72.3 miles (the bike course was 58 miles long) and five years of marriage.
Full race report later now we need to eat, rest and recover =)
72.3 miles (the bike course was 58 miles long) and five years of marriage.
Full race report later now we need to eat, rest and recover =)
I have a few anniversaries today but I will start with the most important one.
Exactly five years ago today I married my best friend, love of my life and partner in crime.
We had a beautiful day and a blessed life since June 24, 2006. I love you Cory, I can’t wait to see what the next five years bring.
Other anniversaries today have to do with my blog, it turn one year old today! I think I posted once a month or less at first but mainly I was enjoying reading other people’s blogs. Completely unintentionally this is also my 100th post, I think that it means that today will be an extra lucky day. I hope that luck spills over to tomorrow and I have some “race day Magic” as Beth would say.
I am pretty anal about race prep and the fact that I have the week off before this race makes it very easy to be even more anal about it. I even planned the day before the race out hour by hour. I didn’t do this for my marathon in May and ended up very stressed and running around the night before. I don’t want to do that again!
I love to make lists and lay things out in piles. Here are my piles for race day including piles for pre race, t1, t2, special needs and post race
I also planned out and bagged my nutrition for the day.
This is what I did for most of today, planned and prepped, tomorrow is also full of pre race activities. We did sneak in a 3 mile run with my mom to preview the 5k course and a two mile walk to the store. We saw the welcome sign for athletes and had to get a picture.
But the best part of the day was buying this super cute new tumbler with the best almond iced coffee ever!
Tonight will be filled with relaxation and going over plans for Saturday
How anal are you when prepping for races?
For us getting ready for our first half ironman is a big deal that started with lots of planning and packing
Driving from Colorado to Oregon for 22 hours straight (bleh). And hanging out with my really awesome parents and their cute golden-doodles.
On Sunday we road fifty miles on some of the roads we will race on but didn’t make it to lake Wickiup (where the swim is held) because we didn’t want to ride on dirt roads. Today started off with a fun and easy trail run. One of my parent’s dogs Zoey joined us for the run, she is a super cute mupet dog!
Later we went to the home owners association so we could get passes to swim for free. We will put those to good use tomorrow.
Cory and I in front of the original Sunriver sign.
This afternoon we drove out to Wickiup reservoir to check out the lake, it was advertised that there would be buoys in the lake so that we could swim but there weren’t any to be seen. Our dogs had a good time swimming
We then drove back along the bike course to see what we were in for. It was very intimidating to drive the entire way, I hope I have it in me! It is an incredibly beautiful course.
I have been terribly absent from the blogging world. Life got crazy with work and training so something had to give. I have been training and racing I just haven’t been able to stay up on blogging. Things really haven’t calmed down BUT I have missed reading everyone’s blogs so I have started to check in quickly but still haven’t had time to comment on yours.
Also I have missed writing my own blog, the point of starting this blog was to chronicle my training and racing so I could look back later and remember all the things I felt during this time. During the time I have been silent I have raced in my first marathon and Olympic triathlon plus put in some of my biggest training sessions I have ever done. I will be back to write race repots because I want to remember the races I did in May and June as well as recap some of the training for Pacific crest that is in a week and a half (yikes!) time to make blogging a priority again!
Cory and I after finishing the Colorado Marathon
Happy swim, bike, running everyone!
I learned the lesson “you get what you pay for” again last night. Cory called me on the way home from work to surprise me with sports massages for that night. He booked them a Massage Envy since it was last minute, a chain “spa” it’s really cheap, if you are a first time visitor you can get an hour for only $39. When we arrived we quickly filled out some forms before talking to the receptionist about why we were visiting. We explained that we were training for a marathon so we had tight leg muscles. She then asked if there was an area that we wanted the therapists to focus on, we stressed that our legs needed the most work. After being shown to our room the therapists asked us again what we wanted focused on (why did I just tell the other lady all of this information?) both of us again emphasized that our legs were sore and needed the most work, in fact Cory said his back felt good and didn’t need any work at all. So how much time did they spend on our legs? 10 minutes! After about 40 minutes on my back I was wondering why they even asked us what we wanted in the first place. The back work did feel good but it wasn’t what I needed after running 22 miles and biking 50. Lesson learned, next time we will go to a real sports massage therapist.
Moving on, the plan for this week is:
Monday: Rest =)
Tuesday: 16 mile bike, outside!! pm: Track practice with RMTC, we will do between 4 and 6 miles of intervals
Wednesday: am 1900 swim (not sure of exact workout yet), pm yoga
Thursday: 90 min spin class straight to a 6 mile run
Friday: 6 mile tempo run with an easy 1600 m easy swim
Saturday: I have to work a long day so I am unsure of our workouts……
Sunday: Either a long brick of 40 miles on the bike followed by a 12 mile run OR a 55 mile bike with hills and then a 16 mile run on Monday, what would you do?
Winston says it’s time to get back to reading blogs.
Yes we keep blankets on our couch, it’s new and we have three dogs.
I woke up this morning with my quad pain nearly gone =) I was able to go to spin class and run after with no issues. I did drop my planned four mile run to two miles because I didn’t want to push it too much and I have a big weekend planned. I can’t decide what days to do what. Saturday is supposed to be better weather and weather effects biking more than running (at least for me). But I am not sure it’s a great idea to bike 50 miles the day before a 22 mile run. I can’t believe my marathon is exactly a month away! I am doing everything I can to help my legs recover and get ready for the weekend including icing, wearing recovery socks to work and drinking a protein shake from mix 1, so good! March re-cap March was a pretty good month for me training wise. Both Cory and I had to work a lot this month so we didn’t hit every workout but I am happy with what we did get done. I am happy with the progression of length I just wish I was faster. I keep trying to remind myself that I have been doing triathlon for less than a year and only seriously running a little longer than that, but that doesn’t stop me from wanting to do better.
Totals for March were:
Swim: 10,400 meters
Bike: 203 miles
Run: 115.7 miles **on track to get 1,000 miles this year.
Strength/stretch: 240 minutes After the marathon is over then I really need to up the swim and bike!
Goals for April:
Swim: 14,800 meters (will start swimming longer when open swim starts in May)
Bike: 308 miles
Run: 120.5 miles
Strength/stretch: 480 minutes
That’s it kids, what are you doing this weekend?
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
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.
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.