I'm not crazy...I'm just bored!!

Run on the PC trail again, but went with QP up to the soccer fields then a short loop around that neighborhood I discovered on my unspoken detour from yesterday. QP on the run and MR on the bike, a GREAT water boy. 

Good times and great memories.

AP: 9:10

Didn't get back from PC fun until midnight and due to crazy circumstances didn't get to bed until 2AM - so I slept in, and then it was my son's birthday today (big #8) and so I played with family and didn't get to any exercise. Oh well, since I ran Sunday I guess this was my rest day.

Gotta get back on the bandwagon sometime! I've had a nice, yet crazy break for sometime now and I need to just get back at it. So, I ended up with a great excuse today.

QP wanted to do a JRP run down in Lehi with Smooth et all, so I made some calls and got it all arranged for 7AM. It was about 9PM last night my husband reminded me that he doesn't have a car so he'd be taking mine to work. Crap. Now what? No car and I won't be done with the run in time for him to get to work. Well, I always had my bike. I've always thought that riding down to Lehi, doing a run, then riding back would be awesome...so, now I "get" the opportunity.

I tried to leave an hour before to give myself enough time, but that didn't happen. I had 45 minutes. I figured it was mostly downhill with just Camp Williams on the climb, I could do this. Well, I didn't. I scared everyone because I was late and they'd already sent out a search party for my dead body :) It took me an hour...so I was 15 minutes late. 17.2 miles in just under an hour so I averaged 17.4 mph.

Changed my shoes and QP threw my bike on her car rack, because they had an open spot since MR was being water boy and biking while we ran. Then with Smooth, Wendy, Becca, QP and MR on the bike we were off. It is a darn good thing that Becca and I weren't left to our own devices and we stopped and re-grouped, we both were on a roll with speed. Dang. We didn't realize how fast we were running until we'd look at our watches and slow ourselves down. We did 4 out and back South on the JRP - great run!! I loved it (after my legs switched from bike to run). QP got some good pictures of treasures along the way - hopefully she'll post them soon.

AP: 8:26 splits: 9:15, 8:23, 7:56, 9:07, 8:58, 7:53, 8:13, 7:43 - see? you can totally tell when we'd regroup and run with everyone, then we'd just slowly take off and then tempo it on and then realize what we were doing and stop to regroup again.

After the run I got back on the bike with QP and MR and rode the trail North to Redwood, with the little extra side road that they've now added about 3/4 to a full mile of that goes north just before you hit the top parking lot. QP and MR turned and went back to the car and I rode home, but decided to ride the newly paved, but unopened Mtn View Corridor. They have the stretch from the end to Redwood poured cement now, except maybe 20 feet at Redwood and 50 feet at the connection point. So, I'd have to get off and walk my bike, but it was all good. I'm sure the construction workers thought I was crazy sauce! Rode the corridor to Providence (where it is opened) and then took off up to Emmeline, and down to the Cove then home. I had played stupid somewhere along the route and started when I was stopped and stopped when I was riding, so I don't know exact mileage, but using map my run to make up what I didn't record it looks to be about 16.5 miles. A good ride home! No average, since I messed it all up.

I had a huge big day planned and I was excited about it, but unfortunately it turned out to be an expensive and epic fail.

The 8 early with Chad at tempo certainly didn't go the way I wanted. I know it was a lot of uphill, but I was breathing SO hard and had to stop at mile 2 and at 4 to drink and regroup before setting off again. This, more than anything, showed me how much my slacking has taken me down a notch from where I was just a month ago. poo.

The idea was to push the pace on the uphill what I could, then tempo my goal 10K pace on the downhill (6:50). I think we did 7:50-8:00 on the uphills, then the first downhill mile was 6:46 - perfect, but then I dropped off as the downhill did. 7:01, 7:05 and then as Chad drug me widing through his neighborhood - up and flat and just little downs I fell apart. I tried to remind myself "uphill finish at Des News" but it didn't seem to help: 7:30 was the final call for the last mile of 'tempo' - whatever, I guess I just need a big kick in the pants like this to refocus my attention and training. AP: 7:34

Came home and grabbed a little nap until my sister came and picked me up to ride the tri course at the rec center with them. My front tire was completely FLAT. poo. I pumped it up trying to avoid a tire change, it was down from 110psi to 80 in just the ride (on the car) to the rec center. I pumped it back up and crossed my fingers. I got through the nearly 13 mile ride and it was at 60, but it held out.

Since my friend was then coming at 11 to do a mini-tri workout I decided to stop pushing my luck and change the tire. Perfect. We loaded up her car and headed to Blackridge. Did a 1500M swim (her first in a wet suit and she rocked it!) then pulled the bikes out. Guess whos front tire was flat...again?!? Well, one last tube and one last cartidge left to go. Fail. BUT, I finally found the tiny little thorn that you couldn't FEEL on the inside of the tire (I checked each change!). Okay, so I borrowed Steph's tube with promise of quick replacement and got her cartridge out, but there was only a gun...no cartridge (you use CO2 cartridges in a 'gun' to instantly fill tubes on the run). So, I at least had a tube. We went back to my house and got my pump to fill up the tube, but the tube had a hole in it!! Before I even put it in my tire it wouldn't inflate. Well, I called it. Obviously, karma didn't want us out on the road today. I also then missed my last 4 miles I was planning on, because by this time I'd wasted the full 3 hours we had to just swim 1500M. Whatever - FAIL!

So, I had 2 big fails today and well, I'm feeling it. Kind of down about it all. Then, I take the bike to the shop to make sure it wasn't the skins or just the thorn and the handlebars needed to be re-wrapped and I now needed new tubes and cartridges! $75 later I got out of the shop. They are going to put in the new tube so that I don't have to waste another one if it wasn't just the thorn, and I don't get my bike back until tomorrow. Oh well. At least it should be ready to go for my mock half IM on Friday.

I'm tired and want to go to bed. this stinks...just stinks, but tomorrow will be a nice little 'rest' day and I'll get out with the Newtons, so hopefully I can pull out of this funk!

Eight good recovery miles on the Urban Trail Loop with the Newtons...well, trailing far behind them all (except a couple who took pity on me and ran 'slow' with me). 

Picked up the bike from the shop, and it looks like I'm good to go now. With 3 extra tubes and 4 cartridges I should be good!

AP: 8:45ish - garmin died after 1.8 miles, but Paul gave me his finish time and I added a minute-ish for his lead to the lake.

HO-LY COW! Time for some 'honesty time' - first off, I really thought that a half iron-man wouldn't be all that hard. No, really. I mean c'mon if you can run a marathon you can do a silly swim and bike and then a half marathon. I could do it in my sleep! Well, let's just say that I got slapped upside the head by the Half Ironman today. 

Brent had invited me along to this course preview and I knew it would be well worth the  effort to get there and do it. So, I hired a sitter to watch the kids and invited George (who is with the Newtons and also doing the half) to come along as well. I was warned the bike would be a good 20mph average, and I knew I typically rode at 17ish, so it shouldn't be THAT hard to keep up...right? (slap)

George met me at my house, but something went wrong in communication and he didn't have swim or run stuff. So, we took a 15ish min detour to his house to get his stuff. I knew we'd be late, but figured we wouldn't need to bs at the start and so we could just jump right in the water. Which MAY have happened if yours truly had realized that the exit was PROVO Center Street and NOT OREM Center Street. Another detour. Thanks to a friendly runner we got turned around and headed in the right direction. We ended up 25 minutes late. Threw the wets suits on and headed out on the swim until the last person from the group (after they'd turned) came past us and we turned as well. I think we got maybe 800-1100M in on the swim.

Then came the bike. Holy Cow! This is where the underestimating came. In my rush I hadn't brought the fuel I'd packed on my bike and I bonked hard. About 5 miles out from the turn around I started feeling nauseated and tired. I needed something. Which after 90 minutes of hard, consistent effort is about right! duh Rachel! I pawned a Gu off a wonderful, amazing lady and we started back. My butt was D.O.N.E. however, the only way to get back was to ride on...so I did. At 1 hour I'd averaged 18.7mph, at 2 hours I'd averaged 18.25mph, and then I crashed again. This time coach Keena came to my rescue and shoved some Gu Chomps in my hand. A welcome treat! The last 10 miles of the ride were just crazy. I'd stayed with one lady for probably the last 15 of the ride and we had good chats and then got lost together on the way back and had to pull out our written directions and follow them backwards! Grateful I had them!! I'd lost George when I'd caught up to and stayed with this lady, but luckily he had a partner in crime as well that he got lost with :) My final average was 17.8mph which is still not too bad, but I know we slowed down and stopped a LOT more than we should've those last 6ish miles because of being lost. So, I'm gonna say I did a solid 18mph ride. Which, for my first LONG bike ride is pretty darn good.

In some confusion of transitioning to the run I fell over on my bike when I was stopped and scraped up my knee and leg - SO embarrassing! I rode my bike back to the car in shame and waited for George to come in from the ride, so we could get just 6 miles of running.

A quick change (and LOTS of water) later we were off on a nice hot 11AM 6 mile run. I was SO grateful for the shady parkway!! And lucky that it wasn't horribly hot like a couple weeks ago. I was surprised that the first mile came in at 8:45 and George was keeping up well! At our turn around on the parkway I waited just a bit for George (he had the battery in his watch changed and they didn't waterproof it! So, after the swim his watch was waterlogged and so I didn't want to abandon him) and then we made a quick bathroom stop. All the water from the bike needed to be released. Then we finished off the run and I was VERY surprised to see the AP at 8:17. Wow, it certainly didn't feel that fast! splits: 8:35, 8:15, 8:17, 8:17, 8:04, 8:16 - hmm, most consistent run in my life EVER!

Then we were done...and D.O.N.E! This Half IM is going to be a lot harder than I had anticipated. I know I will finish, but 6 hours of pushing yourself physically is hard work. I know that sounds dumb, but it really is that hard! You don't know how hard it is until you've actually gone out and done it. I'm telling you - I underestimated the half IM! Take my advice and don't do it! :) It is a monster...not to be messed with. Okay, mess with it, just don't underestimate it. I'd say it is like someone who has only ever run 16 miles saying "oh yeah, I could do a marathon and qualify for Boston."

I need to have my bike 'fixed' - well, just adjusted to ME. A new seat, for sure! and I need to fuel better on the bike. I think if I anticipate the fueling instead of using reaction fueling (when I've hit a wall), I will do better on the bike. Also, the heat...ugghh, running in the heat. I'll need ice at every stop :) and I think I may take my water bottle...I was told they don't have a lot of aid stations.

I am just SO SO SO grateful that Brent allowed me to come today. It was an eye opener and I have learned a LOT that will help me tremendously over the next month to prepare. Thanks Brent!!!

Kelli and I drove up to Park City and met Smooth for a nice little tour of the marathon course. We did miles 11-20 then looped back the short way to the car. 

Some runs are hard workouts, some runs tax your body, some runs are quality time in your shoes, some runs remind you why you run. Today, I remembered why I run and how much I LOVE being with these lovely ladies! I could've spent all day out there...okay, maybe at breakfast in the AC and with endless french toast coming my way, but still :) 

I'd forgotten what an uphill drag that course is. I guess I'm just always having so much fun with Smooth I just don't notice. I can't wait for it again this year! Just a ton of FUN! I seriously have no agenda for that race, but a good time with Smooth - and it never disappoints.

We got into some heat the last 5ish miles, but my fatigue may have been due more to the workout yesterday and lack of water and fuel than actual heat. Either way, a short stop at a convenience store solved all the problems (Gu shot too!). We just had a wonderful lovely run and I can't wait to do it again!!

Thanks Smooth and Kelli for a wonderful morning, I loved it!!

AP: 9:40