10 Miles and an Ice Bath

Day 40
10 miles at 10:42/mile pace

If there ever was a day I wanted Christina to sleep in today was the day. I was not in the mood to run 10 miles (like, anyone wakes up and says "Geez, I can't wait to run 10 miles), but alas, Christina was waiting for me at 5:30 this morning. I had dropped off water at Virg's and at the clubhouse on my way over, so I was a little late. Apparently, not late enough. :) I was feeling nauseous (again. I think it's the anticipation of running 10 miles) and so I only took a few bites of a granola bar.

However, we started off strong and the run was--dare, I say it--quite pleasant. For me, up until mile 8. Then it got hard. Really hard. But the first 8 miles went by fairly quickly.

It was pretty uneventful, though we did comment that rarely have we felt this good running. If only all runs felt like this.

We averaged 10:34(!) for the entire run, finishing in 1:45:35, which I felt was great. We stopped to drink our water, but those were our only walking breaks and they were .02 miles at the most. So, we ran 10 miles without stopping. Yay! Another first for me. Our target pace for a 2:15 half-marathon is 10:12/mile, which I think is totally doable, especially since the course is mostly downhill.

Our splits were:
Mile 1: 10:23
Mile 2: 10:32
Mile 3: 10:40
Mile 4: 10:36
Mile 5: 10:28
Mile 6: 10:43
Mile 7: 10:11
Mile 8: 10:40
Mile 9: 10:37
Mile 10: 10:45

During mile 6, I got a sideache and had to slow down. But I ran through it. It was one of the only two miles I didn't hit the pace--off by a second. (Christina hit the pace on all 10 miles because she was just a step or two--or 10, in the case of the last mile--ahead of me in both cases). Mile 9 and 10 were really hard. Especially the last half mile of the entire run. I was talking out loud to myself telling myself to keep going. That I couldn't stop yet because I'd never run 10 miles without walking. Today was going to be the day. Yada, yada, yada. Mostly it was trying to quiet the little negative voice telling me I couldn't do it and to just stop. Ha. I showed it. I did do it and I almost pulled it out of bag at a 10:42 pace. What happened was that my watch showed 10 miles, but the distance alarm (it beeps every mile) hadn't beeped and so it would only calculate 9.99 miles. I slowed waaaaaay down until it crossed over to the 10 miles and beeped, but it was 3 seconds slower than I thought it would be. Oh well. 3 seconds and 1 second shy on two miles out of ten is still awesome.

What was even more awesome was that I finally figured out how to get my watch to show me the pace of each mile in a scrolling fashion as we run it, so I always know if we're on target. What I had been doing was adding 10:42 as each mile passed so I knew what time we had to cross the next mile at. For example, I'd say "okay, mile 1 is at 10:42, mile 2 is at 21:24, mile 3 is at 32:06, ect." Then, I could check the overall time each mile and see if we were under. If you can imagine, the more miles we ran, the harder it was to calculate them in my head and remember. And adding 10:42 isn't exactly the easiest math to do while you're oxygen deprieved and tired. Also, I never knew if we needed to speed up until it was too late to do so. So anyways, Hillary, you aren't the only watch dummy out there. I've had this watch 2 years and I just figured out you could do that.

The feature came in handy when we stopped for our water, because I knew how much longer we had until we were back on pace. And so we'd run a little faster to catch back up to our pace.

I stopped at Maverik on the way home from Christina's and grabbed a bag of ice. All my runner friends have been telling me that you have to try an ice bath after these long runs. And so, today, I decided to do it. I poured coldish bath water, dumped the bag of ice in and sat in it for 10 minutes. The water was too warm because all the ice melted pretty fast, but it was still cold. And it did help quite a bit. I was surprised. I'm going to be adding that to my regimen from now on out. I took a 30 minute catnap and then spent the day at Deseret Peak. After we got home, I took like a 2 hour nap but I think it was more because of the sun than anything. It's hard work sitting in the sun.

One last thing--sorry, this post is really long, but I want to remember this for "next" time--when Kandiss and I were training for the marathon, we'd put water out every mile or mile and a half. Wade swore it was slowing us down. He would only take it every three or four miles. I thought he was nuts. But, I never felt like this on our runs. We were running a lot slower--averaging 12 minute miles. Maybe he does know what he's talking about.

Two weeks until the triathlon and three weeks until the half. I'm getting excited. I really think I'm going to be able to run the entire thing. Crazy. I never would've thought this body could run 13 miles without walking.

We're almost there!

Quads of Steel

Day 39
Biking

Wade called yesterday from work to inform me that he had to be to work by 7 am this morning. I toyed around with the idea of leaving at 5:30 to bike, but I just couldn't bring myself to even suggest such a thing to Christina. So, instead, I agreed to hook up the bike trailer to my mountain bike and take the kids with me.

Granted, it's the first time I've ever done such a thing. But, really, how hard could it be.

Apparently, really hard.

I cycled over to the clubhouse to meet Christina at 6:30. Then we started down the triathlon course.

We made it down Lake View or whatever that street is all the way to the end of Stansbury Park. Then I suggested maybe we cut down Ponderosa so I wouldn't have to haul my 60 pounds of precious cargo down to Brienne and back up Bates Canyon. We got to the top of Cochrane Lane and turned around. Good thing because Christina's tire (the very one she just fixed) went flat right there and we ended up walking all the way back to her house. It's nice that (a) we weren't all the way over to Erda and (b) she doesn't still live on Water Wheel because that would've been a LONG walk home.

I can tell that it was a really hard workout because I've been unusally short with Josh this morning. A lot of it is that I had to drag him out of bed and he's whiney and crabby when I do that. But, a lot of is me too. It was tough pulling those kids. I hope it doesn't ruin me for my run tomorrow. And I hope I get a nap today.

Sleepy Heads

Day 38
Swimming

Just when I was toting myself for being such a good training buddy, I slept in this morning and totally stood Christina up for our swim.

I was all ready to go and thought "oh, I have like 10 minutes before I have to leave." So I laid down and the next thing I knew, it was like 2 hours later. So then I slept for a little longer while Aunika sat in her bouncy chair and chatted. It's a good thing she's a good baby. :)

I called Christina. Bless her soul, she waited until 6:3o and then went back to sleep. She didn't wake up until 9:00 either. I guess we both needed the sleep.

At least it was *just* swimming and not our long run. 10 miles on Friday.

The run down

So yesterday I ran with my double stroller. (Which needs to get fixed but Jer hasn't got around to it. Just add that to his to do list that he doesn't have time for. Really it's not his fault. I guess I could be the kind of wife that figures it out herself, but if I started doing all that stuff I wouldn't need a husband.) So I ran and made it. 5 something miles. I have to admit I was pretty impressed with myself. It's one of those things you think you can't do, and you do it. But now I don't have an excuse to not get out and run. It's doable. So that was yesterday and today I went to Gold's and swam. I lifted a few weights before hand. My arms were a little sore. It was pretty uneventful.

Pushing A Baby in a Baby Carriage

Day 37
6 miles at a 9:57/mile pace

Hillary joined us for our jaunt through the neighborhoods this morning. It was nice to have her along. She brought Belle and Tessa with her in the jogging stroller, which helped keep her at our pace. :)

We started off nice, but pushing two kids is a lot of work. Christina and I slowed down to match Hillary's pace. We went around Rose Springs, over to the clubhouse and than back to Christina's.

The run itself was pretty uneventful. We didn't hit our pace, though I felt really good and felt like I could've easily done it. But it was more important to stay with Hillary and Christina. So, I slowed myself down. It's nice when running doesn't feel so much like a chore. I was commenting to Hillary on the way home that I can't believe I've been getting up at such bizarre times the entire summer because I'm not a morning person. But now, it just seems like second nature. I rarely have to fight myself to not go back to bed and pull a no show. It's still hard to get up (note the time: 12:17 a.m.) because I'm definitely a night person, but I have great kids that will let me take a little snooze after I get back if I need it.

We got to 5.63 miles and Belle was climbing out of her seat, so we stopped the run there.

I think we have this race in the bag girls. I'm not as nervous about the half as I am about the tri. Once the tri is over with, I'll be a little nervous about the half. I have some lofty goals. But I'm confident I'll reach them because you guys are such great training partners. :)

I'd give our splits, but I'm too lazy to get out of bed and find the watch. I know we averaged 10:28/mile and had our fastest mile at 10:01. Not too bad considering the extra weight Hillary was pushing.

Later on, at the movie, I said to Christina, "we should just take tomorrow off from swimming." And she replied "Okay. Sounds good. Maybe I'll get my bike fixed and go out on that." Grrr...Okay. We'll swim. It's good I have Christina the Machina to keep me on track with all this exercise.

Oh, and Bonus. When I stepped on the scale this morning, I had lost 4 pounds. It was probably all water weight, but I'll take it. :)

Getting Going

Day 36
Swimming
6 x 400 at 2:15 pace

Christina and I met at 5:15 this morning to head to the swimming pool. So glad we're back in the pool instead of the lake. The water was cold and the early swimmers were looking at us like we had just landed there on our little spaceships. Seriously, maybe we're infringing on some secret meeting or something. And then the old lady bobbing in the deep end...

I calculated how far 400 m (the distance of the triathlon) was in laps and we decided to "mimic" the race. The rules were that we had to swim without touching the sides. This was a little bit trickier than I anticipated since you have to go in a circle AND avoid the old lady bobber. But we somehow figured it out and swam 18 lengths of the pool that way. It took us about 10:30 to do it. I set a goal of being out of the water in 11 minutes. This gives us a little leeway because (a) we're not swimming in circles, so we're not losing momentum (b) all those people that kick you in the face and (c) the lake itself. I plan to be on my bike by 12:00, though according to the results last year, that was pretty fast. I do think the swim turned out to be longer than the year before, though. So maybe they'll go back to the first year's course.

After we swam, we headed over to the track. I can't say that I particularly like doing these workouts back to back, though I am glad to have them done. I was trying to dry myself off the best I could before putting on my clothes (over my swimsuit). It was a little bit colder than most mornings too. We waited for a few minutes for Hillary, and then started. We were soaking wet from the swimsuits, but only in the places that matter. Like the boobs, the butt and the crotch. You know, for the entire football team to see.

The first lap was hard and then we had to pee. So we went in search of a bathroom. We finally found an open door to the school and then ran into someone from Christina's ward. After we used the bathroom, Tonya Haddon was there and we talked to the two ladies for a while before I steered us back outside to finish our workout.

We had to quit at four laps because of time, but...oh well. We tried.

Here's our splits:

Lap 1: 2:04
Lap 2: 2:01
Lap 3: 1:55
Lap 4: 1:51

I think we're getting faster because they didn't seem *that* hard.

Not my last 10K

So I wrote this LONG report on the 10k and the computer popped up that it couldn't blog my blog because someone else was posting....I don't know but it never showed up, I lost all the work, so here I go again. (Probley a whole LOT boringer then the first.) I've been addicted to a lot of things mainly soap operas and junk food (The first one I gave up.) Now I think I'm getting addicted to racing. (Not the training part, the fun EVENT part.) So this wont be my last 10K.

I went to my parents house the night before and finally went to bed at 10:30. Tessa woke me up at 11:00. Then Belle woke up at 12:30. I then was off and on through the night wondering if I was going to oversleep. I looked at my watch at 4:20 and woke Belle up to eat before I headed off to the race. I was up and going. I ate a banana. Sandra showed up and like she reported I had a pillow and blanket in the car. We got to the race and I was excited to do my first 10k. Looking around it made me feel a little nervous. People seem to really take this serious. Runners were actually warming up? I didn't want to warm-up and get worn out before I started! We were off and the first mile I had a really bad side ache. I was praying (which I tend to do a lot while I run except with my eyes open) that it would go away. Finally it did. I was running wondering where the water stop was and my pace. Finally the water! Unfortunately it wasn't manned very well and a runner graciously poured me some water. (I'm sure it lost her time! So thank you, whoever you are!) Then I realized I was going too slow. So I think my last 3 miles were faster than my first 3. It's hard to tell your pace going down hill. Mile 4 my shoelace came undone. I ran with it untied for a mile until drink stop at mile 5. Then it was off to the finish which helped knowing my Dad was there to watch. I was glad they had oranges. The bagels were blah! Sandra finished hard. If we are in town next year I definately will repeat this run. I would even like to stay for the parade.

That night I had a weird neck problem which lasted into Sunday morning. So I missed Saturday to train. (Honestly I was really sore.) Monday morning I was planning on meeting Sandra and Christina at the track, well it didn't happen. I overslept. I woke up with good intentions, decided to sleep a few more minutes and didn't open my eyes until 8:00. I think the lack of sleep since Thursday really caught up with me. I wont know what to do with myself when Belle is sleeping through the night. Maybe I'll be training at 3:30 in the morning instead. J/K Tonight I am going to Gold's Gym to swim. Jeremy is out of town until Wednesday night. (Which might be longer because he doesn't have a seat on the plane....but he's scheduled for the flight.)

P.S. I'm glad Sandra is my friend and can help me figure out problems. (Such as how we were going to get back to our car after Hobblecreek)

Ride, Baby, Ride

Day 35
Biking

I met Christina at the clubhouse at 6:30 this morning. Unfortunately, her bike had a flat tire and her mountain bike has no pedals. So she was in her van. That was nice of her to show up. I would've just called from bed and then gone back to sleep.

We sat and talked for about an hour. I really wanted to turn around and go home, but since I was already out, I decided to do the course anyways.

My goal was to finish in under 50 minutes. There was a slight drizzle of rain and the wind was pretty stiff. The ride was uneventful for the most part. The hardest part is the stretch from the turnoff of Bates Canyon to Erda Way. It's a long uphill. The flip side is that it's all downhill coming back.

At one point I was going faster than the speed limit--25 mph. I hit 26.4 mph on the way back from Erda Way. It was awesome! But then I almost biffed it turning a corner. I need to work on that strategy since I had to slam on my brakes and I lost all momentum. It happened again at the next corner as well.

When I was almost to the end of Bates Canyon on my way back, there was a car following behind me. It would not pass me and was pissing me off. So I crossed the street and turned down the side street. The car followed and it was going so slow. So I just left it in the dust. I think it was a someone looking for yard sales, but who knows.

I continued back on the path to the clubhouse and finished in 47:31. averaging 15.4 mph. Yay! I'm finally blowing time goals out of the water like Hillary. Of course, she'll probably read this, get on her bike and finish in 35 minutes. :)

Too Old To Be Doing This

DAY 34
Deseret News July 24th 10k

If you will recall, I was at the Kenny Chesney concert last night. It was AWESOME! However, I was under the impression we were going to eat dinner beforehand, and so I didn't eat a lot for breakfast or lunch. But then we didn't go to dinner and there weren't a lot of options at the concert. I wasn't going to pay $5.50 for a small, gross, stadium hamburger, so I ended up with a tub of stale popcorn of which I didn't eat a lot of.

Then, we sat in the sun for 2 hours. I was drenched about 30 minutes into the concert. It was crazy. I had one bottle of water, but I definitely did not bring my hydration levels back up to where they needed to be.

We got to my mom's house at about 11:30. I was too hyped up from the concert to go to bed right away and so I got all my stuff ready for the morning and it was about 1 am before I fell asleep. At 4:30 am, the alarm went off and I didn't have an option to hit the snooze button. I drove to Hillary's parent's place and her dad drove us to the start line. I took an energy shot at about 5 am as I pulled up to the mortuary.

Hillary curled up and went back to sleep in the car, but I was too pysched to go to sleep. I ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on my way to the starting line. Hillary's dad took the most bizarre way to the starting line, but we got there with about 30 minutes to spare. We stretched a little bit and stood in line for a last minute potty break. This time, I took the break so I wouldn't have a repeat of July 4th.

At about 6:10, we started. I felt incredible. It was a little hard to seperate from the crowd and get going at a good pace. To meet my goal, I had to average a 9:39/mile pace. However, the first 3.5 miles were the best I have EVER felt running. I was cruising, having a good time. My only complaint is that I started off with a dry mouth and the first water station wasn't until 3 miles in. It wasn't manned very well either and utter chaos ensued that pulled me off my mark.

At 3.5 miles, I caught up to a friend from my Toastmaster's group I go to on Thursday nights. I ran with her for a few minutes and then I took off. She said later that she lost sight of me at about 4.20 miles. It was shortly after I took off from her that I bonked. I was having a hard time keeping pace and my energy was shot. I struggled down the parade route and knew it was going to be tight at the end to hit my target. I was a little disappointed because at the half way point, I was up 2 minutes.

When I turned the corner to run the last .20 miles, I knew I wasn't going to come in under my goal, but I gave it my best in that last quarter mile. It was a slight upgrade and I was breathing HARD. I crossed at 1:00:24. =( So close.

It was really hot on the course and I could've used another water station, but really what it came down to was that I'm too old to be pulling almost all-nighters at concerts and then running PR's at races seven hours later, especially without eating anything all day the day before. I need to do better with my nutrition and water intake the day before these big races. And sleep. I probably need to do better with these things overall.

I felt really nauseous and shaky afterwards, so I had to lay on the grass before I could walk back to the car.

My splits were:
Mile 1: 9:11
Mile 2: 8:59!!
Mile 3: 10:05 (thanks bad water stop)
Mile 4: 9:27
Mile 5: 10:03
Mile 6: 10:34
Mile 6.20: 9:41

I found the results and Hillary blew her time out of the water by crossing at 52:14, averaging 8:25/mile. That's where I want to be next year. I averaged 9:44/mile, which is pretty good, considering it's 2 minutes faster than 2007, when I ran it with Christina and training for a marathon. Plus, I didn't walk at all except for at the water stations. I have to keep telling myself that I did just have a baby 8 months ago. The speed will come--hopefully.

I have been wondering if I'm a slave to my watch and if I would run faster if I didn't have it. But, then I remember how surprised I am when I look down and I'm going so much slower than I thought I was. I have a hard time gauging how fast or slow I'm going. I just have to take baby steps and make reasonable goals and do the things I need to to get there. Patience...

We both missed Christina. =( She would've done awesome.

I want to know Hillary's version of the race, so I hope she posts something. Good job!

FYI on Fill the Ark run

It's been awhile but while I was searching for the Deseret News results, (which I didn't find) I decided to look at the Fill the Ark results. There were actually 174 girl participants. Here was the breakdown

Hillary- Overall-38, 11 in age group out of 49
Christina- Overall-62, 10 in age group out of 30
Sandra- Overall-87, 29 in age group out of 49

I thought it was kinda interesting. I look forward to doing this one again next year. (For the chance of winning a good prize.)

The Wheels Go Round and Round

Day 33
Road Biking

We decided to do the triathlon course this morning on our bikes. It was a pretty uneventful ride to Erda Way. However, when we turned around I was all excited to pop my bike from the easiest gear to the hardest gear so I could fly down the road. Then my chain popped off and got stuck and we had to pull over so I could fix it. Then I couldn't fix it, but Christina the Machina did. She's my hero.

We stopped at my house and ran up Stansbury Parkway. I actually had my watch on this time and was pleasantly surprised to find us running at a 9:30 pace. It sure didn't feel like it. It felt like we were crawling at a 13:00 pace. I had toyed around with the idea of not wearing my watch during the triathlon, but I think what happened last time was that I thought I was going so slow so I tried to speed up, but then crashed because my body hadn't ever gone that fast, especially after swimming and biking 12 miles. So, I think I'm going to wear my watch so I can gauge my speed.

So, yeah. Another early morning. Another workout. Same old, same old. I'm excited for the 10k tomorrow though.

15 cents and good friends

I forgot to write that today after swimming I was walking back to the car when I found 15 cents. I teased Christina that she isn't doing her job anymore! Thanks Sandra for the comment on my post. I don't mean to sound so discouraged. But I hope to look back and think, oh ya I was thinking that and I made it. The best part is that I have two great friends. They listen to me talk, they talk, we laugh... it's been good. They are low maintanence. But I know that we would be their for each other. We even get up at crazy hours to work out for each other, watch each other kids, share equipment. The best part is Sandra helping Hillary figure out that her handle bars are backwards and helmet....oh I'm going to enjoy reading back on this. P.S. we need to teach Christina how to post. Enjoy your biking. I'm taking the day off!

Always Tired

I'm starting to remember the days of training in High school. During swim season I was always exhausted. The good thing in high school though was that I only had to take care of myself. I find myself becoming miserable. I thought exercise was suppose to make you feel better and look better. I've been working out non stop, haven't lost a pound, don't fit into a size 4, is this really worth it? I do like the feeling of accomplishing something that is hard. But I've started stressing myself out. What if I DO come in last? Things like that CAN happen. I could fall off my bike. Who really knows what kind of biker I am anyways... So now I just feel tired and stressed out. I know my family is feeling it too...

Yesterday I rode my bike with Sandra. I could enjoy riding if it was casual. I only got up to 14 miles an hour. I know my neighbor said he averaged 18. In the morning I couldn't run with Christina and Sandra because they were getting back too late. I didn't really want to get up at 5:00. Amy Berry has invited me to run with them so I took her up on it. 5:30 we ran. I would've liked to have Sandra's watch to know at what pace we were running at. I'm sure it was down around the 8 minute. I think I did okay the first two miles, but the last two were killers. I didn't really enjoy the run. I enjoy running more when I am running a 10 minute pace and talking and not thinking I'm going to throw up any minute. Today we swam in the lake. I've been late the last two days for Sandra. Sorry. Belle wouldn't get in her car seat. I usually wake up and nurse her before I go, but I woke up with ten minutes to 7:00. I was planning to feed her when I got to the lake, but she had other ideas. So I got to the lake late. On my swim I wasn't watching where I was going. I thought I'll just swim fast, well I went way off course. I know I'll have to pay attention on the day of the race. Thank goodness it's almost here.

Icky and Slimey and Smelly

Day 32
Swimming

Another date with the lake this morning. And the lake was none to pleased to see us. As we weren't for him either.

We met at the lake at 7 am and it felt nice to sleep in a little bit, though I did keep waking up, wondering if it was time to get up. Grrrr...

Hillary was a little late getting there, just after I had successfully convinced Christina that we could just go home and go back to bed. But alas...

Christina and I got in first. The lake was particularly gross this morning with a putrid smell eminating from it. It wasn't so bad in the middle, but the edges were disgusting. On the way back, I started gagging and I was having a hard time keeping it in. I tried breathing through my mouth, but it didn't help. Ew...

Hillary and Christina swam the next round. I lost track of both heads at the turnaround spot, but then saw Hillary headed off to the side. It was quite impressive how fast she was going, but I was trying to figure out how to get her attention that she was going in the wrong direction--in fact she was headed right for the big lake combine that was cutting weeds. But, then she switched and headed back towards the right shore, so I figured she'd done it on purpose. Apparently, not so.

Since we got a late start and I didn't have the kids, I called Wade to see how close to ready he was. He said he was almost ready, so we had to bag our second swim. I was okay with it because I really didn't want to get back into the lake.

We decided we didn't need to swim in the lake again until our mock triathlon on August 8. Good thing because something rubbed against my foot and I about lost it out there.

When I got home, Wade was just getting out of the shower. Chump.

However, remember when I was contemplating pulling out of the triathlon because of my cousin's wedding that day? Well, turns out they're postponing it. Good thing I listened to my gut on that one. :)

Perspective

Day 31
8 mile tempo run at 9:57/mile pace

Good ideas always sound better at 8:30 pm instead of 4:30 am. Christina called last night and said that she had to be home by 6:40 am from our 8 mile run. I fished around to see how much wiggle room she had--6:44--and we decided that 5:00 am would be our start time.

So I stumbled out of bed and made my way to Virg's with some water. Then over to Christina's. We started our route--a modified version of the 11 miler you guys did Friday. We hit mile 1 at 10:01. At about 1.5 miles, two dogs who weren't chained up came after us. Though I was wearing a headlamp, when I looked over all I saw was two very large dogs with glowing eyes. So I suggested that we walk since I wasn't sure what kind of dogs they were and I didn't want to appear as a threat. We ended up walking about .10 of the mile and that threw our entire time goal out the window.

From that point on, it was just run 8 miles. I've NEVER run 8 miles nonstop (minus a dog run-in). I've missed all the long runs this training plan for one thing or another. When I trained for my marathon I did a 25 minute run/5 min walk plan, which was nice until you had to start running again after the first 5 minute segment. :) So, just finishing was a new feeling.

If I would've written this post right afterwards, I would have lamented our dismal times, but after thinking about it for the day, I'm actually pretty proud of us. For starters, this is a tough course with a gradual uphill that goes on for about 2 miles at the beginning. Also, we had to do two laps around Christina's neighborhood to finish our 8 miles and we both had to use the bathroom. It's always hard to see your car and know you're so close, yet so far away. And not to mention it was 5 am. My body doesn't really know what 5 am looks like.

Also, I was thinking about the six mile run we did in April along the same course. I thought I was going to die. Everything hurt so bad and I was soooo slow. I can't find where I actually figured out the minutes/mile, but I think I was at almost 12 minutes and I had to walk. So I guess I'm getting in better shape.

We averaged 10:32/mile, which is slightly faster than our long run pace. I really think we might have been able to get on target if we wouldn't have had the run in with the dogs. It threw the timing off and, in these longer runs, you get excited for every mile that hits under that pace.

However, I felt like we did good. Yay for 8 miles.

Here's our splits:
Mile 1: 10:01
Mile 2: 10:44
Mile 3: 10:34
Mile 4: 11:01
Mile 5: 10:15
Mile 6: 10:35
Mile 7: 10:40
Mile 8: 10:29

Triathlon Strategy Change

Day 30
Swimming
4 x 800 at 4:54/2 laps

We met at the track this morning at 6:30 am to run our intervals. I can handle the 400's just fine, but those 800's and mile intervals just about kill me.

It was nice to have Hillary as our pace rabbit. She kept us on our toes and we ran our intervals faster than if Christina and I would've been on our own. I guess it's good to push yourself sometimes. But still...I was pretty tired afterwards, and we still had our lake swim to do.

My interval times (and Christina's since she was right with me except for a little ahead in the first interval) were:

Interval 1: 4:32
Interval 2: 4:45
Interval 3: 4:24
Interval 4: 4:15

I'm not sure what Hillary did her first interval in but hers were:

Interval 2: 4:00
Interval 3: 3:55
Interval 4: 3:35

It was halfway through the first trip across the lake that my entire strategy for the triathlon changed. Up until now, I'd been thinking that go easy on the swim, make up the time on the bike, survive the run was the way to go. However, after floating in that lake, I altered my plan to get out of the water as fast as possible, make up extra time on the bike, attempt to run, would now be my strategy. It was nasty, yet not as nasty as Saturday. Saturday, thanks to the big gulp of water I took at the beginning of the swim, was a lot worse. And the anticipation of getting in the lake is always worse than the actual experience.

Christina's goggles (which I was borrowing because I left mine at home) kept filling up with water and on the way back across, I just took them off and had them resting on my head. I'd swim 10 strokes than wipe my eyes and look to make sure I was going in the right direction. Than 10 more strokes. Made for a long swim across.

My second lap was a little better, since I was using Hillary's goggles. I was more relaxed and that helped. But I still refuse to open my eyes under water. I don't want to know what I'm swimming with. So I close my eyes and then open them when I turn my head to breathe. I wasn't prepared for how tired I was after the two back-to-back swims though. It was taxing, especially after the intervals. But good practice for the real deal.

Wednesday, we'll switch up the order a little bit so Christina can have the benefit of swimming back-to-back.

July 24th 10k Plan

Date
July 24, 2009

Time
6:00 am

Place
Research Park at the University of Utah

Time Goals
Hillary: 52:50
Sandra: 1:00:00

Splits
Hillary
Mile 1: 8:30
Mile 2: 17:00
Mile 3: 25:30
Mile 4: 34:00
Mile 5: 42:30
Mile 6: 51:00
Mile 6.2: 52:50

Sandra
Mile 1: 9:39
Mile 2: 19:18
Mile 3: 28:58
Mile 4: 38:37
Mile 5: 48:16
Mile 6: 57:56
Mile 6.2: 1:00:00

Notes:
This is a really nice course because a lot of it's downhill. You loop around by the stadium and then down the parade route. There is a little uphill at the end, but it's not as bad as the Tooele's uphill at the end of the 4th. It's also a lot cooler at this time of the day. And we're done by 7:00 am. If we want to, we can hang around for another half an hour and watch the winner of the marathon come in. It's pretty cool to see. We'll see how we feel.

There are 2 water stations on the course. It's been my experience that you get more out of the water station if you just stop and pick up your drink and drink it while you're walking. You're slowing down anyways to drink it and sometimes you slow down to a pace slower than if you just stopped and walked for 10 seconds. However, do what feels natural.

Don't go overboard with how much you eat because your body isn't use to eating this early, but do eat and drink something.

And most important. Have fun!

Fishy Saturday

Day 29
Mock Triathlon

We came. We saw. We conquered. It was...educational...if not a little fun, right girls? Right??

We met at the clubhouse at 7 am and got our stuff all laid out. Then we got in the lake.

Ew. It smelled bad. And tasted worse. The anticipation of going in the lake is always a lot worse than the actual experience. I wish I could just relax, but I was tense in the lake the entire time. It was a long way across the lake and I was getting tired, but I made it. Coming back, the sun glared off my goggles and made it hard to keep an eye on Hillary (who I was using as my focal point). In the actual race itself, I need to focus on a stationary object. Eventually, my googles got so foggy, I just pulled them off. It wasn't like I was opening my eyes under water anyways. I wasn't as far back as I thought I was going to be from Hillary, but she still has the swim in the bag.

The bike portion of the "event" was, by far, my most favorite. That's definitely my strongest of the three sports. I felt good. My butt didn't hurt. The only thing I'd change is bring something to eat, drink more water, and possibly have a bottle of gatorade.

I was the first one back from the bike, but I had the same problem today as I did when I did the triathlon 2 years ago. I really needed my inhaler. Especially getting off the bike and then running up that stupid hill. I just can't seem to catch my breath. So I ended up walking a lot more of the 5k then I had wanted to. I did make it all the way up Stansbury Parkway before I stopped to walk.

Hillary caught up with me at Crystal Bay. Then we walked for a little bit at the corner of the frontage road. We ran down to the elementary school and the water stop (so glad for the water stop!) and Christina caught up with us there.

Hillary and Christina took off and I ended up walking up the hill by the school on our way back. I was probably a minute behind them finishing though, so not too shabby.

Of course, I didn't run 11 miles yesterday.

I think it was a good workout that got us a little more prepared for the actual thing. We should probably do another one (same course so we can see if we improved any) before the actual tri. Next weekend is a holiday, I have something on the 1st, so the 8th it is. We could try to do it on an evening during the week if that doesn't work.

This week we're going to try biking (most) of the triathlon course for Hillary's benefit on Tuesday night.

Good job girls.

After the race picture

Due to the fact that Jeremy didn't get to the race on time, here I am holding my number. Actually I would rather see this picture than one of me running. Except those pictures are always very motivating to keep working out.

Joes Valley

Jer got around to down loading pictures on the computer. This is a picture of Joes Valley. I got to enjoy the beautiful scenery each day running or biking. It was a nice change. I am glad though that we live in Stansbury and can enjoy the mountains. It's a lot better than running in Salt Lake.

Chumpy Friday

Day 28
10 mile long run at 10:42/mile pace


I was so excited for our run yesterday. It was going to be the first time I hit double digits since I ran that half marathon with Christina in January of 2008.

I was probably so excited that I whipped myself into a nervous wreck and that caused me to throw up last night. And then I'm sure that the overexposure to the sun for the last two weeks hasn't helped. And then...you know, the usual excuses. But at 5:30 in the morning it's REALLY hard not to listen to your negative self telling you not to run. And I wasn't entirely sure that I would be able to make it. What if I was 5 miles away and something happened. I got dressed anyway, thinking maybe I could trick my body into cooperating, but I still felt nauseous.


So I drove down to Hillary's, and handed her my watch and gave her my best wishes, secretly happy I was going back to bed. But then, I laid in bed for 30 minutes, mad at myself for not just sucking it up and doing the run despite how I was feeling. Mostly, I felt bad that we (read: Christina and Hillary because obviously I was back in bed) were running at 5:30 in the morning on my account. Boo.


But, Hillary dropped off the watch, and after doing some fandangling, I was able to figure out how fast you ran and how far.


11.05 miles in 2 hours, averaging 10:52/mile. That's not too shabby considering you went an extra mile. Good job!


Here's the breakdown:


Mile 1: 11:23
Mile 2: 11:01
Mile 3: 11:32
Mile 4: 11:00
Mile 5: 10:41
Mile 6: 10:06
Mile 7: 10:37
Mile 8: 10:48
Mile 9: 11:28
Mile 10: 10:26
Mile 11: 10:48


In every mile, except for three, you hit a pace of under 9 minutes. You also burned 2018 calories.

I'm planning on taking it easy today and being in top form for tomorrow's mock triathlon. I'll email you the details later. I'm thinking a bike ride to Lake Point and then the 5k course of the actual triathlon. I just need to think through the logistics of where to store the bikes and what not.

The last few days & Double sideaches

I have worked out this week. Due to the power problem, 4 kids, and our internet not working I have not got on to type. MOnday I ran in the parking lot. It started to get really hot. 9:00 is too late to be running in the morning. I never made it to my swim that day.
Tuesday I dragged the kids to the pool and swam. I feel very confident with my swimming. I would like to say I have no doubt that I will make it out of the lake in 9:00 minutes or less. I'm also sure I will, but we'll see. How long it takes to transition might add a bit of time. So right now that is where I'm shooting for in the swim. That night I ran to Lake Point. It was going awesome. I felt good. I was running fast. (Fast for me) When I got double side aches. A lot of times I can run through this. But I couldn't. I was in so much pain. I stopped and walked it out. It took me about 10 minutes to recover. I don't know what I was doing wrong. It was very frustrating and I was wondering what would happen if this happened in the race. So far in all the races I haven't faced side aches. Good thing. My goal for the run in the race is to go under 30 minutes. I don't know what my bike goal should be since I haven't really ridden.
Wednesday I went to the gym and did the spinning class. It kicks my butt. It was an hour and then I headed to the treadmill to run. I ran a mile right after. (Not fast by any means.) I was planning to run more, except their was a scary movie on and I had to run to the bathroom. So that was the end of my workout. Thursday. Today should be biking. I didn't get up early enough to bike. Tonight I wont be able to because we have a family get together. Honestly I feel exhausted. I think I might take it easy today and let my body rest. It's a bunch of things adding up. I'm tired. Belle hasn't slept through the night for me. I'm worn out. So if I do anything it will be only biking to go feed the ducks and a little ride after that.

Truckin' Thursday

Day 27
Road Biking

Christina met me at my house at 6-freakin'early:15. It was rough getting out of bed this morning since Josh had a rough night. He went to lay down and wait for me to come read him a story and fell asleep. Then, at 1 am, he woke up and INSISTED on a story. Luckily, Wade was still awake (doing what? I don't know) so he read him a story. Then he was back up at 2:30, crying about something. Finally, he settled down.

Anyways, 6:15 came fast.

When I met Christina outside, my watch wouldn't turn on. I was bummed because I thought I had fried it somehow. But I fixed it when I got home, so all is well for tomorrow's run. (well, you know, as good as can be when you're contemplating a 10 mile run in the morning).

So we rode our bikes over to Lake Point. It was easy going and we just chatted the whole way. We went around the roundabout and headed back. Then ran about .75 of a mile. We both had noodle legs and I wished I would've had my watch to see how fast we were really going, because it sure felt slow. My legs never did ease up and now I'm kind of nervous about that transition.

Oh and the bra situation. Seems that my "assets" have changed so much that the sports bras that fit before Aunika are now digging into my skin and leaving marks. Very painful marks. I know it's not because I got any bigger. I think they're just sagging more or something. I found some new bras, but I found out this morning that they offer ZERO support. Wade thinks I should just go braless, but he's a man, so his opinion on the matter doesn't count. I have a really nice sports bra from the marathon training days, but it was $25, and I don't want to spend that kind of money on underwear. That's ludicrous. So I guess I'm back to the drawing board. So much information, isn't it?

Wet Wednesday

Day 26
Swimming

Another Wednesday. More laps. Bleh.

We were at Deseret Peak. Again, so we took turns. Again. And this time wasn't nearly as eventful as Monday. No injuries. Just 25 laps. 50 lengths. However, I was wondering if it takes me an average of 30 seconds to get from one end of the pool to the other, why does everyone who wants to cross the lane wait until the half second I'm right in front of them to cross?

I spent my lap time thinking of three things:
(a) Our secret mission for the triathlon
(b) Pretending I was in the lake and trying not to swallow the water
(c) Our run on Friday

So:

(a) Our secret mission for the triathlon.
I talked with Christina about our mission and she's game, so we all know what we need to do. No need to spell it out here. Haha. I love secret missions.

(b) I tend to pull water into my mouth and then spit it out when I'm swimming. I know. Gross. So I spent a lot of my swim concentrating on not doing that. And then I started to imagine I was in the lake (which is gross too) and so I was swimming with my eyes closed and only opening them when my head was out of the water, because I hate that I'm swimming with fishies in the lake and I don't want to see them.

(c) Our run on Friday
10 miles. Bleh. But it will be my first double digit run since the half marathon I did with Christina in January of '08. So here's to a nice 10 miles.

See. Pretty uneventful.

Bad Run Tuesday

Day 25
4 mile run at 9:57/mile

For whatever reason, we could not get into our groove this morning. The power outage yesterday threw a kink in the cosmos and I was late getting over to Christina's. Wade had to be to work early this morning, so we had to run even earlier and I, naturally, didn't go to bed until after midnight. And then when I went to put on my sock, I ripped the sore from yesterday on my toe. Josh has used up all the bandaids as stickers, so I couldn't find anything. Grrr....just one of those mornings.

Christina was feeling about the same way. We started off and did pretty okay the first mile, but I couldn't speed Christina up very much. I'd slow down to her pace and then try to push her back up to the 9:57 pace, but she wasn't budging. So, I gave up. At least we were out there. And even Christina the Machina deserves a bad day here and there.

By three miles, I was starting to struggle too. I'm glad it was only four miles. Our splits are not very impressive:

Mile 1: 10:02
Mile 2: 10:12
Mile 3: 10:22
Mile 4: 10:11

Our overall average was 10:12/mile, which is 15 seconds slower per mile than our target pace. Not as bad as I thought it was going to be, but we never did find that sweet spot. We both agreed that had we been on our own, we would've just given up and gone home.

Oh well. You win some, you lose some.

Mondays are Bad Luck

Day 24
Swimming
3 x 1600 at a 9:27/mile pace

We met this morning at the track at 9-freakin' hot:00. Again, the track was locked up. Seriously, what is the deal and who do I call to find out what the hours are?

So we had to run our mile intervals in the parking lot. Which totally sucked. To make matters worse, I hadn't charged my watch and so it died about half way through the first interval.

And then, to save $30, I let another UTI go over the weekend so I wouldn't have to go into InstaCare, but then I had a hard time not peeing and not wanting to go there again like the July 4th race, I had to keep stopping.

And it was hot.

And it was miserable.

And I was a wimp and only ran like a mile total out of the entire three mile run.

But I did have a fun time watching Hillary's kids beat each other up. And I especially liked Tessa saying Stupidhead Hunter over and over again. Ahh...it was good birth control. Kind of like last week when I drove Christina and all her kids to the pool. :) I think two's good for me.

So anyways, Christina and Hillary did great on their intervals, getting 8:31 on interval 2, and 8:15 on interval 3. I'm not sure where we were at interval one because my watch croaked, but I'm sure you guys were right around there.

At the pool, I was late getting there because of my doctor appointment. We upped our laps to 25 laps and Christina went first. Landon had to pee and I took him into the bathroom where he proceeded to pee on EVERYTHING. I've never seen pee shoot that far in my life. I had forgotten that you have to point their thingies down and by the time I remembered, it was too late. It was all over the door and the floor and me. Good thing we were at the swimming pool and not at a nice restaurant or Dillards or, well, pretty much anywhere else.

After Christina got back I headed over to the pool. I stubbed my big toe on some uneven concrete and didn't think much about it. As I went to take off my flip flops, I noticed that my toe was gushing blood. I figured I couldn't get into the pool like that, so I had to hobble (hey hobble creek...it's so fitting) back to the front desk where the world's most inept front desk person--who I've seen every day for the last week, so I know she's not new and she's the one who was there when I signed up for swimming lessons both this year and last year and I thought she was inept then--completely ignored me about getting a bandaid. By that point, I was dripping blood everywhere so I just went back outside and got some napkins to clean off and survey the damage. I managed to scrape a pretty good size chunk off the top of my toe and it hurt. Christina finally secured my some bandaids from the office and even found my goggles for me that I had left on the desk.

So I bandaged myself up and headed back over to the lanes. It was crowded and there were kids playing in the lap lanes, so I got in on the side. And then they followed me there. It was really frustrating, but eventually, I made it to a lane and proceeded on with my laps. Other than the occassional kid wanting to mow me over, it was uneventful. The bandaid was causing some kind of weird suction power that made it really painful to kick so I spent most of the time just swimming with my arms, which made my arms hurt.

I had every intention of running my intervals this evening after Wade got home from work, but the power was out and so we went into Tooele. And then the power didn't come back on and it got dark. So, I guess I'll just swallow this one as a loss.

Heavenly View and Kryptonite

This week was beautiful. (I plan on posting a picture as soon as Jer or I take the time to download the pictures.) We drove to Joes Valley Sunday after church. Monday morning Jer and I ran. It was our "date." We ran 5 miles. Jeremy likes to make fun of me. (I'm praying a miracle happens and I beat him.) Maybe Sandra or Christina can trip him, that way it wont be me. The funny part is that he didn't work out the rest of the week. I was on my own. Oh except for the swim on Tues. I also biked 3 miles. I have many weaknesses, biking is a sore spot. (My kryptonite for sure) I fear my biggest defeat will be in the biking. I STINK! 3 miles and I was going to die. (It didn't help that I was wearing tight levi pants) Tuesday came and I swam in Joes Valley. I don't think this helped much in conditioning me. I felt a little motion sick from the wind. Jer kayaked next to me. I only swam for 10 minutes and felt exhausted! Jer swam on the way back. It didn't help that I didn't have swim goggles. Jer had a snorkeling mask. I hate swimming with one. It's weird to breathe with. I didn't realize until then how much I breathe through my nose while swimming. Wednesday I ran 5 miles by myself. Thursday I biked 8 miles with my Dad and then ran 3 miles afterwards. The 4th mile was extremely hard! I was in about 12 gear. (I was feeling good about my workout until I read that you biked 25 MILES!!!! Thanks a lot!!!) Friday I biked for half an hour and then ran 6 miles. (All by myself! With no music! It is pretty though.) I did freak myself out though and thought what if someone pulled over with a gun.... so I ended up running on the road instead of going down a dirt path. Saturday I didn't want to work out but road my bike seven miles. You want to know how fast I road? It took me 50 minutes. I almost run faster than I'm biking!!!! The most I've biked is 8 and I feel like I'm going to die. How am I going to make it?! I'm really nervous and stressed about finding the time to work out enough that I don't pass out and that I finish! AAAAAHHHH!

Something in the Air

Day 23
Biking

I finally got my tire fixed--again--and I was anxious to ride my bike, so I talked Christina into doing a road biking expedition with me this morning. I didn't really have any place set in mind. I figured we'd go in the direction of Grantsville and turn around when we got tired. So, at 6:30 am, off we went.

It was a pleasant morning and the only downside of the ride came when we were passed by someone on their bike on Cochraine Drive in Erda towards Erda Way.

We rode and rode and before long we'd gone 12.5 miles. So we turned around and came back. We got to see a cop car race by with his lights and sirens on and he almost biffed it in the parking lot of the police department, then he took off again, racing towards Stansbury. I'm not sure what the hurry was but then we got to thinking that what if there was a real criminal out and we're just ambling by on our bikes. Then an ambulance came screaming by (wow, those sirens are loud when you're right next to them) but they stopped and turned around. Christina also spotted a credit card on the road (I don't know how she sees these things) so she picked it up to turn it in at the Credit Union. All in all, it was a pretty eventful bike ride as far as rides go.

Christina struggled on the way back because of something in the air. I could feel it too, but I didn't react as badly. Her nose was a faucet. Probably some weed or something. Also, both our butts were pretty sore and Christina's shoulder hurt. These bikes take time to get use to.

I dropped Christina off and headed home, rounding out to a nice 25 miles in 1:58. That's the longest I've ever been on a bike before and it wasn't so bad, though right now my legs are a little sore. But it could be from mowing the lawn when I got back.

Another week down, five weeks to go until the triathlon. Six weeks until the half.

Big Congratulations and a Good Run to Boot

Day 22
6 miles at a 10:42/mile pace

It was a good run this morning. We decided to tackle the Lake Point run to the gas stations again. If you'll recall, last time we did it, we were surprised by the uphill portion on the way back. This time we were prepared. And I think those tempo runs have really been helping. It was especially nice to run at 45 seconds slower per mile than we did on Wednesday.

Here was our breakdown:
Mile 1: 10:41
Mile 2: 10:34
Mile 3: 10:46
Mile 4: 10:51
Mile 5: 10:52
Mile 6: 10:04

Our average time was 10:38/mile which was actually 2 seconds slower per mile than we did a month ago. However, I felt A LOT better this run and didn't feel like I was going to die. That's always an improvement. During the 4th mile, my stomach was grumbling and I remembered that I had forgotten to eat dinner last night. I think had I eaten dinner I would've done a bit better, though Christina wasn't nearly as ahead of me as usual going up that last hill. However, she probably slowed down on my account. And we both got stuck at that stupid light.

Of course the biggest news came when I finally got around to looking up the times for the 5k we did on the 4th. BOTH Christina and Hillary got third in their age groups. Congratulations girls! There were a lot of runners this year--214 girls alone. I'm sure you beat out some very good competition. I wish they'd get a website and list the finish times of everyone. Next year, we'll all be in different age categories. We should aim to place. I will have to make the biggest jump since Hillary was third with a 24:43 finish time and I came in almost 4 minutes later. Sorry, Hillary, Emily is only 30. Maybe she'll be pregnant or something next year and won't be able to run it. Hillary has about a two minute deficit to make up in the toughest age group of the women. Chrisitina just needs to improve more and beat the second place person. :)

While I'm very competive by nature, I'm happy to see my two "students" placing. It makes me feel ALMOST like I placed too. But I PRed--by almost a minute--and that's all I was aiming to do anyways. I'm happy with that.

Christina called the race organizer to see about her ribbon and she was told they were mailing them out. It would've been cool to have been standing there when they handed out the awards though. Especially since it was such a surprise.

Congrats again girls.

Burn, Baby, Burn

Day 21
Road Biking


Oiy! I spent $25 to get my tire fixed at Taylor's Bike Shop in Salt Lake (now that we don't have a bike shop in Tooele Co. anymore). They were suppose to put in slime between the tire and the tubing and it was suppose to be great.


Yeah. Great.


It was flat again by the time I got back home. Mind you, the tire was in the CAR. I wasn't riding it or anything.


So, no road bike for me this morning. Christina showed up at 6:30 and we decided to ride the highway to Cimmaron Way (above Erda Way) and then ride that down to the road that the triathlon is on and then back to Christina's. I noticed, at one point, a few things:

(a) I was pedaling twice as fast as Christina. For every stroke she did, I was doing two.

(b) At one point, we were going slower than Hillary was running the 4th of July 5k. Yeah, that was not a high point in the morning.

It was rough going but we finally finished. We did about 10 miles if you count the mileage over to my house. Not too shabby considering it took us about as long as it did last week to do 12 miles. Maybe we're getting faster? Hmmmm....

Bright and Early

Day 20
Swimming
6 miles at 9:57/mile pace (from yesterday)

I was a lot nervous going into this morning's run. For starters, Wade had to be at work at 7:30 this morning--leaving at 6:45--and so I called Christina to see if she would want to run with me at 5:30. I was expecting her to laugh and say something along the lines of "um...no", but being the good sport that she is, she agreed to the insane hour.

I couldn't sleep because I was so nervous I was going to miss my alarm and also, the bad sunburn on my legs kept waking me up when the sheets would brush up against it. Grrr...I was really nervous that I wasn't going to be able to run.

However, I woke up and after a bout of stiffness, I was able to move just fine. I arrived at Christina's right on time and we took off, noting that the moon was still in the sky.

I commented after we were done that it doesn't feel as bad as I'm expecting to be racking up the miles. You know, like at a 5k, 3 miles seems forever, and you wonder if 3 miles is so long, then what's six miles going to be like? But the miles just seem to go a bit faster the more you have to run.

Though it's still not any easier.

We managed to stay RIGHT on target with an overall average of 9:56/mile. The first mile we did in 9:54, the second in 10:03, the third in 9:50, the fourth in 9:59, the fifth in 9:56 and the sixth in 9:57 for an overall time of 59:38, the first time either one of us has run 6 miles in under an hour. Wahoo. For me the hardest mile was the fourth. It wasn't particularly physically hard, just mentally knowing that there were still two miles to go, I guess. Overall, it was a good run and it was nice knowing that at 6:30, we were done instead of just getting started. I'm in no hurry to move to a 5:30 am run date by any means though.

At swimming lessons today, we took turns doing our laps. It was pretty uneventful. The goal was 20 laps and I'm not sure how many I did. Either 21 or 19. I lost track somewhere in the middle. In fact, I may have even fallen asleep at one point. I don't remember a lot about it. Christina thought she had one lap left when they blew the whistle for everyone to get out of the pool at 2 pm for 10 minutes. I'm just glad we're back on track with our training.

I wonder how Hillary's doing?

Sunburn

Day 19
6 miles at 9:57/mile pace

I was all gungho about running today until yesterday at about 7 pm when it became quite obvious that I wasn't going to be able to do it.

It being the first day of swimming lessons and all, and I'm not sure if I got distracted when putting on sunblock or if the wind carried it off or what the deal was, but I burnt one leg, the top of both feet and an armpit, among other patches of sunkissed skin and knew that 6 miles was going to be torture, if not entirely impossible.

I called Christina (who has completed EVERY training session save for the swimming one that we opted out of last week to bike instead--including an 8 mile run and a 10 mile run ALONE) and fessed up to my stupidity. We agreed to do the tempo run tomorrow, as well as swim, though I think we've come up with a workable solution with the swimming.

We'll take turns. Yes, that's right. We'll practice what we preach to our children by taking turns watching each other's kids in the other pool while the other one is swimming laps. I know. Genius, right? Christina came up with it.

So here's to hoping that I can run tomorrow.

Bad Luck

Day 18
Swimming
6 x 400 at a 2:15/lap pace


I was all geared up to ride my bike over to the track this morning, but when I got on it, the front tire was flat. Grrr....I hate that. All the reviews online said that it was a good bike for the money but to replace the tires and tubes immediately, because those suck. I guess I should've heeded their advice. At least it was at my house and not like 10 miles away or something.


Christina and I met at the high school at 6:30 am this morning only to find the track locked. That didn't start our morning off on a very good note. There were about 5 other people who didn't think that the track should've been locked at that time in the morning. Grrr....


So we ended up doing the laps in the parking lot--again. The parking lot sucks. It's uneven and it's hard and it was early. You know...the usual complaints. But we did it.


Lap 1: 2:04
Lap 2: 2:01
Lap 3: 2:04
Lap 4: 2:01
Lap 5: 2:02
Lap 6: 2:01


If nothing else, we're consistent.


I'm totally feeling Saturday's 5k in the back of my calves. Christina reports that she's feeling it in her quads. In any case, it was a little tough going this morning, but it felt good to be done with that part of the training.


Today was the first day of swim lessons. Our plan was to sit the kids on the bench in front of the two lanes they've reserved for lap swimming during open plunge hours and do our laps at Deseret Peak. This was a good idea in theory, but in actuality, turned out to be a little disasterous.


Josh, who I had to cajole and bribe to get in the water during his swim lesson, fought me grabbing him out of the play pool where he was totally loving it during play time. Then there were people who kept popping up in our lanes. I even got ran over by someone who I didn't see until she was right on top of me. It was frustrating to say the least. Finally, Josh and Landon left the rest of the group and went back to the other pool. That ended our laps at about 10 in.

We think it's the novelty of swimming for the first time of the season and hopefully, by Wednesday, the excitement will wear off and they'll sit there patiently and wait for us. It's nice swimming laps in an outdoor pool as opposed to an indoor stuffy pool. I wish they'd open a little earlier in the morning so I could do them there instead, but they don't open until 7 am.


Good news. There's only 7 weeks left. But that means there's only 6 weeks left until the tri and I'm starting to get nervous. Especially with the biking portion. And the swimming portion. Oh, and the running.

Give Me an H. Give Me an A. Give Me a P-P-Y

Day 18
Tooele Freedom Run 5k

Awesome. Except for the part where I peed my pants. In the first quarter mile. And had to run 2.85 miles with soggy shorts and pee soaked socks. Oh, the shame. And the thing is I didn't *feel* like I had to pee. Everything was going great. I was cruising at a seven minute pace down the hills and all of the sudden, the dams burst and it was trickling down my legs and it was all warm and gross and I was MORTIFIED.

MORTIFIED.

My only redeeming thought was that how happy I was that I chose to bring my spandex shorts out of retirement instead of wearing my usual running shorts. Then it wasn't *as* noticeable, but it was definitely there. For all of Tooele County to see. You know, because it's the one race where there are far more spectators than runners. Like THOUSANDS more.

So yeah, besides that, AWESOME effort girls. We totally blew our goal times out of the water. Hillary crossed at 24:20ish, which is about a 7:47/mile and Christina came in at 26:05 (8:36/mile). I finished at 28:10, which is a 9:09/mile pace. I'm confident, however, that had I not been running in pee soaked spandex shorts that were chafing parts of my body best not described here, I would've crossed under 28 minutes. However, 28:10 is my best 5k time EVER and I'm glad to have it.

This 5k, I took an energy shot and a puff on my inhaler. I probably could've used two puffs, but I was feeling a little jittery with both the one puff and the energy shot. The energy shot had some effect, but left me feeling REALLY jittery for a couple of hours afterwards. I think I need to eat more with it. I just had a few spoonfuls of oatmeal and a few sips of Gatorade. I'm still fine tuning the prerace process, but I think I'm getting closer to the perfect routine.

Eat some cookies. Take a nap. Have a great rest of the weekend. Next week, we're back on track for our training.

Offtrack

Day 16
Swimming (traded with biking the day before)

Um. Yeah. Didn't do. Wade was backpacking with the scouts. And we opted to sleep in. And yeah.

Day 17
10 mile run at a 10:42/mile pace

I called Christina yesterday to tell her that I wasn't up to a long run. I have this nagging cough that's been hanging on (though I am feeling better) and Wade was still gone with the boy scouts. So I cancelled for the second week in a row.

Next week, I'll be back on track and we'll get everything done for our training. I would like to fit in more biking but I'm not sure I can find the time. Oh well. Maybe now that I have the indoor bike trainer I got for Christmas and the road bike, I can keep it up during the winter for next year.

Here's to getting back on track. Has Christina the Machina missed a workout yet? :)

Tooele 4th of July race

I'm thrilled that we all had our best runs! Sure helps when you are going down hill, but for me the last part was hard! I usually have a little extra burst at the end, but I didn't. I was disappointed that I didn't see Jeremy and the kids. This is the one race that was convienent for them to come to! Oh well. It was a lot of fun. Although I really think they need to have better food at the end. I'm sure Sandra will post our results. Tomorrow is our day off. Monday I am back on target! (Maybe not the sprints, because we wont have a track, but I will do some running.) It will be nice to be running in the mountains. Just pray that it doesn't rain, or I don't know what I will do. Oh and I'm making myself a note not to eat Walmart strawberry bars before a run, it didn't settle good.

How much is too much?

So I decided to swim today. This was an easy decision because Jeremy went to work so I had to go to the gym to work out. (The boys weren't excited!) I entered the pool and realized I was going during water aerobics again. I need to make a note NOT to do that. The pool is small enough. Fortunately I was the only one their swimming laps until close to the end of my workout. I decided to do 3x 20 lengths. Thinking this was a 400 but actually it is less, 340 yards. (No wonder I made such good time, plus the help of pushing off a wall, etc...) I did 3. I didn't know how it would affect me with having been sick and having a race to do tomorrow. Sometimes swimming really wears me out. So I was wondering how much I should do. Then after I got home, I started thinking I should've trained harder because I should really be training for the tri and half not worried about doing well at a 5k. This is when it would be nice to have a coach who understands all this stuff. I was thinking maybe I'll do really well tomorrow because my body will think that I tapered. Ha ha!

Not quite the come back I'd like

Well I figured out the blogging puzzle. I have to be signed in under my yahoo account not gmail. So now I can post....

Today. I woke up and my throat was terrribly dry and my nose was dry. (Which it has been a faucet the last few weeks!) So I thought, "I'm getting better." I decided to run, since going to the pool would be out of the question today. Belle has had a runny nose and I didn't want to chance driving all the way to the gym and just have her be sick. (She probley has what I have.) So running it was. I decided to do the 4 mile run to Lake Point. For one thing I know the distance and thought it would be a good run to break back into. So off I ran. Unfortunately I realized I wasn't better. My lungs hurt, I felt very sluggish. I do have to admit at one point I felt really good. But as soon as I was on the return for home, that was it. I felt terrible. I now question Sat. Am I really going to be able to run a good race? Or will I just wonder what I could've done had I not been feeling crappy. I did have to stop and walk. I haven't had to do that in a long time. (Well not since Joes Valley when I was by myself and bored!) More than anything I feel frustrated! Why when I am trying so hard does this have to happen? I already have a million other obsticles in the way of training. Urrrr! But I am now on medication. Hopefully it will kick in! The good thing today is that my bike arrived, so I'll have it to train with while I'm out of town.

We Have Our Work Cut Out For Us

Day 15
Road Bike (traded with swimming)

Every once in awhile you go out and think you have a kick butt workout and your times appear really good, but when you get home, you realize, that no, indeed, you were so much slower than you thought.

That was today. It was Christina's inaugural morning on her new road bike and we did the triathlon course to get a feel for it, timing ourselves from start to finish at the clubhouse.

The course winds back and forth through Stansbury and it's actually pretty difficult. For starters, it's uphill...a lot. The ride itself was pretty uneventful. There was a little rain, but not a whole lot. No dogs chased us. There were a lot of people out running and a few biking. It's nice to see people out. A few years ago, when I started running, I was usually the only one out there. Now, there's tons.

I was trying to remember what people were doing the bike portion in the last two years during the triathlon. 40 minutes seemed to be the number that stuck in my mind. When 40 minutes came and went, I thought it must have been longer than that.

When I got home, I looked it up, and sadly, our 55:22 time today was the third SLOWEST time for BOTH years.

It's hard to say where we went wrong. Do you really pedal that much faster when you're with a group of people? Are we that out of shape? Is the course longer? Upon further investigation, this year's route is actually over a mile longer than the one we did in 2007. That makes me feel a little better. I'm not sure how it compares to last year though, so who knows.

In any case, my legs are tired and I'm ready for a nap.