So much

to talk about and so little time!  There was the almost "blizzard" last Thursday, my awesome weekend in Colorado Springs, an incredible run with incredible people at Garden of the Gods, all the things I have learned in the last several days, a ride with Princess' new buddy Scarlett, trying to re-live college days and "cram" for an exam, finish up my CPR certification, and everything else.  I am WAY behind!!  So, tomorrow I will swim and lift, make sure our finances aren't completely out of whack, finish up the "test", pass along contract comments, make dinner, and post a more complete update HERE!!

Life Is Good

March 16 - 23 Update

Weekly Update
Swims

Tuesday:  45 min. non-stop pull w/ paddles

Friday:  Masters, 4000 yards

Bikes

Wednesday:  1/2 Epic ride (55 miles, 4 hours, 5500 ft climbing)

Sunday:  Shadow, fast (50 miles, 3:17, 5865 climbing)

Runs

Tuesday:  Track 

Saturday:  8 miles (miles 3, 5, 7 fast efforts)

Other

Weights/abs x 2

Sleep

Not sleeping well.  Having a harder time falling asleep and staying asleep even though exhausted.  Restless.

Recovery

Not going as well as I would have liked.  Ended up taking Monday and Thursday off to help in recovery.  Still tired in run on Saturday and still not 100% on bike ride Sunday.

Mood

Cranky with some happy

Health

Fine

Comments:  Tough week due to being tired.  

Sunday Smack-down

On your marks....

OK, in your best TV announcer voice:  Sunday, Sunday, Sunday....Smmmmmackdown!!!  This is how it happened:  I was talking to Steve on Friday and I told him Sonja and I were planning on a Shadow ride Sunday.  He and Anthony were going to ride Shadow too so I suggested we all ride together.  He said no: we'll give you 20 minutes and the losers have to make us lemon bars (assuming that Son and I would be on the losing end of this deal).  I, of course, said:  Bring it. And then called Sonja knowing that she would never, EVER, turn that kind of challenge down.  

Troy (PIC's awesome hubby) volunteered to be the official starter....and at 8:10am this morning we were off.  As an added bonus, Tyler Boo Yah started 8 minutes ahead of us.....we had a rabbit.  PIC and I discussed at the beginning of the ride that all we needed to do was match our awesome ride of last week, our own personal smackdown of 3:30 for the Shadow Loop.  We didn't need to go all out from the start or anything silly like that.  We were completely on the same page.  Except that we decided to start our 2 minute pulls 8 minutes into the ride.  Uh-huh Smackdown.  All I can say is that 30 minutes in, I was solidly in my race-pace heart rate zone.  

Up Deer Creek.  Up High Grade.  Down High Grade.  We gained a couple of minutes on Tyler - how did we know you ask?  

I think the S&M for me and Son is really only fitting....

Troy was keeping tabs on all of us (Tour-style naturally except that he wasn't on a motorcycle)!

Up Shadow, working together and working hard

We last saw Troy at the bottom of Shadow.  I thought our time was limited now only because Steve-O had sounded so confident when he said he would catch us up Little Cub.  But up, up, up Little Cub we went with no signs of Steve and Anthony.  Sonja was feeling great at this point and I was struggling to keep up....but my awesome training partner said no worries, we can do this.  She started taking longer pulls and kept tabs on me and we got to the top.  Now the fun starts with a pretty long and curvy downhill.  No stopping.  No talking.  Just riding.  And then we were at Deer Creek and still no sign of the boys.  At this point we both knew we could do it.  And crush our 3:30 from last week.  We passed our normal point of letting up and cruising to the cars and kept at it (much to my surprise)!  And then we were done.  No boys in sight.  Tyler was waiting for us at the bottom - he cruised in at 3:22 (by himself!!).  As for the girls???  3:17. And Steve and Anthony:  3:08.  Well within the 20 minute smackdown range.  

So really, the only question now is...What do we win?  Lemon bars do sound pretty tasty at this point but I also like the idea of domestique duty for the rest of the year - hauling water bottles and food, pulling us up Epic and Shadow etc.  

Day Off

After a disappointing ride yesterday, Coach asked me to take a day off.  An unplanned day off. By the way, when I say disappointing just think getting dropped in a warm up.  I mean I could not for the life of me get my legs to give me any more ummmph.  And I wanted to hammer with the girls so badly - we were riding with the '04 Olympic Bronze medalist for goodness sakes!!! But, alas, it was just not my day.  After the millionth time being dropped, I decided to pack it in at mile 28. Great plan but the problem was it still took me another 1.5 hours and 28 miles to get home.  Zowie (for those doing the math that would be 56 miles, 4 hours, and not sure of feet climbed).  I spent the next 2 hours in bed but I was too tired to sleep.  So I read my book (yep, it's true, I am devouring the Twilight series and I know I said I'd never read a teen book but these are awesome!), felt my legs spasming (is that a word?), and tried not to be bummed out at my lack of performance.  

And then came the call from Coach telling me to take a day off, to recover.  I didn't fight it because it made perfect sense.  In looking back over the last week, well OK the last month, there has been LOTS of training, lots of hard work, and not much time for recovery.  So, here are my top 10 list of things to do for an unplanned day off:

1.  Sleep

2.  Eat

3.  Re-stock gels, nutrition bars, sports drinks etc.

4.  Re-stock entire kitchen (I eat more than I care to think about)

5.  Make a dent in washing "wicking" laundry......I forgot about some of these clothes because they were at the bottom of the pile....almost as good as buying something new!

6.  Go outside and try to even out silly bike tan lines (thx PIC!)

7.  Read book

8.  Watch movie (Netflix is great)

9.  Stretch

10.  Pedi (OK, I didn't actually do this but my feet need a little love!)

The big question is, am I ready to get back into it tomorrow?  I plan on giving it a shot - Masters in the morning and weights and abs.  Fortunately, it is swimming so if I'm not feeling it I will get out of the pool and go home and get back in bed.  I won't have to swim 3 miles to get home, that is a relief.  

March 9 - March 15 Update

Weekly Update
Swims

Wednesday: Drills

Friday:  Masters, sprint day, 4100 yards

Bikes

Monday:  City View (45.7 miles, 4900 ft climbing, 3:25)

Thursday: 2 hours spin bike, 5 min. tempo effort every 15 minutes

Sunday: Shadow Mtn (50.6 miles, 5865 ft climbing, 3:30)

Runs:

Monday: 3 miles treadmill easy

Tuesday:  Track (ab. 6 miles total)

Thursday: 4.5 miles conversational pace

Saturday: 11 miles, neg. split, moderate/hard effort

Other:
Weights/abs x 2

Sleep:

Tired but issues sleeping this week. 

Recovery:

No issues but quite tired by end of week.

Mood:

Good.

Health:
Knee was very sore after track but recovered by end of week.

Comments:  

A good workout week ended with a great Shadow Ride Sunday.  A bit disappointed with knee situation but good news is that it is not limiting workouts.  

Trouble

If PIC Sonja and I weren't enough trouble on our own, take a look at this picture.  Yep, there's a new bike in the mix, a beautiful yet-to-be-named Isaac that PIC can call her own.  It's true, we will no longer be twinkies on the bike.  But after today's ride we will now be known as the Isaac Girls.  (sorry Steve!!!)  

Princess aka Aloha Mahalo in blue and her new pal in white

So today's workout was, in a word, awesome.  PIC and I had a very specific ride today, just the 2 of us (well, with the bikes that would be 4).  But nobody else.  This was no social ride, it was a 2-man (WO-man), 2 minute pace line for the Shadow Mountain ride. And we KILLED it!!   We were super strong on all 3 climbs, kept a great steady pace, and continued our pace line even on the downhills.  And you can tell we are both working on our downhill skills and had some great descents!  

All told, 50.6 miles and 3.5 hours.  What a ride!  Thanks Sonja and yet-to-be-named awesomeness:)

I think Sonja's hair pretty much sums up the ride!

Track

The first track workout of the season (long season) was last night.  We are officially off and running (no pun intended but I was talking about track so...)!  Starting track workouts feels like the start of the on-season but it really isn't.  As I have come to learn in the last couple of years, there is no official "off" season.  Only a non-racing season.  My last 5k was in December and that even feels like forever ago.  So many things have happened since then, or at least one major thing. 

But I digress....So track tonight was just a continued beginning of the training journey.  But a beginning nonetheless.  I had the same nervous tummy but I planned my meals correctly so I knew I wouldn't (or at least hoped) blow chunks on the track.  The workout was simple:  a 2 mile time trial.  I knew going in that PIC Sonja wouldn't be there but I was hoping my other PIC Bethie would be.  She wasn't.  Which just meant I was on my own and would have to figure out my pace and everything else on my own.  This is a good thing as sometimes I rely too heavily on other people's paces, energy and thoughts.  I positioned myself right behind the fast boys (they were talking about running around a 6 minute pace) and I ignored Steve when he wanted me to come up front.  I felt good about my position and knew it was aggressive for me.  

We all started and I let a couple of guys out in front of me with the intention of catching them after 1 mile.  I'm not sure what our pace was at the 200 but it was quick, fast enough for me to get that feeling of dread - oh shit I have to keep this pace!  But I gathered myself, fought the panic feelings, relaxed and got control of my breathing.  1 lap down, 7 to go.....Funny thing is, after all these long rides and runs, it was all I could do to tell myself, self you only have to do this for 10 more minutes - that's it!  And it still seemed like an unreasonable amount of time.  I missed the pace call at 400 and 800 but was around 5:00 at the 1200.  Of course, since my HR was around 170 I was unable to do the math and the first mile came in at 6:43.  Hmmmmm, wasn't my fastest mile last year a 6:37???  Where's Beth I need to check with her on that.....oh man that means this last mile could be brutal......I passed the 2 guys that started ahead of me with 1200 to go, got lapped by the fast boys and all of a sudden I just had 400 left with a pace call of 11-50 something.  My brain got to work and figured I could make the 14 minute cut-off for the Group 1 "qualification" with just a 2 minute effort on the last lap......I came in at 13:31 which I believe comes out to a 6:48 second mile, so I didn't die off too badly.  Not a bad way to start the season!

And, if you call this good news, I'm now "officially" in Group 1 at track.  I can honestly say that I never thought that would happen.  Oh joy, I can now look forward to getting crushed weekly at track....it's gonna hurt, true, but I am psyched!  

With the good comes the bad.  As Steve-O said, at least you have your run and your bike.....that's right we went to the pool to see how I've done on my stroke work over the last couple of months.  And, there has been no change.  None.  Crap-ola.  So much for that sub-21 swim.

See that elbow?  That should be bent, not a straight arm

Here's a video of some one arm drills and at the end I manage 1 or 2 good strokes, maybe there is hope!

March 2 - March 8 Update

Weekly Update
Swims

Wednesday: 1 hr 5 min non stop (20 min swim, 30 min pull, 15 min swim)

Friday:  Masters, sprint day, 3800 yards

Bikes

Monday: Epic loop (5 hr. 25 min., 8500 ft climbing, aggressive ride)

Friday:  City View loop (46 miles, ~4000 ft climbing, easy ride except for wild goose chase second half of High Grade that boosted my HR 10-15 bpm for ~20 minutes)

Sunday:  2.5 hour spin, easy/moderate pace

Runs

Tuesday:  9 miles, conversational pace

Thursday:  11.3 miles, conversational pace

Saturday:  6 miles, easy/moderate pace

Other

Weights/abs x 1

Sleep

OK, pretty tired this week.  Woke up on the weekend feeling like I needed several more hours sleep. Passed out on the couch for a bit on Saturday afternoon. 

Recovery

Good.  Legs felt relatively good considering load but were reasonably tired and heavy on Saturday but still managed to pick up miles 4/5 at a good clip with an under race-pace HR. 

Mood

Good for the most part

Health

Good.  Kids have been fighting colds so I feel I am waiting for a cold to happen but have weathered the germ pool well so far.

Comments

A record time week for me coming in at just over 20 hours.  I was quite tired coming into the weekend but still managed to eek out a run Saturday.  Really had a hard time coming into Sunday and almost didn't manage a workout but sucked up 2.5 hours on a spin bike with Michael and good people watching (and 2007 Ironman on video screen helped).  Robust appetite this week.  

16.5

Hours.  As in, 16.5 hours so far this week I have spent training.  And it's only Friday.  An Epic ride Monday, a City View ride this morning.  A couple of swims, a couple of runs and voila, we are at a record time week.  I'm not sure that when I wished I could train part-time in the past (when I was working full-time) that I really understood what that meant.  And to be honest, I'm still not sure what it means!!  I can tell you this.....I'm tired.  And I'm hungry.  Really hungry. But I also feel good.  And I feel strong.  And it is only early March.  But my body is holding up remarkably well (thank you Dr. Ken at Active Care and Andrea massage therapist extraordinaire!!) and I'm curious to see how all this plays out in the upcoming season.  First race is only 6 weeks away - Rage in the Sage in Vegas baby!  

Me and Tyler before our ride this morning.....it was cold and windy!!

General goofiness with Steve 

PIC Sonja and me....I think we may have freaked some people out at Chipotle after our ride today.  I'm pretty sure we may have set some sort of weird record for how FAST we scarfed our burritos down!  

GSW '09

For the past 16 years, a group of us girlfriends have been gathering in the mountains for Girls Ski Weekend. It started way back in the early '90s (YIKES) when KC and I went to Steamboat for a weekend and called Foster while she was working in Mexico. The group has grown since then but what has always remained the same is how much we look forward to this weekend. Sometimes it involves going out on the town and sometimes we just hang out and talk. But we always have a great time getting together, talking, laughing, sharing, and of course, skiing.

Thanks for a great weekend Lisa, Lesa, Anita, Steph and Laura:)

Feb. 23 - March 1 Update

Weekly Update
Swims

Monday: Masters distance ~5000y

Wednesday: Masters mid-distance w/ stroke ~4700y

Bikes
Tuesday: Epic loop, moderate/hard effort

Thursday: 33 miles, just under race pace

Runs
Thursday: 9.5 miles

Friday: 6 miles, 1/4 mile race pace 4, 5, 6

Other

Weights/abs x 2
Ski day x 2 

Sleep

No issues but very tired this week

Recovery:

Massage after brick Thursday, really loosened up legs.

Mood:

Good

Health:
Good. Knee a bit sore this week, have been tempted to get a shot.

Key Workout Description: Bike/Run Brick

Location: Cherry Creek Reservoir for bike, run from house

Nutrition:

Waffle and 2 hard boiled eggs before starting. 1 bottle Perpetuum on bike, 1 gel with 10 minutes left on bike, 1 mini Lara bar before run. Sipped off Perpetuum bottle during run. No GI issues and no hunger.

Weather:

Nice temp but very windy especially in reservoir.

Distance:

33 miles on bike; 9.5 on run

Pace:

Ave. 17.2 mph on bike and ave. 9min/mi on run

Heart Rate Stats:
Ave. 120 on bike and 142 on run

Comments:

Good workout although bike was pretty tough with headwind and legs were very sore from new exercises on Wednesday. Legs loosened up by run and managed to keep a pretty even pace throughout. I was able to finish strong on the run.