Chasing My Joy

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Archives for February 2013

February 28, 2013

Oh Shooooot….I forgot I should be Training for a Marathon

So, I knew that I had signed up for the Colorado Marathon but somehow I didn’t have it in my head that I am TRAINING for a marathon. I was blissfully following along with my training plan, hitting *most* of my workouts when the nice people who run the Colorado Marathon send me this email:
10 weeks until the marathon?!? Wow that makes it more real. I was in my own little safety zone thinking about ironman almost seven months away. But the good news is I LOVE running long. So bring on the long weekend runs, I am ready =)

Posted by bethcurtis 1 Comment
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February 25, 2013

Makin’ it work – Week 24 training

Sometimes that is what life training is all about…makin’ it work. Last week was a recovery week and while I prefer to stare down a big volume week, I knew I had a ton of school work to do so it worked out well for me. Here’s how week 24 went down:
Monday: Rest day – done!
Tuesday: Running Speed work in below freezing temps – makes it really hard to breathe but I am happy to be working on speed more than I did last year
Wednesday: 75 minute spin class – some great hill and sprint work
Thursday: Took my rest day a day early so I could finish my biochem assignment. I prefer going to masters on Thursday evening but due dates didn’t permit.
Friday: Thursdays swim at my gym, the pool situation seems to be getting worse and worse. It’s too hot, murky and the bottom is slick with something I don’t even want to think about. Can someone please open up a cheap heated outdoor pool near my house??? Thanks!
Saturday: Added a swim to Saturdays long ride for a swim-bike brick. 3.5 hour trainer ride was derailed by equipment failure
Sunday: 11 mile run turned into a two hour trainer ride plus some strength work because of a snow storm
We had this plus 10 more inches by the time we woke up this morning
Totals came to:
8 hours and 40 minutes
3,000 meters swimming
87 miles biking
5.91 miles running – fail
So the week didn’t go as planned but it could have been worse, at least it was just a recovery week. I am determined to fit in all workouts this week, it’s my biggest set so far. There is more snow in the forecast so hopefully I can at least get the work done inside. This week has about 18 hrs on the schedule if everything goes as planned. Finger crossed for 55 degrees on Saturday!
[Source]
How is your week? Is winter making your life interesting?

How is your week? Is winter making your life interesting?

Posted by bethcurtis 3 Comments
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February 24, 2013

Cabin Fever

On the plan for today was an 11 mile run, nothing too out of the ordinary and one of my favorite workouts of the week. I always look forward to weekend workouts because they usually have long endurance workouts planned and those are my favorite. This weekend called for a 3.5 hour ride on Saturday and an 11 mile run on Sunday with 8 miles specifically at marathon (not IM marathon) pace. But with temps not rising above 45 degrees lots of wind and a snow storm blowing in I accepted that I probably wouldn’t be riding outside, I assumed that I would be running outside since I do love running in the snow. But things didn’t play out as I thought they might. Here is how things have gone down so far:

Saturday: knowing that I would be riding indoors (harrumph) I thought I would take this opportunity to add a swim in to make it a swim bike brick. I can’t do this well in the winter unless I am rinding inside because it takes an hour to dry my 5 lbs of hair and I refuse to ride outside in the winter with wet hair so that kind of defeats the purpose of the brick. Anyway the 2200 meters of swimming went well even though my gyms pool was way too hot and murky (YUCK) then it was a quick change and into the spin room for 90 minutes. After sweating my way through class I hurried home to finish up with two hours on the trainer. I hopped on my bike clipped in and got ready to watch a movie while spinning away all of a sudden I felt my bike lurch to the left. Next thing I knew I was on the ground still clipped into my bike. My first thought was thank god I didn’t land on any of our dogs, the second was oh-god, my bike! I live in fear of cracking my carbon frame. After Cory’s slight freak out that I might be injured we checked out my bike and things looked fine, not a scratch. Looks like I dodged a bullet and was left with just a scuffed knee. But my $15 garage sale trainer was not going to be so lucky, I was not going to be getting back on that thing if it was going to buck me off like that. It was most likely that I didn’t have the correct skewer in it but I was done with big red, RIP. I called my ride done for the day, I wanted to baby my knee that has been giving me some trouble and I had just landed on it. So the 3.5 hr ride was shortened to an hour swim and a 1.5 hour ride….hmmmm….shrug, it’s still early season right?!!?  The silver lining to this story is that while out running errands we dropped by our favorite bike shop, Tri Bella, and picked up a Kinetic Road Machine Trainer for a great deal.

[Source]


Sunday: woke up to just a couple of inches of snow, this would normally this wouldn’t be a problem but with the snow coming down quickly and the wind was blowing making for very poor visibility. So poor in fact that it would be miserable to run outside and dangerous to drive to the gym. Guess today’s 11 miler isn’t in the cards. So what can I do at home? Try out the new trainer! So I will get that two hours I missed yesterday and hope to get my long run in tomorrow. Hopefully we will be able to get out tomorrow it’s still snowing!

Mom, it’s COLD!!!

Anyone else dealing with changing plans this weekend?

Posted by bethcurtis 4 Comments
Filed Under: Ironman Training

February 22, 2013

Temperature Debate

The temperature is forecasted to be in the high 40s in the Denver/Boulder Area tomorrow. I am not completely sure as to what to do about my 3.5 hour ride that is on the schedule for tomorrow. Last time I road outside my hands and feet went numb and I was miserable. I do think with better toe covers and the fact that it is supposed to be sunny (and that helps a lot in Colorado) I could ride without too much suffering . 
[Source]
So here’s the question would you choose to risk being cold/slipping on the ice to get in 60 miles outside (oh and spend $$$ so the hubs an I have better cold weather gear) tomorrow or play it safe and (suffer mentally) ride inside on the trainer?

Training update- Things are going pretty well, normal Ironman training aches and pains. This week has been a recovery week, normally I don’t like recovery weeks and want to push higher volume still but I needed the extra time to study and get assignments done, so no complaining from me! Next week bumps up to 18 hrs+ training, let’s see if I can make that work with grad school!?!?

Posted by bethcurtis 2 Comments
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February 15, 2013

Happy Accident

While at a going away party for a friend that I did Ironman CDA with (moving to TX, boo!!!!) I got to talking to Katy who is doing Ironman Los Cabos.

[Source]

 I mentioned that Cory and I were planning a trip to Mexico for our tenth anniversary of being together. We booked our trip without realizing it was the same weekend as Ironman Los Cabos. I can’t believe I didn’t realize it since I knew it was happening in March, I just didn’t put the pieces together until talking to Katy about it. I am so stinkin excited that we will get to cheer on a friend and spectate an Ironman while we are there. I may even try to stay for the midnight finish since I didn’t make it for CDAs finish (I am determined to make it to Lake Tahoe’s midnight finish this year). Some might not love the idea of an ironman taking place during their romantic getaway, but Cory and I love it. 

[Source]

We have never gotten to watch an ironman in person before and it’s something that we love and love to do together. So let me know if you are racing IM Los Cabos, I will be out there cheering for you!

Posted by bethcurtis 3 Comments
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February 14, 2013

Happy Valentine’s Day

I hope you all have fun plans to spend time with someone you love, do something you love doing or better yet, both! Happy Valentines everyone! 

Posted by bethcurtis Leave a Comment
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February 11, 2013

Hello February

Hello February, where have you come from and where has over a third have you gone??? Time is flying and I feel like my easy cocoon of early season training will be ending soon and I will have to face the fact that I will need to start putting up some results. I owe you guys a recap from my time in Miami, I didn’t have the best racebut I did have a great time. When I got back from Miami I had to rush to catch back up with school and work and I just now feel like life is back on track. Training has been going pretty well. Endurance comes easy (give me long slow workouts any day) but speed is difficult so that is the focus for now. Last week was 14 hrs of training, which doesn’t seem like a lot compared to the 20+ hour weeks leading up to ironman, but felt really hard when a lot of those hours were high intensity training. My body felt shredded but after a 90 minute massage and a rest day today I am feeling much better. Good thing too since next week is MORE of the same, plus 4 hrs for an 18 hour week, we’ll see if I can make that happen. I don’t mind winter training when I get to go run on trails.
 but three hours on the trainer in my basement is not my favorite. Fingers crossed that I get 60 miles in on the roads this weekend! 
What does your week look like? Mine will include a romantic run and masters swim with the hubs on Valentines day (sexy….no?)

Posted by bethcurtis 1 Comment
Filed Under: Ironman Training

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We are having so much fun learning to ski as a fam We are having so much fun learning to ski as a family! Ski traffic I could do without 🫠
✨2022✨ I can honestly say this was the best ✨2022✨ 

I can honestly say this was the best year of my life. So many adventures. I am loving the ages of these kiddos and cherish our time together. 

Very unsure if we can top this in 2023 but we are sure going to try!
We hope you had a merry little Christmas 🎄 We hope you had a merry little Christmas 🎄
Winter hiking is just so magical. Definitely not h Winter hiking is just so magical. Definitely not hating winter this year! ❄️
We kicked off the holiday season by visiting the N We kicked off the holiday season by visiting the North Pole and seeing Santa! 

The kids had so much fun and it was way cuter than I was expecting. They said it was better than Disneyland 😂 @northpolecolorado
Happy Halloween!!! Cannon really wanted to be To Happy Halloween!!! 

Cannon really wanted to be Toad from Super Mario this year so we tagged along. 

Scroll to see 2021-> 2020 -> 2019 -> 2018 -> 2017 -> 2016 🎃
We finished up our tour of France with a couple da We finished up our tour of France with a couple days in Disneyland Paris. I love Disney Parks and visiting Disneyland Paris was a dream come true. We had such an amazing time on our entire trip. 

We are trying to plan our next trip. Where is the best place you have ever been? Do you have a favorite trip? I would love to hear about it. My parents say that Ireland was their favorite so UK tops the list currently but Italy or Costa Rica are on the list too.
In our last couple of days in Paris we took a bus In our last couple of days in Paris we took a bus tour to see the major sights. Our favorites included walking the entire Champs-Élysées and climbing to the top of the Arc de Triomphe. We missed out on seeing the Catacombs because we didn’t get tickets early enough. c’est la vie, I guess we will have to go back 😉
A cousin reminded me that I never finished sharing A cousin reminded me that I never finished sharing our trip to France 🫠 better late than never! 

We spent our first day back in Paris with a trip to Versailles. We loved the gardens so much and particularly enjoyed Marie Antoinette’s little farm. The history here is incredible and the opulence overwhelming. We walked over 10 miles on our visit!
Before our long drive back to Paris we did the thr Before our long drive back to Paris we did the three castle hike in Ribeauvillé, France. We climbed up the side of a hill to three castle ruins from the 14th century. It was really fun to explore and a great way to burn some energy before a long drive.
While we were in the Alsace region of France we vi While we were in the Alsace region of France we visited the sweet little village of Riquewihr. Rumor says this was the inspiration for Belle’s village in Disney’s Beaty and the Beast. Can you see it? We could and kept singing Bonjour while walking through town.
After leaving Switzerland we made our way to Colma After leaving Switzerland we made our way to Colmar. This sweet little town in the Alsace region of France near the German border. We loved all the half timber buildings and winding streets. We had some great local food and wine. Colmar was a lovely place to get lost for an afternoon.
It was so exciting to see the Matterhorn in person It was so exciting to see the Matterhorn in person. The peak was never fully clear of clouds while we were there which was a little disappointing but it was still majestic . We took a cog train and gondola up then hiked about five miles down on the five lakes trail. It was a beautiful day and we got to enjoy lunch mid hike. We loved the little (car free) town of Zermatt. We enjoyed some fun Swiss playgrounds in town before dinner. I love Switzerland and it’s mountains!
With the last of our time in Chamonix we took a go With the last of our time in Chamonix we took a gondola and cable car up Le Brévent. We enjoyed hot chocolates and crepes at the top with views of Mont Blanc. 

Next it was time to drive on to Switzerland 🇨🇭
We took a cute cogwheel train up the valley in Cha We took a cute cogwheel train up the valley in Chamonix to Montenvers to visit the Mer de Glace  glacier. At the top you can take a gondola a little way down then MANY stairs to the glacier. It was sad to see the markers of where the glacier was in years past and how much it has shrunk. We did love exploring an ice cave that they dig out each year. We had to try twice to get into the ice caves as the first time it closed right as we arrived due to a storm. It was worth taking the train twice.
After riding to the top of Aiguille du Midi we sto After riding to the top of Aiguille du Midi we stopped half way down for a couple mile hike and a stop at a mountain hut for lunch. This might have been my favorite lunch ever. The views were amazing and the weather was nice. The mountains here are STUNNING!!! #aiguilledumidi #chamonix
We decided to spend a few day in Chamonix to explo We decided to spend a few day in Chamonix to explore the French Alps. The experience we were most excited about was taking the gondola up the 
Aiguille du Midi (highest cable car in France). You switch cable cars half way up so you can enjoy the views. The top outpost is incredible perching on top of the mountain. I’ve never seen anything like it! 

The day wasn’t completely clear but the views were still incredible. #aiguilledumidi #chamonix
After a long drive across the French countryside w After a long drive across the French countryside we landed in Annecy at the foot of the Alps. 

Annecy was such a pretty little town on the bank of a gorgeous turquoise lake.  We got to enjoy lunch at a canal side cafe, wander the streets, enjoy ice cream and playground hop our way through town. 

Very excited about our next few days in mountains of France + Switzerland.
We drove into the heart of France to visit the Go We drove into the heart of France to visit the  Gouffre de Padirac. A large cave system including an underground river. I don’t have many good pictures given the lighting and lack of patience. We loved climbing down into the cave and riding a boat along the river. Probably my favorite cave that I have visited. Kids loved all of it too and are so good about us dragging them along with us across France.
After leaving Mont Saint-Michele we drove to Loire After leaving Mont Saint-Michele we drove to Loire to visit Château de Chenonceau. It was stunning and the gardens were fun to explore. The history here is so rich!
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