How do you choose your races you want to enter? Do you like big races with a lot of support or quieter races without tons of people, do you prefer a city race or on that’s out in the country?

I prefer smaller races that are not in the city, the ideal is a small trail race, the draw back is that these races don’t tend to be well supported. I really don’t like big races that run through the city, which is funny because I chose to live IN Denver (when I retire I want to have goats, pigs and live on the Oregon coast. Thank you all for your input on doing an ironman this year. I am still debating about a fall 2011 ironman, I am heavily leaning towards doing it this summer, now I just need to choose a race and convince my husband!

It’s too late to sign up for a fall Ford Ironman, so I will have to choose from unincorporated races. I am trying to choose between Rev 3 cedar point, Grand Columbian and Redman.

Have you done any of these races, which one is the most rural and scenic?

Normally Cory and I go out of town for Valentine’s day or our dating anniversary (March 2nd, this year will be 8 years). Last year we went to Aspen and it was so much fun.

(getting a Valentines hug from a bear in Aspen)

This year we can’t go anywhere for Valentines day because we both have important projects at work and can’t take a long weekend. I hope that we get to go somewhere in March but we haven’t had a chance to plan anything yet.

Instead of running 16 miles today Cory and I decided to push it to tomorrow night (romantic side-by-side running) so we could spend more time hanging out today. We had a wonderfully laid back day. It seems like forever since we have had a day off together where half the day wasn’t spent working out. Today we got up and had omelets and homemade cinnamon rolls, after doing some chores we headed to Whole Foods for lunch. I had a vegetarian toasted sandwich with brie and apples, Cory had a slice of margarita pizza. I also got a cupcake that I will eat later tonight 🙂
Then we went to Pinkberry for some yummy Blood Orange frozen yogurt to eat while browsing around Barnes and Nobel, I love book stores. We then headed to the mall so I could shop for my 30th birthday present. My birthday was about five months ago but I just couldn’t decide what I wanted….until now! I wanted something that would last and that I would love and I finally found what I wanted in a magazine. I decided I wanted a rose gold bracelet set with pave diamonds.
I went to Nordstrom to try on a similar style before buying it online. I am so excited, I love it and it will match the rose gold watch Cory got me for Christmas. We then went to watch Just Go With It, the new Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler movie. Unfortunately it wasn’t as good as I thought it would be, but it was still really nice to just hang out with my hubby.

I am off to eat my cupcake, our local weatherman issued a cuddle alert for tonight and tomorrow =)

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Luckily not my melt down….the snow!

I am so happy to see the streets clearing up and not to have my hair freeze when I go outside. still hoping to ride my bike outside on Saturday.

This mornings workout was a little baby brick, very soon we will start half ironman training but a short brick workout is a nice way to ease in. Our baby brick consisted of a 1.5 hour spin class and 2.5 mile run on a treadmill. In the spring our bike-run bricks will get longer and will move outside. For now the spin and treadmill combination is a nice easy alternative.

Do you do brick workouts when training for a triathlon? If so, what do you do?

Happy Thursday!

After such a great run on Sunday it was extra difficult to have a “low” run this morning.

We had a 4 by 800 interval run with a mile warm and cool down on the calendar this morning. We headed to the gym and as soon as I stepped on the treadmill my knees were achy, I had some GI issues and my asthma was acting up. It was a painful run but I didn’t want to quit so I put on my big girl pants and just ran slower than I would have liked.

I know there are high and low days with running so I am just moving on and looking forward to running outside soon =)

Also I think I am paying the price for my diet being all over the place lately, so I think it’s time to clean it up and focus on eating “real” whole foods.

One of my favorite recipes is Quinoa Caprese:

Ingredients:
1 Cup quinoa (I prefer Inca Red, but didn’t have any)
1 14-ounce can chicken broth (or sub. 2 chicken bullion cubes dissolved in 2 C. water)
6 oz cherry tomatoes, halved
3 oz mozzarella
2 1/2 Tbs lemon juice
1 Tbs olive oil
1-2 cloves of garlic minced
Cup chopped fresh basil leaves
salt and pepper to taste

1. Place quinoa and and chicken broth in small sauce pan and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat and cover. Simmer until quinoa has absorbed all of the liquid (about 15-20 min.).
2. Mix together remaining ingredients in a bowl and hold aside.
3. Once quinoa is down, fluff with a fork and allow to cool.
4. Toss everything together and serve.

It’s refreshing and filling, if you aren’t a vegetarian it can be really good with grilled chicken, but it’s great all it’s own as well.

I have been a bad blogger, after a stressful week at work (11, 10 and 12 hour days) and a packed weekend, blogging was put on the back burner, but I am committed to getting back to reading and writing this week!

I did have a wonderful weekend though.

On Saturday we decided to scrap our normal long bike ride and head to the mountains to go snowshoeing instead. It was really nice to get out in the snow and we were ahead of schedule on our bike miles so we weren’t concerned about skipping a long ride.On Sunday it was still really cold, snowy and icy so with a bit of dread we accepted that our fifteen mile run would have to move to the treadmill. After last week’s Carls Jr. fueled run I thought I would try eating a bigger meal again before running. Cory and I headed out early to a nice large breakfast then waited a few hours before hitting the gym. Once I was on the treadmill I felt good, I could even read a magazine while I ran and normally can’t do that. I felt better and better the longer I ran. By mile 14 I was feeling really strong so I cranked up the speed and ran the last mile and a half with a huge smile on my face (runners high kickin in big time). We ended up running 15.5 to make it an even 25k. I was so happy when we finished and felt like I could keep going much further.

After the run we took ice baths and settled in to watch the super bowl with recovery socks and lots of food =)

It snowed again all day and the high in Denver was nine degrees, so all workouts will be indoors again this week, but we are warming back up so fingers crossed that both our bike and run will be outside next weekend.

Hope everyone is staying warm, Happy Tuesday!

Yesterday started out as one of the worst runs I ever had and ended up later in the day being one of the best. The biggest thing I learned from this experience is that I need to plan my weekend meals/nutrition better. Here’s the back story:

I started coming down with a cold so I went to the store Friday morning before work to stock up on cold meds to help get me through the day. Unfortunately for me the pharmacy wasn’t open so I bought a ton of candy to self soothe instead, first bad choice. After a long day at work all I wanted to do was curl up on the couch with some more junk food. I convinced Cory to pick up some Qudoba on the way home and gorged myself on quesadillas, chips and guacamole.

I woke up Saturday morning feeling crappy but not bad enough to skip our bike ride. I loaded myself full of cold meds and coffee and didn’t feel too bad. we road 35 miles at a 15 mph average, not bad for me really. We came home and ate a late lunch of veggie burgers. After grocery shopping for the week Cory and I weren’t hungry so we headed to bed without eating dinner.

Sunday morning I was still feeling bad but I really wanted to get our 14 mile run in, so once again I took lots of cold medicine, drank lots of coffee and ate some coffee cake that Cory made. It was yummy but probably not the best long run fuel. The temps were in the low 40’s so I thought I would be ok to wear shorts, I was so wrong! Grey Skies, I should have known I would be too cold!

I was cold when we started out but I kept telling myself I would warm up. I was cold, tired, every step was painful. After two and a quarter miles I knew it just wasn’t in the cards for me. My legs were hurting and bright purple. I turned around and headed back defeated. On the way home I talked Cory into getting Starbucks and Carl’s Jr. (I am seeing a pattern here) After wolfing down a hamburger and fries and warming up in a bath I was feeling much better except for feeling really down about not finishing our run. I asked Cory how he would feel about waiting two hours (to digest) then heading to the gym to finish the last 9.5 miles of our run. He was up for it so we went and I have to say it felt GREAT! I was so happy to complete the full 14 miles that I even ran a little more and I never do that.

I learned that not planning my meals for the weekend can really hurt my training. Lesson learned, I will now plan my weekend meals just like I do during the week. You would think that I would know better by now, but apparently I don’t when I am hopped up on cold meds. Today I stayed home from work because I couldn’t sleep most of the night and was in a bad place this morning.

It’s been snowing all day and tomorrow’s high is supposed to be negative two degrees. So I don’t think I will get any more outdoor workouts this week.

Have you ever broken up a run? Does it still count as 14 miles even if it was broken up by 3 hours?