Kris' Next Race

Kris well being doing a duathlon this coming weekend on Saturday. It is a 5k run, 15 mile bike and another 5k run. She has been trying two other ladies to do the race so Kris will be doing a lot of coaching and encouraging! I was a bad blog friend and did not make a ticker for her : ( Good luck Kris this weekend at the dual!

Wellness Center Triathlon Race Recap

Before I get to race day I have to recap the night before. Friday night was my 10 year reunion tailgate. I did not eat super bad or drink alcohol but I did have a hot dog and a Sierra Mist. Apparently this was a bad idea because on top of my nervous stomach I woke up at 1:30 a.m. with a huge knot in my stomach and gas and heartburn. I did not go back to sleep until 4:30 a.m. On top of that Scott got a phone call at 3:30 a.m. that his Mamaw passed away. Not the best way to get good rest for race day. I did get 2 good hours of sleep from 4:30 a.m. and 6:30 a.m. More in a minute about heading to my first tri with a 2 year old in tow.

I also owe a huge "Thanks" to Big Daddy Diesel for his encouraging e-mail the night before. I was going to be with nervous thoughts in my head and it was a nice last minute "You got this!" plus some advice. It did not prevent me from dreaming that they had turned the pool into a wave pool and there were 4 foot waves to swim in. : )

My swim coach and friend Crystal. Crystal has been a huge support and help this summer as we have both worked to be better runners, bought road bike and signed up for our first tri together. We might not be fast but we made our goals!

Setting up my transition area! I feel like that part was easy enough not as stressful as I thought it would. Minus the 2 year old : ) Somebody called me Super Mom for having him with me. I owe a huge thank you to my Superintendent's husband for not only helping his wife set up but getting my bike together and helping until my parents go there.

Since Daddy was taking care of his family my parents came and were on Parker duty. They were great about keeping him entertained! Grampy racked him like Mommy's bike. They made sure he was at all my finishes and stars and giving me a big "Go Mommy" or "Good job Mommy" AND they took all of these awesome pictures.

My mom said when I was 50 I would like this picture! I was just pumped they wrote my number on my arm and leg! I was not doing a tri without a body marking. I had my own Sharpie in my truck just in case.

So thankful to be out of the water. I hate swimming and struggle with it greatly. This summer I "learned" to swim but still have a long way to go. Most days I can put my face in the water for 1/2 of each lap. But I was super nervous, getting passed, swimming into sunlight and sucking in water like a small child so I just said forget it and swam with my head out the whole time. Finished in 9 minutes 20 seconds which is freaking great for me! I was hoping for under ten minutes and I made it!

SWIM in your TRI SHORTS! Seriously should have know better. I had a big 4 minute transition. I also Gued and wonder if that was even necessary! OH WELL! It was so cute when I was transitioning to the bike Parker asked if I was going to go eat Pancakes with him : ) Oh how I wish that is what I was going to do!

Off to bike! It was a beautiful fall day and I truly enjoyed the ride. I was being so leisurely about it I was afraid I was going to be dead last (there was only 2 guys behind me) but I was just having fun. Well the 1 guy passed me; oh well! I did finished in 1 hour 2 minutes which is 8 minutes faster than I had ever done on that course. I wanted under an hour but I still call the bike a success.

Off for the run. I was racing not to be last! I think there was one guy behind me and there were 2 people ahead of me. I was hoping to pass at least one person. I was passed by 10-12 people in the swim and passed by 2 people on the bike so I just wanted to pass 1 person for the day. I can't help it I am competitive. Notice the gentleman in the blue long sleeve in the back. That is Scott #2. He is my Superintendent's wife that was a great help all day! Super supportive and ver encouraging.

I got rid of my dead legs at .5 miles and was bouncing from 8:30 pace to 9:30 pace. BUT I had the worst catch ever in my ribs basically the whole time. Not one of the "push on it and it goes away" pains but one of those "take your breath and try to cry" kind. UGH! BUT I pushed thru and finished my run in a little over 28 minutes. My goal was to keep it under 30 minutes so I am more than pleased with the run. AND I passed three people on the run : ) Too bad it was my friend Crystal, my superintendent and some guy that was at least 70 : ( I am usually running to be first but this time I was running to not be last. Definitely a race of a different color for me.

Finished in 1 hour 44 minutes (wanting 1:40 to 1:45) so that was success! I did get an award for being 3rd in my age group. I am betting there were only 3 people there in my age group.

Will I do it again? Not so sure. I will not be swimming until next summer. It is too time consuming to go the gym and I don't have a gym membership so it costs a lot. I might take the time next summer to work on my swim or I might just find some local Duals. Right now I am putting my focus on my October 16th marathon and continuing to improve my running. Running is definitely my favorite of the three! I have a lot of half-marathons I would like to do and will be doing another marathon close to my 30th birthday in January 2012. Overall I am just thankful I am healthy enough to do what I did today! Thanks for reading and following.

Finished

Thanks to all those that have supported me and given my advice going into my first tri. I will have a race report once I have the pictures to go with it.

Here is a general break down:

Swim 9:20 (my best ever)

Transition 4 minutes (bad clothing choices)

Bike 1:02 (fastest ever on that course)

Transition ? but it was quick I think

Run 28 minutes and some change

Overall 1 hour 44 minutes and something

3rd in my age group : ) Not telling how many were there!

45th overall ??

Once my mom gets pictures to me I will write about all the ups and downs of doing my first tri. It was interesting to say the least!

Parker's 1st Race

Tonight I participated in a local 5K to finish off my Serres. Since yesterday was my 18 mile day I ran with Parker in the stroller. It was suppose to be me and friend but her stroller had a broke wheel. It was a lot of fun to run just for fun. I don't even know my time. Someone said maybe 33 something.

Parker running in his "first" race. He ran with his buddy Seamus (Shay-Shay as Parker calls him) and poor Parker was quickly at the back of the pack. Seamus on the other hand took off!

Unprepared, Mismatched, Mystery Workout

All excited that I was going to get a swim for the first time this week and I got there to find out I had no swimsuit or towel! SO I wore my new tri-shorts (didn't like swimming in them) and a random sports bra tank. Good news is the swim went well. It is a short pool because it is a yard pool instead of the meter pool I typically swim in. I know that is not that much BUT my time was 9:40. FASTER my one whole minute!

My running clothes were horribly mismatched! I had hot pink shorts, yellow COTTON shirt and some random winter wool socks.

Mystery distance since the Garmin would not get a signal. Pretty sure it was 2 miles but I had to go get my little guy so it was more of a run just to get in a run.

The Sprint Tri is next weekend! Sorta more excited about that than the marathon!

Recovery.... week?

Mid week and it has been more of a recovery week than a day. My long run was Saturday so I basically took Sunday off (really easy 3 mile treadmill run). I attempted to work out Monday and Tuesday but lacked the energy so read the clues my body was giving me and didn't push too hard. Tonight I did get in a 5 mile run but I did not wear my Garmin because I did not want to know my pace or time.

The pictures above show what I have been focusing on; my family. Mostly Parker! He is really growing right before my eyes and I want to get in all the extra time with him I can. Scott has been working lots of overtime so my works outs have been in the basement late at night and that is not motivating. He also leaves the house at 5:00 a.m. so an early workout is impossible. I am hoping to step it up this week and get ready for the Sprint Tri and then drop the bike and swim schedule and focus on the run for the Marathon. I will still bike for days off but less pressure to bike.

AND the no sweet thing is IMPOSSIBLE in my job! I think I am going to be more reasonable and say once a week or something. Tomorrow is the "one month away" day so I am going to get more serious about diet/training schedule.

Giving it up!

When I trained for my first half I gave up cheeseburger and fries. It was going to be my reward meal. So I have picked my reward meal for the day of my Marathon. I am going to eat at Los Aztecas in Louisville and then get cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory. Obviously I can not give up Mexican food! I eat Mexican all the time and I am not sure what I would eat in place of it : ) SO I am going to give up sweets! This is huge for me. I eat candy every day and stop for cupcakes at least twice a week. So I have buried myself in Parker's birthday cake all weekend. Starting tomorrow it is no sweets for me. This is going to be painfully difficult for me but I have been all bloated and yucky since I went back to work where I am surrounded my sweets. I am going to allow myself dessert flavored yogurts and the low calorie puddings when I feel I MUST have something sweet.

I will not be allowed to eat:

Cupcakes

Baked Goods

Candy Bars

Ice Cream

I am also going to work on increasing the amount of protein I eat. Wish me luck! Anybody else out there give up something to make the reward that much better?

One of "those" runs

This morning I woke up and went to a local 5K. There was a 15K offered and that would have been the smart thing to do because it would have knocked out more of miles for my long run today but I just didn't feel inclined to do it. Well all things happen for a reason and I had a great run! I went out at the front of the pack (it was a small crowd) and I was the 2nd woman : ) I decided since this is my last 5K of the year I am going to push out and try to be the 1st place woman! Well there was a lady in front of and I kept right on her heels. At 1.7 miles a young, spunky, cross country girl smoked us! But I kept on pushing and passed the other lady right at the finish. My time was 24:48 and I was the 2nd woman overall.

At the end of the race the "other" woman congratulated me and I realized she was a lady that I heard a lot about and runs quite a bit. She mentioned she wanted to get in at least 10 more so we decided to potty/eat and go back out and do the 15K course (9.3). It was a great run! I do all of my long runs by myself so it was nice to have someone to chat with and she is more of 9:00 pace so it was a nice little push. On top of that the run is full of rolling hills so it was a great workout!

But this is not what made the run great. What made the run great was some what a blessing this random running partner was. She was so insightful and interesting to talk to. She had lots of running advice and life advice. When she found out I was a teacher she shared a story from her past the reminded me why I get up every day and do what I do. My job has been very stressful lately and I have been caught up in the paperwork and "have to's". God definitely played a huge role in my not running the 15K and running my extra miles with this new running partner. I will probably never run with her again but today's run was a blessing for so many reasons that have nothing to do with pace or negative splits or tempo or hills! Thank you God for showing up today and re-inspiring me to keep up the hard work and go to work everyday because I DO make a difference in children's lives. You never know when God sends a blessing your way.

Brick Workout

Well I know why they call it a brick! Your legs feel like bricks when you are running... WOW! I did a 14 mile bike ride; almost the whole course for my upcoming Sprint Tri and I did it "fast" so my legs were feeling it. I hopped off my bike and it was like being in quicksand from my waist down. UGH! I did a pathetic 2 miles in somewhere close to 18 minutes.

So what makes it better?

Doing more bricks?

Making myself run faster; despite the "pain"?

I will definitely do 2 more of these before the day of the triathlon.

I am bummed I did not get in a long run this week but it was my little man's 2nd birthday so we were busy! We went Great Wolf Lodge in Mason, Ohio and had a great time! I did however workout both days I was at the hotel which is an accomplishment. Next week it is 16 miles or bust! I am also going to get myself in the pool twice next week. Check out some pictures of my Parker Man LOVING the water. Maybe he will be able to swim better than Mommy.