Chasing My Joy

My journey to becoming an Ultra Runner and Ironman

Archives for March 2011

High Maintenance

I am going to Oregon next week to help my parents work on their houses. They are planning to move to Colorado after mom retires in June and they need to sell their homes so they are fixing them up. All of this information is background for how it became so obvious that I am now really high maintenance. I was trying to plan out my workouts while out of town and was really frustrated that I won’t have my normal facilities. I have a membership to 24 hour fitness and just assumed there would be one near my parents house, but no, the closest one is 45 minutes away! This may mean no swimming or biking for me for an entire week. I may be able to borrow my mom’s bike but it’s a hybrid bike from 1994, and won’t be anything like my road bike. I also realized that I won’t have all my normal rituals, I won’t have my beloved foam roller or recovery foods or training partner =(

I am happy to go help my parents but I will miss my routine.

This weeks training plan:

Monday: rest day…ahhhhhh
Tuesday: am 60 minute bike (on trainer) and commute to work, pm 6 mile interval run run (1 mile warm-up and cool down with 3 mile repeats with .25 mile recovery)
Wednesday: am 1900 swim (300 WU, 6×50 drills, 8×100 main set, 6×50 drills, 200 CD), pm yoga ** this may change because with a sinus infection it sucks to swim!
Thursday: 90 min spin class straight to a 3 mile run
Friday: 6 mile tempo run with an easy 1600 m easy swim
Saturday: 12 mile run
Sunday: Not sure yet……

Sunday and next week are to be determined.

Last weeks totals are:

Swim: 3400 meters
Bike: 70 miles
Run: 48.1 miles (I think this may be the most I have ever ran in a week)

I think training is going well but my nutrition has been horrible so I am focusing on cleaning it up. I spent a lot of time chopping this morning while sipping a blackberry green monster

Keeping it colorful.

Are you high maintenance? Happy Tuesday!

Forty Miles of Fun

We had the best ride today, it was a beautiful sunny (unfortunately windy) warmish day. After a slow run yesterday it felt great to jump on my bike and go fast!Cory’s bike all ready to go, I have nicknamed it princess because he is so nice to it 🙂
We started out at Frog Hollow Park (how cute is that name) and headed south on the Platte River trail for 20 miles and turned around at Chatfield reservoir.
Turn around point. Everything is so brown here, I miss green mossy Oregon. I know that riding in the rain isn’t fun but moving from the rain forest to the desert is difficult.

All in all it was a great and productive weekend, hope you all had a good one!

20 miles at Bear Creek Lake

Yesterday Cory and I were set on running our 20 miler on the Highline Canal Trail. We like this trail, it’s fairly flat and has a soft surface.

Highline Canal from our 18 mile run
I was dreading running 20 there mainly because we have ran so much on it. So last minute we decided to go to Bear Creek Lake Park and run loops.Trying to pretend that I feel strong before starting out.
There are many different path’s to run. On our first loops was just a bit under 5 miles everything felt pretty good and we stopped at the car for Gatorade and a bathroom break.The second and third loop we ran the opposite direction and ran a slightly different way. By the end of the second loop I had pretty bad blister pain so stopped at the car for a band-aid and a change of socks. At the second car stop I ate a few potato chips, I couldn’t help it, they looked so good and salty. I felt fine after eating them so I am happy to know that I can stomach solid foods on long runs. We shared the trails with many horses and mountain bikers.
I was feeling pretty good until mile about mile 14 when my hips and knees started to hurt.

My legs continued to hurt until we got back to the car at mile 16. We headed out for a 2 mile out and back and amazingly my legs stopped hurting, admittedly I was running pretty slow at this point. We got back to our car at 20 miles exactly. We had planned on taking a natural ice bath in the creek but we were running late so we just took the time to soak our aching feet before rushing home. Sometimes I forget how much harder it is to run on trails than flat paths.

I feel really good about having 20 miles under my belt and hope things don’t fall apart on race day, I am a bit nervous that the marathon is on all pavement.

The worst thing about the run was being rushed afterward. We had plans in the evening and had to rush home and get ready without our normal ice bath rituals. Obviously I am more sore today then I would like because of this. We had planned a 45 mile bike ride today, but it may drop down to 40 miles because of our sore legs and losing an hour. Happy Sunday!

New Tri Kit

I just put in my order for my Rocky Mountain Tri Club race kit. I can’t wait to get it and race in it this year! Cory got one too so we will look extra tri-dorky together but we are dorks so that’s ok.Women’s tri top

The picture is of the men’s shorts, the women’s look the same but are shorter with a five and a half inch inseam.

I also got a club swim suit, it says RMTC on the butt, nothing like strategic placement for advertisements.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Friday night. Mine consists of grocery shopping (to get a jump on weekend chores), carb loading for my 20 miler tomorrow and planning the rest of our weekends activities (including a 45 mile bike ride, and watching a rugby game).

Big Decisions

A few weeks ago I asked for advice about whether I should do an ironman this year or not. Almost everyone said do it. I have finally made my decision that I will do an Ironman and I have decided that my first one will be Iornman Coeur d’Alene………2012.

I am sad that I won’t be training for a full this year but after weighing my options I feel that June 2012 will be the best time to become an ironman. Some of the main reasons are that we want to landscape our front and back yard this year and if we are training for a full we won’t have the time, money or energy to landscape. We also want to focus on trail running and completing a few 50k trail races this summer. I like the idea of an early season ironman next year as well so we can continue trail running next year and possibly riding our IM fitness through a 50 miler???

With that decided we have added to our spring/summer race line up. The next race will be the Spring Boulder Half Marathon.
I love the design! We have also added at least one 50k, Cory has agreed to run the Devil Mountain trail race on October 1st. I am still trying to talk him into the North Fork 50k in July. It is only a few weeks after our half ironman but I think we can pull it off.

I have no idea how to train for ultramarathons, especially hilly trail races. But I love the idea of spending hot summer days up in the mountains running for hours out in the wilderness.

So our training marches for our first full marathon and half ironman:
Monday: 13.1 mile run
Tuesday: am 60 minute bike (on trainer) pm 6 mile run (1 mile warm-up and cool down with 8 by 400 at 85% max with 400 recovery)
Wednesday: am 1900 swim (300 WU, 6×50 drills, 8×100 main set, 6×50 drills, 200 CD), pm yoga
Thursday: 90 min spin class straight to a 3 mile run
Friday: 6 mile tempo run with an easy 1600 m easy swim
Saturday: 20 mile run (YIKES)
Sunday: 45 mile flat bike ride

Another big decision I have made lately is to give up eating meat. I should qualify that I do still eat some fish infrequently, there is debate on if fish is meat or not. For me it’s not about the definition but about what feels authentic for me. When I would eat land based animals I would just ignore that it was an animal, but when I saw a pig, cow, bison, turkey, etc. I would feel so bad that they were dying so that I could eat. I would not go look a cow in the eye and decide to eat it so I feel I should not eat a hamburger. I would however grab a fishing pole, catch a fish, cook it and eat it, so eating fish/sea food feels authentic for me. I want to finish by saying that I don’t judge anyone for their dietary choices, I just couldn’t ignore that my eating habits were not inline with my values.

Have you made any big decisions in your life recently? Happy Thursday everyone!

Bad Blogger

I have been a bad blogger, it’s been so long since I have posted AND I haven’t been reading other people’s blogs either.I have been working, training, eating and sleeping…and that is it. We are down seven people at work so everyone has been working like crazy. We are getting ready to hire for our open positions but I am committed to being more balanced because working 60+ hour weeks and having no me time is draining me. So to jump back into posting I will start with something easy and fun….the ABCs!

A~Age: 30

B~ Bed Size: Queen

C~Chore you hate: Dishes

D~Dogs: three! Daisy-Chihuahua, Winston-Pug, Bailey-Boxer
*the Golden Retriever is Colby my brother’s very sweet dog

E~Essential Start your Day Item: COFFEE!

F~Favorite Color: hard to choose but green, purple and yellow are top picks

G~Gold or Silver: lately it’s been rose gold

H~Height: 5’7.5″

I~Instruments you play: None now but I used to play the piano and the flute

J~Job Title: Manager of Youth and Teacher Programs

K~Kids: Not sure yet, check back in a few years…clock is ticking

L~Live: Colorado

M~Mom’s Name: Cathy

N~Nicknames: Bethy

O~Overnight Hospital Stays: Never, I am very lucky.

P~Pet Peeve: Rude people

Q~Quote from a Movie: Hey, I’ll tell you what. You can get a good look at a butcher’s ass by sticking your head up there. But, wouldn’t you rather to take his word for it? Tommy Boy

R~Right or Left Handed: Right

S~Siblings: Older brother, Erik

T~Time you wake up: 4:10 on weekdays, 6-7am (no alarm) on weekends

U~Underwear: Important but should not be visible.

V~Vegetable you Dislike: Cauliflower, it smells like farts to me

W~What Makes You Late: Other people mainly I HATE being late.

X~X-rays You’ve had Done: Too many to count, my doctos joke that I will glow in the dark.

Y~Yummy Food you Make: Cupcakes.

Z~Zoo Animal Favorite: So hard to pick, I work in a zoo and love all animals. It is my life’s passion to work on conservation projects and educate people about conserving our environment and the animals that share the world with us. I am so lucky that my job allows me to do this. This is a long winded answer so I will end by saying I have a soft spot for African Lions.

→