A week in review and other things too

Training:
I had an awesome week of training this week!  I feel like I'm finally finding my groove with scheduling my workouts!  Hopefully this will carry through my training when the volume really ramps up!

Me, Doreen, and Bine

Biking:  I went on a great ride with 2 of my TriBella teammates on Sunday!  We did one loop of the Harvest Moon HIM course (which I'm doing in September) and it was awesome!  The course is a great mix of fast flats, rolling hills, and much bigger hills.  We finished 48 or so miles in about 2:45, so it was pretty fun.  Usually I do my training rides solo, but I have to tell you, I loved riding with these two!  They are doing IMFL in early Nov, and I'm doing IMAZ at the end of Nov., so we should be able to do a lot of our long training rides together!  Woohoo!

Swimming:  I had a great swim this week where I had to do 100m intervals.  Now, normally I don't time myself because it usually depresses me.   But, for some reason, after my 4th 100 I decided to just see what my time was.  I swam the 100, hit the wall, stopped my watch, and looked....1:46!!!  I was soooo excited!  Now, I know that's not fast compared to some of you out there, but it made me feel fast and that's all that matters! :)

Running:  I had my longest run volume week and I felt awesome!  I haven't had any IT band pain in awhile now and it just makes me happy, happy, happy!  Woohoo!!

And Other Things Too:

*  Look what came in the mail this week!  My replacement aero extensions!  Woohoo!  They actually sent me an entire new set, so I was super happy!  I brought them over to the TriBella shop and had them reinstalled.  He put bike tape on it too, but I'm not sure I like the BLUE.  I know it goes with the color scheme of my bike, but what do you think?  Should I keep it, or go back to BLACK??

BLACK or BLUE??

*  So, after my boys' music class the other day we drove next to a van that had huge pictures of cupcakes on it and it read, BIG FAT CUPCAKES!  My boys pleaded and begged to get a cupcake.  We rarely get sweet treats like that from places, so I decided to cave.  We followed the van hoping it would lead to their store.  It did, and this is what we walked out with: 3 BIG FAT CUPCAKES.

They were huge!  Seriously, look how big they are in my boys' hands.  YIKES!

Well, I wish I could tell you that they were the greatest things we have ever tasted.  BUT, they were a BIG FAT DISAPPOINTMENT!  In fact, we ended up throwing most of the cupcake away.  AND, I felt sick for the rest of the night....seriously, sick.  Ugh...next time we're craving a sweet treat we'll just drive the extra few miles and get some of that yummy self serve yogurt again!

 *  The IMAZ bike course is relatively flat, so your legs just pretty much spin constantly.  One piece of advice I got from a teammate that did IMAZ a couple of years ago was just to get on the trainer and ride for 4hours to get used to just that constant spinning.  So, I decided to order this Spinerval from Amazon.  It is the IMAZ bike course led by Coach Troy himself and I'm actually really excited about it! Am I excited about sitting on my trainer for 4 hours???  Umm...not really, but I am excited about being able to "practice" the course.  We'll see.  It might completely suck, but hopefully not!


I hope you all have a great weekend!  Good luck to all of you that are racing this weekend!!  :)

An Awesome Ride!

Yesterday was just an all around great day!  First, we had record temps here in Denver and the high ended up being 82 degrees!  It was BEAUTIFUL and just what we needed!  Secondly, I got to go on my first ride OUTSIDE of the season!  PLUS, I got to ride with some of my awesome TriBella teammates!  Woohoo!

Some of my awesome teammates!  I'm the second one from the left.

Here we are at the start of our ride.  We rode over to a group of people in a parking lot and asked them to take our picture.  They thought our team kits were pretty cool, and I have to agree! :)

There were a ton of  people out on their bikes, running, roller blading, etc.  It was awesome.  I think we have all been waiting for this day to come and everyone wanted to take advantage of the beautiful weather.
If you notice in the picture, I'm wearing a long sleeved shirt under my jersey.  At the beginning of the ride it was great, but I actually ended up getting HOT!  I didn't dare complain though.  An 82 degree day in April is a luxury and I was just happy to be out riding.

At the turn around point.

We stopped an hour into the ride, then decided to turn around.  I have to say that I had a complete blast throughout the entire ride.  I have never really ridden in a group before, and it was just really nice to have someone to ride with and talk to.  Usually I train by myself, so it was quite different for me riding in a group.  But, it was awesome and something that I hope to do a lot more of.
Plus, some of us are doing Ironman races really close together, so we can potentially do a lot of our training together.  Woohoo!
I feel so fortunate to be a part of this team.  The women in the group are awesome and I am really looking forward to getting to know them even more this season!

Completely happy after my ride! :)

When I got home I was STARVING!  I didn't know how long of a ride we were planning on doing, but by the time I finished it was well after lunch!  Luckily, my husband is amazing and knew just what I needed.

Yum!  This veggie fajita bowl from Chipotle totally hit the spot!

And another thing, my light has been ignited and my motivation for training has returned!  I cannot wait to start my IMAZ training in a couple of weeks!  BRING IT ON!

From Christ at Pedestrian Runner [HERE]

One more thing.  Have you ever heard the saying, "If you don't like the weather here wait 10 minutes?" Well, check out what type of weather we're having today.

Dark ominous skies that are bringing rain which will turn into SNOW later today!  Ugh!

A week in review and other things too

Training:
*  Swimming:  I had a great swim this morning!  I met with one of my TriBella teammates and one of her friends and it was awesome!  I have always done my swims by myself because I get up so early (4:30) to get them done before my boys wake up.  But, what a difference it makes having someone to swim with. It was just nice having someone to do a workout with.  And, I can see how swimming with someone would really hold me accountable for actually doing the workout as planned.  Hopefully I'll get to swim with them again!

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* Yoga - I went to my favorite yoga class and instead of a regular class, we learned about the 7 chakras.  The instructor took us through each one and it was very different, but in a good way.  I have to tell you though, that once we got to the end, I was in tears, along with many other people in the class.  There's just something about yoga and learning how to connect your breath, mind, and body to what's going on in your life that gets to me every time.

*  TriBella Team/Store:  The new TriBella store opened this week!  Woohoo!  For those of you that don't know, I joined a new tri team called TriBella, and the person in charge of it all opened a brand new multisport store in Denver dedicated solely to women!  It is going to be so awesome!  You can check them out on Facebook [HERE].  And, for those of you that live in CO, I have coupons to pass out for 10% off an item!  Email me if you're interested.

Along the same lines, we got our new team kits in! They were done by Sugoi, which makes great running and tri clothes, and I LOVE the top and shorts!  I also got a bike jersey that is super cute too!  It took all I had not to get arm warmers, socks, a visor, etc.. too. Ha ha!

*Running:  I've been taking it very slow and easy trying to ease back into things.  KC [HERE], who we all know is a Rockstar, gave me some great advice about using the elliptical for some of my runs.  So far it's been great.  Thanks KC! :)
One thing that's interesting is that there are a lot of people that go crazy on that machine!  They're bopping up and down, going super fast forwards and backwards, using it solely for an arm workout.  It definitely makes the time go by quickly when I can people watch!

* As I'm sure you all know, Jason [HERE] is hosting a virtual 1/2 mary/marathon race! I decided to do the 1/2 mary distance because 1) I love virtual races, 2) The name is awesome, and 3) There's some great prizes to be won!  If you haven't joined yet, visit Jason's blog and sign up!!

Other Things Too:
*  We finally got our kitchen pretty much done!  There are just a few finishing touches left to do, then it will be finished!  Woohoo!  I promise to post some before/after pics when it's all done.

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*  Over the weekend, my oldest son fell out of a tree in our backyard.  I was working inside and decided to go check on my boys and I saw him climb up the tree from our kitchen window.  I was just getting ready to go outside to tell him to climb down because he was too high when I saw him fall.  My heart literally jumped out of my chest and I yelled to my husband to come outside.  I was TERRIFIED and all I could think about was broken neck, arm, leg, etc..  Luckily, he survived it with only some scratches, but mentally it really shook him up!  I knew  it would  happen sooner or later because all boys love to climb trees, but I am just very, very thankful that he was alright!

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*  The weather here has been absolutely beautiful!!  Spring is in the air and I'm loving it!!  Hopefully I'll be able to get out for a ride this weekend.  That would be so awesome!

*  We finished our taxes!  Yay, yay, yay!!  It's so nice to be done with them!

I hope you all have a great weekend!  :)

A week in review and other things too

Training:

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* My training can pretty much be summed up by one word: NADA.  The day after the marathon I started to get a little tickle in my throat.  Since I was in AZ I thought it was just allergies.  Oh, how I was wrong.  As soon as we got back to CO, I got sick AGAIN, and am still sick.  It's the same thing I had twice before during my training and I am soooo tired of it!  I just want to be well again. 

So, I haven't been doing anything except yoga.  I know my body is revolting and I need to just rest.  But, it sucks and I really want to get back at it.  Ugh!

But, is it just me or does it seem like everyone is getting this bronchitis/chest cold/gross snot thing this year.  It's crazy that so many of us are sick right now.  I hope we ALL feel better soon!

Some of my TriBella teammates!  

*  I am so excited about this!  I was lucky enough to be chosen to be part of a new all women's tri team in Colorado.  It is called TriBella and it is going to be awesome!  It is in conjunction with a new store that will be opening in Feb. called TriBella Multisport.  You can check it out [HERE], but basically it is going to be a multisport store tailed exclusively for WOMEN!  Woohoo!  It is a totally new concept, and it is much needed...don't you agree girls??
  We had our first get together last week and it was so much fun!  I am really looking forward to actually having women to train with, especially now that I'll be doing lots of LONG bike rides and runs for IMAZ training.

* Speaking of training, check out our new workout room.  Since we had our new carpet installed, we decided to change things up a bit in our basement and dedicate one bedroom to our training!  Woohoo!  Now, my husband and I can ride our trainers at the same time instead of taking turns.  We can even open some windows to get airflow so we don't suffocate!  And, we're going to put a small TV in there so we can watch our spinervals, movies, or whatever show we feel like.  Yay!

This is not a picture of me!  In fact, I can't even get my heels to touch the ground when I do it!  

* I went to yoga for the first time in over a month last week and I about died!  It is amazing how much strength I have lost in my arms and shoulders, and let me tell you, doing downward dogs and cobras over and over again were tough!  I seriously thought my arms were going to fall off!!

* My ITB is still being a bear!  Ugh!!  I started doing a ITB stretching routine twice a day, so hopefully between the stretching, yoga, and rest, it will heal up before I start training!  * Fingers crossed!*

Other things too:
*  This is for all the parents of boys out there.  I swear I have had to throw away 2 pairs of pants over the last couple of weeks because my oldest is constantly getting huge holes in the knee.  They start out as small holes, but by the end of the day it ends up as a massive hole that is too far gone to patch.  It's crazy!!  He's almost 6, so I know he plays hard with his friends at recess and stuff.   My question is, does this happen to all of your boys, or is it because I'm too cheap to buy expensive clothes for my boys.  Usually I get their clothes on the clearance rack at Target, but maybe I need to start spending a little more money??

* For those of you who missed my buildasign.com post, you can check it out [HERE].  If there are some of you still interested in getting your own tri cling, email me your address and I'll send one out to you!
Also, Megan at Buildasign.com has offered all of you a 10% discount if you're feeling creative and want to design something of your own!  You can use the code SWIMBIKERUN at checkout to receive the discount!   Woohoo!

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*  I have noticed on several blogs that I follow, that more and more people are starting to incorporate  more vegetarian dishes into their diets.  I think it's awesome!  I know how intimidating it was for me when I first started eating vegetarian, and although I found recipes that seemed good, I just never knew how they were going to turn out.  So, I was thinking about posting some of my favorite vegetarian recipes on my blog for all of you to try, if you wanted.  I was thinking I could maybe do a post every other week and call it something fun??  I know there are already "Meatless mondays," but maybe I could do "Tasty Tuesday" or incorporate it into my Sunday Sampler posts?  What do you think??  Do you think it's something you might like??  Do you have any awesome name ideas??  Let me know what you think!! :)

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!  :)