Catch Me If You Can

Today I drove a short 5 miles or so to the Orem Rec Center where my race will be next month. Rode the 10mile Bike course easy (Two Loops), thought about doing 4 loops but decided the 40miler I Had the next day would be mad at me..so I quit and went to Super Target and bought 5 jars of sugar free Preserves...I have a crazy thing for whole grain toast with good Preserves on it..hehe. Oh, and then like $50 of Easter Candy.

The course is...short. It has a lot of Tar repair on the road...lots of pot holes and sharp turns on a decline...The hill everyone is alarmed about is steep but short. It is a 4% grade. I MUCH prefer the 11.8 mile course I did for Icebreaker. Much more smooth and better taken care of roads. I might hit the course one more time..maybe not..Don't really need to over think some things. :D Will run the course for fun sometime soon.

Drove up toward South Fork to see if the paved stretch between Bridal Veil and Vivian had melted yet. It had not. Dang! Oh well..That highway won't be too scary...:P

Didn't feel like it, but I needed and DID stretch. 30min Legs 

Today started like many of my days. I am like a Steam Locomotive. Takes a while to get going...but very hard to stop. :D

My morning was bad and cranky so I went back to bed till 11a.m. Woke feeling much better, had some breakfast and coffee. Then got myself ready for my long ride. Weather was warm, in the 60's but most of the ride felt cooler since there was total cloud cover. I wore my arm warmers and glad I did. I was perfectly comfy the whole way. :)

Rode from my house to the mouth of Provo Canyon and then up the RiverTrail for 3.5 miles or so when just after Nuns Park I Had to go and ride on the Highway as I knew the next 2.5 was impassable for a roadbike..(Snow several inches deep on some stretches)..The highway was not as freaky as I thought it would be. I actually have Run on stretches of this highway and it's more freaky running since you are on it much longer. On the bike I was off the highway relatively quickly.

Once at Vivian my warmup ended and time for the real workout, It was 3 repeats up to the top. Had a blast doing it. I didn't mind any quad burn, it is starting to feel easier and easier. (When I first started biking 2 months ago..I thought I was going to die..the burn was insane.) Hey I took some pix for you..once I got to the top. And yes I thought of YOU.

My bike is mad at me for not taking a flattering image of her. But I reminded her that no one has see her yet! Except Toby. :)

After I took this pix of my bike I noticed something staring at me:

Some poor child lost her Triceratops! I thought it fitting it was a TRIceratops as opposed to any other Dinosaur. Hehe. Triathlon. Get it? :P

I actually talk to myself while riding or running, if I am alone. And I said..."haha payback!" to this Hill. The way down I got a bit wreckless...I can't quite see my speedometer well because of where my drink is placed between my Aerobars. But if I twist my head a lil I can see. My downhill speed got to 36mph. That was a total rush..haha. Had to be careful tho, the road is winding. 

So after riding from Vivian to the top of SouthFork (a little over 4 miles) 3x, I sped down and all the way home. That was fun and easy. Mostly downhill. Had a total of 1188ft elevation gain. Grand Total Bike: 42.1miles 

The rest of the day went fast, as I had gotten home at about 3:30...Was nice to take it easy, hubby had taken kids to swim. I showered, hit the grocery store, then headed home to make a quick dinner for the family. French Toast and for Desert I made Tapioca Pudding.

6:45p.m. By this time I was flying out the door, I had a little Seminar I signed up for at Coach Keena's Studio. No she is not My coach...but I was welcome too. :) Justin Su'a, a sport's psychology trainer, spoke tonight about Goals and the Mental aspect of training for Triathlons.

When I got home I made a new recipe for granola that sounded tasty. I was right it IS tasty, tastes more like dessert than Breakfast.

It's always crazy to me how some days I wake up feeling like...there is no way Today will be good..then it ends up being amazing. Very good day! :) 

EDIT: I just forgot to account for the 3x south fork repeats I did with regards to elevation. It was a total of 2572ft Ascent...and well Descent since it was out and back. :) Much more impressive sounding that 1188ft. Go ME!

Just In: Getting ready for bed just now....I have a sunburn on my back..not Bad. But ugly. Ugly tan line. Me no likey tan lines! :P 

Spent ALL morning making Mad Plans for the next Day/Week/Month(s).

It's intense sometimes! :D  

12noon 3000yd swim. Short and fast intervals. Love short fast swims! Well, I was in the pool forever tho..met a fellow triathlete and we were talking about cycling routes, backpacking, longboarding..I think I turned into a prune I was in the pool for so long..haha. Skipped the 300yd warmdown, I had lost my edge.

Went Long boarding with Tom when I finally got home from the pool (He was home sick.) We ended up riding in the neighborhood since we had no time to drive to Provo Canyon River Trail...Not as fun on streets..but was fun anyhow. It was mega windy and dusty out there, anyone in Utah County knows what I mean. Winds 20-30+mph with DUST.

We spotted this snake here, and it was an aggressive little fella! We were a bit close tho..and he was surrounded so I don't blame him.

Speaking of long boards...I found out mine was out of stock so I chose the same board basically but the "girly" one instead. I didn't want to wait 4 more weeks for the board. Need it for spring break! :D

Pokaku Wahine:

So it just got windier! 

At 5:30p.m. I wasn't sure how much energy I had in me for speed/hills. But the weather was exciting and I hoped it would rain/snow on me. No such luck, it was just dark and stormy looking and windy and cool. Still really magical feeling. Kinda like in Mary Poppins! I could imagine her flying down with her umbrella..haha.

I had my hubby drop me off at the Provo Temple and I ran a loop around that 1.13miles for a warmup. Then I started my 1/2 mile hill repeats at the corner of 900E and N Temple Drive. Mapmyrun.com couldn't decide if it wanted the distance to have a 131ft or 141ft ascent. So I choose 141..haha. It is most steep half way and to the top.

What I did was Ran hard to the top. Rested a minute, then ran hard to the bottom. When at the bottom I rested till I was fully recovered. up to 4min. I walked around in the grassy field there and played with my ipod. I was trying to remember numbers for my splits since I had no phone to type it in and my watch was simple..there are laps on it but I don't know how to use them. Luckily my hubby drove by...I was super thirsty..so I drank...I had a runny nose..so I blew...haha..Then I grabbed a pen and paper and carried that around for the rest of my workout so I could record precise numbers:

Mile 1: Total up and down 6:27

Mile 2: Total 6:17 (1st Quarter mile down was a 1:10)

Mile 3: 1:30/3:43/4:55 ( <---1st 3 Quarters) 6:21

Knew this was last set so I pushed it harder..well on the way down..haha. Up was a different story. Total Fatigue. 

Mile 4: 1:37/3:45/4:52/6:10 My 3rd quarter was a 1:07(4:28pace)...Had fun seeing if I could break 1:10. Was easy...could have hit it faster but was being safe. Admittedly it was downhill but my legs were still turning that fast..

Oh, one fun thing. I did my downhill segments on the grass, except for the last repeat. It was nice and cushy on my legs!

Total distance with WU WD and Sets 6.5miles 45:04/6:56pace  

When I got home to shower I looked in the mirror and my eyelashes and eyebrows were dusted with white fine powder from the wind. Was odd looking. 

I was so MEGA hyper after this workout..I had to hit the weights. 9p.m I worked Chest and Arms. 

11:30pm Stretched legs 30min 

Tomorrow (Thursday) I will be running VERY slow..and I knew I would be..so I went crazy on this run...Had a blast doing it!! Next is a heartrate run so I will be going grannie pace. O.o

Here's another  Snakey Pix for Burt:

Eliza...she wasn't actually scared..she was playing it up for the camera. Oh, and it was dead. 

Some days are like this.

Nice n Slow run outside.

Olympic Brick

Was brutally cold. Rode 30miles outside. I don't have good gear for cold weather, especially a bike. Will hit Powertri tomorrow to get a few things in case it is cold for my TRI on Apr. 17th.

Immediately after the Bike I ran 3.15 miles (feet were entirely numb from cold)...feels really funny to run like this. I could feel it in my achilles because I don't think I was rolling thru my feet properly..couldn't feel the muscles..haha. This was speedy-ish. Wanted to be done. And had to rush to the school to pick up the kids instruments.  Time 22:08/7:01pace.

Swam 3000yd on 4 hours sleep and early in the a.m. 6:15 is not my friend. Got it done tho.

Spent all day in a Red Cross CPR class. I got 100% on my exam. Haha. I can save you!!!

This was pulling teeth: The last thing I wanted to do after a long day is sit on a rock hard seat in my living room. But I got my 75minute ride in. Was supposed to be an "easy spin" but the trainer isn't really easy unless your cadence is low. And I wanted to maintain 90 cadence.