Joined the club....

So, the more I look into the whole tri thing and talk to people that are doing it, I have more and more questions!  I know that many of these will probably be alleviated once I finally just do one, but in the mean time, I keep wondering about open water swims, transitioning, fueling, etc.  I have one friend that does tris, just completed her first Ironman, and she is part of a coaching facility where she pays for coaching, and all of that.  Though the support of that would be great, I don't have the budget for that! I'm still recovering from the bike purchase :)

Anyhow, after more searching online I found several local tri clubs.  I got more curious, looked into several of them, and they do some pretty fun stuff! I joined the one above, Northern Utah Triathletes.  For a small annual fee, you are in!  They offer tons of group workouts, open water swim clinics, socials, mock races, all kinds of stuff and I am so excited about it!  I can't wait to meet others, learn from their experiences, and hopefully improve my performance through it all.  It will be way fun, I have talked with the founder and coach, and she is going to be awesome!

So, I guess this means I am OFFICIALLY in the club, right?

My own Three Things Thursday

I love any good running inspiration I can find, and I find I even say many of these things to myself when I need to get my butt out of bed in the morning, or trying to talk myself into not cutting my run short for whatever pansy reason it might be.  I found these week and thought I would share!

I LOVE SPRING!

I must say, I am in heaven with the warmer temps we have been having!  It allows for more enjoyable training with less layers, and more day light.  I have loved it!  Being a teacher, I have next week off for Spring Break and am really looking forward to getting more training in, and some good day time training as well!  I am hoping the head lamp can find it's way back to the drawer and I can enjoy the daylight!

In other news, I am debating another race.  I have to decide in the next few days if I want to do the St. George Marathon this year.  I told myself when I finished it last year that I would make myself do it every year.  And to date, it is my favorite race of all of them that I have done.  But, in all honesty, I have no desire to do a marathon this year.  If I don't do St George, I won't do one at all.  But then again, St. George makes it worth the training and the 26.2!  I would also need to figure out how to incorporate the marathon training into my Olympic distance tri training, but I am sure it could be done.

I am getting more used to my bike. I love it, but I need to get my body more comfortable on it.  I plan on upgrading the seat, which whill be crucial for the longer rides I plan on doing, and I will also like it when that muscle between my shoulders gets used to sitting that way, and will hurt less after 45 minutes on the bike :)

I had my first flat tire last week.  Of course, I didn't have my repair kit on me.  Dummy.  But I wouldn't have known what to do with it anyhow.  I called Ken on my cell phone and had him come to the rescue then took it into the bike shop and had them show me how to change it. 

And, as extra bonus, my avid cyclist father has ordered a bunch of gear for me and I have been getting boxes in the mail for the past week.  I got a cool new jersey, and it says "Biker Chick" on it.  Yeah, the simple pleasures...

Random training ramblings....

As I am currently working on my teaching certificate in Special Education, I am learning all about behaviors and behavior modification.  It is all pretty simple, really.  The premise is that all behavior is a form of communication, usually to get something or get out of something.  And to change a behavior or increase a good one a good reinforcer needs to be in place.  I have been thinking about this a lot lately as I look at the behaviors of those around me, my kids, my students, and myself!

You see, I am having a problem with sticking to work outs lately.  I am SOOO lacking motivation. The darkness and cold of winter is killing me.  I don't know why, I always feel wonderful after I do them.  I never regret working out.  I love the races that I train for and want to improve, but usually lately I have succumbed to excuses like " it is too dark out" or "I don't feel good", or "I am too tired".  That may all very well be the case, but I need to GET OVER IT!

So, I am trying to come up with a good reward system for sticking to my work outs.  I have mapped out all of my training and work outs through my first race of the season, the Salt Lake City Half Marathon.  It is 6 weeks away.  I want to reward myself with something major if I stick to all of them between now and then.  Seeing as how this is an average of at least 7 work outs a week, it needs to be something BIG, but I don't know what?  I am thinking a pair of shoes?  New running/cycling gear? Hmmmmmmmm

In other news, I did have my longest bike ride to date yet.  I did 27 miles.  It was humbling.  I really need to get a new seat, because my butt was so sore when I got home.  I am sure that is TMI, but it's the truth.  It dawned on me that is the bike portion of the Olympic distance triathlon I am doing in August.  The thought of doing that ride followed by a 10K and preceded by a 1500m swim is very humbling at the moment.  I am so glad I have the summer to train well for it!

The St George Marathon registration lottery opens April 2.  I am currently debating whether or not I want to do it.  Well, the thing is, I don't want to do 26.2 this year, but I do want to do the St George Marathon, if that makes any sense.   The thought of marathon training is daunting right now, but to this day, my favorite race ever is St George, so it would be worth the effort.  So, I guess I have three weeks to mull it over.  It would be a great way to end the season though!  I will keep y'all posted on what I decide to do.  But one thing is for sure, if I don't get in, there won't be any other marathons on the calender this year...

Madamn Mudders

I really thought that I would add one of these to my race calender this year, but putting together a team, and organizing it seemed like alot, so I didn't make it one of my "official" 2012 goals.  But, I have a friend that has taken it on her to organize it, and invited me to join, and it looks like so much fun!  I love that this race will be purely for fun, and with a bunch of fun friends as well.  It will be a blast!  Our official team name is Madamn Mudders.  There are going to be 10 people on the team.  I can hardly wait!  So yes, another race on the calender, but it will be an awesome one!  I am going to have Ken on hand as the official team photographer, and hopefully he stays plenty busy.  WOOHOOO!

I mean, who doesn't want to dress up, and then go run through a 5K course filled with 28 muddy obstacles that include muddy slip and slides, tire bridges, hay bales, and army crawls through knee deep mud?  I am ALL OVER IT.  Totally non competitive, no PR's to worry about, the only goal being to have fun with friends and get the dirtiest you can.  Count me in!

My First Brick!

Since I bought my bike a few weeks ago, I feel like I am "really" training for a triathlon now.  I have been reading tons of tri blogs and some books, and everything I hear says to incorporate brick work outs as much as possible. For those of you that don't know what this is, brick work outs are when you do two of the sports back to back, usually swim/bike, or bike/run.  The idea is to get your body used to the transitioning between the sports, which is what tri is all about, right?  (Hey, I didn't know what a brick work out was 6 monthes ago either)

So, I was supposed to do my usual long run yesterday morning.  But, with the extended weekend the weekend before, I had done my 10 mile run on Monday, so I figured what a great opportunity to try a brick!  I laid out all of my clothes the night before, and set up my own little transition area in my front room.  I got up early, dressed in my bike gear and headed out the door.  I could tell the minute I clipped my helmet on, that it may be a bad idea.  The wind was terrible!  I had done a 20 mile ride on Wednesday that had a fierce wind and I wasn't exactly looking to repeat the experience.  I figured it was just 12 miles, so I could handle it.  Well, the first 6 miles sucked, quite frankly.  The wind was awful, and I almost cut the ride short a couple of times.  But, on heading back the second half was fun with that wind working as a tail wind!  I got the bike up to 25 mph, which for me, is the fastest yet!  I did little fartlek speed work on some empty roads and it was so fun!  I loved it!   By then I was back in my neighborhood, and slowed down, took some time to shift gears and just spin loosely to loosen my legs and recover from the speed work and get ready for the run!

I fully intended to do 3.1 miles, which would mirror the length of run I have in my first sprint tri.  But, by the time I got home from the bike, the wind was only getting worse.  I headed in, quickly put the bike up, changed shoes, put on my beanie hat and other running gear and headed out. Well, I immediately knew several things in that first mile of the run:

1) These bricks are recommended for a reason.  It is way harder than you think to get off your bike and go right into a run!  I swear it felt so awkward to run, I felt like a newborn giraffe trying to figure out what the heck to do with my legs!  It took a good mile to get over that feeling

2)  This was not going to be a 3 mile run.  The wind was literally blowing me around and it took my beanie hat off my head and I had to chase it to get it back.  That was when I cut back into my nieghborhood to cut this run short and go home.

3) Water would have been a GREAT part of my transition.  Maybe it was the wind, but I felt parched and would have killed for some water!

Well, I came home completely humbled, but feeling accomplished at the same time.  I ended up just .6 of a mile short of the 3.1 I intended to do.  But, it was way harder than I thought, and I am so glad that I found this out now, instead of just a few weeks from the tri.  I have plenty of time to get used to it!  And it makes me really glad that I have a few sprint races and then a good 8 week break before my Olympic distance one.  I will have more time to prep for the longer distance, because I think the sprint will be plenty to start with!  But, I am excited for the challenge!

And you know the wierd thing about that run?  As laborious as it seemed, it was a fast one!  I had one of my best paces in a long time!  A sub 10 minute mile the whole run!  WTG!

This week's work outs will be pretty minimal.  I have a crazy week till I leave for Denver on Thursday to spend the weekend with my childhood friend from Texas.  It will probably just be my Jillian videos in the mornings, Masters Swim on Tuesday, and maybe a quick run on Wednesday night.  But, I am also going to get some good reading in this weekend of my tri books to make what training I do more effective.  Win/win!

Happy training!

Yes, yet another registration

I am all signed up for the above race.  I registered for it after watching a bunch of Youtube videos on it, and it looks like a blast.  I am excited to return to Bear Lake, as that is where my racing career started almost 2 years ago with the Bear Lake Half Marathon.  It holds a special place in my heart and always will because of that.  And, the fun thing about this is that I signed up for the Olympic distance!  For those of you that don't know, that means it is a 1500 meter swim, a 25 mile bike, and a 10k (or 6.2 mile) run.  It is double the sprint distance, and is perfectly timed in that it will give me a chance to work up to it with awesome training all summer, and then be right before school will start back up again.  I am so looking forward to this race!

That will be if for me and tri's for 2012.  I will still probably try to find some half marathons to enter, but I am not sure which ones, and how many I want to do. I am totally open for suggestions though! 

Happy Training!