Donate to Against Malaria

Ever since I signed up for the Ironman, I wanted to have some kind of cause to do it for, but I didn't know quite how to go about doing that. I knew that I wanted to help fight Malaria because it is just such a terrible epidemic that we can do something about. It's unbelievable that so many people, mostly children, are dying from this every day. I have joined a website that you can donate to, and they will use it to buy mosquito nets and they get them to people who need them. They will even tell you where your donation ends up going which is pretty cool. Take a few minutes and help me raise some money. Go to againstmalaria.com/colleensironman to donate.

This morning I took Mindy to school, and did not go to the pool because of the bad air warning. I cleaned up a bit, I did (well, started) laundry, Elle helped me make bread, Pete gave Ethan a drum lesson, and I did not go to the pool.

I usually make our bread because then I know what's in it, and the only bread I can find at the store that doesn't have high fructose corn syrup in it costs $4 a loaf. We are just trying to not eat a lot of refined carbs like white flour and sugar. Let's just not talk about the half-sleeve or Oreos I ate last night. :)

Pete ended up getting a ride up to Bountiful to work from the home of one of his co-workers, and I was going to have to pick him up anyway so I decided to try and get a babysitter so we could go to the gym, even though it was very last minute. Amazingly, the first girl I called said she could do it! I was shocked, and so happy! Usually I have to call at least 2 or 3 girls, and that's even with more warning. An hour later, the amazingly wonderful babysitter showed up. I picked Pete up and we went to the gym.

First we ran. We did this separately because he prefers the treadmill and I prefer the track. I decided to take it pretty easy and do a nice steady 3 miles. I had forgotten my ipod, but I thought I could do my regular pace anyway. Not quite. I ended up doing the 3 miles in about 43 minutes (again, I did not have a digital timer). Super Slow Colleen. There was this one girl running, and I thought, "I can keep up with her" because she didn't look like she was running faster than me, but then, all of a sudden, she passed me! Then she passed me again. And this time she says to me, "You're doing great!" I'm thinking, "What the crap? Do I look that bad? Do I look like I need some encouragement or I might just lay down and die or something?" Of course I didn't say that, I said, "So are you, you're passing me again!" But she just brushes that off and tells me I'm doing a good job again.

This is a weird phenomenon I've also noticed during races when people pass me and say, "good job!" or "you can make it!" or whatever. Sometimes it just makes me feel so happy and I think, "I AM doing good, I AM going to make it!" But a lot of times I just think, "If I'm doing so good, why are you passing me?" Don't get me wrong, those people who give the encouragement are wonderful, and they make the races worth-while, but I have thought it was kind of funny at times when you just feel like, "No, I'm really not doing a good job, please don't remind me."

After running, we moved to the pool. Pete actually was down there 10 minutes before me, so I didn't want to take forever and make him wait, even though normally Friday is my long swim day. I did 4 warm-up laps, then I just decided to do one set of 7 interval laps on 1:00. Pete watched me and gave me pointers on my form. I got done with the 7th lap, and I was still getting under :55 and I still felt good so I said, "one more." I ended up doing 10, and they were all under :55! Plus I felt really good, I felt like I could have kept going. Pete said maybe I've had a breakthrough. I hope he's right. I'm kind of wondering if it was just having him there watching and encouraging me, though. And this is one of those good times for encouragement. Thanks hun. We'll see if I can do it again next time.

Driving on the freeway was like driving through some dreary wilderness. The smog was so thick and low that you could hardly see the billboards or the stoplights or the cars if they were very far ahead of you. When we got home, I asked the amazingly wonderful baby-sitter if it gets like this every year, and she said no. That this year is particularly bad. That's a relief. I was wondering what kind of post-apocalyptical wasteland we've moved into. It's such a shame too, because the Salt Lake Valley is really pretty. They say there's a big storm coming this weekend and that it should clear the air. Let's pray that it does. Maybe it will cover up all the gray snow too.