North Carolina - Day 1 (Travel)

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

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

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

All together now, "Awwwwww"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

St. George IM Bike Course Trial

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Our Tour of Heber

This weekend was so much fun!

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

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

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

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




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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mindy's 9th Birthday

While I'm sitting here waiting for Pete to get back from his bike ride so we can watch the next episode of Psych that we've got from Netflix just sitting here, I noticed that I never wrote about Mindy's birthday!

I can't believe she's 9!

We had her party the day of Echo. The kids had spent the previous two nights at Grandma and Grandpa's house, so we met them at the pool in Kamas with my dad, my sister, my brother and his wife and 2 kids. It was fun playing at the pool, and felt really good on my legs!

After the pool, we all headed for Heber to BBQ and spend some good quality time with family outside.

I made this Neapolitan cake as requested by the birthday girl.

The strawberry was Mindy's favorite so I made strawberry cupcakes for her actual birthday the following Tuesday. (not pictured, unfortunately) We went to Liberty Park with her best friend where they played in the fountain, went on some rides and had ice cream (strawberry, of course).

I think it was a success.

8 Mile Run, a Parade and More Temple Pictures

This morning I finally made that long run happen! It wasn't really that long of a run, but I needed to do it. I ran for 80 minutes so maybe I did 8 miles, but probably a little less since I took it pretty easy. It was fun, though, and the only problem I had was my knee started hurting for the last 5 minutes, but when I stopped and walked it felt better.

I ran up to North Temple and noticed a lot of people were carrying chairs and stuff like that which reminded me that there was going to be a parade for Pioneer Day today. Earlier in the week, I told the kids I would look into when and where it would be, so I looked it up as soon as I got home. It was starting in one hour from when I got home so I went down to where the kids were watching The Last Air Bender and told them to hurry and get ready to go while I took a shower.

Amazingly, we were able to get out of the house with 20 minutes to get there. It was nice that it was only a few miles away, and it was also nice that Pete has a parking pass for one of the parking garages down there so we didn't have to drive around looking for parking or walk too far. We did have to walk a few blocks, but we cut through Temple Square and it was really pretty so that was ok.

We worked our way through the crowds, and found a small open spot at the front where I had the kids go sit. The girl next to them was so nice and spread her blanket out for them to sit on. I noticed that she was sitting with a girl in our ward. A few minutes later, I noticed that her parents were sitting behind them in chairs. I went over to say hello and she offered me their extra chair which was perfect because it was time to feed George. I ended up sitting with the kids for a little while after that, then moved back to the sidewalk when George got fussy and got him to sleep in the stroller. It was really fun.

I think this was the first time I've taken my kids to a parade which is pretty sad. We used to go to the 24th of July parade in Heber every year when I was a kid. The one in Salt Lake is just so big that we haven't wanted to deal with the crowds or anything, but it all worked out just great today!

We left about half an hour before it was over (at 1 hour, the announcer said it was half over and we stayed a little while after that), but we walked by all the floats that were waiting to go so we pretty much saw everything. We walked through temple square again on the way to the car. Of course we had to stop and take some pictures with the pretty flowers.

We were all really hungry by the time we got back to the car so I told the kids I'd take them to breakfast. We ended up going to Denny's and they were all very happy.

Pete had a fun morning driving all the way to Orem to work only to find out that no one was there. He just came home, but that gave him the chance to mow the lawn, which had been badly neglected for the past few weeks and growing 3 foot-tall weeds. It looks so nice now! I think a nice townhome or something where we don't have to take care of the lawn would be good for us because when it comes to the choice between a bike ride or mowing the lawn, we always choose bike ride. Or being with our family, or sleeping, or cleaning the house, or whatever...

New Tri Suit and Lots of Pancakes

This weekend I missed my long run. I slept in until George woke up at 6:30 and didn't seem like he'd go back to bed. Elle woke up too. I hurried and ate my oatmeal, but then didn't know what to do. I asked Elle if I should go run and she said, "No, you should stay here and take care of George." How could I leave after that? I finally went in and asked Pete what he was planning on for the day, hoping to hear those five magic words, "I'm working from home today." But he had to go work in Orem, and he had to leave soon. So, I just gave up on the idea of a long run that day. And why not make it a proper rest day while I was at it? So, when Geroge when down for his nap, I went back to bed. I ended up sleeping until like 11! It was crazy! It was a good thing I got that good rest too, because after I got up, my sister-in-law called to tell me they were heading to temple square then to This Is The Place park so we hurried and got ready to meet them there. It was really fun, but we were all super tired by the end of it!



I only took a few pictures of the kids at temple square, and none with the cousins. I need to be better at that while they're here!



Even though I think resting on Friday was the right thing to do, I still felt a little bed, and I was worried I would skip my long ride too. You know, like I got the skip-workout ball rolling and it would be hard to stop. But, I did get up and get out on my ride by 6:30. It was nice out too, I actually wore a windbreaker for the first half hour. I rode 50 miles in 3:06.

When I got home, I fed George, then just did a quick mile or so run. Then I came back and got started on some pancakes. I had to make a triple batch because a double batch never seems to be quite enough. Man, my family's getting big!

I asked Pete to take a quick picture of me in my new tri suit, and it turned into a little photo shoot, with the kids in the house yelling for me and, waiting for their pancakes. We were all so hungry.

I got this suit mainly because I'm sick of getting sunburnt on my lower back, but I also like how sleek and fast looking it is. Plus it matches my bike!

We had a fun picnic with the cousins at Sugarhouse park after Pete got his bike ride in, where the kids all played in the river and had a blast. Then we hiked up Ensign Peek with Pete's brother. The kids were awesome little hikers! I held Elle's hand and had George in the sling, and every time we went up a step (log) she'd jump up and George would just laugh! He thought it was so funny, and it was really cute. We got to the top just in time to watch the sunset over the Great Salt Lake, but back down before it got dark. Of course, we told the kids to slow down like a million times on the way down, and they almost made it to the bottom without incident. But then Ethan fell and scraped up his knee so that wasn't fun, but I think overall it was a fun experience for them.

Now, I must get to bed so I can make up that long run in the morning!

George - 6 Months

George turned 6 months old on Saturday so that was exciting! We celebrated with some peas.



He didn't really love them. But after a few days of trying little bits at a time, he's starting to get used to the weird stuff in his mouth. The funniest thing is that he likes to blow it out when I put it in his mouth. He's so cute!

He's also getting closer and closer to crawling. He can roll around and pivot really well, and he really just enjoys playing on the floor. He just needs to figure out how to get up on his knees.

Again, he's SO cute!

Other than that, this week has been super fun because Pete's sister and her family are here visiting from Switzerland! The best part is the kids getting to play with their cousins. So fun! We're looking forward to seeing them as much as possible during the moth that they're here.

It's also been really fun because I've jumped back into training hard again! Yay! It's fun to actually be able to do all my workouts again. It seems like forever since I've been able to do that.

Monday it was a run and a swim, Tuesday it was a bike/run brick in the morning and a swim in the evening (where I did 12 100s every 1:50 instead of 2:00 like I usually do, so they were all in the 1:38-1:42 range), and today was just a run. But it wasn't just a run because I ran for an hour, and I ran up a really steep hill to the capitol. It was awesome.

Things that haven't been fun this week are that Mindy and Ethan both had the flu on Monday so we had to switch our swimming-with-the-Swiss-cousins plan from Tuesday to today just to be safe even thought they both felt better on Tuesday. On Tuesday, since we weren't going swimming, I decided to get Elle caught up on her immunizations and sign her up for preschool. That was not fun, but I'm glad it's done. Her leg was hurting the rest of the day and this morning. Then when it was time to swim, she just wasn't feeling well and her leg was still hurting. I didn't worry about it too much, thinking it was just from the shots. But she was just shivering in the pool and not having fun. I didn't realize until we got home that she's got what the other kids had on Monday! Duh! I never would have taken her swimming if I would have realized that. I just thought her leg was sore and that the water would help it. Now she's just burning up. That's always the worst to see your kids sick. Poor girl. I hope none of the cousins get sick too, and that she's better tomorrow!

Crazy Recovery Week

So, Sunday night I didn't feel like I needed another rest day, and I certainly didn't feel like I needed another recovery week. With all this trying to get my foot better, I feel like the past 6 weeks have been recovery weeks! They haven't of course, I've been doing my fair share of swimming and biking, but it just doesn't feel the same without running.

Physically, I didn't feel like I needed to recover, but mentally I did.

So, I took Monday off as planned. I can't even remember what I ended up doing that day. I think I slept a lot.

Tuesday I rode my bike for half an hour, doing 3x3:00 intervals. Then I ran for 30 minutes. I didn't take the GPS so I didn't worry about how far I went or my speed, and it was a great run! I really enjoyed it! I've decided that I need to do that for a while. I'm just going to run for time and run as slow or as fast as I want for a while. At least until I'm out of this funk.

Wednesday I was supposed to run for 30 minutes, then do a recovery swim. I swear I left for my run at just a little after 6, but by the time I got back from my half-hour run, it was 7. How does that happen? Again, I just had my timer and music and had a really fun run! When I got back, I realized that I needed to help Pete move all the furnature out of the bedrooms before he left for work at 8:30 because the carpet cleaners were coming so I just had to skip the swim.

Thursday morning, I didn't workout because I had to take Mindy and Ethan to the dentist at 7:00 to get some fillings, and oh my, was that traumatic! Mindy actually was really brave and didn't have any problems. She said it didn't even hurt. Ethan, on the other hand, was screaming and yelling and fighting and covering his mouth and threatening to bite. It was not a pretty site. They had to stop half-way through his first filling to let him calm down. Then he would not let them finish. It finally took me and 3 other people holding him down so the doctor could finish and he wouldn't have to go home with a hole in his tooth. He wouldn't let them give him the laughing gas either. We were there for an hour and a half! He still has one more filling, but he's going in on Monday when Pete can go with him. Hopefully it will go better!

I let the kids watch a movie when we got home, and I thought I'd do my bike ride on the trainer. I got all ready and brought my bike downstairs, but then remembered... I couldn't get to the trainer. All this stuff was in the way still.

So, I just decided to get as much cleaned up as I could while George slept, which didn't really put a dent in the mess. Then it was time to take the kids to get ice cream since I had promised them we'd do that after getting the fillings (though, after the way Ethan acted getting his filling, that kid should not be allowed to eat any more sugar!). We ended up going to McDonald's which they thought was the greatest thing in the world because I usually avoid that place like the plague. After ice cream, we went to the library where they were having a zoo animal presentation. It was really fun! We go to see and touch a sugar glider, a tortoise, a turtle, some parrots (didn't get to touch them), a snake, 2 lizards, a chinchilla (so soft!), a guinea pig and (Elle's favorite) this big white dog that kills wolves but I can't remember the name of it.

George was just cute and sat in his sling.

While I was at the library, my sister-in-law called to let me know they were heading to the hospital to have her baby soon so they were going to bring their 2 boys over. We hurried home and got ready for that. She was due on July 1 so it was starting to seem like she was never going to have this baby!

Friday, I couldn't very well leave Pete with all 6 kids, so I didn't get any workout in. We did walk to the park though.

Today I was scheduled to do a swim and a 45 minute run, and I had also thought about doing my usual Saturday long ride instead. But I decided I needed to do a long run the most so that's what I ended up doing. I don't know how far I went, but I just ran for 1:12 so around 7 miles. That's not a terribly long run, but for someone who hasn't really been running much for a while, it was long enough! By this evening my legs were so tired and pretty sore.

So, yeah, it's been a pretty exhausting recovery week!

I'm excited to get back into serious training again next week.

Echo Triathlon 2011 - Olypmic

Echo Triathlon - July 9, 2011

I was so excited for this race. It had been more than a year since my last tri and I felt like I was ready to go! My foot felt all the way better and I was planning on pushing hard and just giving this race all I had.

I took my kids to my dad and step-mom's house on Thursday so I thought Friday would be really relaxed and that I'd have plenty of time to get ready. Oh, but I had to make a birthday cake for Mindy's birthday party that would be right after the race. (I will probably not do this race again since it always does fall on the day we celebrate Min's birthday) She requested a Neapolitan cake. I guess this is what I get for making 3 cakes for Ethan's birthday. Now it's expected. So it pretty much took me all day to shop for ingredients and make the cake, along with taking care of George. Then I still had to clean up and pack so I was feeling a bit stressed by the time Friday night came around!

Luckily I've packed for triathlons a few times before so it really didn't take me too long. Though I kept feeling like I had to be missing something. Of course I didn't sleep well, I never do the night before a race, and I woke up feeling sick. Like usual. I made myself eat some granola before we packed everything up for the race, and the party afterwards. We left by 5:45 - only half an hour behind schedule.

When we got to where Pete was dropping me off, I had to wake George up to feed him. Too bad he wasn't interested in eating at all. He was just looking around like, "What's going on? Where are we? Oh, there's Daddy! Hi Daddy!" Big smile. "Hi Mommy." More smiles and looking around. It was 6:30 and my wave started at 7:05. I still had to ride down there, set up transition and everything so I didn't really have time to mess around. I just had to put him back in his car seat and told Pete to find me in transition and I'd feed him then. Pete told me it would have to be T2 because he was going to get breakfast and probably wouldn't be back by T1. So, that's 2.5-3 hours for George to go without food. Let the worry begin.

I tried not to worry about this once I left because there was nothing I could do. I set up my transition spot, got body marked then set about getting my wetsuit on. While I was doing that, my new friend from my gym, Chris, found me. This was her first outdoor tri and she was doing the olympic! I was glad she found me because we helped each other zip our wetsuits up, then had someone to talk to while we waited for our start. We got into the water and it actually didn't really feel that cold! It was also nice and calm, and such a beautiful day! I swam around a little and just tried to put my face in as much as possible so I wouldn't panic when it was time to go. I told her to do that too, and she kept gasping when she'd put her face in. Finally I told her to try closing her eyes when she put her head in and to pretend she was in the pool. She said that helped! It got close to start time so I told her good luck and moved a little bit closer to the front.

SWIM 1.5k - 34:03

The swim was nice this year because they had us swimming in the opposite direction so the sun wasn't in our eyes the whole way back in like it has been in the past. I was pretty nervous that I'd have a panic attack since I hadn't even been in my wetsuit this year, let alone done any open water swimming! But I felt fine the whole time. Phew! I felt like I swam really well. I didn't really find any feet to draft off, but I stayed calm and swam really strait and smooth, passing a lot of people. From the last buoy to the exit is always my favorite part and I went a little harder to finish the swim.

I was shocked and really disappointed when I got out, looked at my watch and saw that it had taken me 34 minutes! I was hoping to be more in the 29-30 minute range, and I thought I had done so well! Last time I did Echo (3 years ago), I did the swim in 33:29. That was just so frustrating and disheartening when I thought I was getting so much faster.

(Now that I think about it, I've been swimming in a yard pool, and 1500 yards is less than 1500 meters! So it really takes me 29-30 minutes to swim 1371.6 meters, not 1500. Dang.)

T1 - 6:01

Going into T1, I was in a bad mood because of my swim time. Usually I'm excited from the swim and ready to get on my bike, but I just didn't feel like that this time. I did try to hurry, though, since my swim was so slow. But then I was getting my shoes on, thinking something didn't seem right and realized I still had my wetsuit on! Gah! So, I had to take my shoes off, then struggle with my wetsuit for what seemed like forever! I need to practice taking that off I guess.

BIKE 40k (24.8 miles) - 1:26:38

The first part of the bike was really fast and I was excited to see my average speed at 20mph, but then it got a lot slower for the rest of the way out. That meant the way back was really fun, though! It's a weird course because it totally looked like we were going uphill on the way back, but I know it was downhill because I was cruising! It was really pretty and fun. I tried not to worry about all the people who passed me. I did, though. Worry. I had a few moments when I really thought, "Maybe I should just be done with triathlon." I was just feeling so sick of being so slow.

I also tried not to worry about George, but he was always there in the back of my mind - I was working out how I'd do my transition and feed him the whole ride. I started thinking how nice it would be just to be done. Maybe I would just feed him and be done. I didn't want to run. I was already so far behind anyway. Then I would remind myself that it didn't matter how far behind I was, it's not like I was ever going to be close to placing anyway.

T2 + RUN 10k - 1:10:08

I came in from the bike planning on a really slow transition, and I was scouring the crowd for Pete and George, but I didn't see them. I was sure they'd find me before I left on the run, though, so I still took my time. I got all ready, even stopped at the port-a-potty, and never saw them. I didn't know what else to do but just get out on the run and try to get back as fast as possible, so off I went.

I was still feeling sorry for myself for being so slow for the first part of the run, but after a while I actually started to enjoy it and started giving encouragement to the other runners out there. I felt amazingly good. For some reason I couldn't make myself go any faster, though. I kept looking at my heart rate and thinking, "I can push harder than this," but I never really would. I guess my heart just wasn't in it. And I was still worried about George. It's amazing how something like that can affect your performance. You'd think it would be separate, but a lot of triathlon is mental, and I was mentally not there. I just didn't feel like I had any drive in me to go any harder.

Pete was at the finish line holding George, who was crying. I kind of slowed down when I saw them, my instinct telling me to go right to him. But then I heard the announcer say my name, then she said, "Come on, Colleen!" and I remembered that I was about to finish so I sprinted across the finish line!

FINISH TIME - 3:16:51

My knee was hurting a little towards the end of the run, but other than that I didn't even feel that tired. It was disappointing. I had planned on being ready to collapse at the finish line, not just walk away with a plate-full of food.

We found a shady spot for me to sit and eat and feed George. He's such a great little baby, and Pete said most the time he was fine. I think he might have gotten a little dehydrated, though, because it seemed like he constantly wanted to eat for the next few days and he was more fussy than usual. Poor thing. I really shouldn't have signed up for any races while I'm nursing. I figured all that mattered was for my body to be ready, but I'm just not mentally prepared. I have to do twice this distance in a month too! Yikes. At least I'm not trying to go fast for the half, and George will be eating solid foods so that should help.

Looking at my results, it turns out I was 4th out of the water in my age group! That ain't bad. :) I was 7th, on the bike, and 11th on the run. I came in 9th out of 13 total in my age group. Not great, but my looong transitions sure didn't help my speed.

I watched Chris finish while I was feeding George, then saw her afterwards in transition. I rode up to the parking area with her and she said something that really hit home. She said, "I may have been last, but I was last out of a really amazing group of women." That is so true. These other ladies are just so fast! I'm always amazed and humbled by how fast they are. I really can't compare myself to them. I'm there for me, to have fun and stay in shape, so I shouldn't worry about what place I am or who passes me or whatever.

I got all depressed about not getting a PR, when really I should just be grateful that I was able to do this distance without any problems 6 months after having a baby. I really am grateful. I just need to look at it in a different way than I have been. It was a fun race, a great training day, and I'm glad I got to do it. And really, it was a 17 minute PR for this course. Last time I did it, it took me 3:34:05. I really have nothing to complain about!

Pictures are here. I'm number 154 if you need to look me up. You can totally see me stop in my tracks when I look at my watch getting out of the water, and the unhappy look on my face when I'm taking my goggles off. I also love the one of me running to the finish line where you can see Pete in the background holding George and cheering. Zazoosh did a pretty good job with the photos, and I'd totally buy some if they weren't $9 for one little digital copy. I just can't justify it. But, I also can't justify stealing their photos to put on here (especially since they name them "dontstealourphotos.gif") so you'll have to go to their site to look at them.

Thanks for reading! Have a great night. :)

No Lake Today

I was planning to do my swim tonight in Sand Hollow Reservoir since we were going to go down to St. George, but that ended up not happening. My sister in law is due to have her baby today and we are going to watch their kids when they go in so we need to stick around for that.

So, this morning I went to the pool as usual. After a long warm up, I did 1500 yards in 29:11. I tried not to push too hard since it was my long swim not a time trial, but it's always fun to see how fast you I can do it. I'm going to shoot for that or faster at Echo.

I found out yesterday that there is going to be a free swim clinic and tri at my gym on Monday. I was planning on missing it since we were going to be out of town, but now it looks like I'm going to be around so I think I'll do it. It's just in the pool and by time instead of distance. It'll be a 20 minute swim, 40 minute bike and 30 minute run. I'm scheduled to do a 1000 yard swim and a 30 minute run anyway so I might as well throw in a little bike ride too. Does that sound like a bad idea with Echo being 5 days later?

If you're interested in doing this tri, here's some more info. Let me know if you want to do it!

There's also a swim clinic at Echo tomorrow morning that I would really like to go to just to be able to get in the lake once before the race. But it starts at 8, and that's when I'm usually back from my workouts to feed George. The lake is about an hour away too so that causes even more logistical problems with George. Not to mention the fact that our Jeep has a flat tire. Hmmm, I think I'll just stick with my original plan and do my long ride in the morning. It's easier that way.

I was also going to do the Kiss Me Dirty run tomorrow, but I've decided not to do it, first because we were going to be in St. George, but also because it just seems too risky to go running in mud and jumping obstacles when I'm just getting over a foot injury and the race I care more about is next week. I'd be so sad if I sprained my ankle or something. So sadly, I'll be skipping that too.

A long bike ride will be nice in the morning.

Healing Up

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

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

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

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

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

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

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




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

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

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

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



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




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


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


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



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

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

Always go

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

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

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

Thank you George!

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

Sore Foot Again

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

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

Be Careful Out There!

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

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

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

Respect on the road may save lives

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Utah Valley Half Marathon

This race was so close to not happening for me. Again. But my prayers were answered and I was able to go!

I know it's kind of a silly thing to pray for, but this was something important to me. I prayed that I would feel better so that I could go to the race and be able to enjoy it, or that I would be able to handle it if I had to pull out. I went to bed at 8:30, and texted Katie, "I have a bit of a fever. If it's not gone tomorrow, I won't be able to run :(." She said, "What! Get better now!" I told her I was trying my hardest to.

But I could not fall asleep. I was feeling hot and cold and my nose was totally stuffed up. Pete came in at around 10 and said I felt really hot, and I felt pretty terrible. I figured there was no way I would be better by 2:00 when I needed to get up. I started feeling really bad about not going because I was planning on brining some GU and a watch for Katie. I knew she wouldn't have as good as an experience if she didn't have enough nutrition, and they were only going to have GU at one of the aid stations. I also just wanted to be there with her since I got her into the whole thing, and I hated the thought of her not having anyone to cheer for her at the finish line!

I had 4 hours left to sleep and I just felt like I was getting worse. I talked to Pete for little while and just felt like crying. He was worried about me and told me not to go if I was still feeling sick. I just felt so sad about having to miss out on this race again. It was frustrating that I thought it would be off because of my foot, but then it got better so it was back on and now it looked like it was back off again. So frustrating! Pete told me we'd sign me up for Rock Cliff tri instead. It's in 2 weeks, and I had wanted to do it, but it was too close to all my other races. Taking this half marathon out would change things. I was ok with this (I mean, one more tri would be awesome right?) and just resigned myself to missing it, but I still wasn't happy.

I think at around midnight I started to feel better and was able to sleep a tiny bit. I dreamt that I woke up at 3:00 instead of 2:00 and didn't know what to do because I was supposed to meet Katie at 3:30 an hour away. Luckily, when I woke up, it was not quite 2:00 and I made myself stay in bed until my alarm went off.

Then I was up! I felt so much better! I took my temperature with 3 different thermometers to make sure my fever really was really gone, and it was! I got dressed, fed George, grabbed my stuff and headed out. It was weird that I wasn't really tired at all considering I had hardly slept, and I didn't really feel sick anymore either. How is that even possible? Then I was driving down the almost deserted I-15, listening to techno and getting really excited!

I met Katie and we got on a bus which proceeded to take the scenic route to the race start. It was kind of frustrating that they had us get there so early because we ended up standing around in the cold for an hour and a half before the race started. At least they had fires going so we were able to stay pretty warm.

While we were standing by the fire, my friend from high school, Shannon, who I hadn't seen in forever, suddenly appeared! It was so great to see her and hang out with her while we waited for the start. I didn't even know she was going to be there so I'm glad she spotted me! When the race started, she took off way ahead of us and finished in like 1:37! Great job, Shannon!

I got a twitter message from Sam that said, "good luck colleen! I'm pacing 3:40 for the full ... do NOT let me pass you!" I was like, "You better not!" Of course, I would have to go really slow for him to pass me, but it was kind of funny and something to think about.

There were a couple of really good downhills towards the beginning, and it was really fun! I felt great and was just flying. I had my Garmin hooked onto my belt so it wasn't very easy to look at, but whenever I did look at it, I was surprised how fast I was going. Even when I felt like I was slowing down it would be like 9:15 and I would just smile because I felt like I could keep that pace up forever. My ipod died after about 3 miles, but I was fine with that because I hadn't really planned on using it anyway. It was nice to just enjoy the pretty scenery and the other runners, even though most of them had headphones in.

Ah, how deceiving downhills are, though. Once it flattened out, I really started to hurt and slowed way down. Guess I couldn't keep that pace up forever...

1. 9:53
2. 8:56
3. 9:35
4. 9:22
5. 8:55
6. 9:18
7. 9:31
8. 9:37
9. 10:04
10. 10:30
11. 12:20 (bathroom break)
12. 10:44
13. 11:13
14. 9:39 (0.23 mi)

I made it all the way to mile 10 before I stopped at a port-a-potty which was really good for me! Maybe I'll start having chicken noodles soup the night before races from now on! I probably didn't really need to stop here either, but my knee and hip were hurting pretty badly and for some reason I thought it would be nice to take a little break so I could feel refreshed. I don't know if it even helped. It felt like IT band pain which I think was from not running or stretching for 2 weeks before this. Lesson learned.

When I came out of the port-a-potty I heard a guy call my name and I immediately thought of Sam and was like, "No!" But it wasn't. It was another guy, Zach, who I also know from twitter. He was running with his wife and they were so cute in their matching shirts. It was her first half marathon so I was happy to see them doing well. He told me I was "smokin' it!" and said, 'You weren't planning on 9:30/miles were you?"

I told him, "No, especially since I had a fever last night!" This made me feel good and I pulled ahead of them for a little while. But then, I stopped to try and stretch my hip (which didn't really help), and they passed me. I wasn't able to catch back up.

I started to get worried about George being hungry when I had 2-3 miles left so I tried calling Pete, but he didn't answer. I tried not to worry about it because there was nothing I could do other than try to hurry so that's what I did, but it was hard. When I saw Pete and the kids near the finish line, though, George was just as happy as can be! It was so great to see them cheering for me, and I sprinted into the finish!

I finished in 2:12 exactly, and according to my Garmin, I actually ran 13.23 miles. I was shooting for 2:10 so I was really close!

It turned out that George was just the perfect angle (was there ever really any doubt?). He didn't drink the bottle they made for him, but he was still just fine. After walking around and getting some food and drinks, I tried to nurse him, but he wasn't even interested in drinking! I don't know if it was because there was so much going on or what, but he was just nice and calm. We put him in his stroller and he just went to sleep while we waited for Katie to come in. What a good little baby! I ended up not even needing to feed him until we were heading home at like 11:00!

Katie finished 20 minutes faster than her last half marathon so she was happy with her time. It's kind of funny that we were both 2 minutes over what we were shooting for, which isn't bad.

Here's my little cheering squad. They liked this statue.

We went to breakfast at Kneeders afterwards before heading home. Then, when we got home, I started feeling really sick again and my temperature got back up to 101.2 degrees. Dang it! I really had thought I was better because I felt so good before and during the race! I spent the rest of the day icing my really sore knee and laying in bed feeling crappy. Pete is taking good care of me, and George took a nice 3 hour nap so I got a little sleep too. I'm trying to rest up and keep drinking a lot. Hopefully I'll be better for real tomorrow.

I think this is a case of "Be careful what you pray for" because maybe it would have been better for me to still have the fever when it was time to go so that I would have stayed in bed instead of running. But, even though it probably wasn't the smartest thing to do, I'm glad I went. It was so much fun, and beautiful! It was also really fun to see Shannon and I'm glad I could be there for Katie.

Tomorrow...

Tomorrow is the Utah Valley Half Marathon. I have to be to Provo (half an hour away) to meet Katie and get on the bus by 3:30.

The good (wonderful, awesome!) news: My foot feels 100% better!

It's weird because it actually felt better after running on it on Wednesday. I'm not complaining though. Yesterday I was just feeling super excited for this race, and for the whole tri season. I did a 1000 yard time trial in 18:33! That beats my time from 2 months ago by 2:29! That was a great feeling! Then I did an hour on the trainer, and Pete sold his old wetsuit so I had triathlon on the brain even more than usual.

The bad (sucky, annoying) news: Remember that nasty cold Pete had last weekend? Yeah, I got it.

Like I said, I was feeling great yesterday morning, but this cold (flu?) hit me like a train last night. I went to bed early, but didn't get the good night's sleep I was hoping for. I don't feel well at all today, but I met my sister in Provo to pick up our packets, then have a picnic at a park with the kids. It was a beautiful day, but it was hard to enjoy it. I had to run into the bathroom several time to blow my nose. Ug!

We got bags that say 26.2 on them, and Katie said, "Doesn't this make you wish we were doing the full?" I have to say that I didn't really think that. I really just hope I can finish the half now! But I'm excited she thought that, maybe we will do a full together someday.

Other than that I've just been drinking a lot of fluids, taking a lot of Vitamin C and trying to rest as much as possible with a 4-month-old. I do have a slight fever so if that doesn't go away by morning, I probably should not run. I'll be fine if it's just a head cold, but I've heard that if you have a fever or anything below your neck, not to run. Let's hope my little antibodies are as strong as I think they are and can kick this thing before 3am tomorrow!

Recovery

This week is a recovery week on my half ironman training plan, and a taper week on my half marathon training plan. It's kind of feels like my second week of recovery since last week was a very swim heavy week, I only rode my bike once and didn't run at all because of my hurt foot.

I was supposed to do a reverse tri on Saturday, but Pete ended up coming down with a really nasty cold Friday night and I just couldn't leave him to take care of the kids feeling like that. Plus we didn't want George to get sick by being around him so I just stayed home and took care of everyone.

It was probably good that I didn't try to fit my workout in because it was also the day of Mindy's big ballet performance so I had to get her all ready for that.

Here she is when I dropped her off at the dressing room at 1 (6.5 hours before the show started!)

It was really neat because they got to perform in a real theater and she had her own mirror in the dressing room. She also had one of the company members as a mentor since they were dancing with them in the last scene. She signed her pointe shoes and gave them to Mindy after the show. Mindy was really excited about that and kept trying to wear them when we got home even though it was 10:30, she was very tired and they're several sizes too big. She's excited for when she gets to start doing pointe in a couple years.

She did a beautiful job in her performance, and you can tell she's really getting stronger at ballet! Her teachers are also very impressed with her and would love her to come back for the summer intensive classes, but she wants a break so we're not going to push her into it. I'm also excited to not have to run kids around for a while and to just stay close to home (the pool, library, store and several parks are all in bike riding distance) most of the summer.

Monday I just did a really hard 1 hour bike ride which was fun. I tried to keep my speed around 19mph, but it was pretty windy so it ended up being 20+ on the way out, and as low as 14 on the way back. It was a good hard effort, though, and I was sore the next day! Then I went and had a spa day with my sister-in-law. We got facials and massages. I had to bring George because it was going to be for longer than he can go without eating, so it wasn't as relaxing as it could have been, but I figure it was still a great start to my recovery week!

Yesterday I did a short recovery swim and 30 minutes of easy spinning on the trainer. Then I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off for the rest of the day. I just had so much stuff I wanted to get done, and I kept wanting to do all of it at once! I finally broke down and made a list. Then what do I end up doing? Cleaning out the Jeep, which was not on the list! Hahaha, so I added it at the bottom so I could mark it off anyway. I did end up getting a lot done which felt really good. I think when I have a light training day I just have more time end energy to notice all the things around the house that need to get done. Anyone else get like that?

Today I tried running for the first time in a week and a half, and (drumroll please...) it wasn't too bad! I just ran 2 slow miles. My foot was hurting kind of bad for almost the first mile, and I was thinking I was not going to be able to do the half marathon. But I thought maybe I just needed to warm up a bit because it was a different kind of pain. It kind of felt more like my foot was stiff from limping around on it for so long. Like I needed to remind it how to run. I'm hoping that's what it was anyway, it doesn't feel worse now so I take that as a good sign. Two more days!

Foot News & Lots of Swimming

Great news about my foot! I went to the doctor yesterday and he said that it is just bruised. His main recommendation was for me to wear comfortable shoes with inserts for extra cushioning, and to not run on it while it hurts because that will just make it take longer to get better. It was one of those doctor visits where you're like, "duh," but it was just really good to not hear him say, "Stress fracture," or anything like that. He did say it could take a couple weeks to get better (which is better than 6!), and that he wouldn't recommend I run the half marathon if it's still hurting.

Well, I wore my old, comfy, cushiony running shoes yesterday and today, and it is feeling significantly better! I'm kind of still limping today, but I think that's more of a precaution than anything, and I'm actually tempted to try my easy 30 minute run tomorrow. We'll see how it feels, if there's any pain at all, I will wait. I'm confidant that if I take care of it, I'll still be able to run The Utah Valley Half Marathon next Saturday! I still have a week to baby it if I need to, and I already got my longest long run done. My sister ran 12 miles yesterday and it went much better than her last long run so she's feeling more confident too! I'm excited!

It's been weird to go from running 24.8 miles last week to 0 miles this week. But I've also gone from swimming 2.3 miles last week to 6.2 miles this week so far so I haven't just been sitting around!

I was really feeling the burn out from swimming 5 days in a row this morning. I considered skipping it and going back to bed, but I reminded myself that I didn't want to miss any so I made myself go. I started off really slow, and my arms were feeling tired and sore. After my first set of 750, I felt better. It really does just take me a while to get warmed up, and I need to remember that on race day. Here's what I did:

S: race-specific

wu: 4 x 75, last 25 in each is backstroke.

main: 3 x 750, all at RPE 4-5

1 - 15:08

2 - 14:48

3 - 14:02!! (This fast guy got in the lane next to me during this one and I think that helped me go faster and made it feel more like a race simulation where everyone is going so much faster than me!)

cd: 3 x 50 easy (swim, kick, swim)

I was actually supposed to do 4 x 750, but that would have taken me an hour, not counting the warmup, cool down and locker room time so I just decided to do the 3 so I could make it back in time to feed George if he was awake/hungry (He woke up at like 6:15 yesterday so I was worried about it the whole time today since Pete was up late last night, but he was just laying in his crib happy when I got home today! Whew!) and get the kids to school. Only 3 more days of school! It worked out great, and I felt like it was a long enough, "race specific" workout.

Tomorrow I'm supposed to do a reverse tri, and I'm still trying to figure out how to fit that into my day since the pool doesn't open until 8 on Saturdays. We'll see.

I ♥ Peanut Butter - No Bakes

I know it's not Tuesday, but I missed yesterday and last Tuesday so I'll give you a quick recipe for a quick treat tonight.

Last night I got my swimming things and my running things ready to go for this morning. My foot was still a little sore, but I was hopeful that it would be ok in the morning so I could still do my 3 miles. Unfortunately, it seemed even more sore in the morning, but I still brought my running clothes to the gym for some reason.

I did speed work in the pool: 16 x 50.

By the time I got done, it was time to get home and get the kids to school. I went home, with my sore foot, still thinking I might try to run. Then I just took a few running steps, and knew it wasn't possible. It's weird because my foot's ok standing around, and not too bad walking, but it's when I take that running step onto the ball of my foot, it really hurts!

So I made a doctor appointment to get it looked at tomorrow. I really, really, really hope he just tells me it's bruised or something and that it will be ok to run on by next Saturday. I've been feeling pretty depressed about all day. I know it's not a big deal, but it's frustrating that I missed this race last year, and now I might have to miss it this year. Arg!

So, this evening I took a nap instead of making dinner, then sat and read while Mindy was at ballet, and had to make a treat when I got home.

No Bakes

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup milk

2 Tablespoons cocoa powder

pinch of salt

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/3 cup peanut butter

1 1/2 cups oatmeal

Combine sugar, butter, milk and cocoa in a sauce pan over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Boil for 1 minute then remove from heat and add salt, vanilla, peanut butter and oatmeal.

Drop by spoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet and chill for at least 1 hour.

Enjoy.

Send me good vibes that my doctor's appointment will go well tomorrow!