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?

Going Higher

Today we had planned on going on another long bike ride with friends, but then Pete had his little mishap so that was now out of the question. It also turned out that Mindy had a rehearsal for the ballet performance of Alice in Wonderland she's going to be a "pearl oyster" in. The rehearsal was going to be right during Elle's nap time, and 2 hours long. This seemed to be perfect because I could leave Ethan and Elle with Pete and he could relax while the baby slept, and I could just take my bike with me to drop Mindy off, then do my ride and pick her up after 2 hours. I had this cool rout all planned out too.

Then, we had to take some laptops (yes, multiple, it was our lucky day) into the Apple store to get them looked at. I kind of thought we would just drop them off then have plenty of time to get home and follow our plan. But then they said they could look at them really quick if we just waited 15 minutes so we did that. It wasn't super quick, and we were getting hungry. I figured we would need to eat anyway so we went and got some lunch. By the time we were done with that and got back to the car, it was 10 minutes past when Mindy was supposed to be at the rehearsal. I was kicking myself for sabotaging my own ride by saying we had time to eat. 

We just hurried home, she grabbed her clothes, I put Elle in her bed (fell asleep in the car very nicely), and I took Mindy to ballet. When we got there, the board of directors was still talking to the parents so I went and listened in on that. They ended up talking until there was less than an hour left so I wouldn't have had time to ride anyway.  

I hurried home, packed up my bike, and a few other things along with Pete, Ethan and Elle, then we picked Mindy up and headed for Heber. When we got there, I just hurried and changed, and went for my bike ride so it wouldn't get dark on me. By the time I got up the hill I wanted to do (the one going up to The Homestead), though, the sun was down behind the mountain and it was getting colder so I headed back. Of course, when I got back to the house, the sun was up again. I had just been "in the shadow of Mt. Timpanogos" as we used to say in my highs school broadcasting class. Oh well. It was a good quick ride so I pushed it pretty hard. Pete said I could trade long rides for hard rides. I don't know if it was that hard, though. I rode for about 45-50 minutes and went 10.6 miles. 

The great thing about riding in Heber is that it is at 5,604 feet, and Couer d'Alene is only at 2,188 feet. Here is a quote I found that explains why training at a higher altitude give you an advantage:

Training at a high altitude gives runners a competitive edge over those who train at sea level when placed in direct competition. Whether the high altitude dweller goes down to sea level to compete in a race or his counterpart at sea level comes to a higher elevation to race, the runner who lives and trains at a high elevation will likely have a distinct advantage. This advantage is likely to come in the form of an increased redblood count which enables the body to carry oxygen more efficiently and more quickly through the body. Runners who live and train at a higher elevation typically have elevated red blood cell counts because there is less oxygen available at these higher altitudes. Therefore the runner’s body generates more red blood cells in an effort to make the runner more efficient at circulating oxygen. This elevated number of red blood cells remains for several days after the runner has left the high altitude location. Therefore the runner may travel to a race at sea level and enjoy the benefits of his increased red blood cell count for a number of days.

Floyd Landis, who won the Tour d'France three years ago but was "striped of his victory" because of a drug test, had made himself a little metabolic chamber that he slept in to get his red blood cell count up. It must have worked for him because he did an amazing job! I don't know if I believe all the hubub about him using steroids, but whatever, he did good.

Anyway, when I was living in St. George, and would come and run in Heber, it was a lot harder. I know that for sure. Also, Pete was surprised by how much easier it was to ride in Coeur d'Alene than Heber so I'm hoping I'll feel that too.

Another great thing about Heber is that it is really beautiful, and I really enjoyed it, other than the biting cold coming down that hill. My fingers were numb by the time I got back too. Sorry, I forgot my camera again. I need to get better about bringing it with me!

Friday Flashback - My First Tri

Since I started my blog I've been wanting to have something like Wordless Wednesday (um, by the length of my posts I don't know if this is possible) or Suggestion Saturday or something like that, and I've finally decided to go with Friday Flashback!  You all like stories right? I'm going to tell the story of my first tri.

I guess I should tell you what I did today first. Here's what my training plan said:

S: long day
wu: 200swim, 200kick, 200pull, 200swim
main: 1 x 1500, RPE 4 (alternate 1 x 1000)
cd: 4 x 50, each slower than last

I found myself saying, "I only have to do 30 laps, this should be quick." I think (hope) this means I'm improving. 1500 meters is the distance you swim in an olympic distance triathlon. I thought it would be cool if I finished in under 32 minutes, and I finished at 32 minutes on the dot! I will be so happy if I can do that well in St. George! Of course the fastest guy out of the water last year did it in 21:56, but the guys who placed first overall took about 25 minutes. 

On to my story:

When I tell people that I'm doing an Ironman, I get a lot of, "Wow, I could never do that!" and sometimes I get a, "Why?" I've even been asked if I'm trying to win, and the answer to that is a big NO. Let me start at the beginning, though.

In 2004, I believe it was, Pete came home one day and told me that he was going to do a triathlon with his friend in 3 weeks. I couldn't have been more shocked. This was coming from a guy who couldn't swim, hadn't been on a bike for several years, and, like me, couldn't run more than a few miles consecutively.  He preceded to go buy a bike, and again I was shocked. $800 for a bike?! That's ridiculous! Now I realize that that's actually not a bad price (I've seen bikes for $4,000 - now that is ridiculous!) .

The day for the Jordenelle Triathlon arrived, and it even fell on my birthday. Luckily it was near my Dad's house, so I left my 2-year old and 4-month-old in his care while I went to cheer Pete on. I rushed to the swim exit, not wanting to miss him getting out of the water, but I needn't have worried. I had to wait a long time, every minute I got more and more nervous that he had drowned in that big, dark lake. He didn't drown, though. He arose, victorious, out of the water (never mind he was almost the last one out) and moved on to the bike, then the run. 

The whole thing was still amazing to me, and I couldn't believe he was doing it at first. Then I started to watch all the other participants struggle on to the finish line. I noticed that these people were just people.  There were a lot of really in-shape-looking athletes, but it was mostly just regular people. I couldn't believe this. By the end of the race, I had decided that I wanted to do it too. If all these other people could do it, why couldn't I? And if you could see the looks of pure joy, mingled with sweat and tears, on their faces when they passed that finish line, I think you would understand what drew me to wanting to join them.

For the next year, I went to spin class 2-3 times a week and swam twice a week, while working at the daycare at the gym once a week to earn my keep there. I learned to love spin and slowly worked my way up from being able to do 6 or 7 laps in the pool to 20 (I would need to do 750 meters since I was doing the Sprint distance, and that's 15 laps), but I didn't start running until about a month before the race. I figured I could walk if I needed too. I hated running, and I didn't need to be fast, I just wanted to finish. So Pete and I ran together on the treadmills and worked up to 3 miles! I couldn't believe it when I finally got there.

Race day rolled around again, and I still didn't have a bike. I just rented one for the race, and it was so nice though a little scary to ride on the street as opposed to a spin bike. I was so nervous before the race started, I felt sick. This is something that still happens to me, it seems, no matter how many races I do. The feeling goes away as soon as I start, though. I was especially nervous because I also rented a wet-suit, and it made me feel really claustrophobic.

Here we are waiting to get on the shuttle down to the race. See my lovely rental wet-suit?

Here is the transition area. (Taken after the race)

I can't remember many of the specifics of that first race, but I do remember being amazed at what I was doing when I came out of the water and trudged on to my bike after having someone very aggressively help me out of my wet-suit. I remember having to stop at the restrooms in the middle of the run. (Having to go to the bathroom has become my nemesis at that race! I will beat it next time!) I remember running across the finish line! I remember Pete being there waiting for me since he had finished a few minutes before me. And I do remember having tears in my eyes. 

What a wonderful feeling it is to accomplish a goal that seems so impossible when you first start. I never would have dreamt that I would be someone to do a triathlon. It always seemed like that was something other people did. Not me. I just wasn't one of those people. But why shouldn't I be one of those people? Really, if you set your mind to something, you can do it! 

Pete and I showing off our race numbers.

The word "impossible" is used a lot less around our house now. This is something that I really hope to teach my kids. I want them to know that they are special and that they are important. That they can do whatever they want in life. All you have to do is put in the time.

My times were 21:36 swim, 10:32 first transition, 54:17 bike, 3:10 second transition, and 32:04 run with a grand total of 2:01:41. I kind of had a goal of coming in under two hours, and I just missed it! I didn't care, though. I had done it. I proved I had been wrong about myself pretty much my whole life. 

New Playlist!

Today I followed pretty close to our regular schedule, other than leaving Pete in bed sleeping. Luckily Mindy and Pete were both better today (at least as far as the flu is concerned). I really hope no one else gets it! So I took Min to school then headed up to the gym with Ethan and Elle to deposit them in the daycare while I ran on the track. My training plan said:

R: 90 minutes long run, easy pace. RPE 3.

I am still not quite to 90 minutes, though, so I planned on doing 77 (remember the 10% rule?). Pete was like, "Do you think you can handle doing such an odd number?" Sure, no problem.

The cool thing was that for most of the time I was the fastest person on the track! Lets not think about the fact that the only other people on the track were old people or moms pushing strollers. I'm not trying to dis old people (or moms).  I know there are a lot of old people who are faster than me, but my grandma says that when I'm her age I'll be ready to slow down. I'm hoping that when I'm her age there will be fewer people in my age group and I'll finally be able to win! Yeah! 

I counted laps by holding the number of lap on my fingers. I probably looked a little bit silly doing this, like a hitch-hiker holding out my thumb whenever I was on lap 6. I saw several of the walkers using this method, but none of the runners. Maybe it wasn't too noticeable because I was going SO FAST!

I finally got new music on my ipod today too! I put all my favorite songs and songs I like to run to on and put it on shuffle. It was fun anticipating what the next song would be, and I loved all of them! Here is my playlist for today (I apologize for the repetitive use of the terms "Barenaked Ladies" and "New Pornographers." Neither is obscene as their names imply.):

1. Seven Nation Army - White Stripes
2. Dime - Cake
3. Golden Years - David Bowie
4. When I Fall - Barenaked Ladies
5. Electric Version - New Pornographers 
6. Resolve - Foo Fighters
7. Failsafe - New Pornographers (This might be my favorite song right now)
8. These Apples - Barenaked Ladies
9. The Way You Make Me Feel - Michael Jackson (This will always we an awesome song)
10. Until I Die - Ben Kweller (Such a great song, and Pete says it reminds him of me)
11. Commissioning A Symphony in C - Cake
12. Free Me - Foo Fighters
13. DOA - Foo Fighters ("It's a shame we have to die my dear...")
14. It's All Been Done - Barenaked Ladies (Being #1 lasted until about mile 5. Then the fast people arrived. I could tell they would be faster than me as soon as I saw them, and I started to really feel like a hitch-hiker. "Wait, take me with you!")
15. Zoo Station - U2
16. Pretty Pink Ribbon - Cake
17. Take It Outside - Barenaked Ladies
18. Under Pressure - David Bowie w/Queen
19. Even Better Than The Real Thing - U2
20. My Rights Versus Yours - New Pornographers (The song came on at the same time as a shot of endorphins and I felt like I was just grinning as I ran. It probably looked more like a grimace, though. I could seriously feel this nice warm energy run through my body, and I felt like I could run forever, and run faster. Endorphins are better than morphine because they don't make you itchy.)
21. Vertigo - U2 (I got to 1:17 in the middle of this song. I started walking and kept telling myself that I didn't need to finish the song. That I was to my 77 and I wasn't going to push it any further. I made it about half a lap. Then I ran the song out, and did 2 more laps. It was awesome! I finished my 8th mile right on 80 minutes! YEAH! I guess Pete was right, I couldn't do such an odd number.)

Raise Your hand if you like any of these songs. I thought it was a great playlist, but running playlists are such a personal thing. I could just be in heaven for an hour and 20 minutes with this one, and you could still hate it. What songs do you like to run to?

This run was awesome! Seriously, I really enjoyed it! I am really tired and my legs are a little sore, but, man that was a fun run!

Oh, and guess who's going to Brain Regan in St. George! Me! I'm so excited! It's also the weekend of the St. George Tri (May 9th) so I figured I might as well do it while I'm down there even though I told myself I would never do that one again. Ug, what have I done!? It will be good, I wanted to get one "practice" race in before the Ironman. Any other takers? It's only $90 (gulp). Just go here to sign up, and we'll do it together! There's tons of time, about 2 months so get ready! :)

Hey, what's this little girl doing out of bed? Goodnight all!

Nurse Colleen

I hate to say it, but I did nothing in the way of Ironman training today. If you missed yesterday's crazy-super-long post (sorry about that), Pete broke his collar bone yesterday in a mountain biking crash. On top of that Mindy threw-up first thing this morning so she did not go to school. This was kind of good because I had to run across town to pick up Pete's pain meds as soon as I got up, and I didn't really have to hurry back. 

I spent today playing nurse and getting the house clean (it was a mess from our crazy day yesterday). Pete found this little video that explains how to break while turning, and I thought it would be a good thing to put on here (for all my die-hard mountain biking readers - though I think it would be good to know for any kind of biking):

Tips for Brake Use in Mountain Biking Cornering -- powered by eHow.com

So, be careful out there everyone! I know I'll be a lot more careful on my cornering. 

Mindy is feeling much better after a day of resting and watching movies, but Pete's not feeling too great. We think the Lortabs he's on are making him nauseous. Either that or he's got whatever Mindy had. Whatever it is, it's not fun, and I didn't want to leave him alone with the kids, even after they were in bed, to go do my long run. I will do it tomorrow morning. 

Tomorrow we also get to go in for the surgical consult so that should be exciting!

A Smashing Ride!

This morning it was so beautiful and warm! We made sure to leave early enough for school that Mindy got to ride her bike. She was even wearing a skirt and didn't complain about it being cold! It was so nice!

So, when it came time for me to ride my bike, I didn't even have to think about it, and got all my gear on to ride outside.  As I picked up my sunglasses, I thought, "Hm, it doesn't seem very bright outside." Then I notice that it's actually pouring rain out there! What the heck?  So, I debated for a little while about riding on the trainer, riding later, or just going in the rain. The kids would be pretty protected in the bike trailer... So I finally decide that we're going anyway, and put on my rain jacket just in time to hear Ethan yell, "It stopped raining!"

I kept my rain jacket, thinking it might rain again, but it never did. I was pretty toasty in there by the end too.  I only had about half an hour to ride until I had to pick Mindy up from school so I just road around the neighborhood, delivered a few invitations for the Young Women's program tonight, and we went to the river to see some ducks. It was a nice little ride. Then I got to ride home with Min, and that's always fun!

My friend, and fellow counselor in the Young Women's presidency, Ann, called me to see if I could make cookies for the program since she didn't have enough ingredients to make enough. She couldn't get more because her car had been broken into and was un-drivable. Our president wasn’t going to be there for the whole thing because she is having a really dificult pregnancy, and our adviser’s husband got laid of yesterday. What a day for everyone!

I told her of course I would make cookies, and that that would be fun for the kids. First I had to pick Pete up from work, though. Then he headed off to go mountain biking on the hill above the capital (not too far from our house). He's working on getting stronger for a trip to Moab with some guys from work in a few weeks. He went out the door saying, "I hope I can see ok" because he wasn't wearing his glasses. I told him to have fun, then got down to business making cookies. 

The kids helped decorate them with food coloring to look like they had paint splatters on them. They turned out pretty cute, but Elle ate hers before I could cook it, and got food coloring all above her lip. Of course, that doesn't come off easily, and we were running late to help get things set up at the church so I just left it. 

A few minutes after I got to the church to help set up for the program, I got a call from Pete. He said he had had a really bad crash and needed me to pick him up. I asked him if he was ok, and he said he didn't know, but that he couldn't move his arm. I hurried and left, apologizing for leaving, but I said I would try to be back in time. I thought he had just hurt himself bad enough that he couldn't ride home so I would just need to pick him up. But when I was almost there, he called me again, and said he'd been talking to his brother who is a doctor, and he thought he either dislocated his shoulder or broke his clavicle (collar bone). 

Now I'm starting to get more nervous, and I found him a few minutes later just sitting on the ground by his bike. Both very dirty. I helped him into the car, put the bike on the rack and got in the car to drive him to the hospital. I called my president and told her I wasn't going to make it back, then we called our insurance to figure out where we could go and headed to the nearest ER.

After I got Pete all checked in, the kids were already getting unruly, so I took them home. We grabbed some Wendy's then stopped back in at the church. They were just finishing up, and just having refreshments (The part the kids didn't want to miss) so we hung out for a while, and everyone already knew about Pete. I told Ann that I needed to go back and she offered to put my kids to bed and stay with them while I did that. What a life-saver!

When I got back, Pete was in X-ray. Once they wheeled him back in, it didn't take too long before the doctor came in and just showed us this picture:

Not much explanation needed there! Definitely broken. No mountain biking trip to Moab with the guys in 2 weeks, I guess. What a bummer. The doc said that he should have surgery done on it, and that would make the recovery much shorter. We will schedule that tomorrow. Amazingly, we were back home by 9:30 (He'd crashed just before 7), that was the fasted ER visit ever! 

We were very lucky that he didn't break his neck. I'm glad he had his helmet on too. It's always amazing to me how a split second thing like pushing your breaks to hard while going around a turn, can affect your whole life like that. 

Back to the Basics

Today my training plan said:

R: 45minutes very easy run, RPE 3.

Pete was working from home, so I left Ethan and Elle with him, after taking Mindy to school, and I got to run outside! It was nice and warm, maybe 40 degrees, and I just ran in a t-shirt. It was about perfect. I was maybe a little bit cold, but nothing too distracting. I ran 4.6 miles in 50 minutes. It was supposed to be very easy, though, right? I sure can feel the difference in my knees between running on the track and running on the sidewalk. I guess this means I need to start running outside more so my knees can get used to it. I will do it gradually, though. They weren't that sore, but more than when I run on the track.

When I got back, Ethan was spelling out words on pbskids.org and Pete was helping Elle put a puzzle together. They were both doing a really good job! What bright children I have! I had a drink and some Hammer Gel, then I took Ethan and Elle to the daycare at the gym and did this swim workout:

S: speed day
wu: 400 continuous. last 50 in each 100 is kick
main: 8 x 100 EBEH (each 100 = 25Easy, 25Build, 25Easy, 25 Hard)
cd: 6 x 25, each slower than last

This is my last "prep week" so my plan is having me do the same thing as the first week. I don't really know why we're doing this, but it's nice to kind of take it a little easier. On my easy laps, I tried to focus on my form. I tried to reach as far as I could and push the stroke all the way through, not cross my hands over in front of me, and keep my feet up. My 100s were all between 1:50-1:56 so that was pretty good I thought.

I can't say I had any interesting thoughts while I was working out today.  What was I even thinking about? I have no idea. It was nice to run outside, and I'm so excited for the weather to be warming up! I'm sure we'll have another cold spell before the winter's really over, though. I'm trying not to get too excited yet.

17 Weeks to Ironman - Rest Day

Welcome to all my new readers! I'm so excited to have you here. Just for your info, the first 3 entries in my archive are the last 3 races I've done: St. George Tri, Echo Tri and the St. George Marathon. In case you're interested. That way you can see what kind of a great athlete I am NOT.

Here is a post introducing the charity I'm trying to raise money for with this Ironman. It's called Against Malaria. Please take a minute to check that out.

A little while ago, I had a friend ask me how long I had until the Ironman, and I told her the number in weeks. She said, "That's like pregnancy counting!" We had to laugh a little at that, but now that I think about it, it is kind of like pregnancy counting. I can see a lot of similarities between the two. For both:

1. You feel excited and a little bit (or a lot, depending on the day) nervous. 
2. You have a certain amount of preparation that you want to get done, but if it doesn't get done, the day still comes.
   
3. You wonder if you're going to be able to do it.
4. You know that the day at the end of your countdown is going to be long and painful, but also very rewarding.
   
5. You know there is a chance that you might get hurt, but chances are pretty good that you'll be fine.

I don't want to say that doing an Ironman is even close to as amazing or wonderful or challenging as having children, but it seems I can always find some way to compare triathlons to life.  For all you mothers out there who are doing your best to raise children in this world, I salute you. You are wonderful and I think you deserve a trophy. 

But of course, we do get trophies don't we? When you see your little baby smile for the first time, or your 2-year-old hugs you so hard it makes you want to cry (but not from pain), or when your 4-year-old looks at you so sweet and says, "I love you, mom," or when your 6-year- old starts reading books by herself and starts to be a real help with the baby. (I don't have any kids older than this so I can't say what other trophies are awaiting in the teenage years - though the thought of that scares me to death!)

Just because it's not a tangible trophy, doesn't mean it's not real.

Today in Young Women's our lesson was "Attitudes about Our Divine Roles," and I cried through most of the lesson. This is probably why I'm thinking so much about motherhood right now. The teacher shared a poem with us that most of us have probably heard part of before. It was so beautiful, I'd like to share it with you now:

The Hand That Rocks The Cradle Is The Hand That Rules The World
Blessings on the hand of women!
Angels guard its strength and grace,
In the palace, cottage, hovel,
Oh, no matter where the place;
Would that never storms assailed it,
Rainbows ever gently curled;
For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.

Infancy's the tender fountain,
Power may with beauty flow,
Mother's first to guide the streamlets,
From them souls unresting grow--
Grow on for the good or evil,
Sunshine streamed or evil hurled;
For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.

Woman, how divine your mission
Here upon our natal sod!
Keep, oh, keep the young heart open
Always to the breath of God!
All true trophies of the ages
Are from mother-love impearled;
For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.

Blessings on the hand of women!
Fathers, sons, and daughters cry,
And the sacred song is mingled
With the worship in the sky--
Mingles where no tempest darkens,
Rainbows evermore are hurled;
For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.

- by William Ross Wallace

Antelope Island Ride

My training plan for the day says:

B: 120 minutes long bike again this week.

We were very blessed with beautiful weather and a baby-sitter so Pete and I could go for the long bike ride together!  Pete was talking about going on a ride with some friends from work, so I decided to tag along. I also got one of their wives, Tiffany, to come too. I was so excited because I'd never really been on a group ride before, and it was fun to have another girl to ride with. 

We met up with them at the entrance to Antelope Island State Park. As soon as we got out of the car, we realized that it was much colder and windier than it had been at home. I was so relieved when Tiffany offered me her extra jacket and ear covers (she was smart and bundled up good), and Pete let me wear the toe covers and warmer gloves (what a gentleman). I would have frozen without them!  

We got started, and I immediately regretted not bringing my camera. It was so beautiful! It was all blue and white: water, snow, sky, and mountains. There were even white birds out on the lake, we thought maybe some kind of crane. It was very nice.

We rode out the "the ranch", and took a little break. The guys were still hanging out, but Tiffany and I were getting cold so we started back. I was just telling Tiffany about how I had been hoping to see buffalo while we were out there because I had heard about them, when we rode past some Antelope. That was pretty cool, and I was content, but a little sad about no camera again. 

The guys showed up after not too long, riding in their pace line. Then we got in the line with them. A pace line is what you see them doing in the Tour d'France where they ride real close and draft off of each other. It's something we're usually not allowed to do in triathlons so I'd never done it before. It was really fun. I was amazed how much easier it was when  you were drafting as opposed to when you were the one in front pulling. Before we got into it, Pete kindly informed me that it is not good edict to ride in the areo bars when you're riding with the pack. Good to know. I was careful not to do that, but I found myself wanting to be in the areo bars a couple times. Also good to know.

Then we saw some dark shapes in the distance, and I was excited to get to see the buffalo after all! I mean, it wasn't that exciting, they just stood there a ways away, and we rode past, but it was cool.

The last few miles were pretty hard. Tiffany and Paul just booked it across the causeway! I couldn't quite keep up, and my toes were numb by the end. We did 37 miles. I don't know how long it took us exactly since I still didn't have my computer on my bike, but probably about 3 hours. It was a really fun ride, though. I'm glad we got to go. It was much more fun than riding on the trainer, and much more challenging. I'm sure I'll do that ride again, and I'll try to bring my camera this time.

Water World

Disclaimer: That title was just the first thing that came into my head. This post has nothing to do, nor is it in any way affiliated with the movie, Waterworld, or the water park, Water World. This post is just a woman rambling about her swimming adventures this morning. 

Now that I've got that straight, on with the post.

So, do you think I got up at 6:00 this morning? Nope, I didn't. Pete talked me out of it last night saying that cutting 2 hours of sleep out is not going to be sustainable and that I'm going to need more sleep as I train more. I'm also having doubts about if I should even do the preschool group I was a part of planning the other day . There are just not enough hours in the day. Maybe if we switched it to Tuesdays and Thursdays. We'll see how it goes next week.

Pete was working from home today so I was able to leave Ethan in bed when I left to take Mindy to school and Elle came with me to the gym. When I dropped her off, she said, "I not have anyone to pay with." She's used to having her brother there so I was worried it would be a problem, but it ended up being fine and she played with the other little girls in there. I was happy to leave Ethan in bed, and apparently he slept in until like 9:45! Hopefully that will help him get better.

My training for the day was a long swim. Here is what my plan said:

S: long day-mental toughness day!
6 x 500, odds are RPE3, evens RPE 5

I usually swim in the little shallow-water lap pool, but today I swam in the deep water pool so that was different. I got to watch all the legs of the people doing deep water aerobics alongside me so that was...interesting. At one point I saw a guy that looked so much like a cartoon frog with a big belly, float belt, and booties that made his feet look kind of webbed. It was kind of funny, and I could picture him suddenly springing out of the water to catch a fly. I tried not to think too much about these people though, because it's great that they're out there doing their water aerobics. It just looks funny from underwater, that's all.

So, 6 sets of 500 meters means 6 sets of 10 laps. I still have to convert it in my mind before I start so I don't get confused. I still was confused when I came home and told Pete I swam 6,000 meters, and he was like, "That's a lot!" But once we went over it again, it turns out I did 3,000 meters which sounds more reasonable, but still a lot mind you. 3,000 meters is 1 and 3/4 miles. The 2.4 miles I will need to do in the Ironman is 4,000 meters (actually, 4,000 meters is about 2.485 miles, so a little less). That is 80 laps. So, I would only need to do 2 more sets of 500. Cool.

My faster sets (evens) ended up being about 10:30 and the easier ones(odds) were around 11:00. I counted laps by watching the digital clock and trying to keep my laps around a minute each. This method works pretty well, and lets my mind wander to things like, "what am I going to write on my blog today?" 

I should swim in this pool more often since it has the digital clock facing it and the other one doesn't. I rested in between sets so I was probably in the water about an hour and 15 minutes total. It was almost 2 hours when I picked Elle up from the daycare. Whew.

Weight Resistance

This morning I got up at 6 am to meet my sister, Katie, on skype. She is in China teaching English for the next 4 months.

If this doesn't make you want to go to China, I don't know what would.

She never showed up.  I actually didn't mind, though. It was nice to be up while the house was still and quiet and have a little time to myself. Then I decided to make breakfast burritos with my extra time, and they were really good! Plus we weren't even late dropping Pete off at his 8:00 meeting for a change, and Mindy had plenty of time before school. I need to start getting up that early from now on. I think that would make my life a lot less stressful and easier to get the training hours in. Come back tomorrow to see if I actually do it.

Anyway, here is what my training plan said for today:

B: solid 90 minutes at RPE3. Middle 30 minutes on aero bars if you have them, but keep easy effort. Notice if the position is comfortable to hold and if you can output the same speed for the same effort as when out of the bars.

Today was a nice sunny day so I decided to do my bike ride outside! I went back and forth on it for quite a while because Ethan stayed home from school sick, and it was still cold out there. What got me to choose outside was that Ethan and Elle both wanted to go, and it did look pretty good out there. I bundled them up good and put them in the bike trailer. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to do it for a few minutes because it was really difficult getting the bike trailer hooked up to that bike. I got it on, though, and off we went!

About 85lbs weight resistance here.

We didn't even make it a mile before my little bike computer fell off. I hurried and stopped, but couldn't see it anywhere on the road when I looked back. I was just thinking, "oh crap," when I saw that it was just in my water bottle cage. Whew. I didn't dare or want to deal with putting it back on so I just put it in with the kids. The nice thing about having the bike trailer with you is you can put your stuff in it - like a camera, extra jacket, gloves, stuff that falls off your bike, toys and kids. You sure can feel that bike trailer though! 85 lbs is a lot to pull up a hill.

The road I like to ride on is a little hidden gem of Salt Lake. It's not even 2 miles from our house (maybe 4 from downtown), and after about 10 minutes you're on this little road among fields, farm houses and cows. I want to take a picture every time I ride by here, and today I brought my camera:

We saw cows, a horse, some Canadian Geese, airplanes and helicopters. The airport is just on the other side of those fields too (I think that's what that tower is). The kids actually had fun, and were really good except for one minor incident with fighting and crying that was easily fixed.

I just road for 45 minutes, had some Hammer Gel, and turned around at around the spot I usually get to in half an hour.  It took me almost exactly 90 minutes for the entire ride. Elle slept a little bit on the way back, but Ethan started coughing a lot. I felt a little bad for taking him out in the cold when he's sick. It wasn't really that cold, though. In fact, I had to take my gloves off after 10 minutes, and they wanted their blankets off for a while. 

It felt so good to be riding outside again! One of the beautiful things about riding outside is that you're not constantly thinking about how uncomfortable you are or how much time has gone by. There are so many other things to think about like: is that car going to hit me, am I going to make that light, am I going to hit that rock, or how hard is that hill going to be? Plus you get to look at all the beautiful scenery and feel the wind on your face. Ah, it's great!

Also, I felt really comfortable in the aero bars! It was probably 99% better than the first time I tried to ride that bike. The stem is nice and solid now so I actually feel like I'm in control when in the areo position. I don't remember thinking for one minute that I was uncomfortable. I rode in the areo bars for most of the time (probably more than the middle 30 as the plan suggests), other than starting out and ending in town.

On the way back Ethan, who loves to see new places, said, "We should come here in the car sometime."

I said, "Ok, we can do that."

Then he said, "We could go a lot farther." 

Yes, I suppose we could go a lot farther in the car. I didn't tell him that that wasn't the point of our ride. I'm just glad he had a good time seeing some new fun things.

"And let me Please remind you...

we can send a car to find you if you ever loose your way."

Today I decided I wasn't going to have time to do both my long run and swim, so Pete suggested I do the long run. Here is what my run schedule says:

R: 90 minute long run, easy pace. Strides begin at the 40 minute mark. Just like Monday, go for 20 seconds, then return to normal pace. Repeat every 5 minutes until run is finished. Stretch well!

Pete also suggested that I do 70 minutes instead of the 90 because I'm not quite ready for 90. Going from 60 to 70 minutes even breaks the 10% rule, but not by much (only 4 minutes). What's the 10% rule, you ask? Well, when ramping up your running time/distance, it is smart to only add on 10% per week to avoid injuries.

I remembered my ipod today, but I've only got an hour worth of songs on there and I'm getting a little sick of them so I swiped Pete's ipod out of the car to listen to instead. His is bigger so I had to hold it (I have a shuffle that I can clip onto my pants), but it was worth it to get some new music. I listened to Cake the whole time - Comfort Eagle and most of Pressure Chief. If you aren't a Cake fan, then the title of my post will be a mystery to you until you listen to Comfort Eagle. It's a great album. I won't recommend Pressure Chief to you, though, because it does have some explicit lyrics (hey, it was Pete's ipod...). I don't like it as much anyway.

I forgot to put my heart-rate strap on, but I just got started anyway and said, "screw my heart-rate, I'm just going to have fun!"

It was pretty fun. It's always much better running with music, I think. I started my strides at 30 minutes (instead of 40) so I still got in 40 minutes of strides. I love doing strides. It's so fun to get to run really fast for a lap! Plus it really helps the time go by. You'll be recovering from your last stride then realize, "Oh man, it's already been 5 minutes again!"

I brought hammer gel and water, and drank them around the 60-minute mark, and I think that helped me. If not with the last 10 minutes of the run, then with not feeling woosy afterwards. 

Guess what else I did today.... I actually counted my laps! Yeah! I did 7 miles + half a lap in the 70 minutes so that was keeping with my usual 10-minute mile pace. My first mile was closer to 12 minutes, though, so I was a little faster in the end. 

There was a girl who started running just as I started my last stride and I was able to keep up with her until my stride was over. She was fast! I hope it's really possible to get faster. Sometimes it just seems like I'm doomed to run at a 10-minute mile pace forever. I will keep working on it, though.

When I got done, it was 10:00, and that was when I was supposed to be meeting with some other moms in my ward (church group) to talk about starting a little preschool for our kids (because I don't have enough stuff going on right now I guess). I got there half an hour late - no shower, still in my running clothes. It was ok, though, we were still waiting for one more mom for a while anyway. We will be starting the preschool next week and just rotate houses every week. It should be fun!