I can do it!

Ben and I went out to the lake on a whim tonight, and swam 2.2 miles! It took me about 76 minutes. Needless to say, I feel pretty cool. :D

I did an easy recovery run with Britnee this morning - 5 miles in 52:11.  We had a nice talk.  It was a good morning.  :D

The first thing I did this morning was drop something out of the freezer, twist to grab it, and strain my lower back.  Brilliant.

Then I did a 20 mile bike ride this morning after bootcamp with Kim, Katie, and Helen.  We started at Pioneer Park and then went halfway up Snow Canyon before we ran out of time and had to turn around.  I finished the ride with 1:15:05 on the bike.

This afternoon, I went over to the gym to do a little running. I started with a warm-up of 1 mile in 9:11, then did 2 HI Intervals from 6.5 to 9.5 MPH.  I finished the run with 2.2 miles in 18:30 total.

After the run, I went to an hour of Zumba, where I sweat like a beast since I was already warm from running.  Then I went to yoga class, but only made it halfway through, due to the weirdness in my lower back.  :(

It has been a LONG day... I woke up early and took Elijah out running for the first time in months!  We only made it 2.1 miles, and we did it in 20:56.  I guess that's all right for the first run.  We are running low on time to get him re-conditioned!!!

Then Britnee and I went to bootcamp, and straight from there met up with a fun group of people and hiked all day in Zion's National Park - the subway hike!  It was only about 9 miles, but it took us six hours to get through, including jumping off rocks, repelling, swimming through dark pools of ice cold water, and some of the most beautiful scenery ever!  What a fun day.

We made it back to town in time to hit the lake with the tri club for an open water swim, but by then I was so HUNGRY for real food, that Britnee and I decided to bag the swim in favor of eating sandwiches at - of all places - SUBWAY!  Now it's off to the theater for me...  :D

Oooooeeeeee!!!!  I'm SO sore today!  This is somewhat exciting to me, since I very rarely do anything that gets me sore anymore...nice to know that I am still capable of challenging my muscles a bit.  Maybe I need to add "hiking" to my repertiore more often.  :D

So, I told my husband that I was going to take a rest day today, and only bike 20 miles.  he said that didn't sound like a rest day to him....which is funny because HIS rest days usually consist of a 20 mile bike ride and some P90X, just for fun!  I'm trying to remember when it was that I became as crazy as HE is...

I "slept in" until 5:45 this morning, then got up to teach bootcamp, which today consisted of a half hour of really good stretching and a half hour of pilates.  After that, I met up with my friend Helen and we did a very slow 20.2 miles on the bike, keeping to the bike path so that we could stay on flat ground, and we finished in 1:13:55.  It was purely a recovery ride, so no "pushing it" was allowed.  I really think I'm done for the day, since I took a nap this afternoon and now I feel like the tin man from the Wizard of Oz...all rusted over.

I still felt like I needed a recovery day today, but I wanted to find out if my legs were going to work for a long run tomorrow...so I hopped on the treadmill to do a mile run, and ended up being just fine - yay!  I ran the mile starting at 5.0 MPH and gradually increasing to 9.0 MPH, finishing in 8:35, then cooled down another 0.1 mile, finishing my treadmill work in 9:18.

Then I went to an hour of Zumba!  :D

I was thinking about copping out on my long run today by just doing 7 miles with my friend Helen, but then I remembered that I have a half marathon in two weeks, and I haven't run any real distances since Ogden marathon!  Luckily for me, my friend Katie called yesterday and wondered if I would run 13 miles with her today, with the understanding that I HAD to go her pace...she needed the company.  It was actually a relief to hear that I would be forced to go slower, since I've had a tendancy lately to run too hard on tired legs...consequently, there have been no long runs in a while.  We decided to run 10 miles, then finish up with a 5K race that my neighborhood was sponsering for FREE!  I invited my whole family to run the race with us, and even the babies were able to participate, since Ben did HIS long run after Tarzan last night, running from the theater to home in the middle of the night!  So he was willing to "run" with the small ones, even though we were both pretty sleepy from being up until after 1:00 this morning.

Katie, my daughter Britnee, and I left just after 5:00 AM and did an 8.6 mile loop, then ran to the start of the race, where we met up with my family.  We casually ran the 5K, except I got a sprint in the last half mile, then we had to run another 6/10ths of a mile to get our 13.1 in.  I finished my half-marathon distance in 2:07:30, which was perfect for an easy long run...plus I got to see all of my children cross the finish line and get handed a medal!  My 5-year-old said, "Mommy!  I WON!!!"  He only ran about a mile before he jumped in the stroller with the baby, but Ben said my 8-year-old ran 2 full miles wothpout stopping!  Not bad for having no running training at all.  I guess I may need to actually start taking my kids running....they've been begging for quite a while.

The great thing about today was that I felt fantastic after the run, which, in my opinion, is how a person should feel after a long training run...I really helps add to my confidence for upcoming races.  Today, I feel just a little bit like I'm a runner again - LOL!  What an awesome morning.  :D