Frontrunner Century Ride

Friday morning started off at about 5am when I got up and got ready to run. It was my long run day, but since I had such a long ride planned for Saturday, I was just going to run for 1:30. I didn't really have time to go longer anyway.

I wanted to at least get 8 miles. A couple weeks ago, I did had a really hard long run and ended up only doing 7 miles in 1:30. This was the day before Ethan's birthday party so I just tried not to worry too much about it, and started my recovery week early. The next week I ran 10 miles so I felt better about that!

This time I did end up making my 8 mile goal! I actually did 8.2 miles in 1:30. It was fun because Pete got a new battery for the Garmin's heart rate strap so I was able to have heart rate and speed for this run! I ran up a seriously hard hill that shot my heart rate up too high, so I ended up walking most of it. But that's ok! It was fun to have such a hard first half, then a really fun, fast second half. I actually turned around at :50 and made it home right at 1:30. I love it when my timing works out like that. It was so nice because the kids had already eaten when I got home, and Pete just took them to school on the way to work so I could get showered before dropping Elle and George off at my friend's house, and meeting Mindy at school to join her on her field trip to the Museum of Fine Art. It was a Spanish day, meaning the teacher and students were only supposed to speak Spanish (except for to me, of course). This was really only for the bus ride over, though. Once we got to the musium, it was all English since  we broke up into smaller groups and the docent's took over. It was a fun little outing with Mindy and her friends.

When we got back, I picked up Elle and George (who had just slept the whole time and was so happy when I got back! Perfect!), we went home for some lunch and to finish packing for my kids to go to my dad's house. Then we picked Ethan up from school and met back up with Brittay and went to Red Butte Garden for their free day. Mindy had Girls on The Run after school so she didn't come with us. The kids had fun running around all the different paths and gardens for a couple hours.

Before we knew it, it was time to go get Mindy. Of course, when I realized it was time to go, we were all the way at the bottom of the garden! George started crying, Ethan fell and bit his toung, then Elle fell and scraped her knee. Unfortunatly, I don't think either of them will remember the fun they had there. We all servived, though, and made it back in plenty of time to pick up Mindy. Actually, she was late coming out, which made us late to meet my dad. I met him at a gas station near his work, and he got ice cream for everyone because of Ethan's sore toung. Poor kid, it looked like it hurt! Anyway, the kids were all excited to go to Grandpa's house, so it was an easy drop-off.

I went home, met Pete and we had a nice night out that included buying some nice new water bottles, dinner at a little Thai curry place, picking up our pakets for The Frontrunner Century, and some shoping at City Creek. I always just feel so unstylish there! I'm not good at shopping and didn't find anything I liked. Oh well, it was fun to look around.

Saturday morning, I woke up on my own at 6:30. How messed up is it that I can't even sleep in until 7 anymore?

I got myself ready, then woke Pete up at a little after 7. The ride started at 8:00 just a few miles from our house so we didn't need too much time to get there. It was perfect timing. We just walked over, put our shoes/helmets/gloves on, turned in our bags with our shoes in them for after the ride and took this picture, then it was time to start!

The first 20 miles were on the Jordan River/Legacy Parkway Trail which was almost exactly the same route I took for my 40 mile ride last week. It was fun doing some drafting, and passing little groups of people whenever we got the chance. We passed a lot of people and the first 20 miles went by really quickly! I was worried that it would be too cold, but I dressed warm enough that really only my toes were cold for part of the ride. It ended up being just about perfect because the sun was shining and there was no wind at all!

The first aid station was at around 20 miles. We took a few minutes there and they had a nice selection of food/drink. I had a peice of Pete's banana, a couple mini butterfingers, a blueberry Fruition bar which was really good, and a drink of poweraid. 

The next 10 miles were really fun because we got with this groupb of 4 or 5 guys and tried to stick with them. When we were with them, we were able to cruise along at a nice 18-20 mph with our heart rates in zone 2 which was perfect. I fell behind a couple times, though, and I'd have to fight to get back to them. That was hard! Just before we got to one stop light, I heard a sound, looked down and my hammer gel was gone. We stopped, and I thought about going back for it, but then I didn't want to loose my group! I decided to just leave it, but I guess I debated for too long because I got behind again. Pete was able to catch up to them, but then ended up falling back to wait for me. I just couldn't catch them! Oh well, we just decided to do our own ride and keep our hear rates low, not kill ourselves to try to catch them. After that, I wished I would have gone back to grab my gel flask since we ended up loosing that group anyway!

By the time we got to the next aid station at mile 40, I was starting to feel pretty sore and ready for a little rest! Fourty was the longest ride I'd done so far this year. I used the bathroom, had some more mini butterfingers, grabbed some more candy bars for later, and got a drink. Then I was ready to go again! 

We started just after these 2 guys that looked like we could keep up with so we tried to catch up to them. I think that ended up being a mistake because we were following them instead of watching for turn stickers on the road. We caught up to them, but only for a few minutes before we hit a big hill and had to slow down, and lost them again. 

A little while later, we realized those guys had turned and stopped with another little group of riders. There were no turn markers, but we figured they were with us so we turned and followed them. After following them for a few mintues, we realized that no one knew where they were going. We stopped after another big intersection, and the 2 guys we'd been follwing decided to go back and turn, but the rest of the group decied to keep going so that's what we did. We went down a little hill, with me in the lead, then I realized my back tire was flat! Dang it! I pulled over, and the whole group stopped, thinking we were going to ask for directions or something, but I we told them I just had a flat tire and that we were ok to fix it, so they continued on. 

I was so glad Pete was there with me to help me change my tire, get it back on my bike and fill it up. I probably could have done it myself, but I'm sure it would have taken longer than the 30 minutes it took us, and I would have been a lot more stressed out about it!

Just as we were finishing, the guy at the auto body shop we'd stopped at came out to see if we needed any help. It was nice because he let me go inside and wash my hands. They were totally black from my chain. We told him we were trying to get to the Union Pacific station, and that we thought we were off course. He told us the best way would be to go back 2 stop lights, turn left, and that that would just take us right to it. We felt bad for the group who had gone on, and hoped they found their way back because there was no way we could catch them!

We followed the nice man's instructions, and sure enough, it did take us right to the train station. A little too quickly! We finished the ride with only 55 miles instead of the 62 we were planning on. We could have rode around for 7 more miles, but it wasn't a big deal to either of us that we got 62 since we were just doing it for fun and to get a long ride in. We got back just before that group we were worried about. Turns out, they got back onto the route and finished up with 63 miles. Whew!

Here's what we did (top), compared to what we were supposed to do (bottom):

What happend was we missed a left turn after the 2nd aid station (I'm glad it was after the aid station!). I think the light must have been green and we were too excited to just get through it, and catch up to those guys, that we didn't pay attention to the other surroundings because all the other turns were really well marked and easy to spot.

Anyway, we made it and had a fun ride together, so that's what matters! It was fun to ride so far and not have to worry about riding back. We had a nice lunch, put our bikes on their truck, and got on the train to ride back to Salt Lake. Man, it is so awesome going from Ogden to Salt Lake on the train! I loved it!

Ethan's Baptism & 8th Birthday Party

Saturday, April 14th, 2012, Pete baptised Ethan and we also had his 8th birthday party.

Here's the before picture. This was the best one I got. I don't know what was so funny that they couldn't hold still for the camera!


There were four kids that got baptised from our Stake, and it was so funny to see Ethan up there with them as he was about a head taller then the rest of them!

Mindy gave a really nice 5 minute talk, that she wrote herself, about baptism. She talked about how she had a good feeling when she was baptised and about how Jesus was baptised to show us that we need to be baptised and she read the scripture Mathew 3:13-17 :

13 Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be abaptized of him.

14 But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?

15 And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.

16 And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:

17 And lo a avoice from heaven, saying, This is my bbeloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

I was very proud of her, and very proud of Ethan for choosing to be baptised. I am also very happy to be married to such a wonderful man who holds the preisthood and was able to baptise Ethan, and confirm him a memeber of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

All the boys. So handsome.

Our friend, Hui, with the little man.

We went to our house afterwards, and had Pizza at the Birthday Boy's request. It was from Papa John's and it was delicious! (plus it's an easy way to feed a lot of people!)
Katie did Elle's hair strait, and didn't it look pretty!?

Mmmm, pizza!

We had a lot of family that came and showed their love to us and Ethan. I was so happy about that, but sad that I didn't really get to talk to any of them very much! I was in the kitchen most of the time finishing up the cake.

Here's little Hillary, such a doll!

And her family...
Uncle Danny, entertaining everyone as usual.

What a cute grandma and grandpa!

Grandma Lasko, and the other Lasko baby present: Dexter. Another little doll. :)

Can you tell who gave Ethan this present?

Ethan got so many legos. He was one happy boy!

George was another happy little boy. All this attention AND Balloons!?

AND.... The cake!

I was so happy Katie had come to sleep over the night before because she spent 3 hours sculpting this Starcraft cake top out of fondant, even though she had her long run to do in the morning. It probably doesn't make much sense to you if you're not a Starcraft fan (Ethan is a HUGE fan), but didn't she do an amazing job!? (I made the little bug things. Not nearly as impressive.)



We were sad to see it destroyed, but it was quite a hit and Ethan was very happy.

Ethan's such a great boy, I'm glad he had a good day!

Day In The Life - Tuesday

Today went pretty well, so I thought I'd do an episode of A Day In The Life. Of course, my days aren't all like this. Some are much more stressful, and some are less. I'd say today was a pretty good day, though.

4:45 - George wakes up. Wake Pete up for him to get him back to bed while I lay there for a few more minutes.

5:00 - Get up, stick some oatmeal in the microwave while I get dressed and do the dishes. Add some bannana, agave and peanut butter and enjoy while I read tweets, facebook, email and scriptures. Then load my bike and trainer up and head out!

6:00 - Bike trainer class at the Salt Lake Running Company, taught by the one and only B.J. Christensen. It was hard today! We did an interval ladder with hard-recover: 1-1, 2-2, 3-3, 4-4, 5-5, 4-4, 3-3, 2-2, 1-1 The class runs a little late.

7:30 - Get home, hurry and make some eggs with avocado and a smoothie with milk, spinach, blueberries, bananna and vanilla.

8:05 - Take the kids to school.

8:30 - Spend a little time with George, getting him changed and myself ready to run.

9:00 - Super easy run, keeping my heart rate under 140 (a fun challange!), with George in the stroller. We go to see the ducks which takes almost exactly 15 minutes, looked at the ducks for 5, then back home for a total of 2.5 miles in 31 minutes.

9:30 - Remind myself that that run was supposed to be easy and slow... Then put a nice calm George down for his nap.

10:00 - Stretch, do a pilates video for 30 minutes, and eat too much Easter candy. Pilates feels so good after that hard bike ride!

10:30 - Shower and get (kind of) ready.

11:00 - Wake up the sweet sleeping baby, go pick up Elle from preschool and let her play with her friends in the school yard for 45 minutes because it was just too nice outside! Plus, I get to chat with my friends while she does this which is a highlight of my day so it's win-win!

12:00 - Get home, and cook some ckicken for lunch. Finally get George dressed while that cooks.

1:00 - Eat lunch. Don't as me how it takes an hour to cook some chicken, make a salad and sit down to eat it!

1:30 - George takes another nap, and after a little cleaning up, I lay down too. I don't know if I slept. Before I know it, George is crying, and it's almost time to pick the kids up from school! I manange to fold a load of laundry really quick first, though!

3:00 - Pick the kids up from school, and come home to commence saying, "Do your homework!" a million times.

5:00 - Homework is finally done so we walk to the store to pick out some vegetables for dinner.

6:00 - Pete gets home, and I start dinner a little later than I should have, like usual. We went with green beans which we had along with Broiled Tilapia Parmesan which was really good. It seemed a little sparce, I really should have made something else with it (sweet potatoes would have been awesome!), but it was fine.

6:30 - Eat the above mentioned dinner as a loving family. Awww :)

7:00 - Pete leaves for climbing, and I put George in the tub.

7:45 - Put George to bed then have prayers and read to the other kids. I'm reading The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe to Elle right now which is fun because I read it to Mindy when she was about her age. Elle can read some of it herself, but we take turns. :)

8:20 - Kids are finally in bed, later than planned of course. I sit down to check twitter, facebook, email, etc. and write on my blog.

10:00 (ok, maybe a few minutes later) - Finish writing on my blog and go to bed! Goodnight!

PS - It may sound like I had a really healthy eating day, but I couldn't stop eating Mini Cadbury Eggs and Reeses Peanut Butter Eggs all day long! They are all gone now, though, so I'll start fresh tomorrow! Exept that tomorrow is Ethan's birthday...

Easter

We spent Easter in Heber with Grandma and Granpa this year, and it was so great! I got so many cute pictures, it was really hard to pick which ones to share! Here are my favorites:

Dying the eggs Saturday evening. George was not feeling very well, and getting mollars so he was not happy a lot of the time unless he was outside. Luckily it was beautiful outside and there was usually someone willing to take him out.

After church. It is imposible to get my kids to all stand together and smile. This was the best we could do!

George got a headstart and found the first egg! He wanted to eat it right away.

Ready, set, go!

Counting their loot. (I think we were pretty good about not loading them up with tons of candy this year. They got more real eggs than candy ones.)

After the egg hunt, we went for a nice walk to the train tracks. It was such a beautiful day, we spent most of it outside! I put sunscreen on, but not enough, and did get a little sunburnt.

After our delicious dinner, we had a nice light white cake with whipped cream and strawberries. Yum!

Time For Speed!

I know I said I was just going to train by heart rate from now on. BUT I really feel like I need to do speed work to get faster. I mean, I was getting faster when I was doing speed work, then I stopped and I got slower. So it makes sence, right? I'm still going to do the heart rate/time thing for my long run and easy runs, but for my tempo runs and intervals I'm going to go by pace.

I found this website that tells you what pace you need to do your different distances to meet your goal time for whatever distance you put in. It's pretty cool. I need to be a lot faster! It also has some workouts for you to do, and one of them called, "Fast 400s" says to do 5 x 400m at 800m pace. My 800m pace is 7:03 so last Thursday I decided to try that on the treadmill, even though I can bearly run that fast at all! The good thing about the treadmill is that you set the pace, and it makes you stick to it. I wasn't going to do 5 so I thought I'd try for 3, and I did it! Well, I almost did it. I did back it off a little bit early on the last one. I was happy that I was able to even do it, though! I'm going to keep working on it.

Then, Monday, I did a 45 minute tempo run where I tried to run at my tempo pace (which is 8:54) for the middle 25 minutes. I thought I could do this, no problem! But, I didn't quite make it. It was really, really hard. I was able to do 4.58 miles in 45 minutes which is faster than I've done in a long time so that felt really good! But, my splits were:

1. 10:18
2. 9:05
3. 9:19
4. 9:50
5. 11:06

I almost did it on the first mile, but it just got more painful and slower from there. So, I'm going to go down to 20 minutes for the next one. Once I can do that, I'll add more time on.

Yesterday I had taken the morning off because the night before I was really tired and awnry. It was really nice to just spend the day with the kids anyway, since they're on spring break right now. We did go on a lesurly walk to the park, but that was it. But then, my friend from swimming, Chris, invited me to go with her to a track workout with the Desert Sharks Triathlon Club. I figured I had taken most of the day off anyway, and if I went I wouldn't have to wake up early the next morning to do speed work.

Chris had me meet her at Sugarhouse Park at 6:45, but when I got there she told me she had just realized it was the wrong track. So we got in her car, went and found the highschool where they were actually meeting. Luckily, we were only about 5 minutes late so we got to do half the warm-up. I could have used a little more time, but I started with them when they were ready to go! The plan was do to 6 x 400, resting for 1 minute between each one starting when the slowest/last person (ME) got there, then 4 x 200 jogging the rest of the lap then just going again when you hit the start line.

Those guys were fast! I took off with them at first, thinking, "I feel good, I can do this!" That feeling lasted for about 1/4 a lap, then the pain started. Chris and I ended up skipping the 4th 400 because we just needed a little more recovery time. I mean, come one, everyone else was getting 20-30 seconds longer to recover than me! :)

Here are my times (I didn't hit the button right on the first one, though)

400s:

? (7:30 pace)

1:54 (7:19)
1:56 (7:27)
1:59 (7:45)
1:53 (7:24)

200s:
:53 (7:04)
:52 (6:33)
:56 (7:20)
:49 (6:11) Oh yeah, look at that last one! :)

This was hard work, but it was actually really fun! I hope I can work it out to go with them again sometime! It was really good for me to run with such fast people, and they were all really nice and would cheer me on when I'd come in. It was also fun to hang out with Chris other than at the pool!

When I got home, I was still feeling it in my throat/lungs. It was a weird feeling, almost like I needed to cough or had a sore throat. It was hard going to bed after working out so late in the evening like that (7-8pm). I stayed up until 11, but then made myself go to bed. Then it wasn't like my legs were sore, but they almost felt like they were just humming with energy. It was like I'd had a bunch of caffeine or something. It was weird, and I had a really hard time sleeping even though I felt tired. I didn't like that so I don't know how much I'll be able to meet them and workout at night like that. I did get to sleep in this morning, though, luckily! Anyway, it was really good and I'm glad I got to do it.