Hello! Now is the time of year that everyone starts looking forward and making plans. I LOVE to plan (in fact I need to work on staying in the moment more) but this time of year lets me indulge in planning to my hearts content. I am really looking forward to 2013, the fun starts early and I have a lot to look forward to. Here’s a look ahead:

In January I am going to Miami to run in the ING half marathon with Amanda from Run to the Finish she generously offered to host me and arrange VIP entry to the race, I can’t wait to meet her and run through the palm trees!

In February Cory and I oping to get away somewhere tropical, it’s not booked yet so it’s still just a dream. Here’s hoping!

For the rest of February and March I have a couple haves one in Salida hopefully it won’t be too snowy

April I will travel to Moab for a long weekend for early spring triathlon raining camp, I am SO excited to attend this year!

In May I will run the Colorado Marathon, this is one of my favorite races I ran in 2011, it also will be the start of triathlon season (can’t wait!)

In June we will travel to Central Oregon for Pacific Crest long course triathlon I did this race in 2011 as well as my first half ironman. I loved this race as well, seems that 2013 will start out as a bit of a repeat of 2011, I don’t mind at all because 2011 was a great year.

July will have a training focus (unless I find something really fun to do) I hope to spend a lot of weekends up in the mountains working at high elevation and lots of hills. In August I will race Ironman Boulder 70.3, it’s our biggest local triathlon here in Colorado. I hope they will bring a full ironman here someday soon. I would like to fit a relay in sometime in the summer as well we just haven’t decided on a race yet.

September is dedicated to Ironman Lake Tahoe, I can’t wait to do another ironman. It may be easy to feel this way now, maybe August in peak training. But this race is the main focus of the year

After Ironman #2 is up in the air…off season? Ultra? I am going to wait to see how I feel. What are your plans for 2013?

2012 was a great year, epic in some ways and really mellow in others, I traveled much less this year compared to years past. I feel like it became two very different parts where my focus changed drastically in July. The first half of the year was mainly focus on Ironman training and not much else. Life was eat, train, work, train, eat, sleep, repeat. The second half of the year had a smattering of triathlon but my focus was on grad school and work, throw in a mid year injury and there wasn’t much exciting training happening. Here’s a look back at 2012:

January: The year started off just like last year with a half marathon on New Years Day. It wasn’t an organized half as we don’t have one in Colorado but it’s a fun tradition and I ran it as a virtual race.

January had a little fun in the mountains but mostly the focus was on Ironman CDA training

February brought a lot of cold running biking and not enough swimming (this story could be a repeat, I am shocked I made it through IMCDAs swim). I also PR’d in a 10 mile race

March was a big month of training with a lot of daily double workouts.

I also traveled to Oregon for a family funeral, although expected it was sad but good to see family.

In April my mom had a big birthday so we had lots of fun family activities

Cog train after running 14 miles that morning. Later in the month we drove out to Vegas for our first Triathlon of the year

This was not my favorite race, in fact it might have been the worst time I have ever had in a race, the temp spiked to over 100 degrees on the run, it was unexpected so they were running out of water and the gatorade they were serving was hot. It was incredibly difficult but good for mental toughness training.

May was the biggest training month for IMCDA, we were in peak training for most of the month so it was nice to throw in some fun “training” races like the greenland trail 25k and the Boco Loco century ride

My first ride over 100 miles! Then we celebrated mothers day with a 9k and lots of food!

I then traveled to New Mexico for work. I couldn’t bike or swim but I was able to get a couple runs in with the bison.

June’s focus was training, tapering and traveling to Coeur d’Alene, it was fun to be out there with people from the Tri club

Completing an Ironman was amazing and beyond words, it was incredible, I can’t wait to do it again! There is much more I would like to say about the experience of my first Ironman and especially about lessons learned but I think that needs it’s own post.

After Ironman the plan was to continue to do local tris but with a major shift in focus to trail running for a September ultra, but with an injury less than two weeks after ironman and the realities of grad school that had been neglected because of ironman the ultra didn’t happen. I did have the chance to participate in an ultra relay with friends from work and had a BLAST! I hope to do more relays.

After our van was done, beers and breakfast burritos! In August I was supposed to run a trail half marathon in Beaver Creek but I sat out with a very sick pup but mom and Cory killed it!

I also got to snuggle with a skunk

September I was supposed to race my last tri of the year but it was trumped by travel to a conference for work.

October saw an increase in miles again, lots of grad work and a trip to Ohio for work, I am so excited to partner with this University!

November came and went fast but the best part was a family 10k and Thanksgiving

December was great and filled with family and fun, I was spoiled with lots of new gear that I can’t wait to get out and use

And while it’s been nice to have a relaxing holiday, Ironman Lake Tahoe is now less than 9 months away.That means that starting Monday training will get serious and race specific.

While 2012 was a good year I can’t wait to apply the things I learned in 2012 to make 2013 great! How was your year?

I posted something about this last year at this time but wanted to hear what you guys might have to add. I think one of the hardest things for me is recovering in between workouts (oh and maybe getting enough sleep and school work done). Below is what I do to help my poor muscles recover:

Rolling:

I use a trigger point roller with a PVC core, we originally had a foam roller but it broke down quickly and it seemed so wasteful. The trigger points are more expensive but it has held up for a long time so I think it’s worth it. No Meat Athlete has a great post about how to roll if you aren’t sure what to do. I think rolling is one of the most important tools to recovery.

I also use “The Stick” this is great for traveling and for getting smaller muscles that are hard to pinpoint with the roller.

Ice Baths:

These f-ers HURT but are well worth it. I find them much easier in the summer when I am hot and cooling off sounds good. In the winter when I am already cold this is an struggle to make myself do.

Some tips to make it more bearable is to fill the tub with cool water and acclimate to that before putting the ice in. I wear two sweatshirts and booty shorts to keep my parts warm. Lastly I drink tea (see next point) or hot chocolate to help keep more core warm. All of this helps but honestly this still sucks. If possible you can use a stream to cool off your legs after a trail run.

This is much preferred even if there is toxic sludge in the creek.

Antioxidants:

This can help free your muscles of free radicals and speed the healing process.

I prefer to get mine from emergen-c and tea (I actually prefer green tea). Another supplement that I think helps is Fish Oil for its omega-3

Protein and Vegetables:

In the mornings a green monster is a great option.

Or Salmon Cakes

Compression:

My last method is to wear compression garments. I own two pairs of compression socks and capris made for running. I would love to own a set of tights dedicated for recovery as well.

What are you favorite ways to recover? Do you have any suggestions of things I should add?

I have been feeling fairly detached from the devastation of Hurricane Sandy and it’s aftermath. I have been wanting to do something and while I will make a donation to the Red Cross I was excited to find something I could participate in. Crazy Running Girl is hosting a virtual race to raise money. Here is what I copied and pasted from her page:

Kara (who blogs over at Kara Runs and lives in New Jersey) and I want to help people in need in someway. Since we are somewhat useless right now with lack of public transit, we decided to follow our passion – running – to create a fun way for people to help.

And that’s how we came up with the Virtual Race for Hurricane Sandy Recovery, with proceeds benefiting the Red Cross to help disaster recovery efforts on the East Coast.

How to participate:

Run a race of any distance the month of November. There are TONS of fun holiday races this time of year so grab a friend (or two!) and sign up.
Register for the Virtual Race for Hurricane Sandy here.
Pledge your donation (a minimum donation of $10 requested) here. ALL PROCEEDS will be donated to the Red Cross.
Tell all of your friends that you are participating and invite them to join us, too.
Run your race and tell us how you did! Make sure to send us pictures.
Why you should participate

Help those in need by doing something that you love.
We will have AWESOME prizes from some of your favorite companies… just by participating, you will have the chance to win some of these. You don’t want to miss out. Including: Click and Road ID

Did we mention that you’ll be helping those in need?
Extra motivation to train hard this holiday season (that way, you won’t feel too bad when you sign up for one… or three… cookie exchanges).
You’ll also help those in need.
There will be some awesome virtual swag… like a badge for you if you blog and a bib that you can wear during your race to show your support.

Important Information

Register for the Virtual Race for Hurricane Sandy Recovery HERE.
You can join anytime until November 30. You must run your race by November 30 to be eligible for prizes and virtual swag bag goodies.
Minimum donation is $10, you can donate more if you would like!
ALL PROCEEDS will be donated to the Red Cross. Let’s see how far we can run and how much we can raise!

I plan to run my Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving as my virtual race. I am grateful these awesome bloggers organized this!

I have a bit of Election Day hangover after staying up late (for me) to see the results. 4:20 am alarm felt very early this morning. But it felt good to get a spin class in before work this morning. Something I love to do is PLAN! I keep myself very busy between grad school, a full time job and triathlon training so good planning is necessary to fit everything in. Because I choose a late season Ironman this year I also have to be careful about my race planning this year so that I can peak at the right time and get all my training in. I worked with coach and this is the plan (as of now, I fully expect some things will change)

January: Yeti Chase 10k

April: Boulder Half Marathon? Holding off to see when our clubs Spring Training Camp is in Moab

May: Colorado Marathon and Summer Open Sprint Triathlon

August: Boulder 70.3

September: Ironman Lake Tahoe

The photo promt for the day was “a favorite things” I have many but the favorite thing I DID today was vote.

Hope you all got out there and and did your civic duty, now all there is left to do is wait and watch.

I hope everyone is doing ok out there, I can’t believe what some of you on the East Coast are going through. I am thankful to have a lot of my family here with me in Colorado safe and sound. Life here keeps chugging on with beautiful temps that allow for outside riding in November.

My week is shaping up like usual for prep training, nothing crazy
Monday: am- master swim workout 2800 
pm- hip and core strength work
Tuesday: pm- Run speed work ~6 miles plus plyo work
Wednesday: am- 90 min spin
pm- strength work
Thursday: am- hip and core work
pm- masters swim
Friday: am- 60 minute tempo run 
pm- hip and core work
Saturday: Swim/Run brick 2250 swim short transition to 15 mile run
Sunday:  2-2.5 hour bike ride with long hills and strength session

Total Hours: 16 hrs (not too bad!) 

Now for the November Photo-a-day today’s prompt was 5 o’clock.

 My brain went straight to 5 am and what I am normally doing at this time. The first thing that came to mind was spin class. 5 pm now just makes me think of the darkness that I will be running in from now until April =( guess I better get used to it!