Sophie
Lauren
It's been a while since I posted some pictures of the girls... They are getting so big!! They are starting to be able to sit up and eat cereal, and they love to "talk" and laugh and play - especially with Grandma!
Monday, June 26, 2006
Brett and Melissa's Wedding
On Saturday after the triathlon, I high-tailed it one hour to Des Moines. I got to the hotel exactly one hour before the ceremony... and got a (much-needed) shower, got dressed, and even made it to the church a few minutes early! Thankfully, the triathlon numbers washed off my arms and legs without too much scrubbing! I stayed awake through the wedding and only needed a brief nap between the wedding and the reception!!
Jason, me, Brett (the groom), Sparkle, and Sid
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Into Racing Season I Delve, In Weeks Thirteen and Twelve
It has been a very hectic couple of weeks since I returned home from Madison. I feel like I live in my truck and sometimes get to visit my house when I have time. Work has been crazy; most nights I find myself finally getting home around 8-8:30, then realize I haven't even had dinner yet, but it's so close to my bedtime that I can't eat a very big meal, or I'll never get a good night's sleep! I've had triathlons the last two Saturdays (more on those in a second), but those weekends have also involved travel and a wedding!
My schedule calls for a bit lighter training week before races, but I took that to a whole new level. Being so busy right now has really caused me to have to omit or decrease a workout or two per week. But, as I look at the calendar, I see that IM Wisconsin is only a mere 11 weeks away, which means I have to buckle down for the rest of the summer. It should be a bit more do-able as I don't have as much travel planned for the next 2 weeks.
My schedule calls for a bit lighter training week before races, but I took that to a whole new level. Being so busy right now has really caused me to have to omit or decrease a workout or two per week. But, as I look at the calendar, I see that IM Wisconsin is only a mere 11 weeks away, which means I have to buckle down for the rest of the summer. It should be a bit more do-able as I don't have as much travel planned for the next 2 weeks.
This was my third year competing in the Quad Cities Triathlon. It is a great race - 600 participants, well run, great schwag, free chiropractic, close to home! I was kind of curious to see how I would perform this year. My training has been (for obvious reasons) lots different from previous years. For one, I've actually been swimming on a regular basis (last year, it seemed like my only swim "training" occured during races!), secondly, I had a much bigger base of running under my belt, and finally, I had a sleek new bike to ride!!
The weather was great for the race, although a bit windy - sunny and in the low 70's. I was in the 6th wave of swimmers: women 30-39 (silver swim caps). The swim start was a bit rough. It seems like every year I get kicked and grabbed and swum over more and more, but this year I decided to start in the middle of the pack (rather than my usual outside position) because I wanted to see just how well my swimming was coming along. I just kept my head down and tried to get into my rhythm, and every time I looked up to sight, I saw fewer and fewer silver caps ahead of me. That was a nice little boost of confidence and as it turns out, I came out of the water 6th in my age group of about 32!
Even though I was pretty light-headed coming out of the water, I had a quick transition and got out on the bike. We had a cross-wind most of the 15 miles, with a couple smaller stretches headed into or with the wind. As usually occurs at the QC Tri, the tailwind was on the "out" of the out and back. I passed quite a few people (mostly from earlier waves) on the bike out because they hadn't quite figured out how to take advantage of the help! The headwind was brutal coming back, but I had the 10th fastest bike in my age group.
At T2, I made a last second decision to not wear socks on the run and had another quick transition. The run starts out on a trail and has a couple of short, steep hills in the first mile, then we hit pavement for the rest of the run. By this time, I was getting pretty hot, but I managed my best pace ever in a triathlon run! All in all, I bettered my time from last year by 6+ minutes! It was another great race, and a great way to kick off the racing season for me!
Next up was the Dutchman Olympic Distance Triathlon in Pella. I met Roehr in Pella for packet pick-up, and then we headed out to drive the bike course to see what we were up against. Although Roehr grew up in Pella, she had forgotten just how hilly that part of Iowa is! The course has a couple pretty nice climbs that really reminded both of us of the course in Madison.
Roehr dropped me off back at the church where I met up with Terri, Jerry, and Tina (friends I met on the training weekend in Madison) for the pasta dinner at the church. We had lots of laughs as they ran out of pasta twice - both times before we got to eat any. Plan B was dinner downtown at George's where we found more pasta and free ice cream with every dinner!! We ate our fill, then ran into more DM triathletes in the corner (only in Pella would this happen...), where we hung out for a while, chatting about ice cream, triathlons, and shoes! As 9pm approached, we all headed to our accomodations for the evening. I stayed with Roehr at her high school band director's house - random, but perfect!
I was kinda nervous before the start of the race. Not because I didn't think I could handle the distances, just because I'd never done a race this length and I wasn't sure how to pace for it. The swim looked pretty long (1.5K), but oddly enough, that was the part I was least worried about! All the women started in Wave 2; there were 54 of us. I didn't get kicked/grabbed as much as at the QC tri, but it took forever for the field to spread out. As soon as the women started to open up, we began to catch the men from the wave before, and about that same time, the faster men from the wave after ours were catching us! At right about the turnaround, I finally felt like I was finding some sort of rhythm. As soon as we rounded the 750m bouy, all I could see was the sun glaring back at me. It was pretty hard to sight on the return trip, but I made it. I did have one "first" for me on the swim: I completely swam over the top of some guy! One of us was not going straight back to shore (him), and he just started to cut right across my path, so with a couple well-placed strokes, I just slid right over him and on my merry way! I was 6th out of 15 in my age group out of the water.
I experienced the same light-headedness in T1 that I had at the QC tri, but again managed to wrestle myself out of my wetsuit without face-planting on the ground. Roehr was already in T1 when I got there, but I managed to sneak out a few seconds ahead of her, but that would be the closest to her I'd be for the rest of the day. The bike out was fast; there was a little wind at our backs. Pella had tons of volunteers - at least 2 at every intersection, and they were great at cheering for everyone. The course weaved through town and then out to the north. My only real complaint about the course were the two blocks of brick paved street that we had to ride on. Going out was great - with a slight tailwind which was increasing as the race progressed, but that meant it would be a decent headwind for the trip back into town. Plus, all the major uphills seemed to be on the second half. I only got passed by a couple of women, and I passed a couple others. I ended the 40K bike leg with a 19.2mph average.
As we made our way back to transition, the sun began to come out and start to show its stuff. I made it through T2 without any major catastrophies. I did opt for socks this race, and I was glad I did! The 10K run starts with a little incline out of the transition area and onto a gravel, then asphalt trail. After what felt like a nice, gradual decline for about a mile, we settled into the run along the river by a campground (were the campers basically just gawked as we went by). There was little shade there, so each water stop involved one cup of water for drinking and one for dumping over my head! We'd been told of the "hill" around mile 3, but I guess I was thinking that it wouldn't be quite as long as it was! As I started up the hill, I saw Roehr coming down and she told me to take it easy on the uphill, 'cause it was a doozie! I took her advice and played a game with myself that I will from here on out be calling "Dutch Letters," in honor of the Pella Dutchman triathlon. Not only did I return to my coping mechanism of repeating the alphabet backwards, but I added also singing it forwards, and at a couple points during the hill, adding a few choice words to the whole thing. I finally reached the top of the hill, found the turnaround, and started back down, thinking the worst was behind me. I saw Terri, Jerry, Jess, and Kerrie (someone I graduated from PV with) and tried to give them whatever encouragement I could muster.
Although the BIG hill was behind us, there was still a lot of climbing left to to do get back to the finish line, and this was where I had to do a bit of walking. It wasn't pretty, but I walked and ran from about mile 4 to mile 5, then just tried to gut it out the rest of the way. Roehr was cheering for me as I got closer to the finish, reminding me that we had just checked off another race on the countdown to Ironman! I finished in 2 hours and 55 minutes - 9th in my age group of 15, but it still felt great. In the back of my head before the race, I expected to be right around 3 hours, so beating that was awesome in my mind!
The post-race was great, and I found lots to eat. We hung around for a while for the awards and door prizes. The RD was basically pulling numbers out of thin air to give away the prizes. Then he switched to just basically asking who wanted what! I won a big jug of Hammer Gel just for being one of the people in the race training for an IM. Then, I won some gloves and a water bottle just because my birthday is close to 10/10. Random! I think the best part was just hanging out with Roehr and her parents and all my new friends from the DM Tri Club. It's been great getting to know them, and going to races is so much more fun when there are a bunch of people you know! And, most of them will be at Racine in 4 weeks, too!
Week 13 Weekly Round-Up (Sunday thru Saturday):*
Swim: 3800 yards
Bike: 1 hours, 35 minutes
Run: 23.7 miles
Cross-Training: about 120 minutes of core and strength work.
*Including Quad Cities Sprint Distance Triathlon
Week 12 Weekly Round-Up (Sunday thru Saturday):**
Swim: 5200 yards
Bike: 4 hours, 5 minutes
Run: 16.2 miles
Cross-Training: about 120 minutes of core and strength work.
** Including Pella Dutchman International Distance Triathlon
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Epic Camp Madison
12 athletes. 5 hotel rooms. 2 (or 3) workouts. Nearly 100,000 calories burned. At least 100,000 eaten!
That pretty much sums up my first IM Epic Camp.
We had 9 athletes from Des Moines, 2 from Mason City, and 1 from Ames (me). I knew 2 of the DM athletes previously, but the rest were all new to me. Most were IronVeterans, but there were a few IM newbies.
I was actually a little scared for the trip. My longest ride so far had only been a couple of 50-55 mile rides, and those had been on the flat Iowa roads. And my runs had been going okay, but not great. Truth be told, I was a little worried that I was really unprepared for not only the race, but even the training weekend. Then I had the bit of apprehension that goes along with going away for a weekend with a bunch of people I didn't know much about except for the fact that they were mostly all a lot faster than me in biking and running.
With gas prices where they are, I opted to ride up to Madison with someone else. Of course, I'd never met them before Friday, but Rich and Jess turned out to be great people and I felt much more at ease once we were on our way. I also discovered through Jess that she and one other woman were pretty compatible speed-wise with me.
After arriving in Madison, I met the rest of the group and we headed down to State Street in search of a grocery store and some dinner. This was my first look around the downtown area of Madison - where the hub of activity of for the weekend will be. It reminded me of a cross between Iowa City and Berkeley, California. As we walked through the ped mall, the veterans gave a running commentary of landmarks and points of interest that might be useful on the IM weekend. As usually occurs in a large group, it took forever to decide on a place for dinner, but we finally settled on none other than a pizza joint. It was the first of many meals that we would share. I knew I was going to like this group when the unanimous decision was made to head to Maggie Moo's for ice cream after the pizza!
The main topic of discussion since arriving in Madison had been the weather. Although this spring in Iowa has been uncommonly hot, we were not meant to enjoy any amount of heat on this weekend. The forecast was actually for rain and temps in the 40's and 50's all weekend long. Not exactly what I (or any of us, for that matter) would have liked to see. Especially as we looked forward to a long ride on Saturday morning. After ice cream and some swapping of clothes among the group members until everyone was confident of staying remotely warm on the ride, we all glued our eyes to the weather channel and hoped for the best. The first group was to leave the hotel at 5:30am to ride the whole course, including 2 loops of the bike course. The second group (mine) was to leave at 7:30 to meet the first group for one lap of the course. We all awoke to rain and 45 degrees. Everyone decided to wait until at least 8am, then we were going out for the ride, no matter the weather. At 8am, we met in the lobby and the rain had stopped, but the cold temps remained. Instead of riding out to the loops and just doing one loop, we opted to instead drive to the loops and do two loops. Those who wanted to ride the out and back could do so at the end of the day. Since the loops are the most technical part of the course, this worked out great for the newbies especially.
Wearing everything I could to keep warm, we headed out on the very hilly course. I rode with Terri, Terri's dad Jerry, and Jess. Jerry had done IM Moo in 2004, but we still were slaves to the route map and directions to make our way around the 44 mile loop. The hills were pretty intense right off the bat, but with fresh legs, they were very doable. As we made our way into Mt. Horab, I started to realize exactly what I had gotten myself into. This route demands a great deal of respect throughout the race. Going too hard on lap one would almost guarantee that you'd never survive the second lap AND a marathon. It is a beautiful course that flows in and out of towns and past some amazing old farms and brand new residential developments. There is no shortage of dairy cattle along the route, so you'll be sure to never forget that you are in Wisconsin.
Near the end of the first loop, the sun begain to peek through the clouds and I started to cook! We stopped at the cars to eat and remove some layers of clothing. I ended up heading out on the second loop with just a short sleeve jersey and shorts! It really turned out to be a great day for riding. The second loop was so much better than the first. I knew the route without checking the map all the time and I could just concentrate on riding and the more technical aspects of the course. I really enjoyed the ride for the second 40 miles. And my nutrition was working well and everything felt good. I had previously decided to just do the two loops and call it a day, but (thankfully) I really felt like I could have made the out and back without any problem. But, I stopped after 85 miles. Better to be a bit conservative now, than regret not sticking with my initial plan. Plus, I had a half marathon to run in the morning!!
After we'd all completed our rides and had a shower, we headed out to our reservations at Bellini Italian Resturant. It was really quite funny to see this big group of 12 skinny athletes sit down at the table and literally inhale everything within a 3 foot radius of the table. If it wasn't bolted to the floor, we ate it. The waiters got a great workout bringing out basket after basket of bread. Then the table went silent after the dinners arrived. No one spoke for about 10 minutes while we stuffed ourselves with calories. After cleaning our plates, no one batted an eye when someone suggested we return to the ice cream parlor for the second night!
Sunday morning was tons better weather-wise. No rain, but still plenty chilly. All but three brave men decided against a swim in Lake Monona. But we all did go down to the lakefront and had a "guided" walk-through of the events and landmarks of the IM morning. After the guys had finished their swim, we all took off along the run course. The course is great and winds through campus, around the interior of Camp Randall stadium, and then along Lake Mendota, finally coming to a trunaround on State Street (with the capitol building in view). Then it's back roughly the same way back to downtown (basically returning to the capitol building again). That is one loop for about 13.1 miles, then repeat for the full marathon. We "only" did one loop, but we all felt great when we were done! Great, but ready to hit the showers!
Then it was off to breakfast - one more meal as we headed out of town. Our poor waitress at Perkins did a great job of bringing us almost one of everything on the menu. Terri, sitting next to me, ordered eggs, hash browns, wheat toast, and a side of french toast! And she weighs at least 20# less than me!
I was a bit nervous going into this weekend. I was pretty afraid that it would be a good indication of just how little training I had done and how painful the actual race would be for me. However, I feel so much better having seen the sights, tackled the bike course, and navigating the run! I feel like I've got a lot left to do to prepare, but this whole IM thing is within reach! I can't wait for September 10!
That pretty much sums up my first IM Epic Camp.
We had 9 athletes from Des Moines, 2 from Mason City, and 1 from Ames (me). I knew 2 of the DM athletes previously, but the rest were all new to me. Most were IronVeterans, but there were a few IM newbies.
I was actually a little scared for the trip. My longest ride so far had only been a couple of 50-55 mile rides, and those had been on the flat Iowa roads. And my runs had been going okay, but not great. Truth be told, I was a little worried that I was really unprepared for not only the race, but even the training weekend. Then I had the bit of apprehension that goes along with going away for a weekend with a bunch of people I didn't know much about except for the fact that they were mostly all a lot faster than me in biking and running.
With gas prices where they are, I opted to ride up to Madison with someone else. Of course, I'd never met them before Friday, but Rich and Jess turned out to be great people and I felt much more at ease once we were on our way. I also discovered through Jess that she and one other woman were pretty compatible speed-wise with me.
After arriving in Madison, I met the rest of the group and we headed down to State Street in search of a grocery store and some dinner. This was my first look around the downtown area of Madison - where the hub of activity of for the weekend will be. It reminded me of a cross between Iowa City and Berkeley, California. As we walked through the ped mall, the veterans gave a running commentary of landmarks and points of interest that might be useful on the IM weekend. As usually occurs in a large group, it took forever to decide on a place for dinner, but we finally settled on none other than a pizza joint. It was the first of many meals that we would share. I knew I was going to like this group when the unanimous decision was made to head to Maggie Moo's for ice cream after the pizza!
The main topic of discussion since arriving in Madison had been the weather. Although this spring in Iowa has been uncommonly hot, we were not meant to enjoy any amount of heat on this weekend. The forecast was actually for rain and temps in the 40's and 50's all weekend long. Not exactly what I (or any of us, for that matter) would have liked to see. Especially as we looked forward to a long ride on Saturday morning. After ice cream and some swapping of clothes among the group members until everyone was confident of staying remotely warm on the ride, we all glued our eyes to the weather channel and hoped for the best. The first group was to leave the hotel at 5:30am to ride the whole course, including 2 loops of the bike course. The second group (mine) was to leave at 7:30 to meet the first group for one lap of the course. We all awoke to rain and 45 degrees. Everyone decided to wait until at least 8am, then we were going out for the ride, no matter the weather. At 8am, we met in the lobby and the rain had stopped, but the cold temps remained. Instead of riding out to the loops and just doing one loop, we opted to instead drive to the loops and do two loops. Those who wanted to ride the out and back could do so at the end of the day. Since the loops are the most technical part of the course, this worked out great for the newbies especially.
Wearing everything I could to keep warm, we headed out on the very hilly course. I rode with Terri, Terri's dad Jerry, and Jess. Jerry had done IM Moo in 2004, but we still were slaves to the route map and directions to make our way around the 44 mile loop. The hills were pretty intense right off the bat, but with fresh legs, they were very doable. As we made our way into Mt. Horab, I started to realize exactly what I had gotten myself into. This route demands a great deal of respect throughout the race. Going too hard on lap one would almost guarantee that you'd never survive the second lap AND a marathon. It is a beautiful course that flows in and out of towns and past some amazing old farms and brand new residential developments. There is no shortage of dairy cattle along the route, so you'll be sure to never forget that you are in Wisconsin.
Near the end of the first loop, the sun begain to peek through the clouds and I started to cook! We stopped at the cars to eat and remove some layers of clothing. I ended up heading out on the second loop with just a short sleeve jersey and shorts! It really turned out to be a great day for riding. The second loop was so much better than the first. I knew the route without checking the map all the time and I could just concentrate on riding and the more technical aspects of the course. I really enjoyed the ride for the second 40 miles. And my nutrition was working well and everything felt good. I had previously decided to just do the two loops and call it a day, but (thankfully) I really felt like I could have made the out and back without any problem. But, I stopped after 85 miles. Better to be a bit conservative now, than regret not sticking with my initial plan. Plus, I had a half marathon to run in the morning!!
After we'd all completed our rides and had a shower, we headed out to our reservations at Bellini Italian Resturant. It was really quite funny to see this big group of 12 skinny athletes sit down at the table and literally inhale everything within a 3 foot radius of the table. If it wasn't bolted to the floor, we ate it. The waiters got a great workout bringing out basket after basket of bread. Then the table went silent after the dinners arrived. No one spoke for about 10 minutes while we stuffed ourselves with calories. After cleaning our plates, no one batted an eye when someone suggested we return to the ice cream parlor for the second night!
Sunday morning was tons better weather-wise. No rain, but still plenty chilly. All but three brave men decided against a swim in Lake Monona. But we all did go down to the lakefront and had a "guided" walk-through of the events and landmarks of the IM morning. After the guys had finished their swim, we all took off along the run course. The course is great and winds through campus, around the interior of Camp Randall stadium, and then along Lake Mendota, finally coming to a trunaround on State Street (with the capitol building in view). Then it's back roughly the same way back to downtown (basically returning to the capitol building again). That is one loop for about 13.1 miles, then repeat for the full marathon. We "only" did one loop, but we all felt great when we were done! Great, but ready to hit the showers!
Then it was off to breakfast - one more meal as we headed out of town. Our poor waitress at Perkins did a great job of bringing us almost one of everything on the menu. Terri, sitting next to me, ordered eggs, hash browns, wheat toast, and a side of french toast! And she weighs at least 20# less than me!
I was a bit nervous going into this weekend. I was pretty afraid that it would be a good indication of just how little training I had done and how painful the actual race would be for me. However, I feel so much better having seen the sights, tackled the bike course, and navigating the run! I feel like I've got a lot left to do to prepare, but this whole IM thing is within reach! I can't wait for September 10!
Monday, June 12, 2006
The Hills are Mean, In Week Fourteen
The IM training road this week was just a roller coaster in so many senses of the word. I had a couple of really great experiences, and some big-time lows as well. Coming off Dam to Dam, my recovery was great! I really experienced no after-effects of the race on Sunday. Sparkle was not as lucky, so she bailed on doing my Sunday long ride with me. My Canadian friend, Kevin, who rode with us the previous week was ready to ride though. Kevin and I headed north then west towards Pilot Mound. Iowa is not totally flat, but there aren't any really big hills very close to Ames. Pilot Mound is known by central Iowa cyclists as one site of a couple of big hills, and since the IM Wisconsin course is riddled with big ones, I decided Sunday would be a great day to go tackle them... and since Sparkle is NOT a big fan of hills (especially big ones), this would be a perfect opportunity to check them out. The wind was out of the SE, so it basically pushed us along at a pretty good clip.
As it turns out, there are only 2 hills at Pilot Mound - one down into the river valley and one back out. But they are pretty hefty! I sent Kevin down the hill first. He's a man, and you know men... they think first with their ego and second with their head. He got aero and just went for it. I took the more cautious approach (since I could see that there was a turn at the bottom of the hill and a bridge and I had no idea what condition either of these were in) and rode the brakes most of the way down. When I caught Kevin at the bottom, his first words were, "THAT was scary!!" He said he hit 76 km/hour (he's Canadian, remember??) on the downhill. After I kicked his butt up the other side, we settled back into our ride with the wind. I think the uphill really took a lot out of Kevin, because it soon became clear that we were not going to ride back to Ames into the wind. We forged ahead until I thought Kevin was gonna fall off his bike from fatigue. So, for the second week in a row, we sagged in from a 3 hour ride. This time Kevin's friend (also a Canadian) came to pick us up. The funniest part of that ride home was when his friend made fun of Kevin for saying, "Eh?" all the time.
For the first time in 16 weeks, I missed a swim workout. That's not to say that I've swum every yard of each assigned workout up until now, but I was really doing well with the frequency of the workouts, if not the duration. But, I'm okay with missing one workout. Life goes on...
My running has never sucked more than it did this week. As you can see from the Weekly Wrap-Up below, I managed about 7.5 miles of running, and even that might be pushing things a bit. Part of the low mileage is due to the long bikes on Sunday and Saturday, but the other reason is because I just couldn't run. That's all there was to it. It has happened before, but for some reason this had a profound mental effect on me. Especially the run on Thusday.
I was pretty wiped out on Thursday, but I knew it wasn't due to any tough workouts in the previous 4 days, so I headed out for my 7.5 miler. I made it about 1 mile before my heart rate was through the roof. That was just fine with me acutally, because I didn't want to keep running anyway. I walked-ran for another mile before I just decided I was going to do a 5 mile walk, rather than run another step. A day like that can affect your psyche quite a bit. Here I am, 14 weeks from racing in an Ironman and I can't run more than a mile without dying. It's not a very comforting thought. Plus I knew I was heading to Madison for the weekend with a bunch of great athletes and I wasn't in good enough shape to even start a workout, much less complete some grueling, breakthrough workouts with them. Basically, I decided to forget my Friday workout (there wouldn't be time for it anyways) and just rest instead.
Weekly Round-Up (Sunday thru Saturday):
Swim: 4900 yards
Bike: 9 hours, 50 minutes (including a 6-hour workout in Madison)
Run: 7.5 miles
Cross-Training: about 30 minutes of core work.
As it turns out, there are only 2 hills at Pilot Mound - one down into the river valley and one back out. But they are pretty hefty! I sent Kevin down the hill first. He's a man, and you know men... they think first with their ego and second with their head. He got aero and just went for it. I took the more cautious approach (since I could see that there was a turn at the bottom of the hill and a bridge and I had no idea what condition either of these were in) and rode the brakes most of the way down. When I caught Kevin at the bottom, his first words were, "THAT was scary!!" He said he hit 76 km/hour (he's Canadian, remember??) on the downhill. After I kicked his butt up the other side, we settled back into our ride with the wind. I think the uphill really took a lot out of Kevin, because it soon became clear that we were not going to ride back to Ames into the wind. We forged ahead until I thought Kevin was gonna fall off his bike from fatigue. So, for the second week in a row, we sagged in from a 3 hour ride. This time Kevin's friend (also a Canadian) came to pick us up. The funniest part of that ride home was when his friend made fun of Kevin for saying, "Eh?" all the time.
For the first time in 16 weeks, I missed a swim workout. That's not to say that I've swum every yard of each assigned workout up until now, but I was really doing well with the frequency of the workouts, if not the duration. But, I'm okay with missing one workout. Life goes on...
My running has never sucked more than it did this week. As you can see from the Weekly Wrap-Up below, I managed about 7.5 miles of running, and even that might be pushing things a bit. Part of the low mileage is due to the long bikes on Sunday and Saturday, but the other reason is because I just couldn't run. That's all there was to it. It has happened before, but for some reason this had a profound mental effect on me. Especially the run on Thusday.
I was pretty wiped out on Thursday, but I knew it wasn't due to any tough workouts in the previous 4 days, so I headed out for my 7.5 miler. I made it about 1 mile before my heart rate was through the roof. That was just fine with me acutally, because I didn't want to keep running anyway. I walked-ran for another mile before I just decided I was going to do a 5 mile walk, rather than run another step. A day like that can affect your psyche quite a bit. Here I am, 14 weeks from racing in an Ironman and I can't run more than a mile without dying. It's not a very comforting thought. Plus I knew I was heading to Madison for the weekend with a bunch of great athletes and I wasn't in good enough shape to even start a workout, much less complete some grueling, breakthrough workouts with them. Basically, I decided to forget my Friday workout (there wouldn't be time for it anyways) and just rest instead.
Weekly Round-Up (Sunday thru Saturday):
Swim: 4900 yards
Bike: 9 hours, 50 minutes (including a 6-hour workout in Madison)
Run: 7.5 miles
Cross-Training: about 30 minutes of core work.
Monday, June 05, 2006
Like a Machine, In Week Fifteen
After the big training weekend, I started to focus on the race this weekend. Really, I planned to just use the race (a 20K) as a well-catered training run. But I also kind of wanted to test things out a bit to see how far I'd come. I trained pretty well throughout the week, but used Friday as a rest day just to make sure I felt decent on Saturday. I tried not to do much with my clients or in the fitness classes, but, of course, work was swamped on Friday and I ended up doing more physical labor on Friday than I had the whole week before!
Sparkle and I decided to run the beginning of the race together and then we ended up doing the whole thing side by side. I didn't set any PR's, but I did come away from this race with WAY more confidence than any other race before! Ususally at about mile 8 or 9, I start to wish for a city bus to come by, run me over, and put me out of my misery. But this year, I felt strong through the whole race and even felt like I could have continued running for another 3+ miles after the end. I didn't of course, but instead I found the osteopathic manipulation tables and the beer garden...
I also made another big discovery this week! The city outdoor pool (with a rather funny name: Carr Pool, get it??) opened. And wiith the warm temps we've been having, it is very comfortable to swim in! So, now, over my lunch hour, I get to go swim at the pool and get a tan and a little mini-vacation during the work day. I now LOVE to go swimming during my lunch hour. Acutally, I may even start to teach water aerobics, too!
Really, the biggest change I've noticed in myself recently is that I am really enjoying my training. Not just the swimming, but all of the workouts. And, I know exactly what to blame it on. The weather around here has been amazing - sunny, hot, humid. I LOVE it!! For some reason, I just don't mind going out to train if it's good summer weather. That rocks since the rest of my training will be in weather just like this!
The next few weekends are full of training and racing. I'm heading to Madison next weekend, then there's the Quad Cities Triathlon, then the Pella Dutchman Triathlon. I am just really looking forward to doing some racing and testing some of this training!
Weekly Round-Up (Sunday thru Saturday):
Swim: 6400 yards (about 1800 of that in open water)
Bike: 5 hours, 55 minutes (about half of that on the trainer...)
Run: 21.9 miles
Sparkle and I decided to run the beginning of the race together and then we ended up doing the whole thing side by side. I didn't set any PR's, but I did come away from this race with WAY more confidence than any other race before! Ususally at about mile 8 or 9, I start to wish for a city bus to come by, run me over, and put me out of my misery. But this year, I felt strong through the whole race and even felt like I could have continued running for another 3+ miles after the end. I didn't of course, but instead I found the osteopathic manipulation tables and the beer garden...
I also made another big discovery this week! The city outdoor pool (with a rather funny name: Carr Pool, get it??) opened. And wiith the warm temps we've been having, it is very comfortable to swim in! So, now, over my lunch hour, I get to go swim at the pool and get a tan and a little mini-vacation during the work day. I now LOVE to go swimming during my lunch hour. Acutally, I may even start to teach water aerobics, too!
Really, the biggest change I've noticed in myself recently is that I am really enjoying my training. Not just the swimming, but all of the workouts. And, I know exactly what to blame it on. The weather around here has been amazing - sunny, hot, humid. I LOVE it!! For some reason, I just don't mind going out to train if it's good summer weather. That rocks since the rest of my training will be in weather just like this!
The next few weekends are full of training and racing. I'm heading to Madison next weekend, then there's the Quad Cities Triathlon, then the Pella Dutchman Triathlon. I am just really looking forward to doing some racing and testing some of this training!
Weekly Round-Up (Sunday thru Saturday):
Swim: 6400 yards (about 1800 of that in open water)
Bike: 5 hours, 55 minutes (about half of that on the trainer...)
Run: 21.9 miles
Monday, May 29, 2006
A Wild, Windy Weekend
The weather forecast for Memorial Day weekend was, in two words, going to be hot and windy. Not just kinda hot or kinda windy, but REALLY hot and REALLY windy. Saturday was in the low ninety's and sustained winds of 30-45 mph with gusts of close to 70mph. I was glad I got my run in by 8:30am! I didn't have any other activities planned for the rest of the day, so I just did some stuff around the house and listened to the wind howl! But, I did need a good long ride of about 4 hours on Sunday. With one eye on the weather forecast (I love weather.com!), I planned my ride. I decided I could handle heat or wind, but not both, on the ride. I talked Sparkle into riding with me (actually she volunteered, needed practice for RAGBRAI) and I talked Sid into practicing his RAGBRAI skills as well (he's our sag driver). With the winds forecast to be about 25-30mph out of the south, we picked a little town called Maxwell, about 15 miles SE of Ames, as our starting point, and Iowa Falls (55 miles due north) as our ending point. We'd never ridden any of these little county roads, but there was very little east-west riding to be done so it looked like we could sail all the way.
I called another friend who recently moved to Ames and just bought a new bike, and he wanted to ride along for just the little stretch from Maxwell to Ames. After loading up two trucks with bikes and clothes and all the stuff we'd need at the end of the ride, picked up Kevin, we dropped off one truck at Sid's so he could come get us in Iowa Falls. Sparkle, Kevin, and I drove to Maxwell and headed north on our bike with a nice breeze at our backs, the sun shining overhead, and temps in the upper 70's to low 80's at about 9am. The county roads were smooth, black asphalt and traffic was next to nothing - perfect for cycling. Less than 30 minutes later, we were nearly back to Ames and hadn't really even broken much of a sweat yet. Although this was Kevin's third ride this year, the conditions were so perfect that he opted to continue on with us for the rest of the ride, rather than head back into Ames.
There were times where, without pedaling, we were cruising along at about 20-22mph. It was just a glorious day to be on a bike. We hit one stretch from Fernald to McCallsburg where the roads sucked pretty royally but everything else was great, so we forged ahead. We had a couple east-west traverses to keep us on our new favorite county road, and those times made us bitter. I had to lean about 25-30 degrees into the wind to keep from being blown off my bike and the road, because by now the winds were about 30mph out of the south again. We made such good time, we got to Iowa Falls about an hour before we thought we would. The wide open road gave me a couple stretches where I could really hammer it for 3-4 miles at a time. I think I hit close to 37 mph on a straight, flat section of road. It felt awesome! And it felt great to be able to maintain that for 8-10 minutes at a time. Perfect!
By the time we got to Alden (about 50 miles into the trip), Kevin was wiped out. We stopped at the Casey's for some refreshments and to cool off for a few minutes. The last 6 miles into Iowa Falls were heading east and that sucked! If we'd made Kevin go one more mile, I think he would have sat down be the side of the road and just called a cab from Ames to come get him. He was done. 55 miles isn't bad for your third ride of the year! We found an air-conditioned watering hole in Iowa Falls, drank some beverages of the adult variety, had some food, then all was well! We visited with Sid's sister, brother-in-law, and niece and nephew, had some well-deserved Dairy Queen and made Sid drive us home.
I really enjoyed the "destination" ride. Kinda reminded me of RAGBRAI. Now if only we could get the wind to be at our backs the whole week of RAGBRAI... Truth be told, I think we could have made it all the way to Canada on that ride, if we'd been willing to give it a shot!
Today I wanted to take another shorter ride since yesterday's ride was a little short of my time goal. I somehow talked Sparkle into heading back out with me for another roughly 17 miles, then I had a little brick run to do. The wind was still pretty intense, and the brick run was blazing hot. Last bit of training for the long weekend is another open water swim tonight with the triathlon training group and the IM'ers.
I called another friend who recently moved to Ames and just bought a new bike, and he wanted to ride along for just the little stretch from Maxwell to Ames. After loading up two trucks with bikes and clothes and all the stuff we'd need at the end of the ride, picked up Kevin, we dropped off one truck at Sid's so he could come get us in Iowa Falls. Sparkle, Kevin, and I drove to Maxwell and headed north on our bike with a nice breeze at our backs, the sun shining overhead, and temps in the upper 70's to low 80's at about 9am. The county roads were smooth, black asphalt and traffic was next to nothing - perfect for cycling. Less than 30 minutes later, we were nearly back to Ames and hadn't really even broken much of a sweat yet. Although this was Kevin's third ride this year, the conditions were so perfect that he opted to continue on with us for the rest of the ride, rather than head back into Ames.
There were times where, without pedaling, we were cruising along at about 20-22mph. It was just a glorious day to be on a bike. We hit one stretch from Fernald to McCallsburg where the roads sucked pretty royally but everything else was great, so we forged ahead. We had a couple east-west traverses to keep us on our new favorite county road, and those times made us bitter. I had to lean about 25-30 degrees into the wind to keep from being blown off my bike and the road, because by now the winds were about 30mph out of the south again. We made such good time, we got to Iowa Falls about an hour before we thought we would. The wide open road gave me a couple stretches where I could really hammer it for 3-4 miles at a time. I think I hit close to 37 mph on a straight, flat section of road. It felt awesome! And it felt great to be able to maintain that for 8-10 minutes at a time. Perfect!
By the time we got to Alden (about 50 miles into the trip), Kevin was wiped out. We stopped at the Casey's for some refreshments and to cool off for a few minutes. The last 6 miles into Iowa Falls were heading east and that sucked! If we'd made Kevin go one more mile, I think he would have sat down be the side of the road and just called a cab from Ames to come get him. He was done. 55 miles isn't bad for your third ride of the year! We found an air-conditioned watering hole in Iowa Falls, drank some beverages of the adult variety, had some food, then all was well! We visited with Sid's sister, brother-in-law, and niece and nephew, had some well-deserved Dairy Queen and made Sid drive us home.
I really enjoyed the "destination" ride. Kinda reminded me of RAGBRAI. Now if only we could get the wind to be at our backs the whole week of RAGBRAI... Truth be told, I think we could have made it all the way to Canada on that ride, if we'd been willing to give it a shot!
Today I wanted to take another shorter ride since yesterday's ride was a little short of my time goal. I somehow talked Sparkle into heading back out with me for another roughly 17 miles, then I had a little brick run to do. The wind was still pretty intense, and the brick run was blazing hot. Last bit of training for the long weekend is another open water swim tonight with the triathlon training group and the IM'ers.
A Little Less Chlorine, In Week Sixteen
Scary as it sounds (and it sounds pretty darn scary to me!!), this week marks the end of the first 15 weeks of training. That means that there are only 15 more to go!! WHOA!! While I appreciate how far I've come since February, I have even more appreciation for how much further I have to go by September. I had a few moments of near panic this week thinking about what I need to accomplish over the next couple of months.
On Friday, I met up with Bob (has done IM Wisconsin a few times and is going to again this year), Brad (has done IM Wisconsin a few times before but not this year), and Mike (a IM Wisconsin virgin, like me) out at Peterson Pits (nice name for a swimming hole, eh?) for some open water swim practice. It's been since last June since I'd had my wetsuit on, and I forgot what a constricting, claustrophobic feeling that is. I wasn't very comfortable for the first 200 yards, and by then I'd lost the group and any chance to practice drafting. I never got 100% comfortable, but I guess that's why we practice. We all have pretty flexible jobs, so we'll be getting out there over the lunch hours on a semi-regular basis to get lots of yardage. I was starting to feel really good (probably too good) about my swimming while pool swimming was all I was doing. This was quite and eye-opener for me.
I kind of reached my breaking point with the weather this week, too. I figure that it is the end of May, so the weather should be done screwing around and just get hot and sunny and stay that way until mid-September. Of course, the crazy Iowa weather has a different idea. Sunday's long ride outside became a half outside and half on-the-trainer ride because it tried to rain on me. Of course, once I got back home and got on the bike on the trainer, the rain stopped and never re-started. I was too bitter to get back outside that I just finished the ride indoors and watched a movie.
My brick runs (runs right after a bike ride) have been feeling great for some strange reason. Usually I feel like like someone surgically attached someone else's legs to my body and then told me to get up and run without letting the anesthesia wear off first, but lately I feel like I've been allowed to use my own legs. And when I feel pretty good, I tend to push it a little bit on the run. Wednesday's brick felt awesome, so by Thursday night's stand-alone run, I had no "go-juice" left in my legs and I had a terrible run. I was just pooped.
As the Memorial Day weekend approached, the temps crept into the blazing-hot range. Saturday's group run was a real cooker, even at 7am. So, I'm just adding "heat acclimation" to the list of things to work on.
Since this is the end of the first half of my training, I thought it might be kinda fun to see just how much of everything I've done since the end of February:
41 miles of swimming (that's about from Ames to Iowa Falls!)
57.5 hours of riding (roughly 920 miles, if you figure about 16mph average pace or 2.4 solid days of riding!)
311.3 miles of running (as a comparison, Interstate 80 is 306 miles in length across the state of Iowa!)
Weekly Round-Up (Sunday thru Saturday):
Swim: 5100 yards (about 1500 of that in open water)
Bike: 4 hours, 45 minutes (about half of that on the trainer...)
Run: 25.5 miles
On Friday, I met up with Bob (has done IM Wisconsin a few times and is going to again this year), Brad (has done IM Wisconsin a few times before but not this year), and Mike (a IM Wisconsin virgin, like me) out at Peterson Pits (nice name for a swimming hole, eh?) for some open water swim practice. It's been since last June since I'd had my wetsuit on, and I forgot what a constricting, claustrophobic feeling that is. I wasn't very comfortable for the first 200 yards, and by then I'd lost the group and any chance to practice drafting. I never got 100% comfortable, but I guess that's why we practice. We all have pretty flexible jobs, so we'll be getting out there over the lunch hours on a semi-regular basis to get lots of yardage. I was starting to feel really good (probably too good) about my swimming while pool swimming was all I was doing. This was quite and eye-opener for me.
I kind of reached my breaking point with the weather this week, too. I figure that it is the end of May, so the weather should be done screwing around and just get hot and sunny and stay that way until mid-September. Of course, the crazy Iowa weather has a different idea. Sunday's long ride outside became a half outside and half on-the-trainer ride because it tried to rain on me. Of course, once I got back home and got on the bike on the trainer, the rain stopped and never re-started. I was too bitter to get back outside that I just finished the ride indoors and watched a movie.
My brick runs (runs right after a bike ride) have been feeling great for some strange reason. Usually I feel like like someone surgically attached someone else's legs to my body and then told me to get up and run without letting the anesthesia wear off first, but lately I feel like I've been allowed to use my own legs. And when I feel pretty good, I tend to push it a little bit on the run. Wednesday's brick felt awesome, so by Thursday night's stand-alone run, I had no "go-juice" left in my legs and I had a terrible run. I was just pooped.
As the Memorial Day weekend approached, the temps crept into the blazing-hot range. Saturday's group run was a real cooker, even at 7am. So, I'm just adding "heat acclimation" to the list of things to work on.
Since this is the end of the first half of my training, I thought it might be kinda fun to see just how much of everything I've done since the end of February:
41 miles of swimming (that's about from Ames to Iowa Falls!)
57.5 hours of riding (roughly 920 miles, if you figure about 16mph average pace or 2.4 solid days of riding!)
311.3 miles of running (as a comparison, Interstate 80 is 306 miles in length across the state of Iowa!)
Weekly Round-Up (Sunday thru Saturday):
Swim: 5100 yards (about 1500 of that in open water)
Bike: 4 hours, 45 minutes (about half of that on the trainer...)
Run: 25.5 miles
Sunday, May 21, 2006
No Time to Houseclean, In Week Seventeen
I began this week in Chicago with a run on Sunday morning prior to all the Mother's Day activities. My run was far less than stellar. I guess I could attribute it to all the traveling and previous day's events, but I think I just didn't feel like running. Yuck. I struggled through a minimum amount of running, then called 'er quits. No sense killing myself in the name of checking another workout off the list. By the time I made it back to Ames and had another run on Tuesday, I felt much better and was glad I didn't beat myself up over one less than perfect workout.
Swimming went well this week, too. Monday, however, someone forgot to check the thermostat at Beyer Pool, so we all had an icy, take-you-breath-away workout. Thankfully, all the little old ladies took care of the complaining (I knew they would) and the temp was back to normal by Tuesday. By the end of the week, it seemed that many of the regulars had left town, so there were less than 10 people in the pool on Thursday. I took advantage of that and did a longer straight swim (as opposed to drills, intervals and the such). I was surprised at both my endurance and the speed I was able to maintain. Makes me feel a lot better about what kind of time I can achieve in my races this summer.
This was another week where biking ended up not being a priority. I've decided to blame that on the running group. That group dictates what days are run days, even if they would be better suited as bike days. Only two more weeks of the running group then I HAVE to make cycling my number one priority.
While in Chicago last weekend, we all went to Tina's mom's house in Willow Brook. I guess I never knew that Tina's brother, Tom, was big into cycling. We shared a quick chat about racing wheels (while my mother looked very confused...), and I realized that Tom may be a great resource for me on the topic of cycling. Where was he while I was shopping for my bike?!?!
If cycling took a hit during the week, running was, well, off and running! This was the final push week for the running group, so we had a "long" 7 miler on Tuesday and a "longer" 10 miler on Saturday. The group is just short of dying. They think I am trying to kill them with miles. For a group who's first "long" run was 4 miles nine weeks ago, making them do over 30 miles in 8 days gives them good reason to think I am torturing them! But, now they are on to the taper period, so I'll be back in good graces in a week or so. I stuck in another 6 miles on Thursday night, and everything feels fine. The 10 miler on Saturday actually ended up being a great run for me. It was a great confidence boost for Dam to Dam in 2 weeks. It was a negative split run, not by design, but just because I really found my zone on the last half of the run and just felt like I was flying!
I've added a couple of pictures to last week's post and will be adding some more in the next couple of days. Keep checking back!
Weekly Round-Up (Sunday thru Saturday):
Swim: 6500 yards
Bike: 1 hours, 50 minutes
Run: 27.5 miles
Cross-Training: about 30 minutes of lunges and core work.
Swimming went well this week, too. Monday, however, someone forgot to check the thermostat at Beyer Pool, so we all had an icy, take-you-breath-away workout. Thankfully, all the little old ladies took care of the complaining (I knew they would) and the temp was back to normal by Tuesday. By the end of the week, it seemed that many of the regulars had left town, so there were less than 10 people in the pool on Thursday. I took advantage of that and did a longer straight swim (as opposed to drills, intervals and the such). I was surprised at both my endurance and the speed I was able to maintain. Makes me feel a lot better about what kind of time I can achieve in my races this summer.
This was another week where biking ended up not being a priority. I've decided to blame that on the running group. That group dictates what days are run days, even if they would be better suited as bike days. Only two more weeks of the running group then I HAVE to make cycling my number one priority.
While in Chicago last weekend, we all went to Tina's mom's house in Willow Brook. I guess I never knew that Tina's brother, Tom, was big into cycling. We shared a quick chat about racing wheels (while my mother looked very confused...), and I realized that Tom may be a great resource for me on the topic of cycling. Where was he while I was shopping for my bike?!?!
If cycling took a hit during the week, running was, well, off and running! This was the final push week for the running group, so we had a "long" 7 miler on Tuesday and a "longer" 10 miler on Saturday. The group is just short of dying. They think I am trying to kill them with miles. For a group who's first "long" run was 4 miles nine weeks ago, making them do over 30 miles in 8 days gives them good reason to think I am torturing them! But, now they are on to the taper period, so I'll be back in good graces in a week or so. I stuck in another 6 miles on Thursday night, and everything feels fine. The 10 miler on Saturday actually ended up being a great run for me. It was a great confidence boost for Dam to Dam in 2 weeks. It was a negative split run, not by design, but just because I really found my zone on the last half of the run and just felt like I was flying!
I've added a couple of pictures to last week's post and will be adding some more in the next couple of days. Keep checking back!
Weekly Round-Up (Sunday thru Saturday):
Swim: 6500 yards
Bike: 1 hours, 50 minutes
Run: 27.5 miles
Cross-Training: about 30 minutes of lunges and core work.
Sunday, May 14, 2006
No Need for Sunscreen, In Week Eighteen
Another crazy week is in the books, and I am realizing more and more every day that it is literally impossible to fit all this training into a week and still have any time left over to be a normally functioning member of society. But then again, no one ever said that triathletes are even remotely normal to begin with...
Since I have 3 swim workouts to fit in each week, my new game plan is to go to the pool as much as possible, as early in the week as possible, in order to make certain that I get all three workouts in. This week, it worked out to Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Since graduation was on Sunday, the pool was nearly half as full as it has been, and for that I am VERY grateful. I swam the vast majority of my laps this week in a lane all to myself. This makes happy! Still, I haven't figured out how to squeeze a 3000 yard swimming workout (and all the pre- and post-swimming driving/parking/changing/showering) into a lunch hour, but I still think the workouts are going well.
The crazy May weather took it's toll on my cycling again this week. It has been chilly, wet, and windy for a while, and it makes me bitter! There was a slight break in the weather on Sunday, and I couldn't bear another trainer ride, so Sparkle and I loaded up the bikes and headed down to Big Creek to ride the asphalt trail to Des Moines and back. Without getting too specific (and using words that my mother would not be proud to see me type), it was the worst ride either of us have ever been on. The trail SUCKS and is hard to get off of if you wanted to ride home on the road. And, if you do get off the trail and onto the road, chances are good that it'll be a road so heavily traveled that you opt for more riding on the sucky trail rather than risking probable death-by-5th-wheel-travel-trailer. Without getting too specific, neither of us will EVER ride that trail again. The worst part was that we had spent so much time getting so few miles ridden that the 3-hour bike ride was reduced to a 1 hour 45 minute ride followed by a quick 1.5 mile brick (bike and run) run.
Since I have 3 swim workouts to fit in each week, my new game plan is to go to the pool as much as possible, as early in the week as possible, in order to make certain that I get all three workouts in. This week, it worked out to Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Since graduation was on Sunday, the pool was nearly half as full as it has been, and for that I am VERY grateful. I swam the vast majority of my laps this week in a lane all to myself. This makes happy! Still, I haven't figured out how to squeeze a 3000 yard swimming workout (and all the pre- and post-swimming driving/parking/changing/showering) into a lunch hour, but I still think the workouts are going well.
The crazy May weather took it's toll on my cycling again this week. It has been chilly, wet, and windy for a while, and it makes me bitter! There was a slight break in the weather on Sunday, and I couldn't bear another trainer ride, so Sparkle and I loaded up the bikes and headed down to Big Creek to ride the asphalt trail to Des Moines and back. Without getting too specific (and using words that my mother would not be proud to see me type), it was the worst ride either of us have ever been on. The trail SUCKS and is hard to get off of if you wanted to ride home on the road. And, if you do get off the trail and onto the road, chances are good that it'll be a road so heavily traveled that you opt for more riding on the sucky trail rather than risking probable death-by-5th-wheel-travel-trailer. Without getting too specific, neither of us will EVER ride that trail again. The worst part was that we had spent so much time getting so few miles ridden that the 3-hour bike ride was reduced to a 1 hour 45 minute ride followed by a quick 1.5 mile brick (bike and run) run.
Post-Crappy Bike Ride at Big Creek
Wednesday morning the weather again allowed me to fit in a quick brick workout. The plan for Thursday was to get another trainer ride done while the laundry was jumping between the washer and dryer and the 6 loaves of Mother's Day bread were baking (and presumably my bags were packing themselves and loading themselves into my truck too). Needless to say, that didn't happen (the bike ride or the self-laundering/packing/loading bags).
But, I did end up getting the IronMaiden and her trainer loaded up into the truck to make the trip to Chicago so that Roehr and I could do our long ride together (in her living room). We knew that riding together on the trainer would be better than doing it alone, but we both still hit a slightly bitter stretch even with the added moral support. We managed 2 1/2 hours (along with the help of Wedding Crashers and Police Academy) followed by a 3 mile run. It was supposed to be a brick, and it was. But only of you consider a roughly 10 minute transition and a full change of clothes a quick change! Actually, it turned out to be one of the better post ride runs I've had in quite some time.
I guess I can't complain too much about my running. It's been quite some time since I've had a massage, and I can tell. My IT bands nearly protrude out of the sides of my legs and the are tight as can be but, strangly enough, aren't causing me any problems (yet). After giving me fits last week, my hamstring went from feeling horrible to feeling basically no discomfort at all this week. Not sure why that is, but I'm gonna ride it as long as I can!
Overall, I only missed one workout this week: a mid-week ride. Not too bad considering all I had to get done in order to get out of town for the weekend. My running group had a substitute coach for their 8-miler. Next week is their final 10-mile run before they start to taper for Dam to Dam.
I love coaching this group every year. It gets me back into a regular running routine in the spring, and ends the first week of June, just when summer really kicks off. I feel like I've been waiting forever for summer to get here, and now it's only a couple of weeks away!! Every year, it feels like the Iowa winters get longer and longer and longer, and I just get more and more bitter with the bitter, yucky weather. This spring is not helping my attitude about Iowa. There has been so much rain and cold and wind... Bring on the heat and humidity!!!
Along with the warmer weather, summer just brings so many more fun things! It's less than 70 days to RAGBRAI! I'm very much looking forward to that week. I know that it won't be exactly like the other RAGBRAIs I've done the last couple of years, but just the idea of the ride puts a big smile on my face. And, in those less than 70 days to RAGBRAI, I will have 3 triathlons, at least one trip to Madison, my grandma's 100th birthday, etc...
Having spent some of this weekend with Grandma Klein, I know she is looking forward to having her whole family together for her birthday in July. It will be a really crazy time, but so cool for her to have everyone in one place at the same time. I'm sure it's been since we all went to Boise for Christmas about 15+ years ago since we've all been together in one place. And now, all (except me) of her grandchildren are married (or engaged) and she's got 4 great-grandchildren. What a cool thing for her AND for all of us! Plus, she only turns 100 once, so it's up to all of us to make it as cool an event for her as possible.
Grandma Linda has a very special Mother's Day with Sophie (top) and Lauren (bottom)
Weekly Round-Up (Sunday thru Saturday):
Swim: 6600 yards
Bike: 4 hours, 50 minutes
Run: 11 miles
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
