Colleen’s Triathlon Training Blog

Friday Flashback - Jordanelle 2007

2012-02-10T09:59:00.000-07:00

Jordanelle Triathlon - August 25, 2007 - Sprint

This was me on my 27th birthday, after cutting my hair, 5 days after the race.

I remember working so hard to get to where I could run the full 5k for this one, and then just crying when I had to stop and walk. I also remember a lady doing the olympic passing me and giving me some encouragement that helped so much! I don't even remember what she said, but I remember her. And looking at my run time, it looks like I did really good!

Swim 750m - 21:07

Bike - 47:48

T2 - 3:02

Run - 27:56

Total Time - 1:48:27

I was #29 out of 59 in my age group.

I don't have any pictures of the race, but these were taken the day after when Elle was almost exactly 11 months old.

What a sweet little girl!

Quick Heber Visit

2012-02-05T21:30:00.003-07:00

Today we went and visited my dad in Heber, and it was quite a beautiful day as you can see:

We didn't think there would be enough snow to bring snowsuits, but bare legs were a little extreme, Elle!

I ran 8 miles yesterday, and it was not fast. I'm a little nervous about the half marathon next week because I only did 8 miles for my last 2 long runs, and felt sore afterwards. Sometimes I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing! Let's hope I do and that I'll make it the 13.1 on Saturday because, as of tonight, I'm officially registered!

800 yd Swim Benchmark

2012-02-03T21:41:00.003-07:00

Guess what I did today! I swam 800 yards in 14:55!

I showed up half an hour late for masters because I was slow getting up, then George woke up right at 6 so I had to get him back to bed before I could leave.

Our coach wasn't there today. He'll be out of town all next week too. He did leave a little workout for us, and when I got there Chris was practically done with it. I decided this would be a good time to do a timed 800 just so I can set a benchmark for the rest of the season. It's always nice to be able to see how much you're improving.

I was actually going to do 1000, but by the time I finished warming up, I didn't really have time and I figured 800 would be a good number too. It was really hard, I felt like I was going to collapse when I got finished, but I was so happy to make my goal of < 15:00!

Chris ended up doing 3000 yards - way to go Chris!

My total was 1600 in 35 minutes, and I was pretty tired when I left!

Pete gave me another massage when I got home which was awesome! Then I was able to take a 2 hour nap! Wow! Sadly, the reason I had that long to sleep was that George was sleeping a lot because he's sick. Poor little guy. :(

I'm sure I'll be next. I just hope I'm not sick next Saturday when I'm supposed to be doing a half marathon! (Let me know if you want to sign up with me, it's only $25 and it's inside at the Olympic Oval!)

Friday Flashback - Spudman 2007

2012-02-03T05:39:00.002-07:00

Spudman Triathlon - July 28, 2007 - Olympic

This was my first olympic distance tri! I thought it would be a good first one because the swim is downstream and the bike and run are pretty flat. It was still really hard to run that 6.2 though!

Pete did this one with me also, and it was really fun because we left the kids with my dad and just had a little trip by ourselves. We drove up to Burley, Idaho the night before and slept in the Jeep amongst hundreds of other athletes on the golf course which is right on the race course.

I love this race! It's so fun swimming downstream, then jumping in the river after your done to cool off and play around. I was still nursing Elle so the main thing I remember is being really uncomfortable during the run because of not nursing for so long! Ouch!

Swim 1500m - 20:32 (about the same as my sprint times!)

T1 - 5:25

Bike 25 miles - 1:18:33

T2 - 6:21

Run - 1:13:09

Finish Time - 3:04:03

On the way home, we saw this crazy little cyclone!

Swimming, Running and Spinning in Circles

2012-02-02T21:26:00.008-07:00

Elle likes to play this dress-up game and take pictures of her creations on my phone. I found this on there today.

Fitting. :)

Of course, Ethan was sick again yesterday, so I didn't get my run in, but I did go to early morning masters! Yay, I always love to swim! Here's what we did:

200 swim stroke

100 kick

200 swim free

2 x (200, 100, 50) first time with paddles and pull, second time free

500 ladder (started out with fins, but my foot was cramping too bad so I took them off and tried to keep up!)

2 x 50 all out for time (:42 both times)

150 cool down

1850 total

That boy is going back to school tomorrow!

Last night, Pete gave me a massage. Taking that couple's massage class back in like '07 was one of the best investments we've ever made! I never paid for a massage the whole time I was training for Ironman. I had kind of forgotten that Pete gives such a good massage, and my back felt so much better afterwards! It's still a little sore today, but not nearly as bad. I'm planning on talking him into another one tomorrow.

Here's a little article about what massage actually does to your muscles.

This morning, I slept in a little and had a hard time getting out of bed, but I made it! I went and ran on the track at the gym.

It actually wasn't this crowded the whole time. These ladies would run in every once and a while, do one lap, and run out. It must have been for a class that was going on or something.

I ran for 10 minutes to warm up, then I alternated fast/slow laps for 20 minutes, using my iPhone to keep track of laps and time.

Here's my first 4 laps:

And, here's the last 4:

This is such a good, hard workout. I love being able to run as fast as I can just for 30 seconds. I can actually focus that long and stay on track.

So, let's see, the track is 15 laps to a mile, so the 30 second ones were 7:30 min/mile pace, and the 50 second ones were 12:30 min/mile. Not too bad right? I mean, it slows you down having to turn so much!

A total of 32 laps is a little over 2 miles. Oh yeah!

Then another easy 10 minutes to cool down.

I really wanted to wear my heart rate monitor today for this, but I couldn't find the watch that goes with it in the dark. I'll have to try to find it before my next run.

After dropping the kids off at school, getting George down for a nap, and Ethan started on his homework (I really should have made him go to school today, but he said he still felt sick! It's so hard to know.), I got on the trainer and did an easy ride for 45 minutes with just a few 1 minute pick-ups at the end. It was good to just get on the bike.

And here's just a cute picture of George, he was in such a get-into-everything mood today! Such a sweet little trouble-maker!

Groundhog Day Treat

2012-02-02T21:04:00.003-07:00

This is my Groundhog Day treat (Warning, this is very decadent!):

We do our family night on Wednesday nights since that's when everyone's home, and that's the night I get to make a treat! Last night we wanted to have brownies with ice cream. I found this recipe by Alton Brown. We love Alton Brown! Pretty much anytime I'm looking for a recipe, if I see one by him, that's the one I pick. These brownies are so chocolaty, there's more than twice the amount of cocoa than flour! Yes, please. (They were actually too chocolaty for Elle, she didn't like them)

I made this in muffin cups so we would have little individual brownies.

Then we topped it with Haagen Daz dulce de leche (carmel) and/or vanilla ice cream. We take our ice cream seriously! We love Haagan Daz because look at the list of ingredients for their vanilla: Cream, Skim Milk, Sugar, Egg Yolks, Natural Vanilla. That's it! And it's just so, so good!

Anyway, I wanted to have it again tonight with the left-overs. Then I got the idea to try making some chocolate syrup to go with it, and found this recipe using agave necter. I ended up adding another squirt of agave, and about 2-3 tbsp. butter, and it's really good! No sugar! :)

Put it all together, and OH. My. Heavens. Such a treat!

This would make a great Valentine's Day treat too.

What Today Should Have Been

2012-01-31T21:57:00.004-07:00

Today I should have:

Gotten up at 5 and gone to my bike trainer class at 6

Come home

Fixed breakfast

Taken my wonderful children to school

Gone for an easy run

Gotten the house all clean

I didn't do any of that.

Well, I guess you could say I fixed breakfast, and I did get the kids to school on time, so there's something!

My back has been hurting since last Thursday, and I am getting really sick of it! I knew that riding my bike, especially doing high cadence intervals like we would, was not really going to help that.

Of course, neither did snowboarding.

Or swimming.

Or driving in a car for 10 hours.

Or belaying for a couple hours.

Or putting down/picking up a 23lb baby all day every day.

But I did those things last week anyway because I love them! (Ok, I don't love driving in a car for 10 hours, but I did love where it brought us!)

What I know would be good for my back is rest. Sleep. Lots and lots of glorious sleep. Plus, when I woke up this morning, I wasn't feeling very good and I worried I was coming down with our latest stomach bug. For those two reasons, I went back to sleep, and tried to take a nap during George's nap when I would normally have run.

I feel like such a slacker for doing this, especially since I just had a rest day on Sunday. Arg! It's ok, though. I think it's what my body needed. And even if it wasn't, it's not going to kill me.

My back feels pretty good now so I think I'll be back on track with Master's tomorrow, and I'll probably try to make up that easy run I missed today.

That is if Ethan's not still sick.

Yeah, he's throwing up tonight. What is it with our family and all this throwing up lately!?

Seriously, it is SO last year!

We were going to go snowboarding yesterday, but ended up not going because Ethan was sick. (Pete and George weren't feeling very well either) I thought he was better today, but he called me at lunch saying he wasn't feeling good, so I brought him home from school. Then tonight he was feeling good enough to go to swimming lessons, but now he's back to being sick, and I know he's not faking it. Arg!

What do you do when your kids get sick so you can't train?

How To Get Through Winter

2012-01-29T21:38:00.007-07:00

Go on a trip! We are so lucky to live where we do. We can go snowboarding one day, then we can just drive for 5 hours, and have a nice sunny vacation!

This week has been so crazy! I wrote about going snowboarding on Monday, then I went to the bike trainer class Tusday. Wednesday I went to Masters and swam a really hard 2150 yards. Thursday, I ended up taking the entire day off because Elle was sick again, but I was ok with that since this was my rest week anyway. I spent the say sewing curtains. Yay for rest week!

Friday I was back in the pool for 2100 more yards, by myself since Chris was gone. Then, after the kids got out of school, we drove down to St. George! Pete had a meeting and we were going to stay with our friends, Adam and Rachel. We actually didn't get out as soon as I would have liked so we didn't get to their house until 7:30 which is bedtime! We had some dinner and the kids played for a little while, but then everyone went to sleep pretty good!

Saturday morning, George slept in until like 8:30! Man, he must have been tired from that drive! We had a pretty leisurely morning. I hung out with Rachel and the kids played. It was funny because when her kids wanted to go outside, she was bundling them all up with winter coats, hats and gloves, and I just told my kids, "you might want a jacket." Elle just went out in long sleeves and said she was fine. I went outside in just a t-shirt, and it was a little chili, but it felt pretty nice actually! I'd say it was in the 40s.

I stuck around until George was fed and ready for the day, and Pete was up (his meeting went really late), then I headed out for a quick run. I told them I would just do 6 or 7 miles so I'd be gone for just over an hour. But then I stepped outside, saw the Red Mountain against the blue sky, and got on the path that winds through the lava fields, and it just felt so epic! Now 7 miles just didn't seem like enough, especially since this would be my one and only run for the week!

So I did for 8 miles. Everyone survived without me for those 10 extra minutes, though! It was so nice out there, and it was funny to see people out with their hats and gloves on, and here I was wondering if I should have put sunscreen on! I just had capris, and two tech shirts - one of them long sleeved. My hands did get a little cold, but I could easily pull my sleeves over them and fix that problem.

When I got home, I stretched, ate some breakfast pizza Rachel had made, then I was like, "Ok, lets go climbing!"

The kids, especially Elle, were really excited to go since this would be their first time climbing outside. Adam, came with us and brought his 2 oldest kids so they could try it too.

We went to Chuckwalla which is one of our favorite places to climb, and also super easy to get to. I ran to here from town in March of 2010, and have been wanting to climb it ever since.

This isn't my picture, but it's a good shot of the wall. We did the 2 on the very end (right), and the one just above where the girl in purple is standing. (source)

There were people on the easiest route when we got there, so we started out with a 10a while we waited. Pete lead it, and I tried it on top rope after him, but it was too hard for me not being warmed up at all so I only made it half way. I might have tried longer, but I didn't want to use up my arms too fast and I knew the kids were all waiting for their turns so I just came down.

Pete set up the top rope for the other route, and also clipped the rope at the 2rd bolt so the kids wouldn't swing as much if they fell. Elle went first, and made it up to the bolt pretty easily so Pete moved the clip up to the 3rd bolt. Isaiah went next, and I was off looking for Mindy and Ethan while he went so I didn't really see it, but he didn't really enjoy it very much. He thought it was dumb that you are supposed to use your legs! Haha

Katie went next, and she did a really good job, and made it to the bolt! Then Elle went again and also made it to the bolt, even though she got tired and sung around a little, she got back on and finished! I was so proud of her!

[Photo to come]

I took my turn, and made it to the top! Yay! :)

Then it was Ethan's turn. I was so impressed with Ethan. He did such a good job! He made it to the bolt really fast, unclipped it, and just kept climbing!

He almost made it to the top, but suddenly got really scared about how high he was so he came down. Next time, though!

I had been worried that it would be a little chili, but once we got out there and the sun was shining on us against that rock, it actually got kind of hot! It was such a nice day! The sky was so beautiful and blue against the red rock, and we were just so happy to be there! I actually got sunburnt a little bit on the back of my neck from all that belaying.

Mindy didn't end up going because she wasn't feeling well, and she went home early with Adam and the other girls. Ethan and Isaiah stayed and had a blast playing around on the rocks!

Once, the kids were done. We moved over and did one more. This is one of our favorites, and it's actually the one I had my first lead fall on (awww!). We watched a guy have his first lead fall on it while we were there too. Then Pete went up, and he actually fell at the top (same place I had fallen), and pulled me up a bit! That was kind of exciting. I don't think I've ever even seen Pete fall on lead before, let alone while I was belaying him! Anyway, he finished it just fine after that, then I took a shot at it on top rope.

I think I kind of psyched myself out about that top part, and almost quit at the very end before finishing it! I'm glad I didn't though. It wasn't a very good finish, I just managed to touch the chains, then had him let me down. But that counts!

I'm really excited to get climbing outside again! It was so much fun! I hadn't climbed outside for a looong time. I don't even know when the last time was. Maybe when I was training for Ironman and we went to Black Rocks. That was in 2009. That's sad, I must not let that long of a break happen again!

George stayed home with Rachel.

And here's his sweet friend, Lily!

Hi, Lily!

We went back to Adam and Rachel's, had pizza and salad for dinner then packed up and headed back home. It was a really quick trip, but it was totally worth it. It was so much fun!

The kids all slept pretty much the whole way home which was good since we didn't get home until 11:30. I was so tired, and happy to get in my bed by then! Pete and I listened to The Graveyard Book on the way, which is really good.

We saw the biggest, most majestic bull elk standing right off the side of the freeway! It was so unreal, and it scared us to death at the same time! It was so big, and if it had decided to jump out in front of us that would have been so bad, I can't even imagine. But it was also just so beautiful, and we felt blessed to be able to see him so close, even if it was just for a second. I hope he got away from the freeway after that!

Friday Flashback - Echo 2007

2012-01-27T09:54:00.000-07:00

Echo Triathlon - July 14, 2007 - Sprint Distance

Swim 750m - 20:48

T1 - 5:27

Bike 20k - 44:45

T2 - 2:30

Run 5k - 34:21

Total Time: 1:47:53

I was #24 out of 49 in my age group.

I have no recollection of this race at all. I think Pete and I both did it, with him doing Olympic and me doing Sprint again. And I know I liked it, but that's about it.

The next week we went to Newport Beach, CA. It was so much fun! What a great year that was! Look at our cute little family too!

Surfing Powdered Sugar

2012-01-24T21:14:00.005-07:00

We finally got some snow this weekend! A little while after my run in the rain on Saturday, it turned into big, fat, fluffy, flakes! We all just stood there looking out the window, watching it fall. Elle even asked if it was raining snowballs. :) They were probably the biggest flakes I've ever seen, and it was really cool to watch! I was just glad I didn't have anywhere to go! This is what was going on just a few miles away from us in Bountiful (it starts out slow, but keep watching):

People are crazy!

Anyway...

A lot of rain and a little snow in the valley, meant it was dumping in the mountains! Yay!

We couldn't wait to get up there Monday morning. I dropped the kids off at school, and George at my friend, Brittany's house. She is just so good with him, and makes me not worry about leaving him, plus her daughter and Elle are just best friend so she was excited to go over there after preschool. Thanks Brittany!

Pete's friend, Hui, came with us up to Brighton and he even scored a ticket off a scalper for almost half price! Nice!

We got on the lift by 9:30 or 10, and we were so excited to see how beautiful the snow was and that there was hardly anyone up there! They had all come Sunday to catch the freshest powder, but there was plenty left for us!

We got to the top, and right off the bat, Pete took off down a steep part into the trees! I thought about trying to follow him, but knew I would just get stuck so I just followed Hui down the groomers, and we met back up at the bottom where we headed up for another round. I kind of got after Pete for ditching me, but he said he wasn't ditching me because he was in front of me! Anyway, this time we planned it out better. They were going to go more off course, and I'd just stay on the groomers by myself so I could work on my turns. This actually worked out really well! Towards the bottom, I was in a section where I was all by myself, and I had this huge area to just carve as many Ss as I wanted. It was really good practice for me!

When I got to the bottom, I sat there for a while resting and waiting for the guys. My legs were pretty tired since they're not used to doing so much front edge riding (yeah!). After I sat there for a while, I finally called Pete to see where they were, and he said they were kind of stuck and hiking out so I should just go do another run. So, I hopped on the lift with this kid from California. He moved out here in October chasing the snow which kind of sucks since we're just barely getting some! It's going to be worth it though! He said he had come Sunday, but they turned him away because the parking lot was full. I'm so glad we went the day after the day after the snow! When I told him I lived downtown, he asked me if I was going to the university! How sweet of him! Haha, again, easily flattered!

This run was another really good practice run for me, and I was just feeling so awesome and excited when I got to the bottom! I'm really starting to get it! Yay! It was so beautiful up there too, and the snow was so soft! It was SO much better (100 times better!) than last time!

This is a picture Pete took. He kept comparing it to Skyrim. Haha

Anyway, Pete and Hui were there waiting for me when I got there so we just hopped back on. This time we veered way over to the right so we could go up the Great Western lift. I didn't lose them quite as quickly this time, and it was really fun, but there were a couple places where it flattens out and I wasn't going fast enough to get through, or I'd go off into the deep powder and not be able to get out, so I had to walk a bit.

Great Western is a really long lift and it took us way up to the top of the mountain. It had started to snow a little bit on my second or third run, but now it was starting to snow a little harder, and the wind was picking up so it was really cold on the lift! When we got to the top, it was hard to even see the ground, everything was foggy and white. It felt kind of foreboding setting off in those conditions! It didn't last long, though. Once we got down a little bit, it was fine.

Here's a picture Hui took. You can see how foggy it was up a little ways!

Hui turned off the path right away so it was just Pete and I, and we were going to stick together, but that didn't happen. I tried to follow Pete, but ended up turning onto a deep, less ridden area. This was really cool, and fun, but I felt out of my league! All the guys there with me were at a much higher level so I felt really self couscous did a lot of starting and stopping. I just focused on getting back to the path. I wish I would have tried to enjoy it more, though, because really that was the funnest part of the day! I'll get there, though!

By the time I made it to the bottom, Pete was there waiting and he was done, and ready to go to the car. I probably would have been game for another run, but it's a good thing we left then because my legs were so sore afterwards!

That was 5 runs in all for me during about 3 hours. It was so awesome!

I had a hard time falling asleep my legs hurt so much, but I had faith that they would feel better in the morning and set my alarm to get up for my trainer class! I was too excited to go to skip it because of tired legs!

My legs did feel pretty much all the way better in the morning! Yay! It's amazing what a good night's sleep will do for your muscles! It is so nice that George is sleeping through the night now too!

Our trainer class was really hard, we did 10 fast spinning intervals for 90 seconds each. Ouch! Then single leg drills - 3 on each leg! I was glad when it was over, but also glad I went! We watched the 25th anniversary of Ironman while we road, and I'm getting really excited for my next Ironman! Whenever it will be...

I was going to do a really easy 3-4 mile run after I got the kids to school, but when I got home I found out that Elle had been throwing up so I just forgot about running. It won't kill me to skip a day, besides this is my recovery week anyway. I also went and donated blood this afternoon, so skipping the run was probably overall, a good thing!

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Apple Blueberry Waffles

2012-01-21T21:28:00.003-07:00

I just threw this together this morning, and thought I'd throw the recipe on here for you guys to try!

2 cups milk

2 1/2 cups whole white wheat flour

3 eggs

1/2 cup applesauce

1/2 cup canned pumpkin

4 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

1/4 tsp. salt

frozen blueberries (optional - my kids don't like them so I just dump some in mine)

Mix together until smooth, then fold in blueberries. I made pancakes and waffles with this, and it works great for both! Top with maple syrup and enjoy.

Long Rainy Run

2012-01-21T16:21:00.009-07:00

Last Week

I was so proud of my long run last week, but I never got around to writing about it! I did 10.5 miles. The first 6.5 was up The Avenues and back home to get a drink and fuel. Then I just went out on the bike path and added 4 miles, and those 4 miles were so awesome! I felt really good, and was able to keep up an average of 9:48/minute mile pace on flat! That was with slowing down a bit on the last mile too. It just made me so happy that I was able to do that after running 6.5 miles, and that it felt pretty easy! I must be doing something right!

Last week, I also got a new TYR tri top and shorts that were on sale at Kompetative Edge for 50% off. Score! They are so nice! The top is nice and long so I won't have to worry about getting my lower back sunburnt, and it also has a big pocket in the back that will actually be useful. I'm so excited to try it out! The shorts are just like my tri suit, and I love them!

Notice the sea monkeys on the back of the toilet? Yeah, they got knocked off today and are no more. Poor sea monkeys. They were Ethan's Christmas present, and didn't even last a month!

I wore the shorts for my run Thursday morning, then I did an easy trainer ride during George's nap. When I say easy, I mean really easy for only 30 minutes. I just really need to get used to sitting on that seat again. I was so sore after Tuesday's trainer class! I'm sure I'll get used to it quickly though.

Today

This morning was awesome! I got to sleep in until 7:15! Then I made whole wheat pumpkin blueberry waffles and pancakes. Yum, they were so good! And the house smelt like apple cider while they cooked!

When I put George down for his nap, I looked outside for the first time and realized it was pouring! I wanted to do 11.5 miles for my long run, but there was no way I was doing that inside! I reminded myself that I am a rock star and that I just needed to get out there to do it!

I'm so glad I have such a nice rain jacket that really makes the rain a non-issue. (even though I look kind of silly with the hood on...) I wore it for my Ironman and I wished I had had it during the St. George Marathon where it rained pretty much the whole time! The trouble is that it doesn't breath very well, so I was soaking wet (with sweat, not rain) when I got home! But I stayed warm for the whole run so it was great.

I drove up to the capitol headed up City Creek. My battery died on my Garmin so I just used an app on my iphone called Runkeeper to track my miles. It wasn't as easy to look at my pace, distance, or time that way since I had my phone in my iFitness belt, so I just kind of guessed on where to turn around. I turned around at the 2 mile marker up City Creek since I knew I had done about a mile before that.

As I started back down, my right foot started to hurt a little. It wasn't bad, but it felt likewhen it got bruised back when I was training for the Utah Valley Half Marathon and I had to stop running for like 2 weeks. I didn't want that to happen again so I pretty much decided I'd just cut this run short and head home instead of out for another loop when I got to the car. But then it stopped hurting, and I didn't feel it again the whole 3 miles. Weird.

I sat in the car for a few minutes debating what to do. I ate my shot blocks (Have you tried the margarita shot blocks? They are so good! And they have salt in them!) and drank some water. Finally I decided to just keep going and at least do 10 miles. I was at 6.5 so I thought I'd just do the 3 mile loop around Bonnaville Blvd. and call it good.

I left my gloves in the car because I was pretty warm, but that was a little hasty because after about a mile I was pulling my sleeves over my hands. It was ok, though. I was really only cold for a few minutes where the road was more exposed.

On the way back, I ended up running down the canyon towards memory grove for the length of a song, then back up, to add some distance on. When I got back to the car I was at 11.19 miles, and I was fine with that! It took me kind of a long time - 2:05. That's a nice slow 11:11 min/mile pace. That's ok, though. It was a hard run, City Creek is pretty steep! My legs are tired!

It's weird because I was warm the whole run, but as soon as I got home, I was freezing! I started a hot bath while I stretched and that helped. We had a nice relaxing afternoon and I put my feet up while George napped, and did a little cleaning after that. It was nice. Now I'm sitting with my feet up again, and my compression socks on, not wanting to move. Hopefully we'll have a nice night and George will just sleep!

George's 1 Year Checkup

2012-01-21T16:02:00.003-07:00

The other day was George's 12 month check-up. He is doing great in everything except the skin department. The good news is that our doctor said she didn't thing the rash was food related, and that it's just exima. Again. That's what it always is. She told me to put hydrocortisone cream on it. I put some on that night, and it was noticeably better the next morning! She's told me about that stuff before, I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner! We're going to continue with the no dairy for another week, then re-introduce and see what happens.

George's favorite part about the visit was the paper on the exam table! So much fun to kick his feet around on or just shake!

The not so fun part was that he had to get 4 shots! That's always so hard to see the look of betrayal when you're holding their hands and they get poked! Luckily we haven't seen any side effects from the shots yet. She said he could be sick for the next couple weeks because all the different vaccines cause fever/rashes at different times. Great. Hopefully it won't be bad.

The doctor also recommended we start making George cry himself to sleep when he wakes up in the night. I really should have done this 6 months ago, but it is just so hard when my sweet little baby cries and I know I can make him feel better! I also really love the time I get to cuddle and nurse him during the night. Cheesy, I know, but it's true! I've still been nursing him 2 times a night, and at one year old, that's very unnecessary! I guess it would be nice to have an uninterrupted night's sleep... OK, that would actually be amazing! I don't know when the last time that's happened! So, we're giving it a try.

The first night, he woke up at 11 and cried for an hour and a half. I went in at half hour intervals to comfort him, but didn't pick him up. Ug, it's so hard! Then he woke up at 4 and cried for about an hour. This made it easy for me to go to swimming even though I didn't get much sleep, because I was already up!

I'm so glad I went swimming too! Chris was back, and we did kind of an easier workout totaling 2000 yards, then I was able to lay down from 9:30-11:30 while George took his nap. That was so nice, and I felt much better after that!

Last night he actually didn't wake up at 11 or 12 like he usually has been! He did wake up at around 6, but he must not have cried for long because I can hardly even remember it! Wahoo! I'm trying not to get my hopes up that we're already almost done with all the crying, but that would be nice! We'll see how tonight goes.

Last night, George played catch with me and Ethan. It was so cute! He actually seemed to know what was going on, that we passed the ball in a circle. He just loves balls so much, and pretty much throwing anything! He's just so much fun!

Friday Flashback - St. George Tri 2007

2012-01-20T09:27:00.002-07:00

St. George Triathlon May 12, 2007 - Sprint

I was just thinking back, trying to remember what other races I've done that I haven't recorded on here. The first one that popped into my head was St. George Tri 2007. I knew I did that one because I got a long sleeve tech shirt from it, and I wear it almost every time I run in the winter.

Actually, we have two of those exact same shirts because Pete also did it and we both ordered mediums. Maybe that explains why it feels like I wear it so much...

This was the year after Elle was born...

Look at that baby! Remind you of anyone?

It was my second tri, and I did the sprint while Pete did the olympic. I remember him catching up to me on the bike and I said something like, "it's not like we're in a race or anything."

I know, I am so cheesy.

Anyway. I really don't remember much else about it, but I looked up my times so here they are:

Swim 750m - 20:17

T1 - 2:42

Bike 20k - 49:16

T2 - 1:53

Run 5k - 36:43

Total - 1:52:05

I finished #30 out of 48 in my age group.

It's nice to see how far I've come. I haven't done a sprint in a long time, but I'm pretty sure I could beat the heck out of those times now!

I don't have any pictures from the race, but afterwards we went and saw the dinosaur footprints with our friends and I have these pictures to prove it:

Oh man, my kids were so LITTLE! (Elle would have been 8 month, Ethan would have just turned 3, and Mindy would have almost been 5! And that's Isaiah with them, who would have been not quite 4.)

My Rock Star Day

2012-01-18T15:34:00.003-07:00

The last 2 weeks I missed my Thursday speed workout because I was sick two weeks ago, and because I was just so worn out last week! I decided a rest day was in order after my first bike/run day last Tuesday and a nice hard swim day last Wednesday. I'm hoping I can pull it off this week, though!

This week, I didn't run on Monday because we took the kids skiing, but I did stick to my Tuesday plan of awesome hard bike trainer class and easy run!

It was so hard to pull myself out of bed! I was running late, and I had that little voice in the back of my head telling me I should just stay home, but I got up, got my bike and trainer in the car drove down there, and got all set up before they started!

The bike class was such a good workout. The teacher, B.J., put the 1999 Ironman World Championship video up on the wall behind him, with his music on top. That was fun to watch and was really good motivation!

For January, we are working on high cadence so we did a lot of just fast spinning, and at one point B.J. pointed me out and told them to watch me because I was doing it right. I was pretty self conscious to keep doing it right after that, and hoped I was in the right gear! Then after class he told me I was a rock star! I know, I'm so easily flattered! I'm so bad at talking to people though. All I said was, "Oh... thanks!" I couldn't even manage a, "Shut up, you are!" ala Liz Lemon. That's more like what I was thinking because he is such an amazing triathlete and a great teacher/motivator! I'm so excited to be taking this class from him!

Anyway, that kind of made my day so when it was 17 degrees outside and time for my run, I felt like I could do anything! I bundled George up with warm PJs, socks, a hoodie, his snowsuit and a blanket. Once we got moving, he was totally happy. He fell asleep right away, and I put the blanket up over his face a little. His cheeks felt a little cold when we finished, but he never complained! I was only a little cold for the first mile, then I had to take my hood off (I still had a hat on) and I felt great! It was a little icy in spots so I had to be careful, but I ran on the bike path which was plowed so it was pretty clear most of the way. It was so calm and still and almost felt magical to me. I was so happy I had decided to go for it and run outside! Now I know 17 degrees is NOT too cold to run. :)

I made sure to make a bathroom stop half-way so I wouldn't have the same problem as last time. It was still a pretty slow run, but it was supposed to be easy, and I was pushing the stroller! I did 6 miles in 1:06.

The rest of the day was just really nice. I was in such a good mood the whole day. Pete would say, "You shouldn't need two workouts to feel good," but I think it wasn't just because I did two workouts. It was because I planned to do them, and followed through even though it didn't seem easy. It's always such a good feeling when you have those little victories!

This morning it was hard to get up again, and my friend Chris wasn't there at Masters so I was a little lonely, but I also got a really good workout! I managed to do 2500 yards (awesome right?) in my hour! Here's what I did, in case you're curious:

4 x 150 warmup - alternating free/kick

500 ladder w/20 second rests

500 strait

4 x 100 alternating breast/back and dolphin kick/back flutter kick

8 x 50 all out - first 4 on 1:00, last 4 on 1:15 (:40-:46)

100 cool down - breast/free/back/free

I got to take a very small nap during George's morning nap before picking up Elle. That was nice, even though it was very small.

Family Ski Trip On George's Birthday/MLK Day

2012-01-16T22:04:00.004-07:00

Today George turned one year old!

It's funny because last year on this day, my dad drove up here at 6am to stay with the kids while we went to the hospital. Today he drove up here at 6am to stay with George so we could take the kids skiing! My dad is so wonderful!

We left the house at about 7:30 and went to the local rental place where we had 2 free rentals, to get Mindy and Ethan all set up. We decided to just get Elle's skis at the resort since the lessons come with rentals.

While we were doing this, the snow started to really come down so by the time we got on the freeway, we had to go really slow. We saw so many cars off the road or turned around or smashed up, it was scary! So, we took our time, and eventually got out of the snow and the slow traffic, but we still got to Wolf Mountain a half an hour later than we wanted to be.

I went in and paid for the lessons, and Pete took Elle to get her skis. Then I went back to the car to help Mindy and Ethan get their skis on which was quite the ordeal! They were both crying and saying they couldn't do it while I was trying to help get them on, and I actually had to ask the people in the car next to us for some help! Finally we got them on, but Mindy was still crying and saying it was too tight (even though she had tried them on when we rented them!) so we walked to the renal shop to get her a bigger pair.

When we got there, I couldn't believe the huge line that went out the door and into the parking lot! Luckily, Pete and Elle were inside, but there was still a long ways to go, and their lessons were starting in 2 minutes. Elle had 2 pairs of socks on so I asked her for one of hers to give to Mindy since they were thinner, and this solved the boot problem! Whew!

I got Mindy and Ethan to their lessons just in time, but had to tell them Elle was going to be a while. They said that was fine because a lot of the other students were in the same boat. They said they'd just plan on her at around 11 (the other kids started at 10). Once I got them sent off, (hoping they would have good attitudes after all the trouble with the boots!), I went back to the rental shop to find Pete and Elle. They had hardly moved, and Pete was getting really frustrated so I took over while he went to relax in the car for a while. He ended up falling asleep and being gone for about an hour, which was just fine because we were just getting our stuff when he got back!

Apparently, Martin Luther King Day is Wolf Mountain's busiest day, and since everyone who has the Pass of All Passes (like us) was able to go there, but not Brighton, on this day off school, it was quite the mad house.

Despite having to stand around and wait for an hour and a half, Elle just had the best attitude the whole time! She was really so good, and I didn't mind waiting with her at all. She was just so excited to go ski, but didn't whine about it taking a long time or anything! She just played around and even found a ladybug on the wall to play with!

Finally, we got her sent off with her own teacher at 11:15 and went back to the car to get our boards. We did 2 runs on the longer beginner hill before it was time to pick Mindy and Ethan up at noon. I saw Mindy riding the ski lift while I was coming down, and she looked happy. She was excited because she was the only one in her class that got to go on the ski lift! All the other kids just stayed on the very short hill with the "magic carpet."

Unfortunately, Ethan was one of the kids who just stayed on the little hill. He wasn't happy about this, and didn't have the best time, but his teacher said he did have a good attitude and did a good job. He said he likes snowboarding better. I'm glad he got to try skiing though, so he could know for sure.

This is a thumbs up for the hot chocolate they got after their lesson. :)

Pete took the kids back to the car, and I did 3 more runs while I waited for Elle to finish her lesson at 1. I didn't get too much practice turning because it was either steeper than I dared try it on, or there were just too many people for me to dare try it. There were just people everywhere! It was insane! It was nice going by myself, though, because I could just go up to the front of the lift line! I was happy to just get out there, and remind myself that I don't sprain my wrist every time I go snowboarding, and just get over the little bit of fear I still had from last time!

Elle had a great time in her lesson, and did well enough to be able to go up the big ski lift too! She was so excited about that! But she was definitely tired, and fell asleep right away when we started driving.

We stopped at a burger place in Ogden for a fun lunch on the way home. We were all very hungry!

George was just as happy as a clam when we got home! My dad said he was just a little angel (of course), and took 2 good naps so that's really nice! He's such a good boy! Happy birthday, George!

George's First Birthday Party

2012-01-16T21:11:00.008-07:00

Sunday afternoon we had George's first birthday party and had a lot of family over! It was so much fun, and I'm just so grateful to have so many wonderful people who care about us and our children and come support us on days like this!

He got so many great toys, but I think he favorite was the balls. He loves balls, and loves to throw them or roll them and then chase after them.

We had tacos just like we did at his blessing which is a great way to feed a lot of people! I made a chocolate cake, but George didn't get to eat any of it. We decided just the other day to try cutting dairy out for him because his cheeks were getting really red and he's got a nasty rash on his feet that is really itchy. The poor guy will just start rubbing his feet on the carpet as soon as you take his socks off. We had just started upping his dairy because he loves cheese and butter, and I just started giving him milk a few days ago too. He still nurses a lot so I'm not worried about him not getting enough nutrients or anything, so we'll just see how this goes. Hopefully it clears up soon! Otherwise, he'll have his 12 month check-up soon and we'll see what his doctor says. He didn't seem to mind missing out on the cake at all. We got him his own little treat - some pureed fruit.

Happy Birthday my darling baby! We love you so much!

Fitting In The Bike

2012-01-10T22:00:00.005-07:00

Well, the days of lounging around and only doing one workout a day are over! I'm doing a century in April remember? That's only 4 months away so I should probably remind myself how to ride my bike sometime. I'm also pretty sure I'm going to do Little Red Riding Hood Century in June too. Trouble is, I'm already working out 6 days a week, how am I supposed to fit riding my bike in there too!? The answer is, obviously, doing more than one workout a day! Wahoo!

Today was my first double workout of the year, and I am tired! I'm hoping it doesn't take too long for me to get used to it again!

I woke up at 5 am to get to Salt Lake Running Company by 6:00 with my bike and trainer. Today was their first free bike trainer class of the year. They'll be doing them every Tuesday morning until May, I think, when they'll switch it to a group ride up Emigration Canyon! Fun, fun!

I was a little nervous about going today because I'd never done a bike trainer class before. Anything new makes me a little nervous even if I tell myself it's no big deal because I just don't know exactly what it's going to be like. I'm so glad I went, though. It was really fun! There were 9 of us there, plus our instructor, B.J. Christensen. He's our local tri hero, training for IM St. George, and KONA so it was awesome to have him lead the workout. It was a really good workout and intro the the trainer riding season! I'm so excited to get back into riding my bike, it's been badly neglected these last 4 months!

I got home around the same time I do when I go swimming so that worked out well. I even had time to curl Mindy's hair and make breakfast before getting the kids to school on time! YAY!

It was very cold, but when I got home, I got George all suited up and we headed out on an "easy" run.

I didn't realize how tired my legs were until I started running! This was such a slow run! I was going to do 6 miles, but only ended up doing 5 miles in an hour! It was all because of the bottle of liquid I drank during that early morning ride that wanted to come out! I seriously went to the bathroom 3 times before I left, and I still had to pee pretty much the entire run! I kept having to stop and walk because of this. I constantly lament that they close the bathrooms at the parks along the parkway during the winter! (Though, they do plow the path, which was really nice!) I finally stopped at the rec center when I was about half a mile from home. I wish I would have done that on the way out because I felt so much better after that! Oh well, I was supposed to do an easy run, and that's what I got.

Also, look at all the geese we saw at the park! A few minutes later some boys came and made them all fly which was quite a sight!

So, that's what my Tuesdays are going to look like for the next several months. I'd like to work at least one more trainer ride into my week, and I'm thinking I'll do that Friday mornings after swimming... no, that might not be the best time since Elle doesn't have preschool on Fridays... I might have to go with Thursday nights since Pete goes climbing those nights anyway. The trouble with that is that I don't end up getting the kids to bed until 9 so I'd have to break my "in bed by 10:00" rule for that. I hate to make that a late night since I swim early on Fridays, but I don't know what time would be better to fit it in. I don't think I'll do it this week, though, because I'm pretty sore from this morning (I'm not used to sitting on a bike for an hour anymore!) and need to ease into it!

When there are more workouts than days of the week, how do you fit it all in? (I'd seriously love to hear how you guys do it)

Finally a Snow Day & 9.5 Miles!

2012-01-07T15:53:00.009-07:00

I was so happy to see it all white outside when I got up with George this morning! After going back to bed for a while, I woke up to the sound of the kids, filled with excitement, trying to get George's snowsuit on! I threw on my boots, grabbed my camera and went to help them. It wasn't even 8:00, but we had to get right out in that snow!

(Did I mention, I got a new camera for Christmas?!)

George loved crawling around in the snow, and yes, of course he had to eat some!

After breakfast, and getting George down for his nap, I drove up to the capitol to run on Bonnaville Boulevard, hoping it would be plowed.

(back to the camera on my phone)

It was plowed, just for us runners (and walkers and cyclists)! It was fun running while the tiny little snowflakes were just meandering down to the ground. It made me feel calm and happy.

I ran up City Creek twice to use the bathroom so I'm really glad they keep it open in the winter, even though the drinking fountain is turned off. That also helped me to put in more miles. I ran about a mile up, and the road was starting to get pretty snowy by the time I turned around.

I basically just ran around up there for 9.5 miles. It wasn't bad, but I was starting to feel it at the end and I was glad to be done. Even though that's the same distance I ran last week, it took me 6 minutes longer, and my legs felt it more. I guess it gets harder when you add asphalt and snow and hills. :)

To show how warm it's been lately, look at all the green in this stream:

It was a fun run, I really enjoyed getting out there! I was happy to see so many other runners and walkers out there too! I guess, unlike last time it snowed, everyone was ready and waiting for it to snow!

At around mile 5, I was running along, listening to Bon Jovi when I passed a runner I'd seen going the other way. I got ready to smile at him, then realized that I was already smiling! I glance at my Garmin and saw that I was just cruising along at 8:20 pace and just smiling. (it might have been slightly downhill...) I felt so good and happy! I love it! It's also a great feeling to know that I ran 9.5 miles this morning. I don't think that ever gets old!

Faster Than I Thought & Back to Sick Land

2012-01-05T21:24:00.003-07:00

So guess what?! I just found out that the original lap count for the New Years Revolution Run was wrong. Turns out I actually ran 34 laps which means I ran 9.4 miles in 1:30, not 8.5! That's 9:35 minute/mile pace which is more what it felt like! Whew! I'm pretty excited that I did that much, though! I'm closer to half marathon than I thought! The crazy thing is, the guy who won ran 119 laps in 4 hours. That's 32.9 miles! On a track. WOW!

Yesterday started off really well. I got up nice and early and was the first one at the pool! I got started even a little before 6:00 so I was able to cover 2350 yards in my hour at Master's. Chris was there too. We shared a lane like we did Friday. That was really fun! She is also a triathlete, and did Echo with me last year so it was fun to swim with her. We're about the same speed so we swam side-by-side which is good motivation.

After dropping the kids off, I started feeling really super tired, and would have loved to take a nap, but I couldn't because I was watching 2 little girls from the ward. They're sweet little girls, and really don't cause much trouble, but while they were here I could tell I was starting to come down with George's cold. I started downing the Vitamin C, but it was already too late.

Then, one of the girls started acting like she was feeling sick so I asked her if she was ok, and she said she just had a headache. So I got her a blanket, and she fell asleep in the rocking chair for a little while. Then, all a sudden she was throwing up! What!? I did not expect that. I had no way of contacting her parents since they didn't have a phone with them, so I just had to make her as comfortable as possible and try to disinfect everything! Luckily, George had just gone down for his nap when this happened, and didn't wake up until she was gone. But who knows what germs he was exposed to before that! I was just so frustrated since we were all sick twice last month and I really, really don't want to have to go through it again! Let's just hope no one caught it! When her dad picked her up, he did say that she has a really weak stomach and that sometimes she gets a headache and throws up (that would have been nice to know....) so I'm really hoping that's all it was and that she didn't bring any flu bugs into the house. We'll see I guess.

Soon after the girls left, I had to get dinner ready because we were feeding the missionaries. We had Aloo Gobi, which is one of our staples, and Chicken Tika Masala which I'd never made before, but it was so good! I did use coconut milk and just a little bit of cream instead of all cream because that's what I had, and lowered the salt as the reviews suggested. If you like indian food, I'd highly reccomend it! Next time I want to go pick up some naan to go with it. I don't know how much the missionaries appreciated it, though. It might have been too different for a kid from Florida and a kid from Arizona.

By the evening, I had a full-on cold and went to bed pretty much planning on skipping running int he morning. Sure enough, this morning, I felt like my head was going to explode. You're supposed to be able to run when you have a cold, but I thought a little more sleep would probably be better for me. I even got an hour nap while Elle was in school. Ethan stayed home sick to, but I think both of us are feeling much better tonight. He even went to swimming lessons. Hopefully everyone will be fit as a fiddle tomorrow!

Half Marathon Training...

2012-01-03T15:25:00.004-07:00

So, I guess I'm suddenly training for a half marathon, hu? It's in 5 weeks (February 11th) so since I did 8.5 miles last week, if I add a mile a week I'll get up to 13.5 so it should be fine! I'll up my milage during the week a little bit too.

It'll be an indoor half marathon at the Utah Olympic Oval which is where I just ran on Saturday. This is such a cheap half marathon. It's only $25! There is also a 5k and it's only $15! So you should sign up too! (yes I get points towards my next Ironman if you do) Sign up here.

Yesterday I did my usual Monday workout, only kicked it up a notch. I have been doing 6 x 400 meter intervals at 7:30-8:00 pace. Yesterday, and last week, I did 4 x 800 meters (or half a mile), and this time I did it on the treadmill!

Man, I hate running on the treadmil. I don't know why it feels so HARD for me! But, talking to my friend Shannon on Saturday, she said she runs pretty much every day and most the time it's on the treadmill. She told me she likes it because she knows exactly how fast she's going. I decided that would be good for intervals because then I would be sure to hit the pace I wanted.

It was hard! When I run on the treadmill, I always think, "I'm not going to be able to do this!" But then I just keep going, and I do it! That's how it was yesterday, and here's where it was when I finished:

It always makes me happy when the distance (on the right) is a smaller number than the time (on the left)!

I did the first half-mile interval at 8:00/mile pace, then the other 3 at just a click faster, turning the last one up another click for the last .1 or so, with .25 mile slow recoveries in between.

I was happy I did it, and even happier to get off the treadmill and go cool down on the track. I did 10 minutes before and 10 minutes after on the track to warm up and cool down. I didn't want to be on the treadmill any longer than I had to be!

I did the "Full Action" workout from Nike Training Club when I got home, and was all finished before anyone even woke up! Ahhh, how nice!

On a side note, George said "Mama" yesterday! He may have been trying to say "milk" but I was still very happy! He's so cute! And check out this awesome jumpsuit he wore today!

Today was running group, but nobody else wanted to run outside so it ended up just being me and George. He was so funny. When he saw me grabbing his snowsuit out of the closet, he got all excited! Then I put it on the ground while I put my jacket and stuff on, and he got on it and looked like he was trying to figure out how to put it on. Someone was excited to go running! So cute!

We had a nice run. He just went to sleep, and I ran an "easy" 6 miles. Actually it was just slow. But I was pushing the stroller so I try not to let that get to me. It will only make me stronger, right!? It was a really nice day for a run, and I was so glad I got outside! When is the snow going to come, though?!

New Years Resolutions

2012-01-02T22:01:00.002-07:00

I'm going to make this quick because it's my bed time! :)

Here are my goals for the year, in no particular order. It seems like a lot, but the first 8 all go along with #1.

Finish Utah Half Ironman in under 6:00
Get faster at running
No eating after 8pm
In bed at 10pm every night (except date nights, see #12)
Up at 6 am every day!
Only eat whole grains
More fruit and vegetables
Only make cookies/treats once a week!
Read scriptures daily & follow along with sunday school lesson manual
Family scriptures & prayer every night
Clean at least one area each day during nap time
Less yelling...
Get out of debt
Save up for family vacation
Save up to register for an Ironman/140.6
Date night every week!
Stay in better contact with friends
Help kids with homework more
Learn more Spanish

Is that too much? I'm wondering if that's too much. I really do want to do all those things though. I hope having it written all out like that will help me stay focused. I think I need to print it out and display it somewhere...

See you at 6am!

Happy New Year - My Talk In Church

2012-01-01T21:13:00.003-07:00

Happy New Year!

New Year's Day was a little different this year because it was a Sunday and our church got moved to 9:00am (3 congregations share our building and we rotate times) so there was no sleeping in for us! On top of that, I was asked to speak in Sacrament meeting. I was pretty much a nervous wreck until I was done, so I guess it was good we got to get it over with sooner! My talk was on goals so I thought it would be an appropriate thing to share on here since this is a very goal oriented blog. Keep in mind it was a talk for church so it is very gospel centered. I'm hoping to do a Resolution post tomorrow!

(This is kind of long. I was supposed to talk for 12-15 minutes, and ended up talking for 18 minutes!)

It is the new year which is a time we all like to make New Years Resolutions, or goals. I am all for this. I love making goals. I live for goals! But, why do we do this?

First of all, what is a goal?

If you look up "goals" in the topical guide, it says, "See Objectives, Perfection"

So, maybe we should look at our goals less like something to do on New Years day, but as objectives to reach perfection.

After all, we are commanded in Matthew 5:48 "Be ye therefore prefect, even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect."

That sounds like quite a daunting task, doesn't it? Well, if you look at the translation for the Greek word for perfect, it actually means, "complete, finished, fully developed."

When I think about being finished or complete, I think about being like Jesus.

That sounds more like a goal we can actually work towards, doesn't it? And work we must. Even He has a work to do as we read about in Moses 1:39: "For behold, this is my work and my glory - to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man."

In James 4:17 it says, "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is a sin."

I think all of us here know what we need to do, and know what is good, so basically, if we're not doing that, it's a sin. Ah!

But, what specific goals should we be working on to get us closer to being finished this year?

First we must have faith in Jesus Christ in order to emulate him.

Richard G. Scott has said that "To gain unshakeable faith in Jesus Christ… flood your life with brilliant light."

I love that! That sounds like a good goal, doesn't it? To do this, we need to think about the things we allow into our lives. Does it brings light or darkness? Does it make us feel good and closer to the Savior, or does it bring us down and farther away from Him?

In 1994 Elder Joe J. Christensen of the Seventy gave a talk on goals at BYU and this is what he said: "Only one verse of scripture in the entire King James Version of the New Testament suggests what the Savior did to develop himself from age twelve until he began his formal ministry at age thirty: "Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man. (Luke 2:52) In other words, the Savior developed… intellectually (in wisdom and knowledge), physically (in stature), socially (in favor with man), and spiritually (in favor with God).

So, maybe we should focus on making a goal or two in each of these areas if we want to follow the Savior's example.

Intellectual Goals can include anything to do with school like getting good grades or making better study habits. Or if you're done with school, it could be reading more books or learning some kind of new skill or language. Anything like that is a worthy goal. I think I have a lot of room to work in this area! My kids are learning so much! They are learning Spanish and violin in school, and I'm so grateful they have a good school to go to because I definitely wouldn't be able to teach them these things! It kind of makes me feel bad and realize that there are so many things that I could still learn. We should always be learning. That's one of the reasons we're here on this earth, and all truths are good to know.

Physical Goals are things like going to bed and getting up earlier, eating heather foods, and getting into better shape. These goals are my favorite. I LOVE signing up for running races or triathlons, then working towards finishing a new distance or getting faster. I actually spend way too much time thinking about these goals and have a whole blog dedicated to it! Just last night I signed up for another race, and I'm so excited for next year!

I think physical goals are the first thing a lot of people think of when they start making New Years Resolutions. This can be good because it's an area where you can see a definite change in how you look and feel and in what you're able to do. But I think it can also be really discouraging if your goal is to loose x number of pounds, and you try to do it with some crazy diet. Then you fall off the diet and just get discouraged and give up. This is so easy to see when I go to the gym, it's crazy! There will hardly be anyone at the gym in December, then January comes and suddenly it's packet! Unfortunately, this only last for a few months, then it dies back down.

I think being healthier is a really really good goal. I can't stress that enough! But don't try to go on a diet or go to the gym if you hate going to the gym. Eat real food - fruits and vegetables, and find something active that you actually enjoy doing and just do that. Try to have fun with it!

I used to hate running, but I fell in love with triathlon, and soon I realized if I wanted to get better at triathlon, I needed to get better at running. I needed to actually be able to run. I worked on it, and slowly worked up to where I could run 3 miles without stopping. This was such an amazing feeling for me! I had never thought it would be possible to do this! Then I signed up for a longer distance triathlon where you have to run 6.2 miles and worked towards that. I remember the first time I ran 5 miles, I jumped in the air I was so excited! I soon realized, that after I could run for 5 miles or so, I actually started to like running! Weird, I know! So, then I signed up for an Ironman, and proceeded to work up to a marathon. I can't even express how amazing this still seems to me. I couldn't even run a mile in high school, and now I love running and working out. It's so crazy! I could go on and on with this topic, but I'll leave it at that.

Social Goals could be anything from finding someone to smile at or say a kind thing to every day, to making more friends or finding ways to serve people. I'm not the biggest social person so this is hard for me too, and I always have room to improve here.

Spiritual Goals are probably the most important in becoming more like Jesus., and yet they're easily overlooked when we plan our our New Year's Resolutions.

I always seem to make the same spiritual goals every year: read the scriptures and have family prayer every night and family home evening every week. I think these are wonderful goals, but I think there's more we could be doing.

In October 2007 General Conference Thomas S. Monson counseled us to work on the following 3 goals:

Study diligently
Pray earnestly
Serve willingly

He also said, "Do not pray for tasks equal to your abilities, but pray for abilities equal to your tasks. Then the performance of your tasks will be no miracle, but you will be the miracle."

The 13th Article of Faith also gives us some ideas about goals we should be working towards: We believe in being bhonest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing egood to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul—We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.

I'm going to quote a little from the Young Women's Lesson manual:

Although each of us is individually unique, our main goal in life should be the same—to become worthy to achieve exaltation in the celestial kingdom and return to live with our Heavenly Father as a part of His eternal family. Because individual talents, abilities, and weaknesses differ, each of us needs to set different individual goals to help us achieve our main goal. For example, some of us may need to improve our ability to pay tithing, whereas this may already be easy for some. Some of us may need to learn to keep the Sabbath day holy, while this may pose no problem for others. We will not always have the same goals as others because our individual needs are not always the same.

President Kimball also counseled us to set goals that require us to “reach and strain. … Growth comes from setting your goals high and reaching for the stars” (“Privileges and Responsibilities of Sisters,” Ensign, Nov. 1978, 103). He also said: “We do believe in setting goals. We live by goals. … We must have goals to make progress” (regional representatives’ seminar, 3 Apr. 1975).

Pray to find out what goals you should make, then write them down. It's also helpful to give yourself a deadline for when you want to accomplish your goal. This is easy with races because the race is the deadline. So write it on the calendar. Also, tell people about it. If someone is there to hold you accountable, you're going to be a lot more likely to keep your goal.

Make a plan of action.

Like I said, this is easy with triathlon because I find a training plan and just follow that, but we can make a training plan, or schedule for any of our goals. Set aside a certain time of day or day of the week to work on your goal, and write it on your calendar. I put all my workouts into my schedule so that they don't get forgotten or pushed out by other things. That's how I make sure it gets done, and we can do this with any goal.

James 1:22 "But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves."

You wouldn't be able make the goal to do an Ironman and then just go do it without a plan or without any training. When I sign up for a race, I make sure that at least a majority of the workouts from my plan get done. That way, as long as I follow the plan, I know I'll be ready when race day comes.

President Spencer W. Kimball shared the following personal experience he had in setting a goal when he was 14 years old:

“When I heard a Church leader … tell us at conference that we should read the scriptures, and I recognized that I had never read the Bible, that very night at the conclusion of that very sermon I walked to my home a block away and climbed up in my little attic room in the top of the house and lighted a little coal-oil lamp that was on the little table, and I read the first chapters of Genesis. A year later I closed the Bible, having read every chapter in that big and glorious book. …
“I had a glowing satisfaction that I had made a goal and that I had achieved it” (in Conference Report, Apr. 1974, 126–27; or Ensign, May 1974, 88).

Keep going until you've accomplished your goal.

This is something my kids have problems with. I ask them to clean a room, and they quit when there's just a few things left on the floor. It's so frustrating to me. Do they not see those things!? It would really only take them another minute to actually finish out their job, but I guess they think they're finished enough before it's all the way done. We also have this problem when it comes to paying off the credit card. We are so diligent, until we get close to getting it paid off, then we get excited and stop worrying about putting money on it. Before we know it, it's back up high, and we never even had it all the way paid off! That's frustrating too.

One hard thing about a goal is that once you've accomplished it, you don't know where to go from there. After I finished my Ironman, I felt kind of lost because I had reached my goal, and had no more training plan to follow. It wasn't long before I picked another race to work towards so that I felt like I had some direction to go! Of course, with spirituality, we're never quite done, and we can always keep improving in any area. Once you reach a certain point, raise the bar and keep working.

If you don't reach your goal, or you get off track for a little while. Don't beat yourself up over it. It's like those people who start going to the gym so good in January, then stop going because they missed a few times or got discouraged. This makes me so sad. We just watched Kung Fu Panda 2, and it's all about not worrying about what happened in the past, or how you used to be. What matters is how you are now. I loved that message.

Jeffery R. Holland spoke about this same thing. He said "Leave the past in the past and look forward to the future. Looking to the future is faith."

In Philippians 3:13–14 it says: “This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
“I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus”

If there's something you want to do, please don't be afraid to make that goal and work towards it! You will be amazed at what you can accomplish.

In Mark 9:23 we read: "Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth."

Nephi had similar thoughts in 1 Nephi 3:7

"And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I awill go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no bcommandments unto the children of men, save he shall cprepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them."

I know that this is true. We can accomplish amazing things, especially with the Lord's help.

New Years Revolution Run - Report

2012-01-01T18:39:00.005-07:00

I've recently started a sponsorship program with For The Win Racing. (So maybe you could call me a sponsored athlete now!?) Basically, I help them promote their events. If I get 5 or more people to join me at an event, I get in for free! Awesome hu?! Along with that, throughout the year, everyone I recruit to do one of their races gets me a point towards them paying for a race for me. I could potentially get up to 700 points which would more than pay for IM St. George! I'm not kidding myself into thinking I'll get that many, but every little bit helps when you're addicted to endurance sports because it gets quite pricy! So, if you see any of their events that you'd like to do, I would really, really love it if you put my name in as your team when you register so I can get a point!

(You can expect me to keep begging you to sign up for races, but I'll try not to be too annoying about it.)

Anyway, For The Win put on a run at the Utah Olympic Oval on Saturday called The New Years Revolution Run. I did get 2 people to sign up, but it was really short notice since I wasn't planning on doing it until last week when I realized our climbing trip to St. George wasn't going to happen because somebody had to go and sprain her wrist. I thought this would be something fun to look forward to instead.

My friend from high school, Shannon - who also did Utah Valley Half Marathon with me - was going to be there so I was excited to see her. She is really fast, so I thought I'd just see her in passing, and maybe try to keep up with her for a lap every time she passed me. When I got there, though, I couldn't find her so I was worried she wouldn't be there.

I got there just minutes before they started. I just had time to pick up my timing chip on, put it on, drop my jacket by the bleachers, and find a spot on the track. Then we were off!

Inside the track is the Ice Rink, and the Olympic speed skaters were in there practicing. That was really fun to watch! They are crazy fast!

After about a lap and a half, Shannon tapped me on the shoulder. I was so happy to see her right there by me! We ended up sticking together, and I was able to keep up with her for about 45 minutes! I'm sure she was holding herself back for me because when I told her I needed to slow down for a while and to go ahead, she just took off. She is a really good runner! I was resolved to run with her again when she caught back up with me, but she passed me before I was ready so I just kept going at my own pace for a little while longer.

When I thought she should be catching up soon, I stopped at the aid station and looked for her. Sure enough, she was coming so I just hopped back in and ran with her again. That was at about 1:10 in, and I ran with her for the rest of the time. I was shooting for 30 laps, but I wasn't counting, I was just going to stop at around 1:30.

When we got about 2 laps away from 1:30, I was glad I had picked that time as my stopping point because I was starting to feel it! But I was really happy that I was able to run with Shannon for so much of the time! It was so fun talking to her and catching up, it really made the time go by super fast! I was worried I would get bored running in circles for so long, but I never got bored once. It was actually really fun! And it was really awesome to have the option to take a bathroom break or stop at the aid station every 442 meters! I didn't end up needing the bathroom, and I just got a couple drinks of water, but it was really nice to have the option for more fuel.

When I got done, I said goodbye to Shannon, who kept running. She ended up doing a little more than a half marathon!

Look at her zooming by!

I handed in my timing chip, and they told me I had done 31 laps! Yay, one more than my goal even! It's even cooler that for my last run of 2011, I did one lap for every year of my life. It's almost like I planned it that way. :)

So my total distance was 8.5 miles, and it took me 1:30:04 which is 10:32 min/mile pace. That's not really as fast as I felt like I was going with Shannon, but I won't complain. I was sore later that day from running so far when I haven't really been doing very many long runs. I ran 6 miles last week, and before that, my last 8 mile run was a month ago!

For The Win Racing is having another race at the Olympic Oval February 11. This time everyone does the same distance and it's a half marathon! Shannon and I are planning on doing it. Does anyone else want to join us? I'd like to get 4 more people, but I know it's kind of short notice for a half. Let me know if you want to do it!

6:26

2011-12-29T19:49:00.004-07:00

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!

2011-12-28T16:23:00.006-07:00

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

2011-12-28T15:58:00.003-07:00

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

2011-12-26T21:19:00.002-07:00

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

2011-12-26T21:01:00.004-07:00

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

2011-12-26T17:38:00.008-07:00

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

2011-12-26T16:50:00.006-07:00

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

2011-12-18T17:30:00.005-07:00

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:

8:51
8:59
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!

2011-12-02T21:42:00.003-07:00

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!

Too Many Choices

2011-11-22T22:50:00.001-07:00

It's that time of year again!

I'm not talking about the time of year when you get to eat a lot of good food with your family and stress about shopping for the perfect gifts for everyone you love.

Well, yes, it is that time of year too. But that's not what I'm talking about.

It's also the time of year where your inbox fills up with emails from event companies telling you all about the awesome races they have planned for next year. Registration is starting to open up, and prices are low for the early birds. It's the time of year when you start thinking about what your goals are and what races would just be fun to do.

At least that's what time it is for me. :)

So, this year I've made myself a list of all the local races I'm considering doing. Ah, it's so hard to choose! I seriously wish I could do all these races! Even if that were physically possible (note, several of them are on the same days), there's no way I could afford it! Even just adding up the prices for about half of them, the total came to $2,073! That would kind of clash with our other goals for the year - like getting out of debt.

Anyway, my point is that we have a TON of awesome local races and I'm so excited to participate in some of them next year!

Would you like to see this glorious list?? I thought so!

Wait, first let me tell you a few other things to consider.

*RaceTri has a deal where if you sign up for Salem Spring (Sprint), Rock Cliff (Olympic), and The Utah Half, you get %15 off!

**BBSC has a similar deal when you sign up for Mountain Tropic, Scofield & Park City. They have to be the same distance, though, so I wouldn't be able to do Mountain Tropic Half or the Escape distance at Scofield.

***The Ultimate Tri Relay is new this year from TriUtah, and it looks really fun, so let me know if you're interested in that! It's like Ragnar, only with 4 x swim bike and run totaling 125 miles!

Ok, I know, you're just here to see the list.

Well, here you go (If I know the price, it's on here, and it reflects the lowest price you could get):

January 28 - SLCTC Winter Running Series 5k $40

February 11 - SLCTC Winter Running Series 10k

February 18 - Leave Your Love Behind 10k $30

February 25 - SLCTC Winter Running Series 15k

April 21 - Salt Lake City Marathon/Half

April 21 - Rage Tri (Half IM)

April 28 - Front Runner Century (100k or 100 mile)
May 5 - Ironman St. George $600.00
May 19 - St. George Tri (Olympic) $90.00
May 19 - Bear Lake Monster Relay (50 or 100 mile)
June 2 - Salem Spring Tri (sprint)*
June 2 -Utah County Women's Century
June 2 - Little Red Riding Hood (Century)
June 9 - Utah Valley (Half Marathon) $69.00 - Already signed up for this!

June 15-16 - Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay
June 23 - Rock Cliff (Olympic)*
June 30 - River Rampage (Olympic) 65.00
June 30 - Mountain Tropic (Half IM) 170.00
June 30 - Mountain Tropic (Olympic)** 73.00
June 30 - Bear Lake Monster Century
July 14 - Echo Tri (Olympic) $65.00
July 28 - Scofield (Olympic)** $73.00
July 28 - Scofield (Escape) $170.00
July 28 - Spudman (Olympic) $85.00 (Lottery)
July 28 - Salt Lake Moonlight Run (5k)
August 4- Ultimate Tri Relay*** $85.00
August 11 - Herriman Black Ridge Tri
August 11 - Park City (Olympic)** $73.00
August 18 - Jordanelle (Olympic) $65.00
August 25 - Front Runner Century
August 25 - The Utah Half (Half IM)* $150.00

August 25 - Women Rock (Sprint Tri or 5k)
September 1 - Bear Lake Monster Half Marathon (trail)
September 8 - Camp Yuba Tri
September 15 - Top of Utah Marathon $75.00

September 15 - Ogden Valley Tri

September 22 - Murray Moonlight Run (5k)

September 29 - Women of Steel Relay Run
October 6 - St. George Marathon $80.00 (Lottery)
October 20 - Pumpkinman (Half IM) $170.00

Ok, deep breath...

Kind of overwhelming, hu?

What races are you thinking about doing next year? Have you done any of these and either loved it or hated it? Help me decide on a plan of action here. :)

PS - I'm not affiliated with any of these race companies (is that even what they're called?), I just like to make lists and know what all my options are. We've got a lot of options here in Utah!

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

2011-11-22T21:07:00.004-07:00

Today it was just me, Amber and Brittany for our group run. I'm sad to say that my little running group is dwindling. (I blame it on the cold! Ok, and maybe the holidays.) But that was kind of fun because they're the ones who have been running the longest so we didn't stick to the couch to 5k plan, and just ran.

We were going to do 5 miles, but at almost 2 miles, Amber's stroller tire had a huge blow out! It was kind of funny because she had those tubes with the green slime in them, so it was oozing out all over! Luckily Pete was at home, and I had a spare wheel that I thought might fit her stroller so I asked him to bring it to us. The wheel fit (what are the chances?!) so we just popped it in and finished our run. Since the flat tire had taken up quite a bit of time, we just ended up doing 3.8 miles. That was good, though. Amber said that was the farthest she's ran with her stroller. Yeah! It was a nice day for a little adventure on our run too. :)

This evening we had the sister missionaries over for dinner, and I made breakfast. We figured missionaries probably don't get good breakfast very often so it would be something different for them. I made eggs, sausage, orange slices and cream cheese filled pumpkin muffins. These muffins are my new favorite so I wanted to share the recipe. They're so good - I may or may not have eaten 5 of them!

I got the recipe from Annie's Eats, but I health-ified it a little:

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

Yield: 24 muffins
Ingredients:

For the filling:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar

For the muffins:
3 cups whole white wheat flour
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 tsp. ground cloves
1 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
4 large eggs
1 cup sugar
2 cups pumpkin puree
1¼ apple sauce

For the topping:
½ cup brown sugar
5 tbsp. flour
1½ tsp. ground cinnamon
4 tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Directions:
To prepare the filling, combine the cream cheese and confectioners’ sugar in a medium bowl and mix well until blended and smooth. Transfer the mixture to a piece of plastic wrap and shape into a log about 1½-inches in diameter. Smooth the plastic wrap tightly around the log, and reinforce with a piece of foil. Transfer to the freezer and chill until at least slightly firm, at least 2 hours. (I didn't do this, I just mixed it then put it in by the spoonful)

To make the muffins, preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Line muffin pans with paper liners. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, pumpkin pie spice, salt and baking soda; whisk to blend. In the bowl of an electric mixer combine the eggs, sugar, pumpkin puree and apple sauce. Mix on medium-low speed until blended. With the mixer on low speed, add in the dry ingredients, mixing just until incorporated.

To make the topping, combine the sugar, flour and cinnamon in a small bowl; whisk to blend. Add in the butter pieces and cut into the dry ingredients with a pastry blender or two forks until the mixture is coarse and crumbly. Transfer to the refrigerator until ready to use.

To assemble the muffins, fill each muffin well with a small amount of batter, just enough to cover the bottom of the liner (1-2 tablespoons). Slice the log of cream cheese filling into 24 equal pieces. Place a slice of the cream cheese mixture into each muffin well. Divide the remaining batter among the muffin cups, placing on top of the cream cheese to cover completely. Sprinkle a small amount of the topping mixture over each of the muffin wells.

Bake for 20-25 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely before serving. (It may be hard to resist immediate consumption, but the cream cheese filling gets very hot!)

A New PR and Rock Climbing!

2011-11-20T11:38:00.004-07:00

I actually got both of my swims in this week! Yay! Wednesday and Friday. That's the first time in the last 2 months that I've gotten 2 swims in a week. Tha'ts actually pretty sad. But, I'm happy I was able to do it this week, even though I slept in both days so I was rushed and had to cut them a little short. I still did it, though, and I hope that means I'm on the way back to making it a habit.

Yesterday morning I got to sleep in - well, stay in bed - until 9, which was really nice. After breakfast and getting george back down for his nap, I headed out on my run. I usually like to do a long run on Saturdays, but since I missed both my fast runs this week (Monday for snowboarding and Thursday for sleeping), I decided to do a fast run.

I ran nice and easy for a mile to warm up, then I did 5k as fast as I could, with another easy mile to cool down. It was hard.

I was able to do my first mile in 8:46 which was awesome, and I was so excited because I felt good and thought I could keep that pace up.

No, I couldn't.

Before I knew it I was back to my 10 min/mile pace thinking, dang it! I went out too hard. I need to learn to hold myself back a little more that first mile.

My next mile took 9:21 and I wasn't quite as happy with that.

I tried to keep my pace at around 9 for the last mile, but it was really hard and every part of my body was telling me to slow down.

I fought and fought, and even said, "come on!" out loud towards the end. I finished that mile in 9:20 (with :47 for the .1 which is 7:55 pace!) and I was dead!

5k Total Time: 28:15

Average Pace: 9:07 min/mile

It was hard, but it was worth it because that is :54 faster than my last 5k! Wahoo! I am so close to the 9:oo min/mile mark, though! That will be my goal for my upcoming 5k. I don't know if I've mentioned it on here, but I'm doing the Jingle Bell 5k on December 3rd with some of the girls from my running group. If you'd like to do it, join our team! It's called "West Side Stroller Runners" and we're going to have so much fun dressing up all Christmas-y for it.

After I got home, and got showered, we went up to Bountiful where the kids and I went to Joann while Pete and George went to Zapponi and ordered pizza. I was able to find the fabric I need for the rest of Ethan's quilt and curtains! This was the first time it was actually EASIER to go to Joann with my kids! It worked out so perfectly because there was a gingerbread house decorating contest going on so the kids watched that while I found my fabric, then they waited in the long line to pay while I got the fabric cut, and we were able to get back to the pizza place not too long after the pizza was ready! SWEET!

When we got done eating, we decided go to look around in DI since it's right there too, and I got a nice pair of jeans and a nice pair of Asics running pants for $10! I was pretty excited about that!

When we got home, Pete said, "Should we go climbing tonight?" Of course I couldn't turn that down so I set about texting some girls while hemming my new jeans because they were a little too long and frayed on the bottom. I was kind of skeptical about finding a baby-sitter since it was already 4:30 and we wanted to leave at 7, but I did get one!

We went up to The Front in Ogden. I'd never been there before, and it is really nice! Two weeks ago, we went to Momentum climbing gym with some friends and it was really fun, and it's bigger than The Front but it was so crowded and loud. This one just had a more relaxed atmosphere and there was never more than 3 other people climbing with us. It was fun. We spent 2 hours there and we both climbed until we couldn't climb any more. Pete did 9 routes and I was able to do 7.

Too bad when we got home, we found out our baby-sitter's mom had to come over and get George to sleep because he was just so sad. I'd really like to start climbing at least once a week, but that makes it really hard to want to leave George. :( But the good thing was he was asleep when we got home and he only woke up once at 4am, then went back to sleep until 8:30 which was better than usual!

Caldo, Caldo, Caldo

2011-11-18T22:09:00.002-07:00

I got this recipe from a Spanish book Mindy brought home from school a while back. It's called Caldo, Caldo, Caldo and they made it sound so good, I had to make this the next day. Since it's pretty much the best soup I've ever made, I really wanted to put the recipe on here so I wouldn't lose it. This is such a perfect way to get your vegetables in on a cold winter's day!

Caldo

Broth

1-2 soup bones (I never found these so I haven't tried it with them, but I'm sure they make it so much more delicious!)

1-2 lbs lean stew meat

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 tps cumin

1 medium onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

3 ribs of celery

Fill large pot with 4 quarts of water and set on medium heat. Add bones and meat, bring to boil.

Skim off the brown foam.

Add seasonings, onion, garlic & celery and simmer for 2 hours until beef is tender. Add more water as needed.

Add vegetables: (use your favorite vegetables, here are some suggestions, the ones I used are in bold)

2 large carrots

1 turnip

3 large potatoes

1/2 green bell pepper

1 zucchini or squash

1/2 small green cabbage

2 ears corn cut into 4 pieces each (I just dumped some frozen corn in the second time I made this and liked that better, but I might have used old corn the first time)

1 medium tomato

3 sprigs cilantro

Continue to cook soup 30-40 minutes until vegetables are tender. If needed, add more water, salt and seasonings to taste. (I ended up adding a bunch more salt and pepper)

Serve with hot tortillas with a bowlful of flavorful rice on the side and a thin slice of lime.

I really like it just with bread and butter, but that's how I grew up eating soup. You know, you can take the girl out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the girl. Or something like that. :)

Enjoy.

1st Snowboarding Trip of The Season!

2011-11-14T20:39:00.005-07:00

I didn't go running today, and I'm not sad about that at all because I got to go snowboarding instead!

I know, sometimes I just feel like my life is just too good to be true!

Driving up there, listening to Audioslave with Pete, I didn't feel like a 31-year-old mom.

I felt more like I was 21.

Skipping school on a Monday morning, going snowboarding with my boyfriend.

The funny thing is that we didn't do stuff like this when we were 21. We didn't really have money for lift tickets back then, and I guess we were also living in St. George where snowboarding was far from our minds.

I also realized that when I was 21, I had a baby which also made it harder to do things like go snowboarding. And here I am again, 10 years later, with a baby again. Crazy!

Anyway, driving up there was kind of weird because there was no snow at first so we were a little worried. By the time we got up to Brighton it was 27 degrees and the ground was covered in snow.

We got there and went to make sure we'd get our tickets right away. We got the Pass of All Passes in the spring and it almost seemed to good to be true (like my life) so we were a little worried. It was just fine though! Phew!

I was getting ready to hook my pass onto my jacket, and put the metal hook in my mouth to zip up my jacket or something, but when I pulled my hand away my finger got stuck so I ended up cutting my lip a little. Smart hu?

Anyway, we got up there and I made it down with only falling once or twice. Yay! I was worried I would have to start all over, but I felt like I was almost at the point I left off in March 2010 (I know the date because the tag was still on my jacket).

It was so much fun! We did 5 runs before it was time to go, and it was awesome!

When it was time to go, we started driving out of the parking lot and saw a bunch of fire trucks and they had closed the road because there was a house fire somewhere in the canyon. They told us the road would be open in about half an hour so we went back to the lodge and got some cheeseburgers and took in the view of the mountains for a while longer. It was so nice, and I couldn't help but feel so happy to live where I live! I love it!

Here's the view from the cafe.

What a great morning.

To top it off, Elle and George were both so happy, and had a great time with my awesome friend and her kids while I was gone.

Eight is Great!

2011-11-12T21:50:00.002-07:00

This morning Pete took the kids to the screening of Happy Feet 2. We got 4 tickets when we went to the zoo for Halloween, and the kids were so excited. Too bad, when they got there, it was all sold out. They had over-booked, and apparently they do that a lot. It was disappointing, but no harm done. They picked up Toy Story 3 from Red Box on the way home and we had popcorn and candy so I think everyone was ok with it.

While they watched the movie I went running. I parked up by the capitol and ran up and down and around there for 8.2 miles. It was really fun. It was cold. It was actually warmer than last week, it was in the 40s, but it was windy so it felt colder. It wasn't quite as pretty as last week either, since there was no snow and a lot of the leaves had fallen off, but it was still pretty. I just really felt good and was so so happy to be out there and to be able to run.

8 miles is my favorite distance to run. It's long enough to be a bit challenging and sound impressive, but it's short enough that I don't need to bring fuel. It's even more fun when I run it at a nice easy pace, especially when some of it's downhill so I get to run it nice and easy, but still kind of fast!

What's your favorite distance to run?

Hard but Good Training Morning

2011-11-10T10:49:00.003-07:00

This week has kind of been lacking training. For some reason or another, I didn't run at all on Monday. I can't remember why now... I think it had to do with George being sick and off schedule because of Day Light Savings and all that. I don't know. I did get the kitchen clean for a few minutes instead, though!

Tuesday was good. I always look forward to my Tuesday run because that's when I meet with my stroller running group! It's always so fun to see everyone and have a nice easy run. I did 2.2 miles with them, then did that again by myself, plus the almost half-mile to/from our meeting spot which totaled about 5 easy miles. It was good, but I totally had to pee during the last part and kept having to walk. That was so annoying, and I was just so mad that they've already closed the bathrooms at the parks I run by! George was asleep in the stroller so I didn't really feel like I should run in to 7-11 or anything either.

ANYWAY.

Yesterday I intended to go swimming in the morning, but I woke up feeling pretty crappy and like I was getting sick so I just went back to sleep. George didn't sleep well that night either so I was just feeling dead, and came home and took a nap for the entire time Elle was in preschool! Thank you George for sleeping for 2 hours so I could do that, it was nice!

Today, I turned my alarm off and almost skipped my workout again, but then George woke up at around 6, so I fed him and got myself moving and to the gym by 6:30. I ran for 10 minutes on the track, then one lap as fast as I can/one lap recover repeated for about 16-17 minutes. Then I just did another 10 minutes easy to cool down and hurried home. I stretched, made breakfast and got the kids ready for school, then Pete drove them in so I got to stay home with George.

While he was happy and playing, I did a Nike Training Club workout called "Full Action," but it really should be called "I Don't Want to Be Able to Walk Tomorrow." It's a ton of squats and lunges and jumping, along with pushups and planks and all that kind of fun stuff!

George was awesome and actually just played and let me do most of the workout without wanting to be held or climb on me. Then he got a hold of my phone and somehow got out of the app and ended my workout when I had like 6 minutes left. Luckily I was just to the stretching part so I did that on my own, then I was done!

Yay, what a morning! Then I was even able to put him down for a nap and take a nice shower without being rushed or barged in on, then sit and put my feet up for a few minutes (right now).

Sadly, I must go wake him up now and go pick up Elle. Luckily he's usually totally fine with that. :)

First Snow!

2011-11-05T21:42:00.006-06:00

There's something about going running after it snows that turns your usual running route into something new. There are puddles to jump, ice or slush to watch out for, and trees, weighed down by the snow, to duck under where you could normally just run. Everything just seems so much quieter and more serene, while at the same time more exciting.

That's how it was for me today after our first snow of the season! We got a good 4 inches which is a lot for Salt Lake. It had snowed all night so we woke up to a nice white blanket outside. When I told Elle, she immediately ran downstairs to wake Mindy up and show her. Mindy's first response was, "Our leaves are really pretty! I didn't realize they were so yellow." That was an interesting thing to notice when everyone else was looking at the snow. When George woke up, he was so sad and stuffy, but he even got excited when he saw the snow. I sat him in his high chair at the window while I worked on breakfast, and he just made cute sounds and watched the big fluffy flakes fall. It was cute!

Of course, the kids had to put their snow clothes on immediately and get out there! After some digging, we were able to find everything for everyone except boots for Ethan. I told him to wear my Uggs, which ended up working really well for him I think! They actually played outside for over half an hour which made me glad I got them nice new gloves this year! Usually they take more time getting ready to play outside then they actually play outside.

I had hot chocolate ready for them when they came in, and some pumpkin cream cheese muffins that were really, really good!

I was jealous of the kids getting to go out and play in the snow, and couldn't wait to go do my run. By the time I got George down for his nap, it had stopped snowing, and I went out in just a short sleeve + a long sleeve tech tee, gloves and ear warmers. Strangely, I wasn't even very cold at the begginging. I warmed up really nicely, and even pushed my sleeves up for a few minutes towards the end.

Everything was so beautiful, and I made a point to notice the beautifully colored leaves under the snow, along with all the white.

I ran up North Temple and through Memory Grove towards City Creek. I was surprised not to see any other runners out there. There are usually a lot on this route. I saw a few people out taking pictures and that was pretty much it. When I got up into the canyon, it was just so peaceful, and I had it all to myself. I had my music on, but low enough that I could hear the river and take in the stillness of the new-fallen snow and the trees surrounding me.

I really felt like I could just keep running forever! But I had told Pete I would just do 6-7 miles since I needed to get back for him to go help his brother move, so I reluctantly turned around at 3.5 and headed back down the hill.

I realized that this hill feels like about the same grade as the one you run down for a long ways in the Utah Valley Half Marathon. I think I'll have to do repeats on it when I get more into training for that race. That will be fun!

I ran a total of 7 miles at a nice easy pace (10:33 min/mile average) in 1:13:56.

I got home just in time for Pete to leave, then I had to hurry and get ready to get to my brother's graduation party in Logan. That was a little stressful and rushed, and we didn't get lunch, but I'm still glad I was able to do that run. It was just lovely. Everyone was fine, and we had homemade doughnuts and hot chocolate at the party (my brother just graduated from the police academy). That was almost a re-do of our breakfast! Oops, not the healthiest eating day! Afterwards, we went to Cafe Rio with my sisters and my dad before heading back, and that was really good.

When we got home it was practically bed time. Man, this day went by quickly!

Happy Halloween! (aka Chocolate Sugar Cookies)

2011-10-31T14:21:00.004-06:00

Check out the cute cookies we made yesterday!

We made regular sugar cookies a few weeks ago and tried to use these cookie cutters, but the dough was too gooey and just stuck to the cookie cutters. We were very sad, and just ended up doing circles. But this recipe makes much stiffer dough and it worked perfectly with our fun cookie cutters!

I had originally planned on putting orange frosting on these, but couldn't bare to cover up the cute faces so I just sprinkled them with sugar. After the first batch, I realized that I had to sprinkle the sugar before cutting them or it would obscure the faces. I don't know if it really even needed this, though.

Not only are these cookies cute, they are also really good! They aren't too sweet, and feel really holliday-ish. I found they are perfect with the pumpkin ice cream I had that was (almost) too sweet to eat by itself.

I'm dreaming of a pumpkin ice cream pie with a chocolate cookie crust for Thanksgiving...

Anyway, here's the recipe (Slightly altered from Southern Living here):

Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/4 cups whole white wheat flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 350°. Beat butter and sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add egg, beating until blended.
2. Combine flour, cocoa, and salt; gradually add to butter mixture, beating just until blended.
3. Divide dough into 2 equal portions; flatten each portion into a disk. Cover and chill 10 minutes.
4. Place 1 portion of dough on a lightly floured surface, and roll to 1/8-inch thickness. Cut with a 3- or 4 1/2-inch butterfly-shaped cutter. Place cookies 2 inches apart on lightly greased baking sheets. Repeat procedure with remaining dough portion.
5. Bake, in batches, at 350° for 10 to 12 minutes (for 3-inch cookies) and 15 to 17 minutes (for 4 1/2-inch cookies) or until edges are lightly browned. Let cool on baking sheets 5 minutes; remove to wire racks, and let cool 30 minutes or until completely cool. Decorate baked cookies as desired.

Hello Again, Avenues My Friends (8 miles)

2011-10-29T20:20:00.004-06:00

Today I ran 8 miles.

It felt so good!

Most of it was up The Avenues which is one of my favorite places to go, but I haven't done it for a long time.

I had just dropped the Jeep off to get the breaks checked (they were making a terrible grinding noise!) so I just ran from there. I really liked doing that. It made me feel so flexible and adventurous - even though it was only a mile from my house. :)

Starting out I was a little cold, and my calf was still feeling pretty stiff from the hard track workout I did Thursday morning at the gym, but it warmed up after a few miles. It was kind of hard running up those hills too, but I really just felt so happy to be running and to be able to do that at all - even though it wasn't super fast. I did let myself run pretty fast on the downhills, though. That's so fun!

When I got closer to home, I was trying to decide if I should just go home or check in on the Jeep. Then I saw that a train was going across the street I'd take to go home. No problem. I just went down a few more blocks to the street that goes over the tracks and got to do one more "hill." This was also the street where the Jeep was so I just stopped in to see how much longer it had. He said it would be about 45 minutes so I just decided to run home and figure out how to pick it up later. Doing that extra mile made my run a little more than 8 miles (maybe 8.2? I don't know for sure because it was a cloudy day and it took the Garmin forever to locate the satellite). I had planned on doing closer to 7, but I felt good so it was fine.

I felt really good for the whole run, other than my knee hurting a little at a few points. I realized after I got home that I ran for 1:28 without any fuel or even water. And I felt fine. If I knew I was going to be out there for an hour and a half, I would have probably brought something, but it ended up being just fine. It was actually really nice to just run and not worry about anything like that! It probably helped that I had a peanut butter and banana toast right before I left, and that it was a cool day.

I've been doing pretty good with running 4 times a week. Tuesday at running group, I didn't do any extra so I just did 2.29 miles. I usually want to do 4-5 miles on that day so I'll make sure to do that next time. It's always just so fun to hang out with everyone afterwards, it's hard to just run away. I've really loved my running group! Making some new friends and having more of a social life (if you could call it that, but it was pretty much non-exsistent before this) has been really, really good for me! I've just felt so happy lately, so thank you to all you girls who humor me and come run on Tuesdays! :)

Other than the running, I haven't been doing great. I know I need to do cross training to avoid injury and I really want to do other things, but it just keeps not working out and I have nothing (read: no race) compelling me to do it. I'm trying not to worry about it too much, though, and just enjoy my off-season. I am so excited about snowboarding, I can hardly stand it! And I also want to get back into climbing so we'll see what I can start fitting in.

There's A Light At The End of The Tunnel!

2011-10-24T13:40:00.003-06:00

I've spent this last either week being sick or taking care of a sick baby so I haven't had time to write.

It was so weird because as soon as we got home from the 5k on Saturday, Pete and I both started sniffing, and by the time we went to bed, we were both full-on sick. I took Sunday and Monday off to recover. It was weird because it was my abs and back sore. I don't know if that was from the cold or from the race...

Tuesday I walked/ran 2 miles with the stroller running group (We started our couch to 5k plan over since we got a new girl who had just had a baby 6 weeks ago), then I ran 3 more with one of the girls to make a total of 5 miles. It was funny because everyone else was still there when we got back so we still got to sit, stretch and chat with them which is the best part of having a running group!

Wednesday, the kids were home from school for Fall Break, and I was going to go swimming. Pete was home so I just put George down for a nap, then waited for him to go to sleep, but he just wouldn't stop crying. I don't know how long he cried, but it seemed like a long time to me so I went in to check on him and he had thrown up in his crib. I picked him up, but I couldn't get him to stop crying. Finally he threw up again, all over me, and Pete came and put him in the tub. That calmed him down a little, but he was still so sad! Well, swimming was out. I couldn't even put the poor baby down. After holding him while he cried for a while, I decided to try taking him for a walk and that calmed him right down! Whew. The kids came with me and we went to the park.

Thursday George was still really super sad, but I remembered my trick from the day before, put him in the stroller and headed out for a run. He slept the whole time. The kids came with me again, this time on their bikes, and we went to the park with the track around it so I could run around with the stroller while they played. This works out so well, I love that we have this park a mile from our house! I did 30 second on/off bursts of speed trying to go as fast as I could (usually in the 7:00-7:30 pace range) then recover. This is such a hard workout, especially with the stroller! I wanted to do it for 15 minutes, but only really managed 12 or 13. Still good, though.

Friday I was so proud of myself because, despite George not sleeping well, I got up and got to the pool by 6:30. I really want to get better about going swimming! It was so good, and I'm so glad I went. I was able to get a pretty good workout in and still be home by 7:30, and George woke up right when I got home so it worked out perfectly! Again, I love where I live because we have a pool half a mile from the house! After everyone got up and ready, I put George down for his nap and left him with Pete so we could go to the clothing swap Mindy's ballet studio was doing as a fund raiser. It was pretty cool, we left with a bag full of stuff. I got several new shirts which is nice because I've been needing new clothes, but don't have the money to spend on it right now! We also went to Costco. Fun fun!

Feeling exhausted from George being sick and so needy, I thought I'd go to bed early that night, but every time I try to go to bed early I jinx myself and end up having a terrible night! This was no exception. George hardly slept at all. He seemed to be feeling better during the day and we'd get glimpses of our little happy guy back every once and a while, but he woke up every few hours during the night and one time he was up for about an hour just crying and he threw up again. It was so sad.

Saturday morning I wanted to do my long run, and I really didn't want to take the stroller, but I knew it would make George feel better so I took him. It wasn't that long of a run, and having the stroller was probably good because it helped me not worry about going fast. I ran 6.5 miles and it took me 1:10, but it was good because George slept so peacefully the entire time, and at least half an hour more after we got home. He really needed that! During his afternoon nap, Pete kept the kids downstairs and took care of George when he woke up so I was actually able to take a 3-hour nap. I needed that! :) We both felt much better after that. We still kept George home from church on Sunday, but last night he went to bed like a little angel and he has been so happy today! Yay! I was beginning to worry that he would never be as happy as he used to be again. That would be so sad.

Now, to get to the title of my post! Hahaha

I got up early today and was going to go run on the track at the gym, but I didn't end up getting out in time and the kids wanted me around while they got ready for school so I waited. They rode their bikes to school and I ran with them. George was still asleep so I left him with Pete (who was also still sleeping) and I felt like I was flying without the stroller! It was fun! Mondays are my 400 meter (.25 mile) interval workouts and this is what my intervals were today:

1:57.2 - 8:00.5 pace (this one was a tad short....)
3:36.1 - 8:42.6 pace (umm, accidentally didn't push lap so this one includes recovery)
1:59.2 - 7:56.2 pace
1:54.2 - 7:33.5 pace!
1:49.8 - That's 7:22.4 pace!! (WHAT!?)

These felt hard, but awesome at the same time! If that makes sense. I feel like this speed work I've been doing is actually working and I can very vaguely see the light at the end of the tunnel! I might actually be getting faster! I mean, I can hold a 7:22 pace for a quarter-mile at the end of an interval set! I can't believe some people can run a whole marathon at that pace (or faster)! I'm not going to focus on that, though, I'm going to focus on the fact that I've never been able to do this before and I'm happy.

When I was about half a block from home, I saw the guy Pete carpools with pulling up. I hurried home, thinking Pete would be waiting for me and wondering where I was. He came out by himself. A little confused, I asked him how George was and if he was still sleeping. He said, "I guess so. I was just going to leave, I thought he was with you." Yikes! I will never sneak out and leave George while Pete's still asleep again! I didn't have keys or my phone so it was really really lucky that I got home when I did because I would have been locked out and the baby would have been in. Crazy! I just thought George would wake up before Pete so not knowing he was there wouldn't be an issue! Anyway, everything turned out ok, and George even slept for another half hour, until 9:15! And he's been so happy today! YAY!

Awesome Saturday and Murray Moonlight Run 5k

2011-10-17T22:06:00.004-06:00

Saturday was such a perfect day.

It started out with getting to sleep in a little bit and having a nice leisurely morning with pumpkin pancakes (recipe coming soon...).

In the afternoon, Pete and I took the kids on a little hike at that park we found this spring. It was really fun, and George fell asleep on Pete's back. It was so cute!

When we got back to the car, my dad called to tell me he was at our house. Fifteen minutes later we were home and the kids were all happy and climbing on their grandpa, like usual.

We all had ice cream cones.

Then I put the kids to work doing their chores while I worked on cleaning the kitchen and Pete and my dad worked on putting bead board up in the basement bathroom. I can't wait till it's finished, it's going to look so nice!

A quick dinner of Papa Murphy's pizza with Root Beer and peanut butter Checks mix. (Such a healthy day!) I actually just had 1 piece of pizza then had some oatmeal with peanut butter and bannana. It was weird preparing for a night race, and I felt like I should eat what I'm used to eating before I run.

I got George to bed, and Pete and I headed out for the Murray Moonlight Run. We picked up two of my friends from my little running group, and got there quite early.

Here we are before the race, trying to figure out what to do with our glow necklaces that didn't have clasps. I ended up putting mine through my sports bra in the back so you could see it through my shirt. I have no idea how it looked, but I figured that way at least no one would run into me!

(First pony tails since I cut my hair! Whoop!)

I kind of wanted to shoot for 27 minutes, but I didn't really know if that was possible since we were running in the dark. There were volunteers with flashlights at the turns and lights at a few places, but other than that it was pretty dark.

I didn't bring a light or anything, but my eyes adjusted pretty well and I felt fine running. It was just hard when I'd come upon someone with flashing lights on their costume, or a headlamp because then all could see was the light, and my eyes would have to adjust again after I passed them. This actually gave me more incentive to pass people though!

It was so fun being able to pass people the whole time! I'm really not used to being able to pass people, especially in a triathlon since running is my weakest of the 3 sports and everyone I get ahead of on the swim and bike pass me on the run. This time I'd see someone in front of me and work on getting past them. It was nice to be doing the passing for a change, it made me feel good!

The first mile was an out and back past the finish line so I got to see Pete again after just a few minutes. Then we went the other way and kind of looped around. It was all on trails by the river and it was a really cool place to run.

I tried to push myself, but it was hard not being able to see my Garmin to tell what my pace was to know if I should push it more or not. I just had fun with it, though and tried to go by feel. When I passed the volunteer at mile 2 I did a fist pump and wondered where that came from. Soon after that I started hurting a little. But I reminded myself that I only had a mile left so I tried to stay strong.

I finished in 28:23 which is faster than my last 5k which took me 29:09. So it wasn't 27, but I'm totally happy with it!

Afterwards, they had pumpkin pie for the runners, and it was really good! We sat in the grass and stretched while we ate it. Pete was so great to come with me, I know it wasn't that fun for him, and like he said, we spent more time waiting around and getting ready for the race then the actual race. That's the trouble with 5ks, but it was fun and I'm glad I got to be there for both of my friends' first race.

We're excited to do another 5k in the daylight to really see what we can do!

Does anyone know of any good Christmas/New Years 5ks around here?

A Week In Pictures

2011-10-14T22:48:00.005-06:00

I need to get to bed so I'm going to do a quick (maybe) update!

Last Friday I chose sleep over swimming again. I wonder if I'll ever get back to a place where I feel like it's worth it to go swim in the morning again. I've only been swimming once this week, and the only bike I've been on is my cruiser with the kids. Maybe once I'm training for something again...

Anyway, I went and gave blood at 9 so the rest of my day was pretty much shot for working out, but I was ok with that.

It took a really long time (like 40 minutes!) for some reason, but at least I had this beautiful view to look at while I waited for my blood to drip into the bag. Snow, glorious snow! I am SO excited for snowboarding this year!!

Elle came with me and was just so sweet and good. She had a grand old time watching 2 movies and helping herself to way more cookies than I would have let her have had I been close enough. Luckily George was able to stay home with Pete so I was really able to just relax.

I got started on Ethan's new quilt over the weekend. This is my plan for what it will look like, only twin sized. I'm excited for it! I'm also doing some curtains to match.

Sunday the kids were being cute and having fun being all matchy-matchy.

I had a really hard run on Monday. I did speed work with the stroller, but it wasn't really speedy at all. I don't know what it was, but I just didn't have my heart in it or something. But at least I had a really cute running partner!

George learned how to color the other day. It was such a beautiful day, I took him outside to play with sidewalk chalk with Elle. He actually colored with it too! It was so cute!

This chalk must have tasted pretty good because he kept biting off chunks. Mmmm.

Tonight we took the kids to Witches Night Out at Gardner Village. We had two cute little witches and (dum dum dum dumdumdum) Darth Vader! And a baby. It was fun to just walk around and see all the witch costumes. There were so many people there, and a lot of them really went all out for this, it was cool! Afterwards we got ice cream at Cold Stone because we didn't want to wait any any of the huge lines for food there.

Conference Weekend

2011-10-04T15:14:00.004-06:00

George is just getting so big! In the last week or so he's started full-on crawling with his hands and knees, and it is just so cute! (He's been doing kind of an army crawl for a couple months.) He doesn't crawl too much, though. He'd much rather have someone help him walk around and he pulls himself up to standing any chance he gets.

He also has really started to enjoy food. I've found that basically, he just wants to feed himself so I just give him things that we're having that I think he can handle. He's getting pretty good at it, though he hasn't quite figured out bowls yet. He tries to just eat right out of them which is funny! The other night I made brown rice in the rice cooker, and it made it totally soggy (I haven't quite figured that thing out yet.). I was disappointed at first, but then realized it was just perfect for George, and he loved it!

This weekend was the semi-anual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It is held at the Conference Center downtown on Saturday and Sunday, but we don't usually go there since we've got the kids and all, but that doesn't mean we have to miss it. They broadcast it on our local TV and radio stations, as well as stream it live over the internet so there are a lot of ways to be able to hear The Prophet's voice.

Here's George riding his pony while we watch. (notice our beautiful new blue wall? I LOVE it!)

We had two family get-togethers during Conference weekend. On Saturday, our sister-in-law was in town from Nashville for the very purpose of going to Conference so she came over for a while and so did our other sister and brother-in-law so we got to see their cute little baby!

Sunday we drove up to Logan for our nephew's birthday party, and just had so much fun seeing all of them!

George, Grandpa, and the birthday boy.

Aaaaand.... here's a sneak peak of our little Curious George's Halloween costume!

I also ran 8 miles in-between sessions of Conference on Saturday, and I guess that was a little far. I hadn't done a long run (more than 5 miles) since Utah half, over a month ago! I thought a nice, easy, flat 8 miles would be fine. And really, it was fine while I was running. I felt great and had a really good run (!!), but afterwards my calf was really really sore. I skipped my run yesterday (Monday) because it was still hurting really bad, and Pete spent half an hour working it last night, almost making me cry. I wore compression socks to bed, and it did feel better this morning, but it's still a little sore.

We had our second run with our stroller running group this morning which was really fun even though we got rained on a little. We had one new girl, but we were also missing a few people. One was sick, one was out of town and the last one still did the run on her own so I'm not too worried about losing people yet. They all seem interested and excited still, and so am I!

A few of us will be running the Murray Moonlight Run on October 15th. It's a 5k or 1 mile walk/run. It's at 9pm and there will be black lights set up a long the course so it should be really cool! I just need to find something fun to wear that will glow good...

Running With Strollers

2011-09-27T21:31:00.005-06:00

I'm still here, and still working on my running. It's been fun to do shorter distances and to do intervals because then I get to feel fast even if it's just for 2 minutes or whatever. I've actually gotten to where I can do my 400s at about 7:30 pace and that feels really good! Of course that also makes me feel like I'm going to puke, but you know, those feelings are so similar. ;)

Recently I decided I wanted to start a stroller jogging group so I talked to some of the other moms at church and at Elle's preschool. I was surprised and excited by how many people were interested in doing it!

Today was the first day we met. I was so excited to have 5 other moms show up! It was cool to see 4 mini vans parked outside my house, and a line of strollers going down the street. Most of the women who ran with us haven't been running lately or at all, so we decided to start with the Couch to 5k training plan.

The first workout is a 5 minute brisk walk to warm up, then alternating between jogging for 60 seconds and walking for 90 seconds for 20 minutes. I think this was really good. I want this to be fun for everyone and not get anyone burnt out. We're hoping to find a 5k at around Christmas time to do together.

I led the way and watched the time to tell everyone when to start and stop running. We ended up turning around later than we should have so we walked for a while once we finished the running. It was really fun to just hang out with those women and get to know them a little better. I really hope I can help them learn to love running! It was also really cool that we covered 2.4 miles. That seems like an awesome start.

We're going to be meeting every Tuesday to do the first workout of the week, and everyone is going to do the other 2 workouts on their own.

I'm still sticking to my schedule: speed work on Mondays and Thursdays and a long easy run on Saturday. Of course I still haven't done a long run since Utah Half, but I'm excited to start that up again! (I wonder how long of a run I should do on Saturday...) Tuesdays are an easy 4-7 mile run so I'll just add a few miles after the group run.

I'm really excited about all this! If you want join our running group, just let me know.

Elle's 5th Birthday

2011-09-27T20:51:00.006-06:00

My baby girl turned 5 last week. We had such a fun day on Saturday to celebrate. We went to the zoo in the morning with my dad and my sister. It was so much fun!

We got to see one of the 5 tigers really close and in the water so that was really cool!

The kids love the tiger statues almost as much as the real tigers.

We rode the marry-go-round and the train.

And some wooden horses...

We saw the bird show, and even though we've seen it a million times. This one was a particularly exciting one though. One of the macaws landed on the bald eagle and they had a little tuffel. It was crazy, but luckily neither of them got hurt!

After the zoo we came home and grilled hamburgers then got ready for the party.

We had like 10 4-5 year olds over, most of them girls since it was a princess party!

Crazy was about the only word to describe it.

And (drumroll...) THE CAKE:

Elle couldn't have had a better birthday and I think she was very happy! Thank you to everyone who came!

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Zucchini Muffins

2011-09-14T07:05:00.005-06:00

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups whole white wheat flour
1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon lemon juice (I didn't have any so I used more milk)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups shredded zucchini
1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.

Combine the egg, oil, milk, lemon juice and vanilla; mix well.

Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.

Fold in zucchini, chocolate chips.

Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until muffins test done.

I doubled the amount of zucchini and lowered the sugar so the zucchini/sugar ratio would be a little healthier. But then I meant to double to amount of chocolate chips, and ended up quadrupling it so that may have flipped my sugar/zucchini ratio back over... But it was really good! If you eat them while they're warm it's almost like they have a molten chocolate center. :)

A Whole Lot of Nothin' Goin' On

2011-09-05T22:29:00.005-06:00

Ok, that's not true. A lot of things have been going on, but just not much triathlon training which is kind of nice for a change. It's been a week and 2 days since Utah Half, and I've gone running twice, and swimming once and I'm already in need of a new training plan. I have to have something to work towards, otherwise, I just can't get myself up in the morning! I've been so tired and feeling sick in the mornings that going running is the last thing I want to do! I think it's because I've thrown caution to the wind - eating some treat or other every night while staying up late, watching movies with Pete. (By the way, we just got caught up on Fringe, and the people who wrote that are just mean.) From here on out I'm going to try to be in bed by 11 or sooner, and no more eating after 8pm. I hope that helps.

Anyway, here are some of the things that have been going on this past week:

George has kind of learned to eat food and he's just so proud of himself! (None of this baby food garbage, though, he only wants things he can feed himself like that apple)

He also figured out how to stand up in his crib all by himself so we had to lower the mattress. Again, he's just as pleased as punch about it. Standing is his favorite, and it's pretty much all he wants to do lately.

I celebrated my 31st birthday with a delicious peanut butter chocolate cake from RubySnap that was to die for! It was gone within 3 days, and I ate most of it. Pete informed me today that he only ended up getting 2 little pieces of it. Oops. Well, it was my cake, and I had just done a half Ironman so I'm ok with that. :)

Photo bombed by my own husband!

It was kind of weird turning 31 three days after finishing my last race of the season where I had 31 written on my calf. I kind of already felt like I was 31 even back in July when I did Echo. I had 31 on my calf then too. It's kind of weird how they do that. No biggie, though.

Here are my kinds on the way to pick up my cake. I usually like to make my own cake because I like to bake, but, like I said, this one was to die for so I made an exception this year! We got cookies while we were there too. Fun birthday!

Also, Elle moved up to a booster seat so that's exciting! Her first official day of preschool (at this school) is tomorrow. I hope it goes well!

It will also be the second day of my new run heavy workout schedule that I got from Run With Jill. I'll just changed the days a little and added swimming so my week will look like this:

Sunday: Off (Maybe a walk)

Monday: Track 400m workout followed by Nike Training Club workout (NTC)

Tuesday: 3-6 miles easy followed by NTC

Wednesday: Swim

Thursday: Lactate Threshold workout followed by NTC

Friday: Swim

Saturday: long easy run 6-8 miles

At least that's the plan for now. We'll see how it goes. I did my first speed workout today and did intervals around the park while Mindy and Elle played. The loop around the park is a little more than 400 meters and it took me 2:06-2:13 to do (feeling like I was going to puke!). My goal is to get that down to 2:00 or less.

What Now?

2011-08-31T13:57:00.002-06:00

So, looking at my results from The Utah Half, it's pretty obvious where my weakness is:

Running.

As if I didn't already know this. :)

The people who win are the runners. Seriously, they do the run more than an hour faster than me! How are people so fast?!

If I want to get any better, I really need to become a real runner. I think that's what I want to work on next. What I don't know is how long I should focus on running. Should I just work on it during the winter then come back into full triathlon training in the spring? Or should I lay off triathlon for a season and really just focus on running for a whole year?

I don't really like the thought of that because I already took last year off triathlon and hated it.

I've thought about signing up for the St. George Marathon in October of 2012, and giving that a shot again. Since it's at the end of the tri season, I could still do a tri, possibly even Utah Half, along with it. Or should I focus on shorter distances to get faster?

I'm also worried about getting burnt out if I run too much or getting injured. I really don't want to get to the point where I hate running. I also want to have time to do other things this winter, like snowboarding so I don't want anything too big too early in the season. I missed it so much last year and am excited to get back into it this year!

The other question is, what distance do I want my next big tri to be? I know I want to do another full some day, but is next year the right year or should I just do a half again and keep working on getting faster while George is little? If I do decide to do a full next year, it will be Vineman, and I'd love to do the buy 2 get 1 free deal they have on registering for that. If 3 of us signed up, we'd each just have to pay $233.33 which is an amazing price for a full! Plus it would just be so much more fun to have some people to train with! Does anyone want to sign up for that with me??

These are the questions.

I know I need to figure this out for myself, but I'd love some feedback (especially from you runners!) on what would be best for me. Or if you have any races you'd like to suggest or want someone to do with you, let me know!

Is it crazy that I'm not even a week out of my tri season and I'm already planning next year? :)

The Utah Half Ironman 2011 - Race Report

2011-08-29T13:38:00.003-06:00

By Friday I was feeling pretty much all the way better from my cold which, in turn, made my stress level go down too. It was also nice that I had already picked my packet up at the swim clinic so I didn't have to worry about that. I was now able to just be excited! (mostly)

We drove to Heber Friday afternoon when we could no longer stand being in our hot house. It was so much cooler up there at my dad's house, but watch out for the mosquitos! We got the kids to bed then Pete and I ran to the store to get some more baby food for George. We wanted my dad to have a lot of options for the day ahead. He was worried about feeling like a monster when George got hungry. :(

I slept relatively well, considering it was really starting to hit me what I was going to do in the morning! George woke up once during the night, then I woke him up again at about 4:45 to feed him just before we left. I was feeling nervous and sick, but driving down Provo canyon in my dad's truck sure helped me forget about it for a little while! We left our Jeep with him so he could bring the kids if George got too sad, and his truck has really crazy steering plus it's so big!

Anyway, as we got closer to Utah Lake, there was a huge line of cars that wasn't really moving, and we saw a bunch of people parking on the side of the road. Pete checked on google maps, and we were only about 1/2 mile away from transition so we decided to park. I got all my stuff and my bike and rode in, and told Pete he could go ahead and go back to sleep for a little while. I told him I'd text him when I got done with the swim.

I got to transition just a little after 6 and the race didn't start until 7 so I had plenty of time. It was still dark and there were mosquitoes everywhere! I had put bug spray on before we left the house, but I must have missed some spots because I've got a few itchy spots now to remember that lovely morning.

I picked a spot right by someone's green balloon, with a darker green ballon on the next row so it would be easy to spot. I set up my stuff, and managed to drop the stopper from my race belt into the grass as I was trying to put my number on. Amazingly, I found it so that wasn't a problem! I brought a bucket to sit on in transition for the first time which was so nice, and just put my wetsuit back into my backpack.

I decided I didn't want to wear my wetsuit, though most people were wearing them. The water was around 76 degrees which is plenty warm, and I just didn't want to deal with getting the dang thing off afterwards.

I got body marked and dropped off my special needs bag. I was number 37 which was awesome and made me feel a little bit like a pro! :)

After the race director talked to us a little, we cleared out of transition and trekked down to the water. We had to walk quite a ways, and there were some spots that were pretty gravelly. I was a little worried about having to run back with bare feet, but it turned out we would exit the swim closer to transition. Whew!

I got in the water and swam around for a little while, and it felt really nice so I felt good about my decision not to wear my wetsuit. Then I got out so I could see when they pointed out the course, and I started to get cold. I got back in because the water was warmer than the air, but I still felt cold the rest of the time while I waited for my wave so I began to question my no-wetusit decision again.

All females were in the last wave, along with relay and some of the men, and we started at least 15 minutes late. Normally I wouldn't care about this, but I couldn't help thinking, "That's 15 more minutes George will have to wait to eat." But he was in good hands, and I felt pretty good. I knew he would be ok for half a day without me, even if he got sad. I just tried to not worry about him, and focus on the task at hand. I think I did a pretty good job!

The gun went off. I was at the front of the pack and it got really crowded really quick so for the first little while I just had to focus on getting around people. Then suddenly it totally thinned out and I was all by myself. Turns out, this was because I was pretty much to the right of all the traffic, but not too far right to be off course. We did 2 laps, but it was kind of a weird shape lap. After the second buoy you couldn't see the next one because of a rock wall that you had to swim around. I feel like that was a little confusing and might have slowed me down a bit on my first lap.

On my second lap I ran into those rocks a little bit, but so did 2 other ladies who were right with me, and who I made it a point to stick with. I felt good and smooth out there, and didn't think about being cold for one second. It was so nice to just be able to run out and get right to transition without worrying about the wetsuit. Who knows if it would have made my swim faster or not.

SWIM 1.2 miles - 40:10

I didn't wear a watch so I had no idea what my swim time was. I just didn't want to get depressed and dwell on my swim time for the rest of the race. I'm really happy with this time, though since it's right on what I was shooting for (not counting the longish run to transition), and realistically I thought it would take me 45 since that's how long it took me to do one loop in my Ironman!

I just felt happy excited to ride my bike as I got my bike shoes, race belt and helmet on. Then I was off! As I rode out past the truck, I realized I had forgotten to text Pete when I got to T1. He was probably still asleep, but that was ok, I would just make sure to text him when I got to T2.

T1 - 2:52

Right away I found myself cruising at 20mph, but I didn't feel like I was pushing too hard so I kept that up. I figured it was a false flat so it would be harder on the way back. I watched my speed the whole time and made sure it was at least 18, but it was usually higher! It was such a flat, fast, fun course! It was awesome, I loved it! I passed a lot of people and only a few people passed me. Mostly men. I noticed the first guy coming back when I was about 20 miles out, and spotted the first woman 12 minutes before I got to the turnaround. I don't know why but I counted how many women were ahead of me, and I there were about 10. I could have missed a few because, I hate to say it, but sometimes it's hard to tell if it's a boy or a girl...

Anyways, like I said, the bike ride was really fun. We rode through corn fields and by a dairy farm (which brought back memories of when I was a kid growing up right by a dairy farm...ah, the smell!), through trees and along the lake which was really pretty. The road wasn't the best, and I saw many ejected water bottles, but thankfully I didn't lose anything. We did have special needs bags at the turnaround, but I didn't need mine. I just kept going, which was awesome! For the last 20 miles or so my back started to hurt and I started to feel a little more sluggish. I kept waiting for that false flat to come back and bite me, but it never did! I was able to keep my average speed up at 19.9! Wow! I looked at my time as I came into transition and about started to cry, I was so happy!

BIKE 56 miles - 2:49:05

I couldn't believe how fast that was! It almost took me 8 hours to do the bike at Coeur d'Alene so I was going to be happy with 3:30. Cutting almost an hour off that made me ecstatic!

I texted "T2 baby!" to Pete and knew he'd be surprised too. He called me back right away to tell me sorry he missed me, he was getting breakfast. I told him it was ok, it was faster than I had planned, but that I had to go. I still had a half marathon to run! I was so glad my bike was so fast because I knew my run was going to take forever.

T2 - 3:01

I could hardly even walk after getting off my bike so I was a little worried. My hip hurt like I had pulled something during the bike! I started running slowly, hoping it would go away, and it did! Whew! I also followed the 2 women ahead of me into the restroom at the beginning of the run, and had to wait a few minutes for my turn. It was probably worth it though. The only thing I'd complain about this race is that there were no port-o-potties out on the course. This bathroom was just the park restroom, and it was just where I needed it, but I'm sure some people had problems with the lack of bathrooms. In fact, I saw a couple girls squatting just off the path later on.

Like usual, a LOT of people passed me on the run so it was kind of tempting to try to run faster at first, but I had to remember that I needed to run my own race and that meant going slow so I could run the whole thing. I didn't want to go out too fast and end up with my knee or hip hurting too bad to run the last few miles like I did at the Utah Valley Half Marathon (speaking of which, I passed one guy on the bike wearing the shirt from that). Pete appeared right after the first aid station and said I looked good. I grabbed his hand for a second, but didn't want to stop and talk. He said, "I'll see you in an hour."

The run course was 2 loops with 2 out and back sections so you really got to see the other athletes around you a lot. It was fun to smile, say "hi" and "good job" to people I recognized like the lady who was in T1 with me with the purple tape on her leg who always had a smile or a thumbs up for me as well. The run was also really flat, and thankfully most of it was along the river or lake on a shady path. This, along with dumping a cup of water on my head at each aid station, kept me pretty cool. I actually didn't really notice the heat that much so I was kind of surprised by how concerned Pete was when I saw him again. He asked me if I'd been walking much and I told him, "No, only at aid stations." I told him I felt good, and he asked me if I could do 4 more miles. I was like, "Yeah, I can definitely do 4 more miles!" I really did feel pretty good! But a few miles after that, I realized he must have been mistaken about that number, and my legs started to hurt. I made it to the second turn around and the girl there told me I was at 10.5 miles so I had less than 3 to go, but I felt so bad for the girl who turned around with me who was still on her first lap. Ouch! I was really hurting, and I started walking for longer at the aid stations, and a little not at an aid station, but not for long. I made myself start running again even though it was really hard! When I had about 1 mile left, my knee started to hurt, but I was like, "Just one more mile!" and just made my feet keep moving forward.

I saw Pete just before the finish line and he commented on what a good pace I was running at, but I hadn't been running that fast the whole time! I averaged 11:42 min/mile for the half marathon.

RUN 13.1 miles - 2:33:16

It was a great feeling, like always, running down the grassy area to the finish line! I had kind of planned on the kids being there because my dad was going to bring them if George got sad, but they weren't there. It would have been nice to see them, but it was great having Pete there, and he ran down the finish shoot with me!

FINISH TIME - 6:08:22

If I would have known I was that close to 6 hours, I might have tried to push it a little more! But I think it was really good to not wear a watch because I just had fun and listened to my body. It was such a great race!

I've never taken advantage of the free massages after a race because I always seem to be in a hurry when I get done, and this was no exception, though they did look very temping! I just walked over to a shady area with Pete and stretched for a few minutes while he got a hold of my dad to see how George was doing. He was asleep! And had had been really good! Wow! We still wanted to get back soon because we knew he'd be hungry when he woke up. I really wanted to get in the water for a while, but figured I could just ice my knee later so we headed to the truck.

This was when I noticed the heat. It was scorching, and I practically burned myself when I climbed into the back of the truck to put my bike in! Pete reached in his pocket to get the key and said, "Oh crap." He didn't have it! The though of walking all the way back to the finish line and searching for a single key in the grass in this heat was just overwhelming to me. Luckily, Pete just told me to wait there and ran off to find it while I tried, and failed to get ahold of my dad to see if he had an extra key. Even if he had an extra key, though, he'd have to drive all the way down there with the kids and we'd have to wait around for 45 minutes so I really hoped Pete would just find the key! I was also really hot and my knee hurt and we were parked right by the river so I just went and sat down in the river while I waited. It was like an ice bath, it was so cold! Then Pete texted me and said he had found the key!! Wow, what a miracle! When he got back he said he wanted to jump in the river too, and I told him, "No, you don't. Just wade in and you won't want to swim in it." He did, and that was enough for him. I dipped myself in one more time, then we headed back.

We stopped at Wendy's on the way home and ordered enough food for 3 people! To be fair, one of those things was a salad that I ended up eating for dinner so it wasn't really that crazy. But I did get a cheeseburger and a frosty with fries, which I hardly ever do.

George was sad and ready to nurse when we got home, but he was ok. My dad said he wouldn't drink the formula, but he drank a lot of water and that kept him happy enough. I don't know if that was particularly good for him, and sure enough he threw up all over after I fed him. Poor little guy. But he was still happy, and I haven't noticed any other side-effects other than seeming a little extra hungry yesterday.

I'm so glad everything turned out so well, and I was able to have such a fun race! Now I remember why I love triathlon so much, and I'm all ready to plan next year's schedule! It'll be good to take a little break, though.

More Than The Usual Pre-RAce Nerves

2011-08-24T21:38:00.006-06:00

I woke up this morning feeling a cold coming on. Oh no. Not again! I don't think I've been sick since Utah Valley Half Marathon in June, and now that I have another big race in 2 days, I'm getting sick again. What's up with that?!

I really hope I can just get over this dang cold in the next 2 days so I'm taking as much Vitamin C as I can and trying to drink a ton of water.

Stress.

On top of that, George refuses to drink out of a bottle or really eat any baby food. Sometimes he'll drink from a sippy cup, but I don't know if he gets enough to be happy that way. Last time he still wanted to nurse afterwards. He did get really excited when he saw me eating bread at dinner so I gave him a piece and he ate some of that. Again, I don't know if it's enough to fill him up or anything, though. Hmmm, I just don't know what to do. My dad's already said he's fine with watching him while I race, but I'm just worried about him being hungry for half the day if he doesn't eat. I'm sure if he gets hungry enough, he'll take a bottle or drink from a sippy cup, though, right? Of course, I could always have Pete bring him and try to coordinate meeting somewhere on the course so I can feed him, but I'd really rather not have to worry about that.

Stress.

Today was the first day of school and that went pretty well, other than me forgetting it was a short day and them having to walk home in 100 degrees when I told them I would pick them up. Oops!

Mindy is in 4th grade now, and she was really happy to see her friends again.

Ethan, the 2nd grader, wasn't super excited, but at least he went quietly (without any tears) and didn't seem too sad when he got home (just hot from the walk...).

I was also supposed to get a massage today, which I was really looking forward to. But it turned out to be scheduled for the same time as Mindy's ballet placement class. That was ok, though, I was just going to drop her off early, get my massage then pick her up a little late.

When it was time to go, Mindy came to me and told me she didn't know where her ballet shoes were and that they probably got contaminated in the flood. Ug! So, we had to hurry and buy her new ones.

Of course the first store we tried didn't have any so we had to go to the Gateway, which is never a quick trip. Luckily they had her size so we grabbed them and hurried on our way. We ended up getting to the studio right on time instead of early, but then there was some confusion about what time she was supposed to be there. I guess they had planned on the girls her age coming at 7, but a bunch of us were there who were told to come at 5. Finally they just said they'd take them then since that's what they told us. I hugged Mindy and ran out the door, thinking I'd just be like 10 minutes late for my massage. But then I got on the freeway which was NOT moving at all and I knew I would be more than a few minutes late. Finally, at almost 5:30 when I still wasn't close, I just called them and told them I wasn't going to make it. I was dissapointed, but I knew by the time I got there, I'd only have time for like a 10 minute massage before her next appointment, plus I had to go get Mindy.

Stress.

The good news is that when I got back to the ballet studio, I saw some of her friends outside acting excited and I heard them say, "I can't believe Mindy made Grade 2!" Then I saw Mindy in the window getting her shoes on, looking SO happy. It was worth missing my massage just to see that look on her face. :)

I went in and asked her, and sure enough she had a little Grade 2 card with her name on it. It's where her friends will be so she was really excited. I had been planning on doing at least another year of Grade 1 because the Grade 2 flyer says, "12+" on it, and Mindy's 9. I talked to the teacher, though, and there was no mistake.

The bad news is that Grade 2 girls go 3 times a week so it's more money (ahem, flooded basement anyone?). But we really want her to be able to do this, so we're going to make it work. I'm so proud and happy for her! We had to walk to the store after dinner and pick out a treat to celebrate! (She picked all natural strawberry popsicles)

Ug, my nose is really running now. I should go to bed! Goodnight.

Taper Time & Swim Clinic

2011-08-23T21:57:00.005-06:00

Only 3 more days until Utah Half, and I'm in full taper mode. My training has decreased a lot, and I should be eating less too, but I don't know if that's actually happening. I did weigh myself last night and was happy to see 140.6 on the scale! What an awesome number!

That seems like a pretty good race weight, doesn't it?

I really haven't done much since I got back from North Carolina. I took Wednesday off to recover from my trip, ran with the stroller and the kids at the park on Thursday, did a swim/bike brick on Friday, and an 8 mile tempo run on Saturday. That tempo run hurt too!

This week... Oh it's only Tuesday. It feels like it's later than that! I've "slept in" the past 3 days, and that's been nice. I just ran for 30 minutes with George in the stroller at his bedtime last night. It was so cute, he was asleep after less than 10 minutes. I felt really good too!

Today I lounged around the house and did a bunch of cleaning until the evening when we went to Orem/Pleasant Grove to pick up my bike from getting tuned-up then the swim clinic for The Utah Half.

It was really fun! It was taught by last year's winner, Heath Thurston who is a really cool guy, a good teacher and a really fast pro triathlete. It was awesome to hear all the advice he had to give, though there was so much, I'm sure I'll forget most of it.

We did a little swimming with the group that was there. I wore my wetsuit, but Heath said he almost always choses not to wear a wetsuit because it makes it so you can't feel the water and you forget about your form. I don't really love wearing a wetsuit anyway, and it always takes me forever to get it off so I'll probably go without on Saturday. The lake should be warm enough that it won't be a problem. We didn't actually swim in Utah Lake for this clinic so I don't know exactly how it will be, but there was a lady there without a wetsuit and she said she thought it would be fine. We'll see.

We had a pretty big group and we practiced doing a group start a couple times which was really good to do. It just made me feel more prepared and excited for Saturday!

The awesome thing about the little pond we swam at was that it was a great place for Pete and the kids to play and watch me! It was a really cool place. Some people from Winder were there giving out chocolate recovery milks to the athletes, and they were kind enough to give one to my children and my husband. We didn't end up leaving until after 8 so the kids were all tired, but we hadn't had dinner either so we thought we should stop at In-N-Out to get something for them to eat on the way home. Of course, a full burger after chugging a whole chocolate milk gave all the kids tummy aches so it probably would have been better to just come strait home. We didn't get the kids to bed until 9:30 or so (though they did sleep a little in the car) and tomorrow's the first day of school! Yikes. Parent of the year here! Hopefully they'll sleep well and not be too tired for their big day tomorrow...

North Carolina - Day 5 (Homeward Bound)

2011-08-21T21:21:00.002-06:00

Tuesday morning I had kind of planned on going on a short run, but with how tired and sunburned and chafed I was, I couldn't get myself to do it. Instead we slept in until 8, packed up and check out by 10. We went and hung out at my grandparents house, met some of their neighbors and showed off my baby.

Here's George doing some planks with his great grandma.

We did a little shopping then went to lunch at Panera with my grandma before it was time to say our goodbyes and head back to the airport.

The flights home were so much better than the flights out. He hardly cried at all, and mostly slept on the long flight since it was past his bedtime. I'm thinking it was because he was over his cold, and I was so glad! We had dinner at Chili's in the Atlanta airport too so that was fun.

On the long flight, at one point he woke up just long enough to look at me, say, "Mmmm," touch my face then go back to sleep. It was pretty much the sweetest thing ever.

I seriously can't get enough of this boy.

What a great little vacation this was! Even though I had George with me, I still had significantly fewer people to take care of and got some good relaxing time in. There was no one to get after or make sure they were doing what they were supposed to. I really love my kids, and I spent the whole time thinking about how much they would have loved it there, but it was also nice to take a little time away. Pete was wonderful to take care of them by himself while I was gone, along with taking care of our latest flood.

Yep, another flood. That makes 5 in the 3 years we've lived here. This time it was from the sewer so we had to have the carpets, mats, linoleum and bottom 2 feet of drywall ripped out. It's pretty much a mess down there right now. Luckily it's all cleaned out, but it's not really livable down there so the girls have been sleeping upstairs and we've pretty much cut our square footage in half so we're in a little bit closer quarters than we're used to. It should be all fixed up in a few weeks. Meanwhile we've got the first day of school on Wednesday, Utah Half on Saturday, then my birthday the next week. We'll just have to try not to get too stressed out...

North Carolina - Day 4 (Ocean Swim)

2011-08-21T12:50:00.001-06:00

Day 3 was Sunday so it was a rest day. We went to church at the little Morhead City ward, then to lunch with my grandparents at The Olive Garden. Then it was back to the beach for some more relaxing. We went for a walk and collected a bunch of shells to bring home to the kids. This was a really nice day, but I didn't take any pictures so it doesn't get its own post. :)

Monday we had a nice leisurely morning, then headed down to the beach at about 9:30. It was so nice because my grandma rented chairs and umbrellas for us that they set up every morning so we had a nice place to sit. George fell asleep pretty quick so I decided to take this chance to get my swim done while Katie sat with him.

I was super nervous about swimming in the ocean. I've watched a few too many animal attack shows on Animal Planet at my dad's house, not to mention Jaws. I know the chances of being attacked by a shark are so rare, though, especially here so I was brave and just fought my way out to past where the waves were breaking. It was surpassingly calm out there. I'd feel swells sometimes, but most the time I hardly noticed the waves as long as I was careful to stay out far enough. I swam for what seemed like forever, but hardly went anywhere so I think I went against the current. I saw another guy out swimming so I said hi, and he told me he was doing a little triathlon with his daughter. Fun! After talking to him, I swam back to check in with Katie and see how long I'd been out.

It had only been about 23 minutes so I went back out to do it again. This time I felt more relaxed. Really the hardest part was getting out past the waves. It was so salty too! My mouth felt like it was coated with salt by the time I got back, and I was covered in green slimy stuff. Plus my swimming suit was chafing so bad! I should have known not to forget body glide when swimming in salt water! Well, you learn something new every day.

After resting in our nice shady spot for a little while, we walked down the beach a little ways to The Crab Claw where we met my grandma and had a delicious lunch.

Then we walked back and my grandma sat on the beach with George while Katie and I played in the waves. We didn't have any boards or anything, but it was so much fun! I felt like a kid again just playing in the waves and catching a few rides! I tried to teach Katie how to catch the waves and she caught a few, but we just had fun jumping and diving around too.

And just like a little kid, I didn't even think about reapplying sunscreen. We were out in the sun for a total of about 5 hours, and when I went to bed that night I noticed that my skin was practically glowing red! Ouch. When will I ever learn? That on top of my chafed underarms made it hard to sleep.

North Carolina - Day 2 (Long Run)

2011-08-18T15:19:00.002-06:00

I thought it might be a little chilly when I got up because it was still dark and it was cold in our condo, but as soon as I opened the door, I knew that would not be the case. It was very warm already at 6am.

My plan was to run nice and slow so I could enjoy the sights and still feel good by the end, and it worked! I did NOT run on the beach. Whenever I told people I went running, they assumed I ran on the beach, but that would have been very unwise to do my long run on terrain I'm not used to at all. Running in that loose sand would have killed my calves! Anyway, I ran on the sidewalk, and the road when there wasn't a sidewalk, down to Fort Macon which was about 5 miles. It was so fun to watch the sun rise while I ran, and here's where it was when I got to my destination:

It was really pretty and I was just so happy to be out there!

One of the reasons I was excited to run to Fort Macon is that it's a state park and it said there were bathrooms there on the map. Yay, bathrooms on a long run are a must! But, I had to go under a gate to get in, and the sign on the gate said it opened at 8. It was about 7 when I got there, but I was still hopeful there would be an open public bathroom. No such luck, though. They were all locked up. I felt ok though, so I ate my margarita shot blocks (which were really good!) and refilled my hand-held water bottle at the little foot showers (hoping the water was good to drink) because I was about out, then headed back.

It's weird because I'm not used to drinking that much when I run at all. Even on my long runs, I usually just take a few sips when I need to take my gel, but with the humidity there, I was so glad I decided to bring water since I was so thirsty the whole time!

On the way home, I kept an eye out for a bathroom. It took a while, but I finally got to a public beach with a bathroom. This was such a welcome site because I was to the point of having to walk a little on and off. When I got up to it, the sign said, "bathhouse hours: 8am to dusk" and I wanted to cry! Luckily it was open, though! Whew!

I felt much better after that, but decided I'd just be done when I got back to the condo even though it would be closer to 10 than 12 miles because it was taking me forever. I ran on a little boardwalk on the beach, then just stayed on a little road that was different than the one I came out on, thinking it would take me back to the main road before I got to my condo. It did put me back onto the main road, but after I'd been running for a lot longer than I thought I'd have to run, I noticed I was getting closer to the Sheraton then I remembered being. I took out my phone, looked at the map, and sure enough, I'd got 1.3 miles past our condo! Oops! I texted Katie and told her that since I knew she'd be waiting for me, then turned around and just kept plugging along. I was soaking wet, and had just finished my water by the time I got to our parking lot, but I was so happy to be feeling really good! It had taken me 2.5 hours instead of the 2 I had planned, and I ended up going 12.5 miles! This run was a really good confidence booster for my upcoming race. It may have been slow, but I can do the distance! :)

George was still asleep when I got home too! Katie was so sweet and made me some eggs, and I made a smoothy to go with them. Then we went right down to the beach so I could soak in the ocean for a little while. Of course, you can't just float in the ocean (at least I can't) so I ended up playing around and riding waves for about 20 minutes while Katie sat with George.

Then I just sat and relaxed on the beach.

And George got his first taste of sand. Literally.

He liked the water too, but only if it was just his feet in it. Otherwise, it was a little too scary.

LOVE this picture!

The rest of the day was very relaxed. We went to lunch at The Rudy Duck with my Grandma, and I wore my compression socks as we walked around and looked at some souvenir shops. Katie said, "I can't believe you're wearing that." But it made my legs feel better! Then we went back to our condo and watched the first half of the 6-hour Pride and Prejudice and had french toast and sausage for dinner there. What a great day!

North Carolina - Day 1 (Travel)

2011-08-18T14:28:00.003-06:00

Friday, August 12, Pete and the kids dropped my sister, Katie, George and me off at the airport at 6am. This was going to be George's first flight, and my first flight with a baby. George was actually the first one of my kids to ride on a plane, and yes, the other kids were jealous.

He was so sweet, we got on the plane and he played for a few minutes, then he just laid down on Katie's lap and fell asleep for take-off. He slept for about 45 minutes like that. So sweet!

He woke up for a while, and I learned that there's not really anywhere to change a baby on an airplane. I had to change him on my lap in the tiny bathroom. He was just happy and played some more, then I put him in his sling and he fell back to sleep.

All together now, "Awwwwww"

The only part of the flight that wasn't good was the landing. As soon as we started descending, he started crying so hard! It was so sad! I didn't realize until after this that he had a cold. I've flown with cold before and couldn't believe how much it hurt so I kind of knew how he felt. Pool little guy.

Here we are in the bathroom at the Atlanta airport, so glad to be off the plane! Also happy to have a nice surface to change a diaper on!

We were in Atlanta for about 2 hours, then flew to New Burn which was a quick flight with another sleepy take-off and a really tough landing. Poor George. By the time we'd landed I was about ready to stay there forever so I wouldn't have to put him through that again!

We rented a car and drove about half an hour to my Grandparent's house in Morehead City.

It was so fun for my Grandpa to be able to meet George since he actually hasn't met any of my other kids!

Of course it was fun for my Grandma to meet him too. Everyone just loves this little boy!

It was dark by the time we got to our condo so we just took a short trip to the beach with the stroller my Grandma had rented for us to check it out, then got settled in. It was tempting to postpone my long run since we'd spent the whole day traveling, but I decided to head to bed early (kind of) and wake up early to run for 2 hours...

St. George IM Bike Course Trial

2011-08-09T21:05:00.004-06:00

This summer is just flying past! It's been fun, but super busy, and I hate to see it go!

Last Tuesday (I can't believe it's already been a week) I met Amy and Heather at a little splash park in Lehi so our kids could all play.

It's always a good time when there's water and cousins involved. The girls all slept over at Amy's house that night too so they were just in heaven.

Then Friday, after my 10ish mile long run, we drove down to St. George to stay with our friends. Their son was getting baptized on Saturday and we wanted to be there for that. I brought my bike, though, so before the baptism, I was able to get my long ride in.

I went for 3 hours and covered 40.5 miles. That's almost exactly the same as last weekend!

Starting in Santa Clara, I rode up through Gunlock to Veyo then back down through Snow Canyon. Most of that ride is part of the course for the St. George Ironman, and man was it hard! It took me 2 hours to get to Veyo, which was only 22 miles. That was probably the hardest 22 miles I've ever ridden, and you have to do it twice in the Ironman! While I was riding it, I decided that whatever inkling of desire I had to do St. George Ironman was now gone. There were a couple points where I didn't want to go on, and I felt like crying. Yeah. Plus I lost my gel flask somewhere and didn't notice until I was halfway up "The Wall," and starting to think about taking another serving. There was no way I was going back down to look for it so I was pretty hungry by the time I got home.

But like I said last week, I'm not used to hills anymore. I haven't been training on them at all. I think if I rode a lot of hills, it might not be totally unforeseeable to do that twice! Maybe. Someday. Ouch. But not in the near future. I don't know, but I can say that whoever came up with that course is mean.

When it took me 2 hours to get to Veyo, I was worried that by the time I got back, George would be hungry and that I wouldn't have much time to get ready for the baptism. Amazingly, when I got home, George was still asleep and I had just enough time to get ready, even after a 20 minute recovery run and a good stretch. Nice!

Our friends have the same amount of kids as us who are about the same ages and they love to play together. Their youngest is 3 months older than George. That's right, I said older. Look at how little and sweet she is! It was so fun to see her and imagine what George will be like in a few months. George was very interested in her. I think she help him improve his crawling a little bit too.

Here's the young man who was baptized. I can't believe he's 8! He and Mindy have been friends since he was born. She and Ethan were both really excited to see him. It had been way too long since we'd seen them!

When we got home Sunday night, I realized that my new aero bar pads had blown off during the drive! What?! Somehow they made it to Heber and back, then down to St. George, but they didn't make it back. I was devastated when I saw this. The guy at the bike shop who sold them to me even told me I should put some adhesive on them or at least put a rubber band around them when they were on the car. I had totally forgotten about that, and now I felt so stupid that I was going to have to go back in there to see if they had any more. The crazy thing is that he was surprised they had them in the first place and I was so happy to just get them instead of having to order them, so I was pretty doubtful they'd have more. When I called them the next day, they confirmed this. So I've got some ordered, but they're supposed to take a week and a half! UG!

Anyway, the fun thing about getting home was that there was a package of new diapers there waiting for us! They are sunbaby brand, and I got 12 of them in several different colors for $60 which is a great price. They are so cute! I'm excited to try them out!

Our Tour of Heber

2011-08-01T13:27:00.005-06:00

This weekend was so much fun!

Friday I did my long run. I was going to go for 90 minutes, but ended up having to add probably 10 minutes on because a train was stopped on the tracks the way I had planned on going. Oh well, it turned out ok. I got to my turn-around point, the base of City Creek in 54 minutes. Have I mentioned how much I love the drinking fountain up there!? Coming down was much quicker, and luckily the train was gone by the time I got back there so it took me 44 minutes to get home. My total time ended up being 98 minutes so I'm going to say I did about 9 and a half miles. It was fun! My knee was hurting a little most of the way home, but it wasn't anything serious enough to make me walk or anything, and it didn't hurt after I stopped. I hope if I'm diligent about my stretching, it will get better and not cause me problems at Utah Half.

Friday night we went up to Heber where we spent the night at my Dad's house so Pete and I could wake up early and go ride together while my dad and step-mom watched the kids. I fed George at about 6am and we left by 6:30 so we told my dad we'd be back by 9:30. I knew George would be hungry by then, but I hoped it would be ok!

At first it was a little chilly so we both had jackets, but we promptly took them off before the first big hill. We rode up around Midway, then up, up, up to Francis. Yikes, I am not used to hills anymore! It was fun to have some challenging terrain and beautiful scenery for a change! It was also great to be able to ride with Pete! It's been a little ridiculous that I'll go ride for 3 hours, then come home and he'll go ride for 3 hours so we hardly see each other most Saturdays. I just felt so happy to be out there the whole time, and it was so beautiful. At one point, I asked Pete, "Ok, when are we moving back here?" He reminded me that we don't have to move there because we have people there we can visit. Oh yeah. Nice.

Here we are at the Joranelle overlook after we'd been riding for about an hour. That hill was extra hard for me, and I couldn't figure out why at first. It wasn't untill more than half-way up, after a guy had ridden past me like I was standing still and Pete was getting farther and farther away, that I realized I still had 3 or 4 more clicks to get to my easiest gear! I was making it much harder than it had to be. I did better on the other hills! :)

We also ran into Mindy's old preschool teacher up there riding with her husband so that was fun!

It took us almost exactly 2 hours to get to Francis so we took a more direct route home, and just rode through Heber. It was so fun coming back down all those hills! I haven't done that in a long time since all my rides lately have just been trying to go as fast as I can on relatively flat since that's what my race will be. I know this was good for me, though, and I'm looking forward to working on hills again after my half ironman.

We did a total of 40 miles in 3:08 which is almost exactly how long it took me to do 50 last week! Thank you, hills.

We got home just after 9:30, which is what time we told my dad we'd be back, and George was just waking up from a nap. I fed him then headed out for a little run where I saw Mindy's teacher and her husband ride by again! That was kind of funny. I felt really good for the first 4 minutes of the run, but then my knee started hurting so I turned around at 5 minutes, thinking I'd stop at 10. But when I got home, I felt better so I kept going for another 5 before turning back around for a total of 20 minutes. It was really supposed to be 30 minutes, but I always feel bad about running for too long after I've already been gone for 3 hours on my bike. I feel like I cold have gone for 30, though. If that means anything!

We hurried and got ready to leave, then drove to this faraway park for a family reunion for Pete's family. It was fun park, and we had a nice time. It was fun to see everybody, though I'm not as social as I should be.

We went back to Heber where Angela gave me a hair cut, then we turned the kids over to them again so Pete and I could go out to dinner, then to the final Harry Potter movie. We ate at our favorite place, and I was so happy to get the shrimp tacos I've been craving since last time we went there. So good!

The movie was really good too, but I feel bad because George ended up waking up just after we left and kept his grandma and grandpa up pretty late. Poor kid. He's got 4 new teeth coming in on the top too! Ouch.

Sunday morning, George was up at about 7:45 so when he went back to sleep for his nap at 9, I went back to bed too, thinking I'd just sleep for an hour or so then we'd head home. We had to be back by 1:00 for church, especially because Pete was speaking. Then, all a sudden, I woke up and it was 11:30! We had an hour drive ahead of us and none of us were ready for church! Luckily the kids had baths the night before, and we didn't have too much to pack. We managed to get out of there by noon with grilled cheese to eat on the way thanks to Angela. It was a miracle that we made it in time, and Pete did such a great job on his talk. I am so proud to have him as my husband. :) And thank you so much to Dad and Angela for making this fun weekend possible!

Mindy's 9th Birthday

2011-07-25T21:07:00.004-06:00

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

2011-07-25T13:13:00.003-06:00

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

2011-07-24T21:38:00.005-06:00

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

2011-07-20T21:06:00.006-06:00

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

2011-07-16T18:45:00.006-06:00

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

2011-07-11T21:22:00.006-06:00

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

2011-07-01T18:05:00.004-06:00

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.

Healing Up

2011-06-30T21:31:00.004-06:00

Guess who went for a 25 minute run without her foot hurting today!

Me! Yay! I SO wanted to run more, but I made myself stop (after one more time around the block) because I didn't want to push it. In the past it hasn't started hurting until after I stop running so I stopped to walk a couple times just to make sure. Then I was worried it would start hurting later today, but it never did! I'm so excited! I might just be able to do Echo still. I will see how next week goes, and maybe I'll switch to sprint if I don't feel like I can do 6 miles.

In other news, I missed my recovery swim on Monday, but I gave blood then walked around Wheeler farm for 3 hours with the kids so I'm ok with that.

Tuesday I was going to make-up that swim, but ended up skipping it again because I was worried about George. He had woken up at 3am and was just so sad, but he wouldn't eat. Not only that but when I put him in nursing position, he would scream like it was hurting him. We finally got him back to sleep at around 4, and I said, "I have to wake up in an hour. Fun." But then Pete talked me out of it. Mostly I was just worried about what George would do. I didn't want to wake him up and try to feed him again after the fiasco we just went through, but I didn't know if he would make it until I got home from swimming at 7:30 if I didn't feed him. So, I just didn't go. Turns out he did sleep until 7:30 so I could have gone, but there was no way to know that.

I made a doctor's appointment for him, then hurried and did my 45 minute trainer ride before it was time to go.

They weighed him when we got there, and he's 19 pounds! He's not even 6 months yet!

Anyway, turns out he did have an ear infection and the rash on his cheek, that was just an extension of his cradle cap, had turned into impetigo which is also an infection so I got prescriptions for 2 kind of antibiotics. One is to take orally and the other one is an ointment. The doctor said that impetigo is really itchy and I know how bad ear infections are so I'm amazed he wasn't more fussy than he was! I tried just putting the ointment on, but he scratches his cheek like crazy when I'm not looking so for the past few days George has had a huge bandaid on his cheek.

It hurts him to take it off, but it's better than having him scratch his cheek all up and get blood all over. It's already looking much better, and I'm pretty sure his ears feel better too. He's been much happier the past few days! Yay, I'm so happy to have my happy baby back!

Tuesday night I also got the kids new shoes and they wanted to go for a bike ride on Wednesday to try them out so we rode our bikes to the Gateway (2 miles away) and they played in the fountain (Well, the girls did, Ethan snuck off to the Apple store...).

It was a really fun day and I was actually sore that evening from the ride! Maybe because I was pulling an extra 50 pounds or so?

Today George woke up at the perfect time for me to feed him, put him back to bed and get ready to leave by 6 to do my brick, and it was such a beautiful morning! I rode for a little over an hour (17.4 miles) and ran for half an hour (2.6 miles). I was so happy that my foot didn't hurt and that I was able to have a fun, good workout this morning. It really made my day. Other than that, I did some laundry:

George had fun playing "Match the Socks" with me, only to him it was more like "Roll Around On The Bed and Eat Socks." But that's ok.

He's back to eating really good, and just being so good and happy in general. Did I mention how good of a baby he is?

He's scratched himself on the other cheek too. Poor little guy!

Mindy and I are onto the 5th and final Percy Jackson book. It's a fun series and It's Mindy's new favorite. (gasp, I should say second favorite to Harry Potter) I like it too, but don't have as much time to read as her so she's finishing it much faster than me! That girl sure can read.

We rented the movie yesterday and I was very disappointed by how Hollywood-ized it was. It's frustrating that they take a kids book that doesn't have any bad language in it, make it a movie and add that in. Oh, and they also had to make the kids like 17 instead of 12 so it was a lot more adult. Maybe they didn't want to look like they were copying Harry Potter? Anyway, my point is, read the books, but go ahead and skip the movie. The story's much better in the books anyway.

And, I think that's about it for now. I must get to bed so I can get up and do it all again tomorrow!

Always go

2011-06-25T23:16:00.004-06:00

I rode my bike for 2:30 this morning and covered 41 miles.

That's one more mile than last week! I almost didn't go.

I actually turned my alarm clock off during the night because I felt like I was getting sick and wasn't sleeping well. But George slept all night until just before 5:30 which was when I wanted to leave. So I fed him then figured I might as well go since I was up. I knew I wouldn't regret it even if I wasn't feeling 100%. I figured I could take it easy if I wanted to, or cut it short if I started feeling sick. Turns out I felt great and had a really nice ride. I'm so glad I went.

Thank you George!

Moral of this story: always go for your workout (unless you really are sick or hurt), even if you don't want to. You won't regret it.

Sore Foot Again

2011-06-20T21:34:00.002-06:00

I've been trying to recover from the half marathon this last week, which was harder than I planned on it being. My foot wasn't really hurting, or at least I didn't notice it hurting because my hip, knees and calves were hurting. I did a 6 miles run on Friday and really it was just my calves that were hurting really bad after that. Today I did another short run. Just 30 minutes, and now my foot is hurting pretty badly again!

It's so frustrating. My run this morning was really fun too, and it didn't really hurt while I was running. It makes it that much harder to stop running, but that's what I'm going to have to do. Echo is in 2 1/2 weeks. I'd really love to be able to run for that, but I'm probably going to stop running until then. This means I have to resign myself to a super slow run. That's ok, though. I'd rather have a slow run at Echo if it give my foot time to heal so I can run at Utah Half. I hate it, but that's the plan. I'm going to work really hard on my swim and bike for the next few weeks.

Be Careful Out There!

2011-06-14T21:16:00.003-06:00

I've had this post in my head for a while now, but recent events have made me want to write it even more.

Last week a girl was riding her bike down a street a few miles from my house when someone hit her from behind and left her there to die. She had been riding with a group, but fallen behind. She was wearing a helmet and had lights on her bike. She was 24 years old. Here's the article if you want to read more.

Today, I drove past the site and saw that they had placed a bike there on the corner. It was painted completely white with flowers laid all around, and had an inscription that said, "Memorial to Fallen Cyclists." It made me want to cry as I sat there at the red light. A beautiful reminder of the beautiful life that was lost because someone wasn't paying attention for a second while they were driving. It is such a terrible tragedy that never should have happened.

Respect on the road may save lives

Whether you're in a car or on a bike, it all comes down to being careful and courteous when you're out there on the road.

Cyclists, you need to follow traffic laws and pay attention. I don't know if it's just my neighborhood or if it's everywhere, but I see people riding bikes on the wrong side of the road all the time! Also they just ride on the sidewalks and will shoot across the street unexpectedly. (These people are usually the ones not wearing helmets too). I came across this interesting (read: scary) video of an intersection in NYC that points out all the wrong places/times people ride/drive.

I can kind of see the logic of riding on the wrong side because you can see the cars coming so that makes you feel safer. What these people may not realize is that cars are not expecting someone to be coming towards them in their lane like that! They aren't looking for someone coming from the right when turning or crossing an intersection. The same goes with riding on the sidewalks, cars aren't watching for someone to come shooting across the street from a sidewalk.

If cyclists don't follow the traffic rules, it just makes drivers dislike them that much more, and doesn't help when we're trying to share the road with them.

Drivers, just calm the heck down! Is it really going to hurt you that much to slow down when you see someone on a bike in front of you? And heaven forbid you move over into the other lane! Is it really necessary to honk at us like we're just out there to be rude and get in your way? Seriously, I can't believe the amount of cars that will just zoom past me, nice and close, when there's even another lane they could move over into. It's the law (at least here in Utah) that a car should to be at least 3 feet away from a cyclist when passing them. If there's room to move over, then move over. If there's not, then just slow down until there is room. It's really not going to make you that much more late if you slow down for a minute. Really. You might think it will ruin your day to have to slow down for a cyclist, but think about how it would ruin your life if you hit someone. We're literally risking our lives when we're out there. All of us.

Also, be courteous with what you put in the street. I hate it when I'm out riding and there's broken glass or other debris on the side of the road. It's even worse when things are put in the designated bike lane! The kids and I ride bikes to school a lot and there are usually cars parked in the bike lane to go around, and I hate when it's garbage day because there are garbage cans all out in the way. Ethan actually ran into a garbage can the last time and hurt his wrist. Sometimes the kids ride on the sidewalk, but that makes me nervous too because of the steep hills you have to go up/down to get on/off the street when crossing and there are some places where cars can't even see you if you're on the sidewalk and about to cross the street. I'd rather have them be seen.

On a lighter note, here's a funny video of the guy in NYC who made a video to make a point about how riding in the bike lane isn't always safe. (Too bad Ethan's not as good at crash landing as this guy!)

I'm going to ride my bike outside tomorrow, and I pray, like I do every time I ride, that I will return to my family safe and sound.