Better rest of week and better ride

I had a much better week exercise wise as it went on.  On Wednesday I swam at the River Road club with Tracy, Erica, and Kristen as the Battle Creek pool is shut down all week.  The water is a couple degrees warmer and we were feeling it after a half hour or so.  It was still a good workout and kind of fun to be in a different place.  On Thursday Tracy and I went to Power.  I lifted about the same as last week.  I could probably increase my weight a bit.  On Friday I redeemed my terrible bike ride and had an awesome one.  I took Orange Mango out around 6 AM and biked the Willamette Scenic Bikeway from the River Road Courthouse all the way to Independence and back.  Despite it being a shared road, I felt safe almost the whole time.  The hills are rolling--nothing crazy.  I need to practice drinking water on the bike because I still have to stop.  It was a great ride.  I could maintain a good pace almost the whole time.  On Saturday I took a break and rested.  I took the kids to the pool and swam with them for almost two hours.  It felt incredibly refreshing to be in the water.  It has been so incredibly hot here.  Today I did a short 3 mile run around the neighborhood before church.

I am feeling more confident I can do Aluminum Man at the end of the summer, but I need to keep biking at least twice a week.  After biking on River Road, I think I can handle that better than the city biking.

We're coming on VBS week and typically I have every intention to exercise and I fail.  One thing I am trying to do differently is be able to rest in the afternoons.  I am trying to get all my work done in the morning.  I got so much prep done yesterday I have very little to do today.  I need to use my time wisely.  Getting up early all week with the exception of yesterday helped prepare me for next week.

Bad bike ride but good swim and run

Yesterday I got out my bike for the first time in probably a year aside from some bike rides with the kids.  I give the whole ride a D+.  I am still struggling to clip in and out at intersections.  I thought taking back roads would be easier versus main roads.  It really wasn't because I had to keep crossing over main roads and that was almost worse.  There was so much stop and start I felt like I was hardly on the bike for more than a few minutes at a time.  I really don't mind biking with traffic.  It doesn't freak me out.  I struggle more with crossing traffic.  City biking in clips is not going to work for me.  I went a little less than 10 miles which isn't bad but the whole experience just plain stunk.  I am going to try biking along River Road and starting out there.  I'll park at the gym out there.  Or finding places a little bit out of the city.  Even biking Sunnyside Road to the Rees Hill neighborhood is less congested in the mornings and there is no traffic light after Mildred. I give myself a hard time about only sticking to Minto Brown but it is such a nice and safe place to bike--there are no cars.  If we lived in a place with long bike paths, I would be on those paths versus the streets. I may even look into biking with one of the local clubs.  I really can do this.  I beat myself up over it yesterday and it caused me some anxiety.  I even thought about quitting triathlon.  But I am feeling better today.

Today I ran four miles with Tracy and we talked about anxiety and biking anxiety which was helpful.  I also did my first open water swim of the season which went exceptionally better than my first bike ride of the season.  I swam about 0.4 miles.  I felt super strong in the water and I stayed relatively straight on.

So it's not all bad.

Running with people and olympic triathlon

Today was one of those days where I realized how GOOD it is to have someone to run with.  There was no way I would have been motivated enough to get out of bed and run had I not made plans with Tracy.  It's Saturday, we were continuing our garage sale--I would have laid in bed until 8:30 AM.  There's also no way I would have run up the Madrona hill--I would have totally skipped over it.  There's no way I would have tackled 8 close to 9 miles...we do exercise better when we're with people.  It doesn't mean we should never tackle alone, but we do great when we have running or triathlon buddies.  We ran around the Fairview Industrial Drive area which I am not as familiar with.  It was a good run.

My IT  band is acting up.  Now that I learned more about it from my sister and Tracy, I almost positive that is exactly what it is.  It is the most common running injury.  I need to get a foam roller.  My gym has ones you can use but obviously only at the gym.  Because it is a tendon you cannot ice it or put heat on it--that doesn't do any good.  It is all rolling and stretching.

I am strongly considering...well pretty much planning on doing the the Aluminum Man triathlon in September.  I would do the olympic distance--yikes!!  So if I were to follow intense schedule, I would need to do the following next week:  Swim 1000 yards & Bike 15 miles, Swim 1250 yards, Run 25 minutes (that's around 3 miles),  Bike 25 miles, Swim 1750 yards and Run 30 minutes, Run 45 minutes and Bike 35 miles.  All of it sounds doable except for the biking.  I need to figure out a schedule for the next couple weeks!  I have more time in the mornings but not sure if doing each discipline twice a week is possible unless I didn't have a life.

Sick of running laps

Exercise is hard when the husband is away.  It really doesn't work so well and leaves a big hole in my life.  On Monday & Tuesday I did nothing.  We were going to go to the track Tuesday but the oldest child was so tired after having a friend over.  She actually slept in the afternoon.  The kids were super tired and I still had to make dinner.  On Wednesday I took Derek to soccer camp and the girls came to the gym with me.  I went to Power and it was wonderful to be at Power for the second week in a row.  It really makes a difference when you can go on a routine.  I felt bad because the girl's exercise class was cancelled so they had to hang out in child care.  They are both a little too old for it.  But they had good attitudes about it.  Today we tried to go to the track again and we had girl drama.  The girls didn't want to run at all and complained about being there.  After every lap they asked, "how much longer?" and I about lost it.  Well I did lose it and didn't have a good mom moment.  The thing is I didn't really want to be on track either.  I can only take so much of laps. I had no music (forgot the ipod) and it was getting pretty hot.  I canned the workout and we left.  I talked to the girls what they want out of running...not what I want...and if/when they even want to run.  We came up with a better plan.  I felt good about it.

My eating has been pretty crummy since Rob left.  I have been eating super healthy lunches with fresh stuff...some from my own backyard.  The other meals and snacks have not been the greatest.  But I'm not beating myself up over it.

It really was a hard day.  We had a bad day on Saturday and got better from there.  Today was a set back.   When the youngest child is tired she is so hard to play with and she just picks fights.  There is no better way to describe it but she acts outwardly mean.  It's hard for the other two not get riled up about it.  So we dealt with that pretty much all day in different doses.  She was out cold by 8 PM which makes me realize she can't stay up late (we were up late Wednesday night) and not have some sort of long quiet time in the afternoon the next day.  She needs her sleep.  Kindergarten should be interesting in the fall.

So ready for Rob to come back so I can get into a regular exercise routine.

Post marathon week...

It has been awhile since I posted.  I ran the Minneapolis Marathon on May 31st and rocked it.  I wrote my race report on my other blog.  My time was 4:04:22.  I did not break four hours, but I did PR.  It was awesome to share the experience with family especially my sister.

Coming home post marathon I took the week off.   Which actually was quite necessary because I went into a very busy week with the kid's musical, street hockey, Education meeting, 8th grade graduation, last day of child care, strawberry picking, two church kid's Open Houses, and Rob's Open House.  Not to mention it was in the high 90's here which is atypical for the valley this time of year.  By Sunday night I was ready to crash.  I did not exercise Monday either--gave myself one extra day.

Last week Tuesday I ran just under five miles most of it with Tracy through the Crossler neighborhood.  On Wednesday I swam with both Tracy and Erica.  Josh & Stephanie took the kids most of Wednesday as I took theirs on Tuesday.  So I was able to go to Group Ride at 5:15 PM.  There were about fifteen people in the class!  Never seen in that small.  By the time we got to the cool down I was the ONLY person there doing the cool down...a little awkward but I did not want to leave the instructor in the dust.  On Thursday I went to Power early morning with Tracy.  I have not been to Power in probably six weeks so I kept the weight lower.  I'm not too sore from it.  Rob left for Iowa Thursday late morning.  I took Friday off from exercise.  Yesterday I ran three miles at the track while the kids ran too, practiced long jump, and played in the long jump pit.  I may not get to exercise again until Tuesday which is one of the hardest things for me when Rob is gone.  I may try a video or take the girls to the track on Monday while Derek is at soccer camp.  We will see how the time goes.

My friends invited me to the Lake Stevens Half Ironman in August and I said I would consider it.  Now a bunch of them are dropping out for various reasons.  I think it would be a huge challenge for me to get up to that many miles on the bike by August.  Especially with being gone two weeks in July.  I can swim and run in Penticton but doubt I can bike long distances unless we had room in the van for my bike (which I doubt we do).  Since they dropped out it is less incentive for me to take it on.  Plus I have missed a lot of Sundays this spring with travel.  So I'm looking at an olympic triathlon in the Dalles in September.  It's on a Saturday and I only want to do it if Rob can come and watch me with the kids.  It is a little lonely going solo.  So we will see.  My goal is to start getting my bike out regularly once Rob comes home next week and work up to about 20-30 miles.