You'd Think I Was Training For Kona

Ok, you really wouldn't ever think that about me. But why else would I go out on my long bike ride during the hottest part of the day?

Lets start at the beginning of the week.

Saturday afternoon, Ethan came down with a fever of 104. Pete took him to the doctor and she he'd get a sore throat and be better in 3 days. Sure enough that's exactly what happened.

Monday, I was going to do a short run and make it to masters swimming. I ran for 30 minutes, ending at the gym, but there was no one there to open the gym! There were people sitting around waiting so I sat down and waited for 10 minutes before I decided that I could be running while I waited so I ran for 20 more minutes. When I got back, it still wasn't open so I just went home. I wouldn't have really had time to swim now anyway. I was going to swim Tuesday while the kids were at swimming lessons anyway.

Oh wait, Tuesday was Pioneer Day so they didn't have swimming lessons, and I wouldn't have time to swim! These middle of the week holidays just throw me off!

Tuesday Ethan was pretty much all the way better, so we went and watched the parade. It was very hot and we did a lot of walking, but my kids were troopers! I went out for a quick ride with intervals when we got home since I had slept in and missed my bike/run brick that morning. Then we got ready to go to my dad's for the holiday. While I was doing my hair, Mindy came to me with the thermometer, and sure enough her temperature was 102! Poor girl had to miss the trip to Grandpa and Grandma's house and she was very sad about that!

Mindy's third day was the day I took George in for his 18 month checkup. He and Elle both had to get shots too. That was not fun. Then we went and got ice cream to make everyone feel better.

Of course, George just wanted to eat my cone.

It was Thursday so that was really good for Elle's sore leg (from the Tetanus shot) to go to swimming lessons. Unfortunately, Pete didn't get home in time to take George so I just went and played with him in the water instead of swimming. That meant no swimming at all this week for me, though. Sad. Luckily that's my strong sport so I am trying not to worry about it.

That evening George got the fever (and I know it's not from the shots because that's not supposed to hit for 4 or 5 days, so we have something to look forward to there). We had a rough night, but I still managed to get out on my long run at around 6am. It was such a nice morning with a beautiful sunrise and some light rain! I brought my fuel belt, and was immediately soaking wet because the bottles were leaking so badly. After a couple miles I realized that the back one was even missing the top! Arg. After only about 3 miles, I was out of water so I decided to just do 2 loops of 6 miles. When I got home from the first loop Strava said I had done exactly 6 miles in one hour. Perfect, so I would just do that again! I dropped of the fuel belt and headed back out. But this time, when I got back, it said I was only at 11 miles. What's up with that Strava?! I went out for one more mile, but I was actually happy to do it because that's when the rain really started to come down. It was fun, and it was like 75 degrees so the rain felt really good! I had also tried a hammer gel with caffeine in it when I had about 3 miles left so I don't know if it was that or the rain that made my last mile so much fun when usually it's my hardest mile. I also really liked doing 6 miles loops because then I could just think of it as 6 miles instead of 12 and that made me feel stronger.

12 miles in about 2:10

I spent the rest of the day taking care of George who still had his fever and cried pretty much all day. He also woke up every 2 hours during the night. It was rough.

I couldn't bring myself to leave him for 4.5 hours in the morning when he was that sick, not to mention getting up that early after only getting 4 or 5 hours of sleep total. He woke up at 6:30 and I just could not get him to stop crying so finally I put him in his stroller, gave him some Ibuprofen and took him for a walk. He stopped crying as soon as we were outside. I walked a little less than a mile before realizing he had fallen asleep and turning to go home. I was so tired, I just wanted to lay down and go back to sleep right there! Plus I was so hot, I was starting to wonder if it was my turn for the fever, but it was just really hot outside already. I put the stroller in his room and went back to bed, glorious bed. When he woke up, I let Pete take a turn and ended up staying in bed until like 9:30! That is unheard of for me, and it was nice! George was feeling much better, but still not his happy self so I wasn't sure if I was going to do my ride at all. Finally I decided to head out during his nap and just cut it a little short. That means I had to leave at 1:00 pm! Yikes!

45 miles in 3:48

It was SO HOT. I debated just skipping the run, but ended up just doing 10 minutes fast, then jogging/walking home. I passed a marque that said it was 98 degrees. What am I, crazy!? I know I always think people are crazy when I see them out running when it's that hot, and I'm sure that's what people thought of me. Oh well. I technically got my brick done!

George was pretty happy when I got home. He and Elle are both doing a lot better this evening so hopefully everyone will get a good night's sleep and feel all the way better tomorrow. So far Pete and I have been lucky enough to avoid it. I was kind of planning on getting sick tonight just following the pattern, but I'm doing great right now sitting here watching the Olympics swimming!

Recipe for Sore Legs

Ingredients:

1 run workout on the track with 6 x 5:00 zone 4 intervals
1 bike workout with 6 x 5:00 zone 4 intervals
5100 yards of swimming
11 mile run (long and flat)
60 mile bike ride followed by 3 mile run

Lots of water

5 servings hammer gel

1/2 bottle Perpetuem

1 honey stinger peanut butter and honey bar (SO good!)

2 chocolate/banana/spinach recovery shakes

1 Chipotle burrito

Instructions:

Add all ingredients together gradually over 4 consecutive days.

Your welcome! :)

Oh, and compression socks are highly recommended following this recipe.

And so is a nap.

Unless you can't sleep. Then you can just post on your blog.

Today while I was out on my long (3:40) bike ride, my dad and brother brought over 2 new beds to replace Mindy and Ethan's beds that were either broken or about to break. They are bigger and take up more space in their rooms, but they were a huge blessing because I didn't really have money in the budget to buy 2 new beds! Hopefully they will last them a nice long time too.

This morning was AWESOME

I was just sleeping away dreaming about how it was Saturday and that there was nothing I had to get up for (which is weird because I get up pretty early on Saturdays too, but you know how dreams are.), so why was my alarm going off? No big deal. I'll just turn it off. Ah, now I can just relax and got back to sleep.

That's seriously what I did. But I had plans to meet some friends at the track at 5am! So I really did have something to wake up for!

Good thing George made a little cry and I woke up at about 4:30! I was amazed! I felt like Scrooge when he wakes up and realizes he still has time! Yeah, I didn't have as much time as I would have liked, but it was going to be possible to make it! 

I popped my oatmeal into the microwave and chaged into my running clothes while it cooked. It seemed a little crazy to eat oatmeal 15 minutes before doing speed work, but I didn't want to be hungry by the end of my run, and before my swim like I was on Monday after only eating a few banana muffins.

I was so proud of myself for getting out the door as quickly as I did, and I got there right after Cheryl! Cheryl drives a big truck so I waited for her to get out before aproaching her. I didn't want to walk up to some scary guy in the dark! Luckily it was her, though! We walked over to the track and got started.

Amber had slept in too, but she made it there just as we were finishing our warm-up!

I had to do 6 x 5:00 zone 4 intervals with 2:00 jogging inbetween! Yikes! I didn't bring my heart rate monitor because I really don't have trouble getting to zone 4 while running, and my Garmin one hasn't been reliable for me lately anyway. It was also dark when we started so I couldn't see my watch so we just decided to do 2 fast laps, which ended up taking about 4:30, then walking/jogging for half a lap. Cheryl did the first 3 with me, then she joined Amber for some shorter sprints. I was impressed she did 3 considering she hasn't been running much lately. I had a hard time imagining finishing 6, but I just kept doing them until I was done. Crazy how that works! The 5th one was a little slower, but I maintained the same pace for the last one! Whew!

I cooled down then went strait to the pool. It was hard to swim after that hard run workout. I was so tired, but I pushed through and did 2300 yards. 

I will hopefully start swimming Tuesday and Thursday nights while the kids to swimming lessons, so I won't have to do Wednesday mornings after speed work any more. We'll see how that works out.

Here's a cute picture of George from the zoo on Monday.

I was so tired Monday after doing a tempo run and swimming so I took them to the zoo to tire them out before nap time. It worked. George slept for several hours and I was able to take a nice nap. But then I wasn't able to sleep that night so I'm going to try to stay awake today so I can sleep tonight. This morning was so awesome, I'm so glad I got up for all that work! I am so tired, though!

Yesterday I did a brick all in zone 2, but I tried to do the run at the top of zone 2, as fast as I could without going into zone 3. Saturday I rode 50 miles and was able to do a 3 mile run afterwards in 27:24!! i Have no idea what my heart rate was for that, though... NOT zone 2!

I have 4 more hard weeks, then it will be time to taper for 2 weeks (and go to North Carolina!!), then I get to see how fast I can do 70.3 miles! I'm excited and hope that I can just stay strong and work hard for these next 4 weeks. That's a lot for me, I am usually ready for a recovery week after 2 or 3 so we'll see how I hold up.

2012 San Rafael Classic Triathlon - Race Report

This weekend I completed the Olympic distance San Rafael Classic Triathlon. It was so much fun!

This is an x-small shirt. I had ordered a medium and it was HUGE so I'm glad they let me trade. (I got my hair cut last week and didn't even tell you about it! I cut George's hair last night too. He looks so handsome. :)

All I got was this shirt. I didn't get a medal, but I don't really care about that and actually didn't even realize it until the drive home. So if you do races for the big fat medal at the end, this is not the race for you. If you want to do a small, hometown race that is challenging and fun, then I'd highly recommend this one! They had sprint and Olympic distances as well as a duathlon and a kids triathlon (which seemed like the biggest event of the day!).

The race took place at Huntington State Park which is near Price, Utah. We drove down Friday night and it took us about 2 1/2 hour from Salt Lake, but it's kind of a nice drive so it went quickly. We were the first ones to get there at about 5:30 so I didn't have to wait in line to pick up my packet. Then the kids played in the water until dinner was ready. 

Mindy and Ethan were the only ones who got all the way into the water. They wanted to swim out to the floating dock you can see over to the left, but we told them to wait for tomorrow and I would take them out to it when I was in there with them. Elle and George just played in the mud and rocks.

George just wanted to throw rocks into the water the whole time!

The athletes got dinner for free, but I had to buy extra tickets for Pete ($7) and the kids ($5 each). We weren't very impressed. It was just spaghetti noodles with canned sauce, store bought rolls and bagged salad. It was nice to have since we were out in the middle of nowhere, but I wish they hadn't bragged about how good their "home cookin'" was going to be. 

Anyway, after dinner, we went looking for a spot to camp. The entire campground was taken over by triathletes. We didn't have a reservation, and the campground was full, but they let us find a spot to pitch our tent for free so that was nice. We picked this spot right by the lake:

Here's our view of the sunset from our tent. Isn't it nice?

George loved these cement pillars by our site, he kept hugging them.

Ok, so we had pretty much the worst night ever and never want to go camping again. I tried walking George around in his stroller for a while to get him to sleep, but that didn't work because there was just too much excitement going on. Finally I took him for a drive, and got him to sleep at around 10 or 11. I put him in the tent and he slept for a couple hours then woke up screaming at about midnight. I didn't want to wake up the whole campground so I took him into the car where he just screamed for like an hour. Finally I put him in his stroller and walked him around in the dark and that got him calmed down.

We decided to try just wheeling the whole stroller into Ethan's tent for him to sleep in there, then I went back to bed. Luckily Pete stayed up because George started crying again after a few minutes. I guess he didn't like the tent. Pete walked him around some more then ended up spending the whole night outside in a camping chair next to the stroller. Luckily George slept fine after that. It was so nice of Pete to take care of that so I could get a little sleep. I wasn't feeling good and my legs were really sore, plus I was freezing cold so the thought of jumping in the lake first thing in the morning did not appeal to me!

Elle came into my tent with me at about 4 and I went back to sleep for one more hour. Then it was time to get ready! Luckily, I felt totally better and just felt excited! I got dressed and ready while everyone else was still waking up. It was nice to be camped so close to the transition area because I walked over there and back 3 times before I was ready to go and get in the water.

I got in to get wet and warm up a little before the first wave went off. The water was so perfect! I was just swimming around at the exit, not really paying attention to anything else. I swam to the buoy and back several times and was just having fun. Suddenly a race official was yelling out at someone and I realized it was me. He told me the women were lined up and that our wave was starting in 2 minutes! Oops! No big deal, I just hurried out and over a little ways to the dock where I crossed the timing mat then jumped in for our deep water start. I looked around and said, "Is this all of us?" There were only about 15-20 women in the water. I got excited about that because I thought my odds of placing would be so much better. Turns out there were 17 Olympic women, 8 of them were in my age group, and all the ladies in my age group were super hard core athletes! I didn't know that though so I was just excited to go.

SWIM 1 Mile - 34:12

We heard the countdown and several ladies in the water said good luck to everyone and to have fun. It was really nice. I always think I'm going to try and draft off a fast swimmer, but that never ends up happening. I think I just don't like being that close to someone, or I just never find the right person going the right speed for me or something. Anyway, that's how it was this time. I was right next to one girl for a while and we kept bumping each other, but after a few minutes of that, I was pretty much alone. I couldn't tell if I was ahead of the other ladies or if they were all way ahead of me, but I didn't worry about it. I just thought about staying calm and keeping good form. I felt really good, and stayed in a nice strait line from buoy to buoy, though I did feel really thirsty. I started passing guys from the first wave at about the second buoy on the first loop, and there were a lot more sprinters to pass on the second loop. (The Olympic distance was 2 laps of everything on this course.)

T1 - 2:10

I had no idea what my swim time was when I got out of the water, but I felt good. Turns out I didn't have a very fast time, but I was 5th out of the water out of 17! I was happy to see Pete while I was pulling my wetsuit off at my spot in transition. He reminded me to put my shoes on since I was about to just take off with my bike without them! I'm such a scatter brain, there's aways something! He said he thought it was a fast transition, though, as I was leaving.

BIKE 30 Miles - 2:01:40

The bike course was weird because it totally looked flat, but it was definitely uphill. I was going probably 8-15 miles an hour the whole 7.5 miles up to the turn around. It wasn't a really hard hill, but it was just relentless. It was ok, though, the scenery was pretty and I just tried to keep it steady. I felt like I was pushing pretty hard, with my heart rate at around 150, but a lot of people were still passing me! I just told myself, "Well, at least I beat them in the swim," and tried to be happy for what a good job they were doing. After all, I haven't been training on hills at all so I really wasn't prepared for this!

Once I got to the turn around, it was so much fun! I peddled as fast as I could and kept my speed at around 30-35 most of the way down. I did get down to 20 mph towards the end, and that felt slow! I was so happy and excited that I got to do that again when I got to the turn around. This didn't last long as my energy quickly died down going up that long uphill for the second time. This time I didn't have all the sprinters with me and I was pretty much by myself most of the way. I would start to think I must be in last place and realize I was wrong when someone would come out of nowhere and pass me! Even the way back down wasn't quite as fun. I tried to go as fast as the first time, but this time my highest speed was 30. It was still fun, but I was feeling really tired!  I had not planned on taking 2 hours to do 30 miles! That was an average of 14.8 mph, slow!

 T2 - 1:39

I was pretty quick for this transition. I took everything out of my back pocket except for my last hammer gel, traded my helmet for my hat, and my bike shoes for my running shoes, then clipped on my race belt, grabbed my Garmin and headed out. I stopped at the bathroom just a little ways out of transition. I was feeling really tired and welcomed a few more minutes before the run started!

RUN 10k - 59:37

The run was 2 loops around the lake so I got to run by our campsite twice where the kids were sitting watching for me, and Pete was packing up the tent. It was nice to see them, but I knew I wasn't running fast enough. I was going to try to keep my pace at around 9 min/mile, but that idea was out the window so I just tried to keep it under 10:00. I was almost able to do this for the first few miles, but the last few were pretty pathetic. I just don't have it in me to push harder! Arg! I stopped at every aid station which was about every mile, took a drink of water and dumped some on my head. I took my hammer gel at about mile 4 and hoped it would give me energy to finish strong. I don't know if it did. On my second time around, Pete told me to hurry because George was getting fed up! Oh great! He also said I looked "medium strong" and told me to remember my posture. So from then on out I tried to focus on form and moving my feet faster. I don't know if it worked. It was mostly a dirt road, and really pretty running around the lake, but I was just tired! I think the run might have been a little short, closer to 5.5 miles, but I'm not sure because I started my Garmin a little late.

I finished in 3:39:18


I most definitely did not place in my age group. I thought I was very last, but it turns out I finished 7th out of 8. I guess that's not so bad. I though for a few minutes that I should just be done with triathlons, but then I remembered that I had a really good time. Who cares how many people I beat. (At least there was that one person, though!)

I just need to remind myself that I'm training for a half Ironman, and not an Olympic and I've been training mostly on flat and not for hills. This was a great race and I'm glad I got to go! The kids had fun and I had fun. I know Pete didn't have a great time  taking care of all the mundane details, but I'm so grateful to him for doing all that so I could do what I wanted to do. I am not going to quit doing triathlons. What else would I do? Besides, I've got Utah Half coming right up in a month and a half!

After the race, I found Pete and George standing near transition and George was just in a daze he was so tired. He didn't even acknowledge me or anything. I carried him back to our camp spot and put in him the stroller. He was asleep within a few minutes. No wonder he was so tired with such a hard night! We helped Pete pack everything up, then I took the kids over to try to swim out to the floating dock. Ethan panicked about half-way out so we just turned around and I had to tow him back to where he could touch. I'm glad they didn't try it by themselves. It doesn't look very far, but it was for them and it's scary when you're out in a lake and you can't touch! Maybe next time. I told him, "Thank you for giving me another workout!"

We got showered and changed, then headed home. We stopped to for lunch on the way because you have to get burgers after a race right?

Waiting for our food at the cute little restaurant we went to for lunch on the way home in Helper called Balance Rock Eatery & Pub. We all had delicious cheeseburgers. It was well worth the stop.

Hot Town, Summer in the City

Oh MAN, it has been so hot these past few weeks! I had one recovery week after the half marathon, then 2 good hard training weeks that were just that - hard! I did miss my long run last week because I slept in then it was just too hot and Pete went out of town, and I think I missed a swim, but that's it.

I felt slow alot though. I went running at 5am a couple times, before it was even light, and it was still too hot! I didn't realize how much the heat affected me, but my heart rate goes up and my speed goes down and I just want to die! I skipped the run on what was supposed to be a brick on Saturday because, again, I slept in and didn't leave on my 3-hour bike ride until 9. I did not want to go out and run at noon when it was 97 degrees out! Plus I was just so tired. I pushed hard on that ride, and it took it all out of me! I rode 51 miles, and I'm just not used to that anymore. I need to get working on that!

Complain, complain, complain.

Sorry about that.

I really am happy and I'm loving this summer! The kids and I are staying busy going to the library, the zoo, tracy aviary, Wheeler Farm (today) and Seven Peaks waterpark (every single Friday so far!)! I love it, and don't want it to end even though it's hard for me to run in this heat. I love that it's light enough in the mornings for me to run AND swim before the kids wake up, then I have the rest of the day to spend with them! Pete said it was like a 3 month vacation with 4 of my favorite people, and that's so true!

I'm also really excited for my first tri of the season on Saturday!

I've just spent went back and read over my last 3 tri reports: St. George, Echo and Utah Half to kind of remind myself what to expect and to make some goals for Saturday.

I'm doing the Olympic distace San Rafael Classic Triathlon, and I have really no idea what it's going to be like. I've never talked to or even heard of anyone who's done it, and I can't find any race reports about it or anything. All I can get from their website is that the swim is in a cute little lake that is about 70 degrees now, the bike is 30 miles out and back with a "hill you won't soon forget" (whatever that means), and that the run goes around the lake. I don't know how hilly the bike or run are, and I'm not sure how big of a hill that's going to be on the bike.

So here are my goals:

(First of all, let me just say that I'm so glad I'm not nursing George anymore because I won't have to worry about him starving while I race like I did last year, but I am sad my sweet little guy is growing up so much!)

Goal A: Finish in under 3:15 (Ah! That seems crazy long, but that's giving myself :30 for the swim, 1:40 for the longer-than-usual bike, 1:00 for the run, and :05 for transitions.)

Goal B: Finish the race and have FUN!

We are going to be camping so I hope that goes well and that Pete has fun with the kids while I'm racing!