3 Olympics in 3 Days???

I decided to set a goal for the last three days before I go back to school!  Three olympic distance triathlons in three days!  It's TOTALLY doable, right?!  We'll see.  Today was triathlon #1 and it went quite well!

Camilla wanted to go to spin class this morning at nine so I told her that I'd meet her up there.  I beat her to the gym by 30 seconds, jumped in the pool and 20 minutes later was up in the spin room with her.  The pool was pretty clear of people.  Just a couple of older ladies bobbing up and down their lanes!  I jumped in and hit it without so much as a warm up.  The first five hundred I did in 7:50 and the second in 7:45.  I felt pretty good about that effort (I think the olympic is actually 1500...oh well).

Transition was looonnnnnggggg.  I had to go into the locker room and dry off really well before getting into my gear for the bike.

The spin felt good from beginning to end.  I really enjoy riding next to my wife.  We don't even have to talk for me to enjoy her company.  There's something about us both working hard together to maintain and work on our health that makes me happy.  I finished the 25 miles in just over 1:09 (averaged 21.7mph).

Transition again took forever.

Hopping on the treadmill and running the first mile was easy.  I was a bit surprised at how easy that first  mile felt (wasn't running all that fast 8:50 pace).  Mile two felt fine as well, but I could tell that I would be in need soon of some nourishment; something more than just water, and I didn't have anything.  I finished my first 5k in just under 26 minutes.  At that point I had to walk a little.  The wall had jutted up and smacked me right in the face!  Two or three minutes of walking had me feeling a bit guilty so I cranked up the speed to 7.2 and started running again.  Surprisingly, I found a bit of a groove for the rest of the run.  I ended up running the 10k in 55:40.  Not great, but not bad after a good swim and hard ride.

Overall I feel like my conditioning isn't that off from summer.  In fact, my times are very comparable to my performance last year at the Boise Half Ironman.  I'm encouraged by that!  In three weeks the strict training starts and I WILL NOT BE DISTRACTED from preparing myself to destroy my times from last year!  I love training.  Love it.

Christmas Slacker

Yikes!  I just went a full six days with absolutely zero exercise!  Don't be like me, ok?  I have all sorts of excuses (Christmas being a biggie), but, the truth is, I just didn't want to do it.

So, now that's out of my system, and I've gotta get back on track!  I did go for a run yesterday and it was beautiful out!  The snow is deep, but roads are mostly clear.  Sidewalks were about 75% clear so I did run through some snow.  Sun was shining, warming my face and shoulders and it was just beautiful!  Did 4 miles and loved it.  Later, we went swimming with the kids and I swam about 750 yards.  I forgot my cap, though, so every time I turned to breathe, I got hair in my mouth.  Blech!

Previous week catch-up:
Thursday: Spin class in the morning.  The hard instructor was there.  She killed us and then as I looked at my watch and had some momentary relief thinking, "Oh, good, only 5 minutes left" Then she said, "Last thing is an all-out sprint........for a FULL 5 MINUTES".  My mouth hit the floor and I thought, "You've gotta be kidding me!"  Oh, man it killed me, but I did it!

Friday: Swimming - It's hard to swim when I don't have a certain workout to follow.  I find myself just cruising along making things up as I go and then not feeling like I did a great workout afterward.  Anyway, I did spend 50 minutes in the pool.

Saturday: Ski day!!!  Travis and I took the older girls skiing up to Brighton.  We skied all day and had a blast!  It was exhausting, though.  Skiing uses so many different muscle groups and I was exhausted.  I received a text in the middle of the day from my soccer team asking if I could play that night.  I was tempted to say no because I was so tired, but Travis said, "Come on...you're an Iron Woman!  You can do it!"  So I went and played.  It was a good game, but I think that is the most physically exhausting day I've had since I did my first triathlon!  My body was shaking.

Sunday/Monday: Rest days......ouch! My muscles hurt so bad!  I was having a hard time walking!

Tuesday: Christmas

Wednesday: Lazy - Well I shoveled four driveways.....does that count for something?

Thursday: Got up to go to the gym only to be met by more snow.  Took me 1/2 hr to shovel and the roads were so bad it took 25 min. to get to the gym.  By the time I got there, I only had 5 min. before I had to leave to come home so Trav could go to work.  So I just turned around and came home.

Friday: Spent the day Grandma-sitting - no motivation.

BRRRRR

Wow!  It is cold out this morning!  One of the many benefits from volunteering in the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics I received was a warm winter coat.  I use it whenever I ski and on bitter cold mornings for running.  Keeps me nice and toasty!  But my face was really cold.  I have a neck warmer that can come up and over my mouth and nose, but I can't get enough oxygen with it on while I'm running.  So I pull it up for 30 seconds, then have to put it back down.  I met a guy taking his garbage out this morning, greeted him, and he said, "Aren't you cold?!?"  I laughed and said, "Yeah." He then proceeded to tell me I was crazy!  I kind of like being told I'm crazy. :)

Yesterday: I missed my alarm somehow and when I woke up I didn't have time to get to the gym.  So I did some weight training and exercises at home.  My muscles are pretty sore today!

Monday: Got up and ran 4 miles in the wind.  Definitely not the fastest 4 miles I've ever run!  Here's a tip:  Don't spit into the wind! :)

Sunday: Rest.....ahhhhh......

Saturday: Headed to the gym and did 90 minutes on the spin bike.  I must admit, I was dreading this because it is strange to me to be stuck in one place for that long!  The first 45 minutes were hard mentally, but after I was on the countdown, I felt like I could keep going.  I'm not sure how accurate spin bikes are.  My first 60 minutes (the longest setting the bike had was 60 minutes so I had to do a 60-minute workout and then restart with a 30-minute workout) it said I did 22.1 miles and burned 725 calories.  My average cadence was 83.  If that is true, I am WAY stronger than last year.  But it doesn't feel right somehow.  What do you think, Ryan?  The last 30 minutes, I did 11 miles for a grand total of 33.
    Finished my ride at 6:30pm and knew I had a soccer game at 8:30 that night.  My legs were spent and I didn't think I'd be able to contribute much.  However, that bike must have warmed me up because I had one of my best games ever!  Scored four goals, two of which were one-on-ones with the keeper where I was at full speed.  It felt awesome!!  I had been considering giving up soccer until after this Half because I keep getting hurt, but after that game,  I just can't do it!  I love the game so much!

Friday:  Jumped up early to hit the pool.  Did the long workout: 4x200, 1x1500, 4x50.  That 1500 was tough mentally.  Physically, I felt ok and could do it.  But mentally, I wanted to stop.  I didn't, though.  I kept thinking back to when I first decided to do a triathlon and the tri I chose was Pineview.  The swim was 1000 meters and it took me quite a while to build up to swimming that long.  My entire goal was to just be able to swim 1000 meters straight without stopping.  And now I'm swimming 1500......and it's only the beginning of the workouts!
    Had a soccer game that night at 10:20pm.  Didn't go so well, but at least I didn't get hurt.  We didn't have any subs so I ran and sprinted the entire 50 minutes.

Too BUSY!!!!

Well, another week has passed and I've yet to get in all of my workouts.  I keep telling myself that I'm just keeping my fitness level up.  I don't need to be training hard yet.  But, come January first it's time to ratchet up the intensity and train with some purpose!  I'll still have another month of coaching wrestling at that point, but I'll manage somehow.  The swim this morning was good.  I felt a little off, but my times were right where they needed to be.  I'm now able to swim my 500s in under eight minutes without expending too much effort.  I'm liking that!  I'm afraid to even get on a bike and ride outside.  Guaranteed I'm gonna be SLLLOOOWWWW!  Oh well.  Se la vie!

Catch-up

I feel like I've fallen off the bandwagon sort of, although I have exercised at least an hour every day.  I've been focused on my heart and haven't been following the workouts closely due to not being able to swim.  I ran 5.5 miles twice last week, hit Spin class twice, and ran again Friday night.  Tried really hard to get my heart to go off again, but no luck.  Saturday I sent the monitor back.  It's nice to not have that monitor stuck to myself anymore (my poor skin was getting raw).  I celebrated by a dip in the pool!  Ahhh!  Felt sooooo good to be swimming again!  Heck, I even wore my triathlon suit! :)  I've lost a lot, though.  My triceps were burning and I couldn't swim real fast.  So now I have to play catch-up.

I also played in two indoor soccer games last week, one Thursday night, and one late Saturday.  I keep getting beat up, though.  The Saturday game was 30+ co-ed and there was a man, who, to put it nicely, was much larger than he should be, who took me out hard.  He kicked the back of my calf and sent me flying, belly-flopping on the ground and skidding forward.  I ended up with turf in my hair, stuck to my face, and in my mouth.  OUCH!!  That one took me out of the game and I was limping for three days.

Because of my calf injury, I missed my Monday run and Tuesday spin class, but this morning I was feeling better, so I jumped out of bed and met my running partner for our normal run.  However, I got bad news and good news from my running partner.  She is pregnant!  Yay!  She will no longer be running with me!  No!  So now I'm on my own again.  :(  I have really relied on her and often found myself thinking at mile 4, "Man, if she weren't here, I would be walking."  Now the real mental test begins!!!

Almost got it all in

Yesterday was supposed to be a two hour bike ride followed by a thirty minute run.  It ended up being a one hour ride and a half hour run.  I was able to go to the Sports Academy with Camilla W. and ride on the spin bikes with her.  She's doing awesome with her training!  I'm quite proud of her determination to stay healthy.  What a great example she is to me in all areas of life.  We rode for an hour (my best one hour ride on a spin bike yet!!!!)  Camilla called it quits, but I still had a half hour run to do.  I jumped on the treadmill and was very surprised that my legs had quite a bit of pop left in them.  After about two minutes at a 6.5, I turned the tm up to 7.0, still felt comfortable, and decided to just go for it.  Just under twenty four minutes later I had run a 5k.  I'm actually quite excited about this workout as it shows me that my fitness level hasn't dropped off much since this past summer even though I've jumped up 6-7 pounds!  Tomorrow calls for a long day in the pool!  I'm now working on eleven hours at the church.  Tithing settlement needs to come to an end soon!

Back in the saddle again!

I've actually hit ALL my workouts this week so far!  Feeling good about that!  My body feels lethargic after about 3-4 days of no exercise.  I hit the pool this morning and it felt pretty good.  Last night's bike/run was a beast.  I really pushed it on the spin bike and was able to average 23.1 mph for the hour and then got off to run.  Wow, no legs left!  A 29 minute 5k was all that I had in me.  Haha!  Oh well.

Trying to hold on!!!!

I'm not sure how I'm gonna make it to June at this rate...  Ugh...  I'm teaching on my prep, coaching wrestling (which totally occupies my Saturdays), serving in the church, and trying to be a somewhat more then waste-of-time husband and father.  It's not working out very well right now.  So what has to give?  The workouts.  I didn't get a work out in Thursday, Friday, or Saturday.  Very, VERY frustrating!!!  Yesterday I was back at it in the water.  The swim felt good.  It better have felt good.  I was working on four straight days of rest!  I hit the spin bike last night while MaKayla was at tumbling practice.  Not so good.  I need to be better at getting fuel in my body an hour or two before trying to work out hard.  I had ZERO energy.  Not a great 45 minutes of spinning.  No worries.  I'll make it through this challenge! 

Saturday Long Ride

We had some work to do on a property in Ogden so I packed my biking gear and planned to ride home.  I was going to hit the trailways along the Weber River and was hoping they would take me all the way home.  I was mistaken.  There were many times I didn't know where I was and wondered if I was even going the right direction!  Suddenly, I came to the end of the paved trail and just a dirt trail went off into the distance.  I was confused and thought for sure the paved trail would pick up again.  So I did a stupid thing and started walking my bike through the dirt and mud.....in my biking shoes.  Dumb, dumb, dumb.  I walked about 1/2 mile before I turned around to figure out a different way home.  I was literally walking around in the middle of nowhere!  I finally found a road, pulled out my phone GPS (thank goodness for technology!) and figured out how to get home.  Put in 20 miles on the bike today and it's starting to not feel like such a lofty goal to bike 50.