Sorry folks, but

Possibly to the surprise of many of your kind comments, I am not in fact Superman. I can't and don't only post my highs here, my lows have to come out too. And this weekend was one of them.
Friday's long run got cut in half when my dear children passed on the stomach bug they've had all week. Of course it didn't present itself in me until I was out on my long run. Disappointing, but I'll make it up on Monday I presume.

Then there was today. I had a long ride scheduled and was excited to get outside. Haven't ridden outside here in the valley in 2-3 months, and only that 1 week in St George last month. I've been good about getting on the trainer, but boy it just doesn't prepare you for hills on the road. No raising of the front wheel, no standing, none of that really truly replicates hills accurately in my opinion. So while it was good to get out, I have a bone to pick with Mother Nature. While I appreciate the sunshine and blue skies so so much, I think it's pretty deceptive to show us such beauty and still give such cold temperatures.
I walked out the door expecting cold, and dressed well for it, but walked back into the house telling my husband I was not riding in that and that I'd throw it back on the trainer. He didn't listen to me. I headed out into a headwind, and it wasn't a fun one at times, but I pushed through it looking forward to a tailwind home. Turned around finally, and wouldn't you know it, so did the wind. Grrr! I'm trying not to be too much of a whiner, but I really hate a headwind both ways. Anyway, too cold and slow to get all the ride in in the time I had so threw it back on the trainer for the last hour, but was still 30-45 minutes short probably.

I SO need people to ride with every long ride from here on out. A few I'm sure I'll do alone, but for the most part, if I can get the company I'll take it!

That is the hardest part of all this sometimes, is knowing that while I can put a couple of the weekly workouts together if I miss one, I can't push off these long rides and runs consistently. They need to get done now, when they're scheduled, and I want to get them done. Uhg, time to climb out of this discouragement hole and regroup for next week.

So it's true, I get beat down and weak sometimes both physically and mentally. I'm not Superman.....Or maybe I just need a nap :)

100 days

Wow, down to 100 days before Ironman St George. I was going to write about it tomorrow when it's 99, but I got to thinking about it. This is one of those things like milestones with your kids (that I have been notoriously bad at keeping track of). This is the first and last time I will get to this cool day of 100 days before my first IRONMAN ever.

Pretty cool.........pretty scary.........Pretty Cool!

Great quote

I'm stealing this quote from my good marathon crazy friend Jonathan (great quote my friend!)

It's not enough to have the desire to win. Most of us have that. It's the preparation, the planning and the training even when it becomes difficult and painful. But if you stick with the plan, the win will be yours.

One of my greatest feats yet

Turned 4 years old today! My sweet boy Talmage had a birthday today. Just after I got off the stability ball at the gym this morning I got a Facebook update after my twin sister commented how 4 years ago I was sitting on a birth ball eating a powerbar waiting for my handsome man. Kind of ironic eh? Proof:

Yep, in labor, on a ball, eating real food, in a hospital. I'm not about to go through that much work without fuel! And speaking of hard work, which I'm accustomed to, this is a real hard work face. I remember how trying things were at this point, but I also love this picture. It just shows what labor it really is to bring children into the world, it shows the support of my husband, and it shows me strong.

In the end it is of course all worth it. I added one more to my cheering squad ;) and boy do I love him!
Happy Birthday Buddy!!!!

P.S. Did I mention he was 10lbs?!

Check out this cute new blog

Thanks Aly! I'm flattered

And just for the record, it isn't as easy for me to find time and motivation to "go to the gym" as it might look. I'm not superwoman, just a slightly addicted triathlete :) And now you have the chance to become one too, for free! Watch the blog for info on how to win an entry to a USTrisports race!

A Little Great

3 months and 30 days

Whew! It's been a long and really great week, and you're probably tired of the frequent long detailed posts 'just' about training, but.....well.....ok, I won't apologize, this is my race blog after all, this is the place I can go gab about all this tri stuff and not have eyes rolled at me *cough cough husband* :)

We're home now, but this morning in an attempt to make time for my hubby to run, I started mine at 5:00am. It was chilly on the face and hands, but a really neat run. It was totally dark the whole time with an almost full moon to light my way and no street lights for most of my run, so I didn't have as much time to get distracted by the awesome scenery. Seriously, I fall in love with the beauty of this course more and more every time I'm on it. The red rock against the blue sky? Just awesome!!! Anyway, back to the run.
Today was just an easier long run. I wanted to feel what 9:00 mile pace avg felt like both out and back on the course so I set the limits on the Garmin and off I went. There are 3 good climbs to the turnaround and more like 2 on the way back. I know that doesn't make sense logistically, but that's how it feels. A couple of them are really mean too! Like close to a mile long and a really good grade. One particular hill was hard to maintain under 10:00 mile pace going up without totally working hard. I see more hill work in my future! :)
In an attempt to get home in time for said hubby to get out and run I had to cut my run down to 11 miles, but that's ok. I got the feel for the course both out and back like I needed. While I've obviously put a ton of physical work in this week, so much of what I've done over the last 6 days has been mental. The mind is such a powerful tool. The body could be 100% perfectly trained for some endeavour, but if the mentality is not there, it just won't happen like it could. And while I'm still an Ironman virgin I have a feeling it's even more true for that 140.6 mile experience.

I'm so grateful for the opportunity to be down there. So grateful for a body capable to do what I want it to and to be trained. So much gratitude for my husband for allowing me the time to indulge in this and taking great care of the kids while I'm gone. So grateful for God's beauty and His goodness. I think I'm kind of on a high right now and I hope I can extend it out into my normal life now. So much hard work, so many sore muscles, such a great week.

Check out these cool pics. St George is so excited to host IRONMAN. These little tri guys were the theme of their First Night celebration this year. If you have the chance to come down for the race, I can promise it'll be one of the coolest most motivating things to see ever.

Happy New Year!

Real quick, I'm excited to have finished my 21 miles/36,900 yards in swimming this month that was a USAT club challenge for December. That's the distance of the English Channel. I didn't finish it all up last week so had to put a couple swim days in this week. Well long story short, our pool here has been out of commission for this week only so I had to pay $6 to swim at a local pool. That's an expensive rate and I'm cheap so I decided to pack it all into one day and only pay once :)
So yesterday, 5,000 yard later I came ashore. I haven't swam that far in one workout probably since high school and I'm pleased with how well it went. I'll be careful not to curse myself here, but I'm so glad my body is staying healthy and strong. Last time I said that I broke my foot at BAM the following week. I have control, I have control, I have control....... :)

Now onto today. What a day. Thanks to Sarah and Chuck for your well wishes for today. 2 loops of the IMSG bike course were scheduled for today and I'm happy to say they're done! 93 miles later, I feel great! Well not physically so much, my legs are a little sore (not as bad as they could be thanks to my trusty and crazy ice baths), and my back and neck are a bit sore as well, ok, and I'm tired.......but I really am happy with today. Felt good mentally almost the whole ride, much better than monday. Some actual sunshine today made a huge difference I think. My toes were still cold, but manageable. Equal splits on both loops. I'm getting to know and even like the course now and am so happy I've had these chances to train on it. My nutrition went well and while it's hard to imagine a swim before and a marathon after, I am excited for race day only 4 months away!

One neat experience from today was on mile 90 on the way back to the condo (I miscalculated my ride today just a little, it was only supposed to be 85. Whoops! Don't anyone ask why I didn't go the extra 7, don't even think about it!). I'd been listening to music the last couple hours to keep me going. I don't usually, but I rode alone again today, and 6 hours is a long time to be alone and working hard. Had my music on shuffle, had already heard several songs twice, when at mile 90 while feeling pretty proud of myself for staying strong today, my favorite race song (which won't be named right now as I reserve it for race days only and visualization days right before a race) came on and I let myself listen to it. I got so emotional and excited for IRONMAN. I'm putting in the time and training as best I can and am excited to see what my body and I can do together come May 1.