I Was Talking to My Babies!

This morning, at around 10, I was having a hard time getting Ethan to stay off the computer (Gee, I wonder where he gets that from.) so finally I just said, "Ok, you guys wanna go in the stroller?" Pete was trying to work from home, but he's also got our family cold so I thought I'd give him a break from listening to Diego computer games and fighting kids. 

Here is what my training plan said to do today:

B: 60 minutes inside or out, just easy spinning, RPE 3.
R: 30 minutes easy RPE 2-3.

I took the kids out and ran for 15 minutes then headed back. That is about the perfect length for taking kids in the stroller (unless they are asleep, then you can go for longer) because they were still interested in looking around at the sites and spotting robins. When we were about a block from the house, they were asking to get out and walk, and this was perfect because I was just about finished with my time, and I got a little bit of a cool-down walking with them. Actually, they didn't walk. They ran. When Ethan got to the house, he sat down on the porch steps breathing heavily saying he was tired, so when Elle got there she did the same. She is so dramatic! It was a fun little outing. 

We had lunch, then got ready to take Ethan to school. Pete actually rode his bike in to work today! I'm glad he's able to do that now - and not because I don't want to take him in. I kind of enjoy our time together in the car when I drop him off at work, but I'm glad that he's feeling well enough to get back on his bike.

I debated on whether I wanted to hook the bike up to the trainer because that's kind of a pain, or the bike trailer because that's really a pain. I decided to go with the bike trailer because Elle would enjoy that more, and I might want to use it again tomorrow so it will already be ready. I went out with plenty of time to get the bike trailer onto the bike, and amazingly, it went right on! Maybe I've just been going about it the wrong way all this time!

After dropping Ethan off at school, and convincing Elle to get back into the bike trailer by telling her we would play on the park when we picked him him, I rode around with her for an hour. I kept it really easy, reminding myself that this is my recovery week and that I'm just out there to get the blood flowing and to help my muscles not forget how to do stuff. Elle was so cute, she slept for about half the ride sitting on the floor with her head on the seat. Am I a terrible mother for allowing her to do that and not having her totally strapped in? 

When we got home, I put Elle into her room because she started throwing a fit about wanting to go see the ducks when she woke up. I told her I could take her in the car because we were already home, but she wouldn't stand for that. That means, she got to go to her room. I went to my room and stretched while I listened to her cry. She didn't cry for long, though, and pretty soon I heard her in there talking. I heard her call out something about wrapping her baby up so I told her just a minute. I finished stretching then started to open her door to go help her wrap her baby up, but she quickly pushes the door back and says, "I was talking to my babies!" Then she went back to talking to her babies. It was so funny, and so cute! I was able to take my shower and everything while she did that and she was perfectly happy. It was great!

Another Broken Clavicle!

Did I scare you with that title? Well, someone else did just break their collar bone, but not me. For those of you who don't follow him, it was Lance Armstrong. It was his right one too, that just sucks! He seems to be toughing it out pretty well. This is sure to have an effect on his comeback to the tour. Get well soon, Lance!

Today was my rest day, and it was really nice to not have anything to do. I felt really tired today too. I'm planning on going to bed early and getting as much rest as I can out of this rest day.

I thought I'd take the extra time I had to work on editing some video for Against Malaria, but that didn't end up happening because I don't have Final Cut installed on this computer and I could not find the serial number to install it! Arg! I will hopefully get it figured out tomorrow. 

I've been thinking a lot about high fructose corn syrup today and how it seriously is in EVERYTHING! I thought I had done so good last week and not had any, but then I realized that I had a few graham crackers. Dang! It almost seems like the high fructose corn syrup is targeting our kids, and pretending to be healthy as it does so. 

I found a site telling about how great a snack fruit snacks are (My kids are obsessed with fruit snacks!). It even has this listed as the down-side: "None really, although it's not the snack for everyone." Then right after that, it lists the first four ingredients:

1. Fruit (Grapes, Strawberries)
   
2. Corn Syrup
   
3. Sucrose
   
4. Gelatin
   

Well, at least #2 isn't "high fructose" corn syrup, but shouldn't that at least be considered a down-side to the snack?

I just feel like we are being brainwashed into thinking things are good for us, when really they're not. The graham cracker box even trys to make it look like it's a healthy snack. Palease!  Just because there are "5 Grams Whole Grain!" "Low Saturated Fat" and "No Cholesterol." Maybe we're trading a little fat for things that are worse for us. I used to not believe that was possible. I used to think, "What is worse than fat?" If it didn't have fat in it, how could it be bad for you? I used to think that getting Cool Whip instead of whipped cream was the healthy option because there is less fat. But really, does that make it better? I just recently realized that Cool Whip is mostly high fructose corn syrup. 

When I first decided to stop eating as many processed carbs and to cut high fructose corn syrup out completely, I told Mindy that we weren't going to buy white bread anymore, and she had a little melt down. I think I broke her little heart, and it almost made me change my mind. Almost. Now, we have our bread that has no sugar and no HFCS in it, and she devours that almost as much, but I don't feel quite so bad about it. It's those empty calories that I worry about now.

Anyway, that's my rant for the day. I need to get back into training so I have something else to think about! :) I just want everyone to be aware of what they are eating. Nowadays, we don't always know what it is we are putting into our bodies. I don't think this is a good thing, no matter what it is.  It's hard to get the truth, though. I've found some really anti HFCS sites, but then their site, Sweet Surprise, claims none of what the other guys say is true. It also explains why it is in everything. I'm not saying this makes it ok, but it answers some of my questions like, "why does HFCS need to be in crackers??"

13 Weeks to Ironman!

I did every one of my workouts this week! Well, except for today, but since I decided that I wouldn't do the Sunday workouts when I first started training, I don't think that counts. That means I got a good 14 training hours this week! 

Next week is a recovery week so that will be really nice! I have tomorrow off as well as today, and only 8.5 hours all week. I'm kind of looking forward to a more relaxed week. But then, my plan also says to reduce my calories to match the reduced training. That will be hard. I really like to eat. I was pretty good this week with not eating any high fructose corn syrup (this is harder than it sounds, start reading the ingredients on your favorite foods and you'll be surprised. Even foods that are supposed to be heathy have it in them. It's a conspiracy! This is why I've started making my own bread), not too much refined flour or sugar - until I made those brownies. They were so delicious too!

Last week I had a question about how to work the Against Malaira site, and I realized that it's not very user-friendly so I thought I'd post the directions here again. Here they are:

There's a button towards the top that says "Sponsor now!" that you click on. It's kind of weird wording because I don't think of it as you "sponsoring me" but I guess you are. I don't know.

Anyway, click that link, then you put in your name, town and a message if you want to (This will show up on my page, so whatever you want people to see), then you click "add details."

This will update the info in the little chart below, and a new button will appear that says"next" so click that.

Now you can choose how much you want to donate, and what currency it is in. Put your name and email address (twice) and click "next."

It will take you to a page where you make sure all your info is correct (make sure you check the box saying it is, then you click on "donate via world pay."

Next it will take you to a page where you choose what kind of credit card you want to use, click on that, then you can put in your cc info and click on "make payment."

That should do it. I hope that helps and doesn't make it more confusing!

My little sister is in China right now, and with all this talk about mosquitos and malaria she said, "Way to freak me out, Coke! You know there are so many skitos here, and they leave huge red marks!" I hadn't even thought that she was in danger of getting the disease I'm trying to prevent. Of course, it's most deadly to little kids and pregnant women so I probably don't need to worry about her too much, but it is kind of scary to think about. I'm so grateful we don't have it around here anymore. I know the pioneers really had a hard time with it and most of them suffered from or died from it. They called it "the shakes" or "The Ague."

I've got a couple followers from India, and I'd be really interested in hearing about if and how Malaria has affected your life, if that's not too personal.

Wind Wisdom

This morning when I woke up, I again felt sick and thought about canceling this workout, but, as Pete reminded me, this was the last workout for the week and I will have done them all! Plus I get 2 rest days after today. 

Here is what my training plan says:

B: 3 hours long bike. If your breakfast routine last week worked, repeat it
again here, if not, experiment with something new.
R: 30 minutes recovery at RPE2

I was supposed to use the same breakfast routine as last week, but last week I rode in the afternoon, and had whole wheat pancakes with blueberries. Today I wanted to leave by around 8:00 (though, this didn't exactly happen) and we didn't have baking powder or maple to make pancakes so I just had my usual oatmeal.  Another thing I didn't have was Hammer Gel. This is what I used last week along with my Perpetuem, and since I didn't have any this week, I just mixed up some thick Perpetuem to put in my flask. 

I did the same route as last week. This time I knew the route so I didn't have to spend as much time looking around or wondering where I was, I just tried to go as far as I could in an hour an a half. I kept imagining that google map and hoping I could get some more mileage in.

Coming down the first big hill, the wind was gusting really hard, and I actually yelled, "Woah!" because it was really pushing me sideways. I didn't get scared, though, I just kept going. I should have realized, after feeling this and turning in the direction the wind was blowing, that the wind would helping me out a lot, and also hurt me coming back. I was so excited when I zoomed past where I turned around last week, though, and I kept going for quite a while. I actually made it to a new town! Kaysville!

Then I turned around and remembered the wind. Holy Cow, it was blowing really hard! I had to fight against it pretty much the whole way home, so the way that I had planned on being easier ended up being a lot harder. I also road on Beck Street on the way back because I thought that would be easier, but it wasn't as downhill as the bike path would have been so that was kind of a bummer. It wasn't too bad to ride on, though. There is a pretty big shoulder. 

It took me 2 hours to get home, and I was pushing really hard. My total distance was 46.2 miles. I did that in 3 1/2 hours so that means my total was 13.2 miles an hour. That is better than last week's 37.6 miles which was 12.53 miles per hour. A little more than half a mile faster an hour. With that speed, I would finish the 112 miles in 8:48. Ug, that's still a really long time!

Anyway, when I got home, I ran for half an hour. I went really slow. I was really tired, and by the time I got home I kind of felt like I was going to throw up. I don't know if this was because of all the Perpetuem or if it was just because I pushed it so hard on the bike. I didn't feel good, though.

After a bath, some food, a chocolate protein shake (Thanks for going and getting that for me, Pete. You are a life-saver!) and some time, I felt better. We actually took our kids, and my friend Ann's "Little Ethan," to The Living Planet Aquarium. We met my dad there so we were able to keep pretty good track of all the kids. It was hard work because there were so many people there, but it was a lot of fun too. They had some cool stuff there and the kids were all really excited! We had dinner at Simply Thai on the way home, and our Ethan was the only kid to eat. Oh well, I'd say it was a pretty successful outing by my lack of wanting to pull my hair out.  Now everyone's asleep and I can finally relax!

Apple Butter

This morning I woke up at 4:45 and almost went back to sleep because I really felt like that cold that's been floating around here had finally caught up with me. I thought, "How much will it hurt to skip one workout this week?"

Then I thought about how I would have to get on here and tell you all that I was slacking off again, and I didn't want to do that. I also wanted to make sure I got to the gym to put flyers out. Pete made me some awesome flyers last night. I figured that since the State Swim Meet was going on at the gym, and there would be a lot of extra people there, now would be a good time to try to get the word out about raising money for Against Malaria. I even thought, "I'll at least go take these flyers in, if I don't feel like swimming, I won't." Of course, by the time I got there I figured I might as well get in the pool.

The pool was extra cold because of the swim meet (for some reason, a colder pool makes you swim faster?). I hate being cold, but once I got in and swam a few laps, it was fine. It even felt really good when I was ready to cool down!

Here's my plan for the day:

S: race-specific
wu: 2 x 150, last 50 in each is backstroke.
main: 4 x 500, 1 is RPE 3, 2 and 3 are RPE4, 4 is RPE 5
cd: 150 easy

While I was swimming I started counting laps with letters again, and for my first 500, I was thinking up only food words, and most of those words were not very healthy. I've been really missing my deserts lately. I've been so good for the past...3 days! 

For my next two 500s, I played that little game where you try to make up a story and each word has to be the next word in the alphabet. Here's my favorite one:

Apple Butter Can Do Everything. Freddy Guesses He Is Jealous. 

That dang Apple Butter, always thinking it's better than everyone else!  Poor Freddy.

I didn't time my first 500, but my second 500 was around 10:15, and the 3rd 500 was around 10:30! That was just pathetic, so for my last 500 I stopped playing games and just focused on swimming as fast as I could. Well, as fast as I thought I could go for 10 laps anyway. I worked hard and got in at 9:48! 

I left the pool feeling great and very glad that I went. I really hope at least a few people pick up my flyers too. If you're here because of the flyer, please let me know! :)

It was another beautiful day today, the kids are actually playing in the sprinklers out back! I made bread, and right now I'm baking brownies. It is the weekend, I can have a little break right? Yum, brownies....

Long Run with Long Socks

Training plan for the day:

S: speed day
wu: 350 continuous. last 50 in each 100 is kick
main: 10 x 200 EBEH (each 200 = 50Easy, 50Build, 50Easy, 50 Hard)
cd: 6 x 25, each slower than last

R: 120 minute long run. Keep RPE at 3, no harder! Stretch well afterwards
and have a good recovery meal.

I woke up at 5:00 this morning and had a little oatmeal with blueberries, then headed to the pool. I ate too much though, so I wasn't feeling great for the first little while, even though I didn't start swimming until half an hour after I ate. It should probably be an hour. What is it they always tell you about eating before swimming? I should know this.

Here's a nice little article about it.

It was ok, though. After I got warmed up, I felt fine. I did my 200s at around 3:50 (at least the ones I thought to time), and I thought this was pretty good. I only ended up doing 7 out of the 10, though, because people were coming in for a swim meet, and I was afraid they would kick me out before I got to cool down. Still that is 1,900 meters - more than an olympic tri.

I hurried and went home to help Pete get Mindy ready for school, and move the coffee table he bought last night out of the jeep. Then I headed out for my 2-hour run. Pete was great to stay home for the morning and take care of the kids so I could do this!

When we were up at Coeur d'Alene last year for Pete's Ironman, we saw a lot of people wearing compression socks. It was something I had never even heard of, but it seemed pretty big up there. I wanted to see what all the fuss was about so I bought myself a pair. The most expensive pair of socks I have ever seen. So far I have only used them for recovery, and they've been really nice for that. They help my calves not feel very sore at all after a big workout. 

Today I decided, since it was my long run, to try running in them. At first I was just glad to have them because it was cold. I dressed in just a t-shirt and shorts, thinking about how I got hot last time. Well, last time I ran in the middle of the day so it was a little different! It was ok, though, really just my hands were cold, and they warmed up after a little while. 

I did the full 2 hours, even though I was tempted to cut it a little short when I got to my house at around 1:53. I didn't stop, though, I ran around the block and past my house again until I finished my time. I have no idea how far I ran since I did a lot of it on the trails. I would say probably about 11 miles, though. That's quite a big jump from 8 miles! I hope I don't regret it. If I were running at a good 10-minute mile, it would have been 12 miles, but both Pete and my training plan said to take it really easy so I didn't push it. I tried to keep my heart-rate at around 150 (it tends to want to be at 160 when I run), but I also tried not to putt along too slow either.  

My legs felt pretty good. They were tired, and at the end I kept kicking myself in the ankle, but they didn't really hurt. I'm pretty sure I remember my legs actually hurting on my last long run. I don't know if this is just coincidence or the work of the compression socks, but I was happy with it! We'll keep trying it. 

When I got home, Pete and the kids were gone to help a friend, so I stretched, had a nice relaxing bath then made myself some eggs, sausage, toast and a protein drink for lunch. This protein drink is also from Odwalla, but it wasn't the chocolate one. I think I'll stick to the chocolate one from now on. This one was a little too gritty for me. 

Drinking and Riding

I got sunburnt today! Just a little bit. It was such a beautiful day and we had play group/preschool outside at one of the Mom's houses. I did remember to put sunscreen on before my ride, though, or I would have been really burnt. 

My plan for the day:

B: 90minutes, big and small ring. Find some hills to play on...

This lovely valley doesn't really have many "rolling hills" to "play" on. It seems to be either basically flat, or going up the mountain, and I didn't want to take the bike trailer up the mountain! I just headed up the bike path to Bountiful. It was pretty good for fun hills, I guess. Nothing too hard, but still challenging - especially challenging with the bike trailer. Luckily I dropped Ethan off at school on my way out so it was just Elle, sleeping peacefully, all slumped over in her seat. Funny girl. She slept for about half an hour, which was about how long it took to get to the end of the bike path. 

It's a lot harder going up that hill with that bike trailer, and I tried to push it really  hard today. I kept my heart-rate at around 150 (It stayed in the 130s a lot on Saturday). Pete says that's what I need to do to get my speed up on my long rides. I just need to get used to going fast on the road, and stop being such a chicken! Being careful is good, but I think I'm a little too careful. I don't need to slow down half a block away from every corner or stop sign. 

We got back to town with a half an hour to go, so I headed over to the river where the ducks tend to congregate. When we got there, I told her to put her boots back on and watch where she stepped, but then we didn't have her other boot! Somehow, even with the little plastic door snapped very tightly shut, she still managed to loose a boot. No worries, though, we just got back in and retraced our steps (uh, pedal strokes...). It turned out to be just around the corner so we got it and went back to the ducks. It was actually better this way because when we got back, a bunch of little kids were there feeding them Chereios so that was really fun for Elle. 

Last week, when I bought my new tri shorts, I was telling Pete about how Chrissy Wellington wore them, and he couldn't quite picture what she looked like so we got on google images and looked her up. Then he looked up the girl that he had thought I was talking about to show me how buff she is. Here name is Desiree Ficker and look at how she's just drinking while in her areo bars! I thought, "I can't imagine ever getting to the point where I will feel comfortable enough to do that."

Image from Bicycle Newswire

Then today, while I was riding home, I was just cruising along in my areo bars, and my timer beeped for me to take a drink so I grabbed the water bottle and started drinking before I even realized that I was still in my aero bars! I felt totally fine with it too! I don't mean to brag, but this blog is all about  milestones, and drinking in the areo bars is a pretty big milestone don't you think?!

Note: I am not endorsing drinking alcohol in this title. I've never had a drink in my life and don't plan to, thank you.

Temple Day

This morning I woke up bright and early (Ok, it was still dark so I guess I can't say it was bright...) and met the Young Women/Young Men group at the church at 5:15 so we could go to the temple before they had to go to school. It was a great experience as always, and I took this picture on the way out. It was just getting light. 

Elle still has a yucky cough so there was no way I was taking her to the daycare today, but I still wanted to get my workouts in today:

B: 2 hour small chainring only effort.
R: 50 minute solid effort at RPE 3-4

I did 2 hours on my bike on the trainer while Ethan and Elle just ran wild and free doing who knows what all over the house. They put on Land Before Time XIII (no joke!), then didn't stay around to watch the whole thing. I got to watch it all though. Quite a treat, and it sure got me spinning when those scary dinosaurs started chasing them! Did you know Cuba Gooding Jr. was in it?

After my ride, we had lunch, then I got Ethan and Elle into our double jogging stroller (you inspired me, Sun) and literally ran Ethan to school. They are so heavy! I haven't tried to used that stroller for running since Ethan started getting so big (so when he was 2), and it is a lot more work running with that thing! But this isn't all just fun and games around here anymore so I sucked it up and went for it. I pushed it pretty hard and my heart-rate stayed at around 165. I ran to school, dropped Ethan off then ran home to get sunscreen and a hat because it was hot and I know I would have been burnt. That's right, I said it was hot! It was 65 degrees today! Not really "hot" but I did get warm quick running. Isn't that awesome! I'm so excited for summer! The sun felt so good, even though I know it's going to just fry me like chicken this summer, I still love it.

Elle fell asleep almost immediately after we dropped Ethan off, and she slept for the whole rest of the run. I mostly ran on the road so I wouldn't jar her to much going on and off the sidewalk. 

I got done with my run just in time to pick Mindy up from school since she had a half day, so we all walked home. Elle insisted on getting out and running, and I forgot about her cough until she had run half a mile (seriously, she probably ran almost half the way home! She's my good little runner!) and suddenly sat down and started coughing. Oops, I shouldn't have let her do that. Poor little thing. She's ok, though.

This evening, we had a baby-sitter come over so we could go to our Stake's Temple Night. We didn't even recognize anyone we knew, though, so I'm not sure we went to the right place at the right time. It doesn't matter though, it was still good to go to the temple, it's been way too long. I'm glad I got to go twice today, it was a double boost of spirituality that is always good.

Here is a little video The Church put out that explains Why Mormon's Build Temples. If you've ever seen a temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and wondered what it was, here you go:

For more info, you can also go to mormon.org. Have a good night everyone!

Talk about a long swim

Last night/this morning Elle came into my room at least 10 times. It seems like the smart thing to do would be to just let her sleep with me, but I can not sleep with a little wiggly person laying right next to me, or more likely, trying to lay on me. So I kept putting her back, hoping each time that this would be the last time. 

Finally, when she came in at 4:30, I just said, "That's enough." and got up. I read her a book and actually got her to go back to sleep - now that I needed to be awake. I had a little oatmeal with blueberries (the usual) and sat around for a little while to make sure she really was going to sleep, then I left for the gym. She was still in there coughing just before I left (poor little thing) so I figured she'd be up in a few minutes and in sleeping with Pete (he's nice, he lets her stay).

My training plan for today said:

S: long day
wu: 4 x 75
main: 500swim, 500kick, 500pull, 500swim, all RPE 4
15 x 100 (25Easy, 25Build, 25Easy, 25Hard)
cd: 100 swim, 100 back

It sure was a long workout. I was in the pool for an hour and 40 minutes. It went from hardly anyone there when I got there, to everyone sharing lanes, to hardly anyone there when I left. I shared lanes with a really fast guy. He made me feel like a row-boat next to a motor-boat. This is always good, though. I don't want to be thinking I'm too fast and get complacent. 

By the time I got done with all the 500s it felt like I should be done, and I was tempted to cut it a little short and only do half the 100s or something, but then I thought, "No way, I'm not going to get up at 4:30 only to not do my whole workout!" And I finished the whole thing.

It was a total of 3800 meters. That is almost 2.4 miles! I did have a bunch of little rests, but I tried not to stop for too long, and I was pushing pretty hard for some of it so maybe that evens it out. A swim time of 1:40 wouldn't be terrible. I'm shooting for 1:30 since that's about what Pete did. He's amazed that my plan is having me do this much swimming already. Hopefully I will be totally ready and confident on race day!

I got home just in time to get Mindy to school. It turned out that Elle slept like a little angel for Pete while I was gone. I woke her up when I got home trying to rush Mindy out the door. Then I took Pete to work, came home and had my "second breakfast." I had bacon, eggs, toast and orange juice. I felt nice and energized after that, but I still wanted to relax so I watched part of The Secret of Roan Ish with Ethan and Elle before taking Ethan to school. That movie's just fun to listen to the little girls Irish accent. So cute. 

I really hoped to take a nap while Ethan was at school, but by the time I got Elle to sleep, we only had half an hour before it was time to pick him up. I did sleep for a few minutes before rushing back off to pick the kids up, go to Costco, then take Mindy to ballet, come home for dinner, having family night, get the kids to bed.... It just never ends does it? I'm going to go to bed early tonight since I've got another early morning ahead of me tomorrow. Goodnight!

14 Weeks to Ironman!

It just seems like time is flying by! We have raised enough money for 13 nets with Against Malaria! Wahoo! Can anyone help me add to that number? Click here if you want to help!

(See the comments section for this post if you're having trouble figuring out how to use their website. It is a little confusing.)

I was supposed to put in 14.5 training hours this week, and I only ended up doing 9.5 hours. What a slacker I was this week! 

I still kind of have that feeling like a cold is trying to catch up to me, but I'm doing my best not to let it! We're taking our vitamins every day and drinking a lot of orange juice. I'd like to try really hard not to miss any workouts net week. It is supposed to be 16 hours of training for the week, though 2 of those hours are on Sunday again. Since there is no rest day to trade these workouts with, I will probably just make my run longer on Saturday again and skip the bike on Sunday. So, I guess that will be 14.5 hours. This is what my training plan says for next week:

This week's intense effort will be in the pool and road on Thursday. Try to get them in back to back, swim then run if your schedule allows. Take fluids and gel with you on the run.

Remember the question from 2 weeks ago about nutrition? Have you made any changes yet?!

Um, no, I haven't really made any changes with my nutrition. I think I've been a little bit more conscious about it. That's a start. My eating today has been really good! I'd say I'm at a 9 so far. I haven't had dinner yet, though.

Tomorrow is my long swim, and I think I've missed my long swims for the past two weeks so I really need to make sure I get this one done. I'll probably go in early so I don't talk myself out of it after dropping Mindy off. 

GoTribal

I just found out about this website from Chrissy Wellington's blog. It is called GoTribal and it's "An organization aimed at empowering women and promoting triathlon around the world." It seems like a really cool site, and I just wanted to put a little plug in for it. It's got a really cool quote on there from Chrissy Wellington where she says,

"Four years ago I was asked whether I would ever do an Ironman. My response? ‘No way, you must be completely mad to do something like that!’ Imagine if I had never gone back on my word, if I hadn’t changed ‘I can’t’ to ‘I can’, if hadn’t dared to push myself harder, and most importantly what if I hadn’t had people to support, encourage, mentor and most of all make me believe in ME?"

Go check it out!

Also, this picture of Chrissy Wellington on the front page does show her wearing the shorts I bought, only they're pink. Mine are blue flowers. This might be why I didn't pick up on it at first.

First Brick!

A brick (in triathlon training, not architecture) is when you run immediately after your ride to get your legs used to running on tired legs. Today I did my first brick of the season. My training plan said:

B: 3 hour long ride.
R: 30 min very easy run at RPE2 after the bike

But for tomorrow, it has me doing:

S: 30min continuous. Long gliding, focus on form not speed.
R: 45min with strides.

Since I don't workout on Sundays, I decided to combine the two days and do the 45 minutes with strides after my ride today.

It was such a beautiful day today! I just wore a thermal, long-sleeved jersey and fingerless gloves, and I was plenty warm! I went up to Bountiful again, but this time I didn't go all the way up the freaky hills. I went up to Davis Boulevard instead of Bountiful Boulevard, and I really enjoyed it. I had a 2-hour bottle of Perpetuem and a bottle of water that I switched off drinking every 10 minutes (I have a little timer on my bike computer that beeps every 10 minutes), and I took a Hammer Gel before I left, and at the half-way point. 

When I was getting close to my 1:30 turn around time, I saw that the streets were in the South numbers again so I was trying to remember what town is after Centerville, when I saw Lagoon! I looked closer to the street signs, and I was in Farmington! This was just so exciting because I made it into a new town, and Lagoon always seemed so far away. 

I road in 5 towns total: 

1. Salt Lake City
   
2. North Salt Lake (yes, that is an actual city)
   
3. Bountiful
   
4. Centerville
   
5. Farmington
   

Yeah!  I really liked riding in Farmington too. I saw a lot of other cyclists, looking all cool in their flashy jerseys, and they would wave to me like I'm one of them. This just always makes me feel so good! One of the great things about cycling, and triathlons, is that there's this cool sense of camaraderie that you get. It's like being part of a club, and people just automatically like you when they see you out there riding. I don't get this much around my neighborhood, people usually just stare at me, and maybe smile if I say hi to them. 

The way home was fun and fast, and I got back just 5 minutes short of 3 hours. I did 37.6 miles which is 12.53 miles per hour - a lot slower than I want to be. If I do the 112 miles that slow, it will take me 8.94 hours to finish the bike. That's about how long it takes the pros to do the whole race! I would probably not make the cut-off if I go that slow either. I guess I wasn't really going as fast as I could go. I was taking it pretty easy. This is a good eye-opener that shows me I really need to try to go faster. Maybe I enjoyed it too much.

When I got home, I stopped in to go to the bathroom (I know it sounds weird, but this is a good thing to practice since it definitely plays into your race) and get my shoes, ipod and hat. Then I hurried out to do my run. When I first started, my legs were feeling really tired. I was thinking, "Maybe I won't do the strides," or "Maybe I'll just do 30 minutes with strides." But, after about 20 minutes, I was feeling pretty good, and I was able to do all the strides. I probably did about 4 miles. That's not to say I'm not tired, though. 

When I got home, my dad and his girlfriend were there with the kids, and Pete was home with his friend from his conference. I stretched really good while drinking a bottle of Recoverite, then took a bath and drank a delicious protein shake called Odwalla Chocolate Protein. I saw an add for this stuff in a magazine and wanted to try it. If you're looking for a protein drink, you should try it. Pete's response to his taste was, "This is awesome!" It's like a really good chocolate milk. 

While I showered, Pete and his friend put the kids to bed and got take-out from The Red Iguana. Yum! I'd say I've made up for at least most of the calories I burned on that ride. I'm very glad I've already got my lesson for church tomorrow ready. I just want to relax!

Friday Flashback - Pete's Ironman

I did nothing today. I did go in and do my speed swim workout last night, though. Thursday night is not a good night to swim at my gym. They had Masters going on and a water aerobics class that took up all but 2 lanes. I shared a lane with 4 other people. It was two ladies and their teenage daughters who are training for the Women of Steel Tri in June. It actually worked out really well, despite having 5 people in a lane. One of the ladies even told me I am a really fast swimmer! :) I was doing intervals, but still, I always love to hear that!

Today I was planning on taking the kids to the daycare because Elle seemed so much better last night, but when I looked at her nose this morning, I had second thoughts. I was also feeling like I'm getting sick so I decided to just rest up, and drink lots of orange juice today so that I will be ready for my long ride tomorrow. I can not miss that! I also had to find something to do with the kids tomorrow because Pete will be in a conference all day, but I just talked to my dad and he's going to come up. I'm excited to get going on the bike again. It feels like it's been forever.

Speaking of long rides, I just signed up for 2 more races this summer: 

Little Red Riding Hood which is an all women's 100 mile ride 2 weeks before the Ironman. It's a little closer than I would like, but Pete did a ride even longer than that on the same day last year so I think I'll be ok. I would feel a lot more confident to have that under my belt on race day. It's also a really fun ride that I've been wanting to do, and Pete's aunt (who just started reading my blog, yeah!) just informed me that she's doing it so I thought I'd join her. It will be a fun girl's night/day out!

and Spudman which is an olympic distance triathlon where you get to swim downstream in a river so it's really fun. It's actually a lottery to get into that one this year, but we've got connections so we're pretty sure we'll get in. It is in July and Pete's doing that one with me. And he can't wait to get back on his bike. One more month hun!

Ok, time for my quick flashback. 

I finally got around to editing the footage I got of Pete's Ironman last year. I have to warn you that I was not in the least bit professional when shooting this. I was much too emotionally involved (It was like trying to shoot a family member's wedding, only much harder!), and every time Pete would come around, I found myself too worried about cheering for him to get a good shot. Sorry about that hun. Anyway, here it is. Let me know what you think. Watch for the blind guys, I got a shot of on of them (there were 3 in this race) in each section. I also have a small cameo, so watch for that.

Pete's Ironman from Colleen Lasko on Vimeo.

Shopping!

Elle slept all night last night! I was sooooo happy about that! She did wake up at 5:30, but this was ok because I needed to get up anyway. 

R: 100 minute long run combined with tempo effort.

75minutes at RPE3, last 25 minutes at RPE5

S: speed day--tough!
wu: 300 continuous- (alternate 25 swim, 25 kick)
main: 20 x 75 hold constant pace for each-so judge pace in the first few,
RPE 5
cd: 200 easy

I put her back in bed, dawdled around a little bit since it was so cold and dark outside, then layered up and headed out. I wore Pete's base layer pants and shirt under my usual running attire along with a pink beanie and gloves, and I was nice and snug the whole time! I had never really been running in the dark before (at least not around here) so I was a little nervous, but the moon was out and almost full, and I stuck to the well-lighted streets so it really wasn't bad at all. People just seem more sinister when it's dark, though, don't they? With their dark jackets and hoods on. Well, I would probably have a hood on too if I were out that early in the morning. None of them turned out to be lunatics waiting to grab me so that was good. I actually felt really blessed to be out running instead of on my way to work like a lot of those people.

I ran for 50 minutes, then stopped at home for a shot of hammer gel and a bathroom break. I also made sure Mindy was awake so she could be ready to go when I got back. Then I headed back out to finish, and those 40 minutes went by so fast. Already, they are a blur to me. I did the last 25 minutes at a faster tempo, and tried to keep my heart-rate around 170 instead of 150. I did 90 minutes because I'm 10 minutes behind the schedule. Don't worry, I'll catch up though. 

I was sad to find out that I only ran 8 miles. That is if I calculated right with google maps. How could I run 8 miles in 80 minutes last week then do 8 miles in 90 minutes today? I was hoping to do 9. Running outside just has a lot more variables. 

When I got home, Pete was making pancakes for the kids. How sweet hu? I always just make them eat oatmeal. I just had time to stretch, then I took Mindy to school and Pete to work. My plan had been to head up to the pool after this, but I decided against it because Elle has a goopy nose. I debated a little thinking, "I'm sure it will be ok." But then I thought about how I wouldn't want someone else to bring their sick kid to the daycare so why would it be ok for me? Especially as it is RSV season right now. I wouldn't want any babies to get sick.

So, I decided to go shopping! I have been wanting to get some Zoot tri clothing so I found a store that caries that brand and headed over there. It turned out that they only had one tri top in my size, though, and it was ugly. The sales clerk told me that their other store has more, and gave me directions. Like usual, I didn't listen very carefully to the directions because I thought I knew what she was talking about. I ended up getting lost for a while, and had to call Pete to get me the address.  Finally I found the store, though, and they did have a lot more stuff, including a whole 50% off rack! 

The guy who helped me seemed to know a lot about tris and Ironmans and stuff, and he gave me a lot of good advice. When he asked if it was my first IM, I said, "Yeah, it's pretty scary." and he was like, "Scary? It's not scary, it's fun! It's just a long day." So I'm going to try to adopt his attitude, and just have good time. He said, "If you've put your hours in, you'll be fine. Even if you don't put your hours in, you'll still be fine." This was very comforting.  Then he went to answer the phone and said, "This is B.J." I froze. Was this the BJ Christenson who I've read articles by and who got 2nd place at St. George Tri last year, and has at least won it once? He's like a celebrity to me. I didn't dare ask him his last name so when I came home, I looked it up, and yep, it's him. I felt so dumb because I had been talking to him about St. George Tri last year and saying how hard it was, and how I was the last one out of the water and bla bla bla. He was probably like, "what a newb." He said this is the first year in 6 years that he's not doing it. 

Anyway, I did end up buying a new tri top and shorts - not exactly the cute Zoot one that I wanted, but they were 50% off! When I checked out, B.J. told me that those were the shorts Chrissie Wellington wore when she won the world championships in Kona again this year. This reminded me that I haven't gotten around to watching that yet. He ran and grabbed a picture of him with her along with a signed poster of her to show me. Pretty cool! She looked so tiny next to him! She's just so cute and seems like a cool person. I will proudly wear the same shorts as her. I tried to find a picture of her wearing them, and I couldn't, but she's wearing my top in these pictures!

I also bought some more Hammer Gel, Perpetuem and a pair of compression socks. BJ was raving about how great the recovery compression tights are, but I didn't have enough money or time to get measured for them. Maybe I'll get them some other time. He said I will want them. As it was, I spent almost $200, and that's with the clothes being 50% off! What an expensive sport.

I took way too much time at that store - Ethan was 20 minutes late for school. I really need to get better about getting him there on time. Then we came home, and Elle and I were just hanging out (since she slept while I was driving around lost in Holliday) when Pete called to tell me that Mindy had a short day today, and that they had called him because no one picked  her up! I hurried over and picked her up, and I could tell she'd been crying. Poor girl. I had it written on my calendar, but I just don't look at my calendar enough. I told her I was sorry, and we came home and had Oreos to make her feel better.

I'm going to go in tonight to get that swim in. Don't worry. :)

Sorry this post was so long, by the way! Can you believe how much I can ramble on about one little shopping trip?

Mid-week respit!

Ahhh, no workout scheduled today. It was so nice! I had so much time, I didn't know what to do with myself!

We did preschool at our house today so that was fun - crazy, but fun. 

I also worked on a little video that you will get to see on Friday so stay tuned! 

I have to wake up early to get my hour and a half run in before Mindy needs to go to school so I'm going to bed. Pete keeps reminding me that I like running now. I keep forgetting.... Good night!

Happy Anniversary!

March 10, 2001 - St. George, UT Temple

Today is Mine and Pete's 8th anniversary! We made it past the 7-year itch, and it didn't even feel a bit scratchy. :)

I saved my "Flashback Friday" for today because I wanted to flash back to when Pete and I first met today.

When I was in college, my roommate had a boyfriend who was also in our student ward, and one day he asked me if I knew the guy who worked at the computer lab for my program at school who was in our ward. I couldn't think of who he was talking about. A short while later, I went into the computer lab, and there was a guy working there who I didn't know so I asked him if he was in my ward. He was. I remember he was reading some fantasy book, and he assured me that he usually doesn't read fantasy books.

He started off asking me all about my roommate who he thought was cute, and for the next couple of weeks (it turned out that we also had a class together) he was trying to get me to hook him up with her. That soon passed, though, and we just started hanging out all the time. He'd take me rock climbing and I'd cook him dinner.

This picture was taken when we just barely started dating. (yes, I just took a picture of my scrapbook, sorry)

Our first date was to see a comedian. It was a free show on campus so he hadn't even really planed it as a date, he just asked me if I wanted to go with the qualifier, "But it's not a date." So I said, "Why, don't you want to go on a date with me?" He said he did, so from there on out it was a date. It was Frank Caliendo and he was so funny (much more funny then I've ever seen him be on TV)! It was awesome. When we first got there, Pete said something about how if I had a good time, I would associate that with him which I thought was cute. I think we went to Denny's or something after the show. I can't really remember, but I do remember having a great time. We doubled with his friend and the girl he liked. They ended up getting married a year after us, so I'd say this was a pretty darn good first date.

Here's a picture of us about a month later. I was 19 and he was 21. Wow, that sounds so young now! We were married almost exactly 1 year after we started dating, in the St. George Temple. Life has just been wonderful ever since.

--------------------------------------------------

Today my training plan said:

R: 60 minutes easy run with strides every 5 minutes.

B: 2 hours, mostly easy pace, find some rolling hills if possible

I dropped Mindy off at school, then I put off running as long as I could, cleaning the kitchen, because it was so cold! Finally, I got myself all layered up and went for a run on the Jordan River Parkway trail. The ground was a little bit icy so I had to be careful not so slip. I got to the golf course in 24 minutes. It used to take me half an hour to get there when we first moved here 10 months ago. Maybe that means I'm faster now, but maybe it means I don't have a very good memory or I wasn't very exact on my timing back then.

I got back just in time to take Pete to his doctor appointment, then we rushed home, and had sandwiches in the car on the way to take Ethan to school and Pete to work. Elle was asleep when we got home so I could have gotten on the trainer and did almost the 2-hour bike ride before picking the kids up, but I really just felt like I wanted to stop moving for a few minutes. That's what I'm doing now. Well, my fingers are moving, but it's hard for me to completely stop moving.

Tomorrow's supposed to be a day off, but I think I'll switch that with the Sunday workout in order to keep Sunday as my day off. I already feel bad that the race is on a Sunday. I only found out after I signed up for this one, that there is an Ironman distance race in California that takes place on a Saturday. I would have rather done that, but it's too late now. I'm pretty invested in this one.

Snowing in March?

I don't know why I'm alsways so suprised when it snows in March. It does it every year around here. It just doesn't seem right, does it? It's Spring Break for crying out loud!

Training Plan for today:

S: race-specific
wu: 5 x 75
main: 2 x 1000, both are RPE 4
cd: 250 easy

B: 90 minutes, easy pace, RPE3

The kids didn't have school today so I got to go to the pool early, but not too early, and I didn't have to rush too much. I did my first 1000 (20 laps down and back) in 21:24. I don't know what my time was on the second one because the clock I was watching got reset somewhere around lap 10. I could tell it was close to the same amount of time by the analog clock on the wall, though.

I got home just in time to make Pete some hot chocolate (I'm trying to get him to drink a lot of milk to get the calcium for his bone to grow back - amazingly, his doctor didn't even suggest this to him. It was one of the main prescriptions my doctor gave me with my stress fracture.) then take him to work. 

The kids and I did a little cleaning, made rice crispy treats for family night, put some chili in the crock pot, and finally got Elle down for a nap at around 2. 

I took this opportunity to do my bike ride on the trainer. I just did it on a nice, easy gear, but at a quick cadence, for an hour and a half. Now that I've started riding on the road again, it seems even more tedious to ride on the trainer. Ethan complained to me, "There's nothing to do when you're riding your bike. It's so boring." I told him I was sorry and that it's boring for me too, but that I've got to do it. It is a good time to practice your form, though, and get stronger. 

I drank about a half a bottle of water and a Hammer Gel. It wasn't a hard workout, but I did work up a  little bit of a sweat. Mindy kept asking me if I was hot and fanning me with her little hand-held fan. She was really good and cute while I rode. She cleaned her room, then made herself a little "house" out of chairs and blankets that she is sleeping in tonight. She also entertained me by doing "tricks" with her book. She would take her bookmark out and magically still know where her place was! I could usually see the hair barrette or whatever it was she would put in the place, but I didn't let her know that.

I got done just in time for a snack of apples and bananas with peanut butter, then I took Min to ballet and picked Pete up from work. I didn't realize my legs were tired until I tried to hurry up the 2 1/2 flights of stairs to Mindy's ballet studio. I guess I got a better workout than I thought today.

This week is going to be hard. Every day, except for one have 2 workouts a day with a  total of 14.5 hours of training for the week. I hope I can do it all, and I don't get burnt out. Next week will be even harder - 16 hours! 

Oh, food rating for the day. I give myself a 6 again because of those dang rice crispy treats, and the Oreos I got for Pete to help him drink more milk. Hey it even says on the package, "Milk's favorite cookie." I've only had 5, and I'm keeping it at that. So there.

15 Weeks to Ironman

I'd like to welcome my new followers (or readers, depending on what you're using), I'm so excited that you are here to take this Journey to Ironman with me! I will take any support I can get. :) I'll do my best to keep my posts interesting and informative, I just hope I don't ramble to much for you.

I want to thank Heather W. and my Grandma for donating to Against Malaria this week! You guys are awesome! We have now raised $65! My goal is to be able to buy 140.6 nets - since that is the distance I'll be doing in the Ironman. Wouldn't that be cool? According to their numbers, that would save the lives of 7 children! To buy 140.6 nets, we need to raise $703, so I really need your help. Please take a minute to look at their website and tell your friends and family about it, or even post something on your blog. That would be awesome!

Being able to come here and write about my workouts every day has been a really nice outlet for all the thoughts and feelings I have during training. I don't think I'd be able to sleep at night with all these thoughts running through my head. This blog is like the container for my thoughts that allows me to clear them out of my head each night. I'd hate to just discard these thoughts because they're not exactly garbage. (This reminds me of Peter Pan when the mother cleans out the children's minds like she's cleaning out a closet. I always loved that!)

I don't have much to report today since it was a rest day. I was going to start rating my eating every day, but I always forget to do that. This week, every day has been about a 7. Yesterday was probably a 5 because we had pancakes and sausage for breakfast, then went to our ward party in the evening and there were so many deserts to choose from. How could I just pick one?  Today was better, though, maybe an 8. I will try to be better next week.

The Trouble With Google Maps

My plan for today was:

B: 80minutes out-80 minutes back. Try to ride each leg in approximtelky the same time. Keep any pacing issues in mind for what will happen race day.

Last night, I got on Google Maps and planned out my route for today. It looks so innocent on here, doesn't it?

Pete told me where the hills would be, and I thought, "Ok, some hills will be good." Today rolled around and I just didn't have a very good attitude about my ride. I really just wanted to stay home with my family, but Pete reminded me that I should be happy to be going for a ride, and I decided to try and enjoy it. I brought a 2-hour bottle of perpetuem, a bottle of water and one serving of Hammer Gel. I took it pretty easy for the first half an hour, then I got to Bountiful, and you can kind of see what the hills really look like (follow the road up through the shadow and past the snow line, that's where I was headed):



I almost made it up those hills without stopping. I knew that if I stopped, there was no way I would be able to get back on. And I was right. I got to about 20 yards from the top, and I just had to get off and walk. It was so steep, I was standing up and it was taking all my weight to just push the pedals down. My heart-rate got up to 189 at one point. That's way to high. Now those are some good hills. More like a mountain. Thanks Pete.

Bountiful Blvd. was really nice and fun to ride on, though. The view was fantastic! I had to stop and take some pictures:



You could look down on The Great Salt Lake, and I rode right up behind The Bountiful Temple. What a beautiful building:




I was riding along Bountiful Blvd., and it was just about time to turn around, when all of a sudden, I went around a corner, and was plummeting back down into the valley! "Nooo!" I thought. I didn't want to have to ride back up that hill! I was going too fast to turn around until I got to the bottom, though, so I decided to just turn and see if I could get back onto Bountiful Blvd. a different way. I stopped for a minute and took my Hammer Gel, then I saw a guy out walking, and asked him the best way to get back up. He gave me some directions, and also told me that I could stay on Bountiful Blvd. and it would take me right down to Beck Street which I could take all the way into Salt Lake. I didn't give much thought to this since I was planning on going back the way I came. That's what my plan wanted me to do.

I learned that there is no easy way to get back up a steep hill once you come down it, so I had to struggle to get back up again. This time I walked a little longer because my gears locked up (I wasn't thinking strait, and I don't know that bike well enough yet to remember how to shift right) and I had to get off. I found a side street, though, and got back on there. I didn't think I'd ever get back up onto that road, but I told myself that once I got there it would be downhill all the way home. This was a lie. Just like the lie that the St. George Marathon is all downhill. Maybe it's more like a myth. I shouldn't have believed that myth, though, because I had a friend who had done the marathon and she told me there was a big hill in it. Anyway, this wasn't all downhill either, but nothing as bad as what I had just done.

Actually, I was enjoying that road so much, when I got back on it, that I totally missed the turn-off that would take me back the way I came, Indian Hills Drive. Before I knew it, I was seeing signs that said "15%" grade and "Trucks Use Lower Gear" and I thought, "uh oh." I started careening down these crazy steep and curvy hills, and all I could think about was Pete's X-ray and I could just feel the wheel trying to slip out from under me every time I pushed my breaks. I just kept thinking, "Don't break on the turns, don't break on the turns." But I was going so fast, and I had to keep pressing my breaks every few seconds. It was scary. 

I don't think I've been that scared since I was dating Pete and just getting into rock climbing. One day, we did a route where he was belaying me from the top, and when I got there, I climbed up and sat there with him. Then I could not get myself to climb back over that cliff and rappel down. I was just sitting up there crying and sniveling for quite a while. I can't believe he married me after that.... Anyway, it felt like that, and I was actually on the verge of crying as I came barreling down that hill. Now that I look on Google Maps, I can actually see the switchbacks. (The top white dot is where I had to get off and walk, and the bottom one is where the switchbacks started and it got really crazy.)



If I would have know it would be like that, I would have been more careful about missing my turn. But I had the directions from that guy...

He had also told me to turn onto Beck Street, so I did this when I got to the bottom of the hill. I must not have been thinking strait because Beck Street is almost a freeway. I got onto it, then cars were coming to merge on my right, and they were going very fast. I stopped at a little median, still shaking from my terrifying ride down the hill, and now scared of all the fast cars and wondering how to get off this road.

I called Pete. I knew it would freak him out because by now I was really crying and he would think I had been in an accident or something. I just had to talk to him, though. I needed him to calm me down and talk me through it, just like he did that day up on the cliff. He has a really good way with calming me down and talking sense into me. He told me just to walk my bike back up to the intersection where I could get across to the bike path on the other side of the freeway. I got off the phone with him, took a few breaths and walked my bike up. It was not a big deal at all. I got to the top, crossed the street and got on the bike path. I could have kissed that bike path! It was so beautiful to have something so safe after all that!

When I got into Salt Lake, the bike path ended and I had to cross Beck Street. There was a light there so I stopped and waited for it to turn green. And waited, and waited. I probably stood there for 5 minutes, and there was no sign this light would ever turn green. I was wondering if they have it set to only change every half-hour on Saturdays or something. Finally I just waited until there were no cars and went across anyway. It was really weird blatantly running a red light like that. (I hope there are no cops reading this that will come arrest me now.) I was very happy once I was across, though, because I had ridden here several times and knew what it would be like. In a manner of minutes I was home. 

I had to apologize to Pete for freaking out like that. I know it gave him a little scare. I am just a mess sometimes. While I was coming down those hills, I was wondering what in the world I was doing trying to do an Ironman. I can't even do a 29-mile (that's how far it ended up being) bike ride by myself, how can I do 112? I was thinking, "Why can't I be like a normal mom and spend my Saturdays playing with my kids, cleaning the house and baking? Maybe that wouldn't be so bad." I just felt like such a baby out there on my bike today.

Well, I guess, technically, I did do this bike ride by myself. I just needed a little encouragement, and I will probably have that at the Ironman too. 112 miles does seem really daunting right now, though. 

And despite that fact that I put spf 50 sunscreen on before I left, I still had 2 people ask me if I'd been in the sun today or something. Apparently I'm going to need to re-aply sunscreen more often than every 3 hours.  That's how long it took. I guess that's not too bad, considering how much I had to walk. I only went 20 minutes over my planned time.

Recovery Run?

Today my training plan said this:

R: 60 minute recovery…RPE 3-5.

Now, I don't know about you, but to me, "run" and "recovery" have always been opposites. I wasn't sure how much of a recovery I would have running, and had even thought about doing the long swim, that I skipped on Wednesday, instead. I talked to Pete about it, and we decided that I should try it out and see how it goes. I would just take it really easy.

Since we had a lot of time this morning, I ran with Mindy to school while she road her bike. I didn't realize how cold it was when we first decided this so neither of us wore gloves. Our hands were very cold by the time we got there, and Mindy was saying that the cold was "getting into her fingernails." Luckily, we arrived at the school a few minutes later so the fingernails didn't have to suffer for too long. I just basically ran around on the streets, then down to the Jordan River Parkway Trail for a while. I passed several ducks taking a brisk morning swim, and a couple shopping carts too.... who puts a shopping cart in the river?

It was kind of nice being totally by myself for this run, as opposed to having to weave around other people on the track the whole time. My knee did start hurting after a little while, and I was taking it easy, so I ended up cutting it a little short at 52 minutes. I can't tell you how far I went since I was on that trail, but maybe close to 5 miles.

I feel pretty good right now, though, maybe that was a recovery run!

Magic Mirror

Here is my schedule for the day.

R: 60 minutes with strides every 10 minutes. Finish run then add 5 more
20second strides back to back before stretching. Remember, strides should
be easy speed effort. Stop if your legs are feeling exhausted.
B: 90 minues easy spinning of RPE 3.

I wanted to make sure I did it all since I skipped out on yesterday. This morning, I went to the gym and ran for an hour. I forgot my watch so I would count 9 laps on my fingers ("Grandpa can't do math in his head?!") then do a really fast lap. This got me 6 miles. My legs were tired, but I wouldn't say they were "exhausted", so I kept going. I added the 5 more strides back to back. I wasn't exactly sure how to do this, I tried to count to 20 while ramping up, do 20 seconds really fast, then slow back down over 20 more seconds, then start ramping up again.  Some of my strides lasted longer than 20 seconds, though. They're just fun! So my total distance was probably 6.66 miles.

When I got home, I was suprised to find Pete all dressed and ready to go to work so I gave him a ride in. Then we had lunch and took Ethan to school. I was going to ride during Elle's nap, but the nap was not happening so she ended up just playing around really good for an hour and a half while I rode the trainer. I just kept it on a really easy gear and tried to keep spinning fast at around 90 rpm. I don't have a gage for that so I just watch my seconds and make sure I'm doing 3 rotations per second. It wasn't very hard, but it was pretty monotonous. It felt good to spin my legs out, though. My knees were kind of sore from that run, especially when I jumped over some mud, ouch! But they felt great on the bike, and they feel pretty good now.

When I got done, we had to go pick Ethan up so I was getting everything ready to go when Elle said, "But, look at the mirror!"

When I had had about 20 minutes left of my ride, Elle had taken her clothes off and started scratching her bottom because it's really dry so I told her to go put some cream on it if it was itching. Not a good quest to send a 2-year-old on by herself. When I was done and went upstairs, I thought she had a lot of the cream on her hands compared to how much was on her bottom, but I didn't think much of it until she nicely showed me the mirror. I couldn't get too mad at her, she had been so good otherwise, and she's really cute, but that stuff isn't cheap!

It wasn't really that hard to clean up, but Mindy thought it looked really yucky when I was squeegying (is that a word?) it off later.

I keep forgetting to rate my eating for the day. When I went to the gym this morning, there were some people from the hospital checking body fat and blood pressure for free so I just did it to see if it would be different than our Ironman scale at home. My Body Fat % came up at 20.6%. I like our scale better -  Last time I did it it said I it was 18I can never remember the numbers they give me for my blood pressure. She said it was good though.  I'd say today, with 1 being a weekend in Vegas and a 10 being a nutritional angel, I was an 8. The day is not over yet, though. Pete and I are going to see Phantom and they always have really good cookies there. Let's just move it down to 7.

Train Adventure

I didn't do a workout today. I couldn't fit it into my day, and thought I would just do it after I got the kids in bed. I just hate working out at night, though, and couldn't get myself to do it. I was supposed to do a long swim (2500 meters) and a very easy run. I figure I'm doing well enough on my swimming that I could skip one workout. Swimming is the only part that I could probably do the whole distance now. Elle's awake and throwing a fit right now, so it's probably good that I'm here.

What I did do today was take the kids to the big library downtown. We parked at Pete's work since he has a parking pass, and took Trax to the library. The kids have been wanting to ride on the train so I thought this would be fun for them. It was fun, and we got to take our time at the library. We read some books and they picked out a bunch to checkout. Then it started getting towards dinner time so we headed out to catch the train back to our car. We got on the first train going the direction we needed to go because it was my belief that all the trains going that way would go by our stop. 

Well, we rode it for a while, and I wasn't really paying attention because the kids all insisted on standing on the little round sectional part in-between the cars and I was watching them. Then I was telling Mindy what our stop would be called and to listen for it when a guy nearby overheard us and said, "Actually, this train's going to Sandy."

"Oh, crap. Ok, we're getting off at the next stop." I was so glad I had said something, otherwise we could have been riding that train for half an hour before we realized we were going the wrong way. Apparently, the train took a left instead of a right and I hadn't noticed. I didn't think their were any trains that did this. Even, when I got home and told Pete about it, he didn't believe it and had to look the rout up to show me this wasn't possible. But it did happen, and we had to sit and wait for a while for the next train going the right way. I was getting a little stressed, but I tried not to make too much of a deal of it. I mean, we were riding on the train for fun, we just got to ride it a little longer than planned. I think the kids all had a good time even though we were very hungry when we finally got home. It was nice that we had a bunch of left-overs to eat.

So Much Stuff

According to my poll, when my readers think of triathlons:
43% think, "Good for you, but not for me."
37% think, "That sounds like fun!"
12% think, "That's crazy!"
6% think, "Tri-what?"

It's always good to know the demographic you are speaking to. Thanks for humoring me everyone who took the survey!

I have a headache tonight so this will probably be a quick entry.

My training plan for today said to do the following:

B: 120 minutes, hills. Find some hills if possible.
Complete stretch of legs and lower back afterwards.

S: wu: 500
main: 15 x 100, RPE 4-5, concentrate on smooth and efficient rather than all-out speed
cd: 500

Pete was feeling really sore this morning, and I didn't want to leave him for longer than necessary. I thought a little bit about trying to ride during Elle's nap because it was so warm outside (66 degrees!), but then we were worried about what would happen if she woke up and I wasn't there. I didn't want Pete to have to deal with a baby throwing a fit. It was really super windy outside too, so it probably wouldn't have been fun to ride in anyway. 

I just did a really hard 2-hour ride on the trainer. I started easy, then would gear up every 10 minutes until 110 when I was at the hardest gear. Then I slowly geared down. I guess this isn't really realistic to what hills would be like. It was more like just riding up a really long hill that just slowly flattened out and never getting to zoom down the other side of it. It was a really good workout, I'm pretty sore from it!

While I was putting my bike onto the trainer, I put all my stuff on the couch. I thought it looked like a pretty impressive assortment of things:

I've got a towel, ipod (ok, these 2 things I only use indoors), phone (I had this in case Pete needed me, I didn't want him to have to get up.), water bottle, hammer gel, bike computer (I don't know what this is really called...), heart-rate monitor, and shoes.

This is why it is such a hassle to ride your bike, you just need so much stuff! I wasn't even going for a real ride either. If I were riding outside, I would at least need to add a helmet, jacket, gloves, and sunglasses. It's ok, I don't really mind it. I was just noting that today.

Elle woke up 10 minutes before I got done with my ride, and she had had an accident so I was glad I didn't try to leave her with Pete. Then I got done with my ride just in time to go pick Ethan and Mindy up. I didn't even have time to change out of my little tri shorts, especially because I had to change Ell. I did my stretching while Ethan and Elle played on the playground before Mindy got out. The other moms were probably thinking, "What is she wearing?"

We went home and had a snack, then I took the kids up to the gym so I could do my swim. I was so tired driving up there, though. I was thinking, "How am I going to swim?" And I could just picture myself sinking contentedly into the water. Not the best state of mind to be in while driving, but I assure you, I wasn't that tired.

The gym was packed! And when I went to my normal pool, there were about a billion kids in there doing swimming lessons and maybe the swim team too. Luckily there is a lap pool in the "leisure pool" side so I went over there. The water was much warmer in here, and there were kids playing around, but I figured this was good. I am training for an triathlon after all. I need to get used to navigating around people. It reminded me of my favorite commercial (though it was nothing near this):

According to my research, at least 37% of you will think this is funny. 6% of you might be a little confused, but I'm willing to take that chance.

While looking up this video, I found out that Jennifer Lopez did a triathlon last year. She finished in two hours, 23 minutes and 38.8 seconds and she raised $127,000 for the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles. I guess I just need to become a celebrity to raise some money (I'm working on that, I do have 13 followers now so I've got a good start!). I really have no idea what I'm doing here. 

Matthew McConaughey did the same race. His race time was one hour, 30 minutes and 44.7 seconds. Not too shabby.

Anyway, I didn't do the full swim workout because I didn't want to leave the kids in the daycare for much more than an hour because having all three of them in there just eats money. I did the 500 warmup, then I just did 7 100s and 200 more to cool down. I figure it's better than nothing, and I checked the kids out almost exactly an hour after I put them in. 

So much for the short post....Now I really need to go to bed!

Looong Day

Today was the big day of Pete's surgery. I did manage to go get my swim done in the morning, though. Here is my plan for the day:

S: speed day
wu: 250 alternating each 50 swim and kick
main: 400, 4 x 100, 300, 3 x 100, 200, 2x100
long intervals are RPE 4, 100s are at RPE 7-8
(alternate, remove 1st 400)
cd: 3 x 75, each slower than last

I did the 400 in exactly 8 minutes. I was able to keep my 100s between 1:45 - 1:55 (mostly 1:50), the 300 was 6:05 (I rationalized that this was because I probably took 5 seconds to talk to a lady who wanted to share lanes with me since the water aerobics people were spilling over into the lane she was going to use. She was fast too!), and the 200 was 4:05 (no excuse for this...)

Last night, Pete and I watched Spirit of the Marathon which is a documentary that follows 6 people who do the Chicago Marathon in (I think) 2002. If you haven't seen it, I would recommend it. It's very inspirational, and I was about to cry a couple times. I know that's not a big surprise, it seems like I'm always talking about how this made me cry, or I was about to cry because of that.... Anyway, 40,000 people do that marathon! Can you even imagine being part of something like that? It really made us both want to do the Chicago Marathon. It looks really cool - it goes all through the city with several thousands of spectators to cheer you on. 

It was really cool just to see all the different types of people who do Marthons. There are those who do it to win, those who do it with a group, and those who just do it themselves. One of the ladies was talking about those who train alone, and she said, "I question their sanity," and Pete and I just had to smile at each other. We both really enjoy training by ourselves. I mean, it's fun to go out with a group sometimes, but it's really just about me and what I can do. It would be kind of weird to go running with someone else actually. I tried it on the marathon, and that didn't end well. I need to set my own pace. I guess if you're used to running with someone then it wouldn't be a problem, though.

Back to today: I only did 2 x 75 to cool down because I was anxious to get back to Pete. Luckily he just slept the whole time, though.

I have a friend who had offered to pick Ethan and Mindy up from school, so I just dropped Ethan off at school, then took Elle with me to take Pete to the hospital. Elle was so spoiled there. Everyone just loved her, and one CNA or Nurse (I don't know what he was) brought her some graham crackers, pudding and juice and turned cartoons on for her. This was really good because we didn't end up getting to dinner until after 7. 

It was nice that I didn't have to worry about picking the kids up and Elle took a little nap on my lap in the waiting room, but I had to go pick them up at 4 to take Mindy to ballet. Then went back to the hospital to wait for Pete to get out. I told the kids, "Let's go find out where Daddy is." Elle knew right where he was though, she said, "He's with that green guy." The guy who took Pete back to surgery was wearing green scrubs. It was pretty cute that she remembered that. She was also calling his nurse "the pink lady" later. I didn't get any word from the surgion by 6, though, then I had to go pick Mindy up. 

When we went back this time, they showed us into his room and he was in a lot of pain. Poor guy. It took a while to get him discharged. This kids were seriously driving me crazy, the were bouncing off the walls (I should have known better than to give them cookies in the waiting room....), and Pete had to remind me that a hospital is not a good place to threaten violence to your children. Good reality check. 

Now we're home, and I just hope he can sleep tonight. He's in a lot more pain now then he was before. For some reason I was all excited for the surgery, thinking it would feel better for him to have his bones put back in place and ready to start healing. This was a silly thing for me to think. Of course it's going to feel worse to have them cut him open and screw some mettle plates to his bones. I think a lot of silly things sometimes.

I'm not sure if I'm going to get a workout in tomorrow. We'll see how he's doing.

16 Weeks to Ironman

Oh man, 16 weeks, this is getting serious!

This week I am moving out of "Prep" and into "Base 1" training. These are my week's goals according to my training plan:

How is your general nutrition and body composition? Think of an extra 20 pounds on your frame as doing your IM race carrying a backpack with 2 bowling balls inside. It's easy to make adjustments this early…just don't wait until a month before racing..

That means I need to start watching what I eat more carefully and maybe try to loose a little weight. Not 20 lbs, though. Maybe 5. My plan also says:

Include with your training log a 1-10 scale for daily nutrition with 1 being a weekend in Vegas and a 10 being a nutritional angel. Rank yourself and monitor areas to improve. Most of us know what is good and bad eating so self seed yourself on this one.

So, watch for that ranking each day.

I will be doing some of my workouts on "terrain which simulates race day." I will also be increasing hours and adding in hills on the bike and run. I also need to work on my flexibility and my mental health.

No biggie, right?