my mind. And, you know what? It didn't hurt my wrist at all to swim today! It was great!

I managed to do 2000 yards even though I was 15 minutes late. The coach said they haven't even gotten up to 2000 yards in the evenings when they have the whole hour. Nice. :)

Do you want to learn to swim, or get better at swimming? Maybe your New Year's Resolution is to be able to do a certain number of laps. Or are you just looking for a good workout?

If you live close by, come to Masters with me at the Northwest Rec Center! It's at 6am every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I'm usually the only one there in the mornings which is awesome to get the coach to myself, but I'd love to have some swim buddies! He's also there in the evenings at 6pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Plus, there's another coach who's there every day at noon. Lots of options here.

There's no extra cost, just the price to get into the rec center. I just renewed my annual pass, and now is a great time to do it because they have a 10% holiday discount! I think I paid $171 for the year (I paid for swimming lessons for the kids at the same time so I'm not sure the exact total...), but you can also go month to month or just buy day passes.

It's been really fun for me so far and I'm excited to work hard and get faster!

BIKE

Last night I was on an event registration kick.

I signed Pete and myself up for The Front Runner Century on April 28. You can either do a 62 mile (100k) or 100 mile route to Ogden where you get to have lunch and ride the train home. What could be more fun than that!? I wanted to do this ride last year, but didn't feel like I could get ready in only 3 months after having George.

The route goes right by our house, and I actually ended up directing them a little bit last year.

Ok, yeah, it snowed last time, but that doesn't mean it's going to snow this time. April is so unpredictable. It could just as easily be beautiful weather!

So, I will be getting the old trainer out soon and getting back on the bike. I haven't ridden at all (other than my cruiser) since Utah Half in August!

Want to do this ride with us? (Come on, it'll be awesome!) Sign up here. Make sure to put "Colleen" in the team field at the bottom of the form so I get credit for you. :) The price goes up from $40 to $50 March 1st.

RUN

I also signed up for a run this SATURDAY! It's the New Year's Revolution Run. The cool thing about this run is that it's whatever distance you want it to be. It's at the Olympic Oval so you don't have to worry about the cold or the bad air. It's chip timed so you don't have to worry about counting laps either. It benefits the Autism Council of Utah and the Utah Food Bank. Every lap you run gets you an entry into prize drawings, and you can get extra entries by bringing food for the food bank.

5k = 11.3 laps
10k = 22.6 laps
Half Marathon = 47.75 laps
Marathon = 95.5 laps

I think I'm going to shoot for 30 laps which is a little more than 8 miles on the 442 meter track since I haven't really done many long runs lately.

So, who wants to do this run with me?! It's $40, but use the discount code "nyrten" to get $10 off. Again, don't forget to choose "Colleen's Team" when you fill out the registration form. Sign up here.

I'll be choosing which tris I want to do this year soon too, so stay tuned. What races are you doing?

The Coldest Play-date Ever

Yesterday I had the bright idea to have our running group meet at the park so the kids (who are still out for Christmas Break) could play and we could run around the park. Really only one other person from my running group ended up coming, but my kids we excited to play with her kids. We got all bundled up and Ethan and Elle requested to ride their bikes. I was like, "sure, why not?" They had their good gloves and coats and hats so I thought they would be fine. Really I should have checked the temperature before allowing this.

This is what it was when I finally checked it at home.

Mindy stayed home to read one of her many new books she got for Christmas, and George wore his snowsuit in the stroller so he stayed toasty warm. He actually seemed to have a really good time, kicking his legs and just being happy the whole time!

The park is about a mile from our house so I got a good warm up in. I felt pretty good when we got there, but my friend wasn't there so I texted her to make sure she was coming. While I was doing this, Ethan slid down the double poles, way too fast because of the frost, and smashed his face on the ground. He came over with a bloody nose and lip so I ran into the nearby building to get some tissues for him. When I got back out, my friend was there, but she still had to bundle her kids up. I ran a lap (.25 mile) while I waited, but when I got done with that, Ethan and Elle were cold and just wanted to go home. I didn't want them to get any colder since they still had to ride their bikes home, so we just left. Luckily, my friend had invited her sister-in-law so she wasn't alone. Poor Elle cried pretty much the whole way home, and I ended up walking a lot trying to get her to keep going. I felt terrible!

So, I only did about 2 miles. I could have gone back out when we got home, but it was so cold! I just didn't have it in me. So, after our cookies and hot chocolate, I did the "Slim Chance" workout from Nike Training Club which was a really good workout!

Once we got home, Elle warmed up right away and was fine. I don't think she'll be scared for life or anything. We went out to lunch with Pete and had nice relaxing day, playing video games and watching movies, the rest of the day.

December Sickies Round 2

Last week we all got the stomach bug again! I couldn't believe it, we had all just gotten better! It was so not fun.

I went running early Monday morning at the gym, after George sleeping all night long. It was so nice!

But then he got sick so that was not nice. It was so sudden Monday night, then he just kept dry heaving every 20 minutes during the night. It was so awful.

Ethan lucked out and only threw up once in the middle of the night on Tuesday, while he was sleeping, then he felt better in the morning. How does that even happen!?

Wednesday the air quality was back to green, and it was a nice day so I really had to go run outside! I just ran around our neighborhood for a total of 3.5 miles. Ethan and Elle road their bikes and Mindy ran with me for the first 1k loop! But then they got cold and went inside.

Other than that, I didn't really workout much because either I was worried about my wrist with swimming, or I didn't want to leave the kids when they were sick, or I was too sick to do anything.

I got sick Thursday night, after a nice relaxing day, followed quickly by the girls. We were all throwing up all night so I was really thankful that Pete felt ok and was able to take care of everyone. I'm also really, really thankful that I have The Priesthood in my home. Until Pete gave me a healing blessing, I was seriously throwing up every 10-15 minutes and I was wondering how I was going to make it through the night! After the blessing, it calmed down to every hour or so, then stopped by 2 or 3am so I was able to get a little sleep. Mindy said she was up until 5 throwing up.

Yeah, it was pretty much the worst night ever.

Luckily I felt kind of better in the morning because then it was Pete's turn to be sick. Luckily Ethan was feeling good so he could feed George in the morning before I felt good enough to be up. And luckily George is just the best baby ever! He just played, then took a really good nap. Most of all, luckily we were all pretty much better by Christmas Eve!

I spent all day Christmas Eve getting the house cleaned and sterilized for Christmas. We borrowed Pete's brother's steam cleaner which helped a lot! Now I really hope we're done cleaning up throw-up for the rest of the year! What a month!

The Good Week & My Ballerinas

The next week (12-17), everyone was feeling better! It was so good to have George back to his happy, sweet little self. He sure is starting to get into things, though!

I felt brave enough to try swimming. I went to Masters on Wednesday and Friday, and both times I was the only one there so I got my own personal lesson. (Sweet!) He just had me swim with fins a lot, use the kickboard and do drills a lot. I did some swimming just normal and it really wasn't that bad on my wrist. I did 1500 yards Wednesday and 2100 Friday. Not too shabby!

I ran at the gym on Monday and did 6-400 meter intervals.

I skipped running group again on Tuesday because George fell asleep just before it was time to go and I didn't want to wake him up, but I did do a workout from Nike Training Club called "Slim Chance" that didn't require me to lift weights or put weight on my wrist.

Thursday I met Cheryl, from my running group, at the church and ran around the gym there because the air was bad and it was really cold so I didn't want to take George out in the stroller.

Saturday was super crazy because I had a quiet book swap to go to, then Mindy and Elle had their ballet performance, and we wanted to have dinner with all my family who were coming to see it beforehand. But I was able to fit a run in. I went up to the Capitol to try to get out of the inversion, but I don't know if it really helped. I ran 6 miles and it was a really good run! I was able to fit my Garmin over my wrist brace. :)

Mindy and Elle did such a good job at their performance of Marushka And The Twelve Months. Elle was a "lady of the court" and Mindy was March.

They were beautiful and I was so impressed with Mindy, it almost made me cry watching her dance so well!

December Sickies Round 1

After I sprained my wrist (See Snowboarding Fiasco), I didn't run on Tuesday because it hurt too bad to even shake it around. Plus I was really really sore from those big crashes, and it was enough work just trying to take care of George and myself. Then George got sick.

He was throwing up Wednesday and Thursday. It was so sad. He was just so pathetic and I had to pretty much hold him all the time. :(

Mindy was a little sick for just like half a day. It's weird how differently it affects everyone. Then Ethan missed school Thursday and Friday.

But Friday, Mindy got to go on a ski trip with the whole 4th grade. I think they went to Park City. She was so excited when we picked up her rentals the night before:

Here's another picture of me holding the sick baby, though I think he's feeling a bit better here. You can just see a little bit of my wrist brace on my left hand at the bottom.

Saturday was our ward Christmas party, and luckily everyone was better so we could go to that because we got to see Santa and Mrs. Claus!





George really liked Santa. He would have been totally fine with me leaving him with him! It was so great to have him feeling better!

The Snowboarding Fiasco

Bare with me while I try to get caught up here. We're going to go back 3 weeks...

I've just been reading Fancy Nancy to Elle, and Fiasco is her fancy word for disaster.

Monday, December 5th, I dropped George off with a friend from the ward, and Pete and I headed up to Brighton! Yay! It hadn't snowed (and it still hasn't, all month!), but we had a pass for that day and we want to make use of as many of our passes as we can.

I was so excited, but Pete started to get second thoughts as we watched the temperature driving up. When we got up there, it was -1. Brrr, it was so cold, and Pete had forgotten a jacket to wear under his coat so we went to the store and bought a few warm things. I got this awesome hat/balaclava:

(Add some goggles and gloves) And we were set to go.

Our first run, I just felt really nervous for some reason. I'm wondering if it's because my right binding was a little loose, and we couldn't get it any tighter. Whatever the reason, I was going super slow, and I got stuck and had to hike over flat spots a couple times. I was pretty frustrated.

On the next run, I got more brave went faster. Then I had a really hard crash where I landed flat on my face. It hurt my head and my stomach and my arms. I laid there for a minute assessing the damage, but I could tell it was all superficial and that I was fine so I tried to shake it off. My eyes didn't get the message, though, because they still got teary, and I still got pumped full of adrenalin! I really need to get a helmet.

We kept making our way down the mountain, and I fell hard again! This time I just fell on my butt and that really hurt. But again, I was ok, and tried not to be a baby. I was feeling super emotional, though. I was frustrated and scared and kept wanting to cry so when we got to the bottom, we went and sat in the lodge for a while.

I took my boots off and rubbed my feet for a while because my toes were totally numb, and just tried to get myself to calm down. My heart was still pumping pretty hard from that first crash so I just tried to breath.

Finally, we decided to go to the bunny hill so I could just take in nice and easy and practice switching edges. We went down once, and I was kind of getting it so we hopped back on the lift to do it again. This time, I felt really good and was so happy to be making some nice s-curves, riding my front edge almost like I knew what I was doing!

Then, at the very bottom, just when I'm feeling good, I just fell down. It was such a dumb little fall, and I wasn't even going fast, but I immediately screamed, "Ouch!" and had my glove off, holding my wrist. "Dang it, I just broke my wrist!" was kind of my first thought. It really hurt. I just laid there and Pete was like, "Ok, we're done." He just unclipped my bindings and picked up my board. We just walked down to the car. I was so mad and wanted to get back on the lift when we walked past, but I knew there was no way.

When we got to the car, I looked at my phone and my friend had texted that George was really sad. It takes about half an hour to get home, and when we got there, he was still crying really hard. Poor little guy! So Pete had to pretty much load everything up and we went home. After a couple hours, and almost dropping George when I put his weight on my wrist to lay him down for his nap, I decided to go to the doctor while Pete was home.

After spending 2 hours waiting around at the doctor's office, and getting a brace for my wrist, the doctor told me there was no fracture. That was pretty much all I got from him, I didn't really know how long I was supposed to expect to have to wear the brace or anything, but I was glad I wasn't broken!

That was 3 weeks ago, and I thought I was ready to take the brace off today, but then I bumped it on the high chair and realized, ouch, I am not ready. Dang it! BUT, I went swimming twice last week (using fins and a kick-board for most of it), and I just did a pull-up so it's not like I can't do anything with it.

So, it wasn't really a disaster, it could have been much worse. Like they say, "a bad day snowboarding is better than a good day at work," or whatever. :)

Jingle Bell 5k - Race Report

I have been REALLY slow in getting this written up because I sprained my wrist, but that's another story so you'll just have to wait for it. (It's really not all that exciting).

The race was December 3rd. The night before, I got my race belt and shoes all dressed up:

Not the fanciest costume, but they gave us the jingle bells for our shoes in our packets, and I had to cut a few inches off Elle's red tutu anyway so that worked good for my race belt.

After everyone went to bed, Elle came up and threw up all over the floor. And me. Of course, after that, I started feeling sick too. I wasn't sure if I was really getting sick or if it was just psychological from seeing Elle throw up. Do you ever get that? Luckily she slept just fine after that and felt fine in the morning.

I wasn't feeling really good in the morning so I thought about skipping the 5k, but I got up and got myself some breakfast and started to feel better. I decided I would go, and that I could just run slow if I didn't feel better.

I met Amber and Cheryl from my running group there. We hung out and I ran around a little to get warmed up before the start.

I could not believe how good I felt during the race! I was expecting to feel sick, but it was the opposite. My mile splits were:

1. 8:51
2. 8:59
3. 8:44

I was so happy because I was shooting for sub-9 minute miles to finish in under 27 minutes. It was nice to have my Garmin there so I could make sure I stayed on pace, but I was surprised that I was able to stay on pace without feeling like I was going to die. I just kept going, picking people off one at a time to pass, and I felt awesome! It was a lot of fun!

I got to the "2 mile" sign after only about a mile and a half. I thought, "Hmm, that's in the wrong place." Then I got to the finish line way too soon. I looked at my Garmin and it was only at 2.5 miles. I was so annoyed by that and knew I wouldn't be happy unless I really ran 5k, so I turned around and added a quarter mile on before returning to the finish line.

As usual, my brain wasn't working while running so I turned around before I crossed the finish line so my chip time relative to everyone else is off. Oh well. I also turned around a little soon so I still didn't quite get 5k! Arg.

I saw Amber right as I turned around from adding that extra little bit on and told her it was half a mile short, then ran off to finish in 26:44!!

My total distance was 3.03 miles so still not quite 5k, but I'm really happy with my time! I didn't stop my Garmin until they were cutting my timing chip off, and it said 27:03.

After I got home and showered, I started feeling sick again. My dad came over to help us (meaning Pete) work on our basement bathroom. They got the shower base in, built a wall, and put up beadboard. I'm excited, it's going to look so nice! Here's a picture I took before they put the wall on the side of the shower up:

I felt bad because I pretty much just laid around feeling nauseated, taking care of George as much as I could.

I felt better after dinner and a good night's sleep, but still not great. I was a little worried I would still feel sick on Monday because we were planning on going snowboarding...

Starting Masters Again!

So Wednesday I went swimming early in the morning - not quite as early as I would have liked, but I got there by 6:30 or so. Just as I was getting into the pool, this guy came up to me and asked me if I just put my head down and swim laps or if I do workouts, and if I would be interested in doing Masters from 6 to 7 Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Am I?! :)

I told him I was very interested, and that I'd wanted to come, but that I hadn't been able to make it to the sessions at noon because I have kids at home. He was like, "Yeah, I don't know how people make it at noon." I kind of had a workout in mind, but I was happy to have him watch me swim and give me some pointers, some drills to do and a nice workout. He had me do a 500 ladder that was fun and hard. Then I did 5 more 100s and cooled down. I told him I would be there Friday and he said he'd have a workout for me. Saweet!

Today I was much better at getting up on time since I knew someone was expecting me! I actually had to wake George up to feed him before I left, and he pretty much slept all night for the 3rd night in a row! Last night he did wake up at about 11 but I was able to get him back to sleep pretty quickly without nursing him which I was ok with. I was still late, but only by 10 minutes so I got a really super good, hard workout in!

It was really cool because it was just me and one other lady who had her own workout so it was almost like I had my own personal coach. He had me do a few more drills, and a bunch of building and sprinting. He said I swim really well, I just need to work on stretching my arm all the way out. He said that my stroke smoothes out a lot when I speed up so I just need to work on that.

For the life of me, I can not remember everything I did. This is what I can remember, but I swear it was more than 2000 yards! I was so tired afterwards (I still am)!

300 free/back warmup

150 drill

150 drill?

400 (4 x 100 kick/sprint/kick/sprint)

200 kick

100 sprint

200 kick

100 sprint

200 (4 X 50 sprint, flip turn, easy)

200(4 x 50 easy cooldown & work on flip turns)

Yeah, he made me do flip turns too. Yuck.

It actually wasn't that bad, and I think I'm kind of getting it, but I have a sinus head ache from getting too much water in my nose I think. I'll get it, though.

I'm excited for my next workout with him on Wednesday! Anyone want to meet me there at 6am?

I'm not going Monday because hopefully I'll be going snowboarding!