Chasing My Joy

My journey to becoming an Ultra Runner and Ironman

Track Tuesday

Yesterday when I got home there was a package waiting for me, I love getting packages! I ripped it open to find my Cooking Light Vegetarian Cookbook.
I can’t wait to go through it and try some new recipes. Some of you may remember that I set a resolution to learn how to cook healthy meals (instead of relying on my husband to do all the cooking) , I have really enjoyed it so far and have been cooking two to three times a week. I have also recently given up eating meat so I am excited to have a book full of light vegetarian meals to choose from. I will share any that are really good.

After getting my cook book Cory and I headed back out to track practice with the Rocky Mountain Tri Club. I LOVED this workout and I love the club, people are so welcoming and friendly. We ran in pace groups (I was in group 5) and it was really fun to cheer ourselves on and build team spirit. After practice was over our club president gave out team tech shirts, I think it’s really cute.

After a long day Cory made us taco salads before we packed our gym bags and headed to bed. It was a good day =)

The Long Run

After taking Monday as an easy day (just an hour of yoga) and sleeping in my compression pants Sunday night all soreness from my race is gone, YAY! It felt good to spin this morning after just running for over a week, and I am really looking forward to this weekend’s long ride. My workouts for this week look like this:
Monday: 60 min yoga
Tuesday: am 60 minute bike (on trainer) and pm: Track practice with RMTC, we will do between 4 and 6 miles of intervals
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 4 mile run
Friday: 6 mile tempo run with an easy 1600 m easy swim
Saturday: 22 mile run, longest run before marathon
Sunday: 50 mile bike ride, probably flat after Saturday’s long run

Totals:
Swim= 3500 meters, I need to increase this soon!
Bike= approx. 80 miles
Run= 37 miles
Strength/Stretching= 120 minutes

My goal for this week is to keep to my plan, with a crazy work schedule I almost always end up skipping at least one workout. I also want to work on nutrition this week, after botching my half on Sunday I need to practice before the Colorado Marathon, I have a little over a month to prepare! This week has the longest distance we run before the marathon but I am not that nervous, 18 and 20 went pretty well so hopefully 22 won’t be any different.

Recently I finished reading The Long Run by Matt Long. This isn’t a book about how to run or race triathlon but about how a NYC fire fighter who was severely injured came back to run a marathon then complete an Ironman. If you want inspiration this is it, I highly recommend this book to anyone who is injured, or lacking motivation. What’s the furthest you have ever run? Happy Tuesday!

Boulder Spring Half Marathon Race Report

I had a great race, third half marathon in 2:10:30, over 13 minutes faster than the one I ran last year for a PR. I am surprised that I feel as good as I do because I didn’t execute the race well at all. I will take it as lessons learned and hope to do better at my full marathon in May. As always I laid out my gear the night before, the forecast called for high 3os to low 40s with a chance of rain or snow. I decided to wear my Mizuno tights (LOVE these), REI long sleeved tech shirt, Adidas running jacket and RMTC visor.I packed gloved and a headband but chose not to wear them. I also packed two packets of sharkies and one GU, this was a mistake but more on that later. This morning we woke up at 4:30, I was so tired and didn’t want to get out of bed. The only thing motivating me to move was the promise of lots of hot coffee. I stumbled around, drank two buckets of coffee then Bailey and Winston helped my get ready.I ate a cliff bar and a banana before leaving the house, we got to Boulder Reservoir by 7am for a 8am start time. We took our time visiting the bathrooms, warming up and finally lined up at 7:55 and waited…..20 minutes. This is my only complaint about this race, I have no idea why we started 15 minutes late. This was the best supported race I have ever ran there were aid stations everywhere, on both sides of the street. Each station had water, gatorade, GU gels, bananas and tons of friendly volunteers. There were also lots of volunteers with radios to help any athletes that needed it. Most of the race was on dirt country roads, with a few miles on paved roads. The start was pretty congested and didn’t open up until about three quarters of a mile in. Here are our splits:

Mile 1: 10:07 Caught behind a bunch of people

Mile 2: 9:40 Skipped water station, bad idea…

Mile 3: 10:06

Mile 4: 10:11 started to feel hungry because I didn’t take a gel before starting, what was I thinking? but I decided to wait to take my gel, again, what was I thinking, the aid stations had GUs I could have gotten more.

Mile 5: 10:27 feeling tired, low blood sugar

Mile 6: 10:11

Mile 7: 10:42 finally took my gel and drank more water

Mile 8: 9:25 feeling much better

Mile 9: 9:17

Mile 10: 9:45 starting to feel tired and hungry again, did I take a gel? No…brilliant.

Mile 11: 9:42

Mile 12 and .1: 10:00ish Cory forgot to hit his watch right when we crossed the line Official time 2:09:30 with 9:53 minute miles. I am happy with this overall time but wonder what time I could have ran if I had not lost my mind during the race. I know better than to make all these mistakes. I blame it on getting 2 hours of sleep on Friday night and just being too tired to think straight. I am getting closer to my sub two hour goal, maybe this summer or fall?? =)Happy to be done, we both really like the medals.We hung around for a while after the race and even got massages. Before leaving I made friends with Kona, a really sweet Sheep Dog. Headed home for ice baths, showers, recovery beer and relaxing. It’s been a good day.

Pre Race Rituals – Boulder Half Marathon

I got up 3:30 this morning so that I could catch the first flight out of Portland back to Denver, given that this is actually the same as my normal wake up time (4:30 Mountain time) it shouldn’t have been a big deal. But it was a big deal because for some crazy reason I couldn’t sleep and banked a total of two hours of sleep, I am not going to make that up before race day Sunday.

After dragging myself out of bed and my parents graciously driving me to the airport at that hour I grabbed a quick Starbucks breakfast.skinny caramel macchiato and a fruit and yogurt parfait. Notice the cup says Mary, this is my “real” name but I have always gone by Beth, I have no idea why I told her my name was Mary, maybe because it was on the debit card I was handing her? Normally I forget that my given name is Mary, I guess weird things happen when I try to communicate at 4 am.

My flight was easy and my sweet husband was waiting for me right outside of security, thanks babe!

We decided to go straight to Boulder to pick up our race packets from Fleet Feet Sports. Fleet Feet is a tiny running/triathlon store in Boulder. It seemed like a nice store but it was a little crowded with the packet pickup inside as well. I received my packet without a hitch but I entered Cory’s birth date incorrectly when I signed him up(oops!) so the race officials had to look him up, but they easily got him everything he needed and we were headed home.

Our race packet included some great stuffincluding:

  • tech t-shirt
  • reusable grocery bag
  • pint glass
  • poster
  • a few samples
  • chip timing

There is also a finishers medal, full lunch and a beer garden with complimentary beer =)

After we got home I took a quick nap and cuddled with my dogs and hubby that I have missed so much before starting to get ready for my race tomorrow.Winston riding along in his car seat.

Do you have pre-race rituals that you follow?

I don’t have any particular rituals, I just take it easy a few days before hand, try to gets lots of sleep and drink a lot of fluids. I have failed miserably on all accounts.

Only thing left to do is get my stuff ready for the morning, set my alarm, go to bed early and hope for the best.

Muddy Buddy, Oregon Style

It’s been a busy week getting my parent’s house ready to go on the market, but we took some time off to go for a trail run. My mom had a six mile run on her schedule and since I decided to tag along and she thought we should make it a fun trail run. Love you mom!

We drove down to Sauvies Island in Portland. Sauvies Island is a large agricultural island in the Columbia River. We found a six mile out and back that sounded perfect. As we were driving along the island the parking lot we realized that the trail would be quite muddy, Portland has seen a lot of rain recently.

Trail Head
Mom and I with their golden doodles Zoey and Gus
It started out really nice
Then it got really muddy, I was thankful that the thick mud only lasted about a quarter mile.
We had great views of the river along the way
Our turn around point was a light house on the beach.
Not the prettiest lighthouse ever but still cool. Then we headed back along the same trail.
When we got back we were covered in mud!
It was a great run, really easy (thanks too all that oxygen at almost sea level). I am now doing a mini-taper for my half marathon on Sunday.

What are you doing for spring break?

Happy Spring

I can’t believe it’s already spring! I am excited for warmer weather and the beginning of race season.

I ran 5 miles with my mom this morning, but I stupidly forgot my camera. It was really nice to run on the paths that I ran so many times when I was younger. Then we spent the rest of the day moving the rest of the bark dust and unfortunately we need more =(

In celebration of spring I decided to whip up some scones
This mix was perfect, just add water.
I didn’t take the time to form them into wedges, but they taste great. There were more but we ate them while they were hot and fresh.

Tonight will be spent eating and picking out paint colors.

Happy Spring Sunday everyone!

I {heart} Oregon and toilet talk

I flew into Portland this morning to help my parents fix up their house so they can put it on the market at the end of the week =D

They have lived in this house almost 34 years so people have asked me if I am sad that they are selling my childhood home. So far I am not very sad about it, I haven’t lived here in years and only stay here about once a year for the last 5 years. It’s like it’s been a slow separation, everything looks and feels different now. I am mainly just excited for them to move out to Colorado. I think the I will be most sad is the first time I visit Oregon after the house sells and I don’t have home to come back to. I have plenty of people to stay with but it won’t be the same.

I love Colorado (my home for about two years now) but my heart will always belong to Oregon. I LOVE this state. Flying in over the white capped mountains with lush evergreen skirts and blue slashes of rivers takes my breath away every time. Mt. Hood

I love the rich colors here and even the gray cloudy skies. But the thing I love most about Oregon and Portland in particular is how dedicated the people and therfore the city is to being kind to the planet. After landing at PDX I stopped into the bathroom and was so excited to see this:
Only in Portland…So much for “if it’s yellow let it mellow, if it’s brown flush it down”. I have heard of these toilets where you can use different amounts of water based on need. Too much toilet talk? sorry but I love when we use only what we need. Was it weird that I took a picture in a public bathroom? Very, but I never claimed to be normal.

The rest of the day was spent spreading soggy bark dust in a soggy back yard.
5 cubic yard pile left in my mom and dad’s drive way.
I didn’t exercise at all but that’s ok because hauling bark dust and shoveling really got my heart rate going (and I am really sore). Plus I got to hang out with two of my favorite people.

Where is your favorite place in the world, where does your heart feel at home?

Spin Out

Normally I love spin class but this morning it was horrible. My nose was running the entire time and my lungs felt like wet sponges. I kept hacking and coughing, and people were looking at me like I was a horrible person who would infect them. Maybe I am =( I have been taking my antibiotics for almost a week, why am I not well yet?!?

I am starting to feel like I will never be 100% well again….Dramatic? Yes but being sick this long is really grating on my nerves. I am trying to keep perspective on this. I am sick but not that sick, I can still train even if it is not full effort. There are much worse things that could be happening to me. I did make it through class and followed it up with a 3 mile run.

I am trying to brighten my mood by drinking my favorite coffee

Starbucks skinny caramel macchiato. yummmmm!
Now it’s time to with some visit kids about why they want to help save animals =)
Happy St. Patty’s Day!!!

Listening to my body….

And it sucks. I am still trying to get over my sinus infection and when the alarm went off at 4:10 am I felt so horrible and was so tired that I just decided that I needed more sleep. I went back to bed and slept 3 more hours! I also missed last nights interval workout because both Cory and I had to work late (again). I am really bummed because this week was supposed to be a really hard training week leading up to next week being an easy week because I will be out of town. So I hope even though today is a long work day that we might get a run in so that I don’t feel like a complete sloth today. At least I rode my bike to work today.

My bike sitting in my office, I don’t trust is outside the gates.

I was at costco the other night and came across a kids book about animals so obviously I had to flip through it and I came across this:
Can anyone tell me what wrong with this picture? This is supposed to be an educational book
and they but a picture of a chimpanzee and label it a Monkey. Chimps are not monkeys, they are Apes, but this is why so many people don’t know the difference. I know I may be one of the only people that care but a printed “educational” book about animals should really do their research.

**stepping back off my soap box.

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!

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