Chasing My Joy

My journey to becoming an Ultra Runner and Ironman

Archives for July 2011

Crickets…



I know…it’s been crickets here lately….I got hit with a triple whammy and haven’t really worked out in WEEKS, seriously, weeks. So I have had nothing to talk about =( this blog may need to branch out into other parts of my life.

I not only am dealing with an overuse knee injury that will take who knows how long to heal but a pulled hamstring and a killer summer cold. The only good thing I can say about this all happening at once is that I can focus on getting well all at once.

I am still (foolishly) hopeful that I will still be able to race a half ironman on September 11.

So what have I done with all of my spare time? well my DVR is empty and I have been focusing a lot on work. Evidence of the things I have been learning about:
What is something new that you have learned?

Worried

I am worried that I might have a mid season knee injury, again. This morning while trying to get 6 miles in on the treadmill my left knee had stabbing pain behind the knee cap. Last summer I had similar pain in my right knee and was sidelined for the second half of the season. I am very worried that it’s happening again. So now I sit in a hotel room in San Diego, hoping that the pain just goes away….

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My favorite part of the day

Mornings are my favorite part of the day, there is nothing better than watching the sun come up while drinking a cup of coffee. I also love to get up early to get my workout in before taking on the rest of the day. On days I do sleep in I feel out of sorts the rest of the day, like I have wasted half the day and am running behind. Being such a morning person helps me get my morning workouts in but makes evening workouts, like masters swimming tonight difficult for me. If I had my way I would have the early bird special of dinner at 5pm and in bed no later than 9pm.

Are you a morning person, if not how do you motivate yourself to get through morning workouts?

I was feeling super uninspired about breakfast this morning, my normal variations on oatmeal are getting really old so I decided to break out the blender and make myself a green monster. This morning I decided to keep things simple:

  • 1 banana
  • a couple handfuls of spinach
  • 1 cup of vanilla soy milk
  • 1 scoop a vanilla whey protein
  • 1 tablespoon of chia seeds

I threw thew this all in the blender and let it run for two minutes.
Then I added about two cups of ice, blended for another thirty seconds and I had a great banana breakfast shake.
I love green monsters because it’s one of the only ways that I get vegetables into my breakfast. This was the first time I have included chia seeds, I think I could taste them a little but it wasn’t unpleasant. It was a great way to start my day!

Do you have ways you like to get vegetables into your diet?

Weekly training plans and food

I realized I haven’t posted my weekly training plan in a while so here is my week:

Monday: 35 mile ride
Tuesday: am interval swim 2500 meters, pm interval run approx. 5 miles
Wednesday: am 36 mile ride, pm yoga
Thursday: am: 6 mile run, pm masters swim
Friday: strength training
Saturday: 18 mile trail run ( must find easier trail so it won’t take me 8 hours)
Sunday: open water swim 1.5 miles and Ride 55 miles

I will take everyone’s advice and just try to suck it up buttercup on the heat, I grew up in Portland so this Colorado heat gets to me sometimes and I become a giant whiney baby about it.

Ironman update: Ironman Mont Tremblant is now full so it won’t be an option for me in 2012, so I think I will try for IM Canada if I can’t get into that then I will just have to decide between Vineman and Ironman CDA, I can’t wait to sign up!

Last I want to talk about FOOD! I love to eat and TRY to eat healthy foods. I pack my lunch and take it to work everyday. I tend to eat the same things with little variation, here is my lunch for today:

Salad with strawberries, blue cheese and walnuts
Some kind of fruit today includes watermelon and an apple
Greek yogurt with fruit today I cut up a white peach
And some type of vegetable today is a red pepper

Anyone have any suggestion for variety? Keep in mind I am cheap, lazy and a vegetarian…..you can see why this is difficult 🙂

Back to Work

It feels pretty good to be “back to work” I don’t mean my big girl job I mean real work on triathlon. This weekend included a very difficult 16 mile trail run (don’t ask how long it took me!) but it was beautiful. Yesterday we set out for 57 mile bike ride but cut it to only 30 miles because my knee started hurting and I don’t want to risk injury at this point. I was also struggling with the upper 90 degree heat. Anyone have any suggestions for getting better dealing with the heat?

I tried to make sure that I took care of my body after each workout with ice baths, stretching and rolling.

This morning started with a interval swim workout. I haven’t been in the pool for a long time, and it felt great. The workout look like this:

500 sw, 200k, 100 sw …………800 yds
Stroke Drill ……………………….500 yds
10 x 100’s sw-15″ rbet. ea. .1000 yds
200 swim down real easy …..200 yds
Total………………………………2500 yds

My body feels better after swimming and I hope that I will be able to put some real work in tonight at track practice. Our workout look likes this:

Warm up – Easy jog for 5-10 minutes
Dynamic Warm up
Interval Set

• 1×1600; 3’ rec
• 2×800; 2’ rec
• 3×400; 1’ rec
• 4×200; 30” rec

On a different note I have been having watch issues:

This is the second timex “waterproof” watch that I have had fill with water. The first time I didn’t mind too much because it was fairly cheap from target but I am really frustrated that this one is fogging up because it was a more expensive model with a heart rate monitor. I HATE not having a watch. I have had this one less than a year. Anyone have any suggestions or a watch brad that has really worked for them?

Last I want to share some of the swag from Pacific crest half Ironman.

Close up of the medal:


Everyone received a tech t-shirt, bag and medal. You could purchase a finishers T-shirt with the race that you completed on it. I decided not to buy it because we had already spent so much on this race plus it said “sea level is for sissies, ALT 4,200 ft. Living in Denver I think I would get laughed given that we race anywhere from 5,000-10,000 ft.

Wow that was a really random post, this is what happens when I compose a blog post in my head while swimming. Happy Tuesday everyone!


Ironman Questions

This week has been free form workouts while recovering from Pacific Crest. Including some strength training and yoga. Winston even got into the action with some Doga, he considers chewing a full body workout. I also had time to map out a training schedule for July that will focus on maintaining triathlon distance and build speed as well as getting in some miles for our ultra marathon in August including a 16 mile trail run tomorrow and a 50 mile bike ride on Monday.

I had my heart set on completing ironman Coeur d’Alene in 2012, and registration is now open. It is SO tempting to just sign up for it and know that my ironman journey is underway. It’s just like me to jump the gun on something big like this. While in Sunriver last week Cory and I spent a lot of time talking about doing an ironman and which one we should do. After looking at the new Mont-Tremblant ironman and Ironman Canada I am wavering a bit. Also The unincorporated Vineman iron distance race has been thrown out as an option as well.

Does anyone have an experience with these races or advice?

Both Coeur d’Alene and Mont-Tremblant are open now and I don’t want to lose out on registering but Canada seems the most interesting but I think it may be really hard to get into. When faced with a big choice we made a list of pros and cons like a good analytical thinkers.

Ironman Mont-Tremblant
(Quebec)

Pros

  • Beautiful course
  • Single loop swim
  • Mid season (August 19th)
  • Inaugural year
  • Available to sign up

Cons

  • (Possibly) challenging climbs on bike course
  • Two loop bike
  • Two loop run
  • Farthest away
  • Inaugural year
  • Most expensive ($675)

Ironman Canada (BC)

Pros

  • Beautiful course
  • Close-ish
  • All single loops
  • Mid season August 28th
  • $650 ?

Cons

  • Challenging climbs on bike course
  • Hard to get into

Vineman (Sonoma)

Pros

  • Beautiful course
  • Mid season (July 30th)
  • Easy course
  • Close
  • Available to sign up
  • Cheap ($325-$425)
  • Warm swim
  • Small field

Cons

  • Two loop swim
  • Two loop bike
  • Three loop run
  • Un-incorporated event (this may be a pro?)

Ironman Couer d’Alene


Pros

  • Beautiful course
  • Close to Colorado
  • Bike not too difficult
  • Relatively easy to get into
  • $600

Cons

  • Early season
  • Two loop swim
  • Two loop bike
  • Two loop run

Any advice, what would you do?