50 miles

Have you ever finished a work-out out resulting in feeling high with excitement the remainder of the day?

Today I feel like that. This morning my sister-in-law and I rode out to Grand Teton National Park. The trip was 50 miles. 50 miles was another marker in my head that I really needed to check off my training but I hadn't yet completed and it was starting to worry me. However it was an amazing ride and I even feel great several hours later! Mentally, I feel so much better about Vineman now that I have hit that 50 mile mark on the bike. We rode from one end of Jackson Hole to the National Park up to Jenny and String Lake. At one point I yelled to Maddy; "I hope we see some wildlife!" Boom...Elk crossing right in front of us! I had to laugh because it seemed so fake. But it wasn't fake and I even caught them on camera. Next time I am hoping for a bear sighting.

Paul was left with 4 kids this morning to take care of, while the Mommies could play. After lunch it was switch-a-roo time and he is now out hitting the dirt trails with his brother Brian. I hope his biking high is just as awesome as mine currently is!

Looking for me?

Are you looking for me? Well we are on vacation in Jackson Hole, WY!

Great trip so far. We are very much enjoying our week with our brother, sister-in-law, niece and nephew. My boys are in heaven getting the chance to explore the great outdoors and playing with their cousins.

Tomorrow the Moms will bike 50 miles in the morning out to Grand Teton National Park. Later the Dads will have their chance to bike the dirt trails near Snow King Ski Resort.

A few trips from the vacation so far:

For the feet giveaway

Another giveaway from some cool products I have recently discovered. This time it's a couple products that will make your feet happy.

 The first item is a pair of socks from Feetures! Socks  I recently discovered these socks while on a search for finding something that would help me out with blister prevention. I saw these and figured it would be great to see if it worked. I always get blisters on my big toe whenever I run long distances. I was pretty skeptical when I first put them on but what I did like was how well they fit. These were snug socks but not uncomfortably snug. So make sure you size correctly. They are supposed to fit tight. The two I sampled were the Elite No Show Tab and the Elite Ultra No Show Tab. I ran eight miles in the first pair and came home to check for redness and blisters in my usual spot. To my surprise, nothing! A few weeks later I ran ten miles in the other pair and same thing, NO BLISTERS! I was amazed. I never thought I could be so excited about socks but let me tell you these really have saved my feet and made running comfortable for me. Feetures! socks really do have me as a customer for life. I am so excited about these socks and can't wait to share a pair with you. The winner will get to chose any pair of socks from the website in their own size and color.

 I am also giving away a pair of Lock Laces because I am lazy and I hate it when my shoes come untied during my runs. Lock Laces are elastic cords that lace into your shoes and make your regular running shoes turn into slip-on shoes. I will send the winner one pair of black laces.

a Rafflecopter giveaway


The opinions are my own. I received the products/samples for free and was not compensated for the review.

Training continues.

My Vineman racing partners are in town (my brother and sister in law). Preparations are underway for Vineman in less than one month. The past few days have been great with them even though they blow me out of the water when they run and train with me. I usually catch them on the way back and even then it's for a minute or two. Yesterday I went out of my comfort zone and hit the dirt trails on the bike instead of the asphalt on the road. We all hopped on mountain bikes and took to climbing the hills above Prescott. We climbed up 1200' to an elevation of almost 7000'. It felt very different riding on a mountain bike versus my roadie. I couldn't quite get the shifting down and it caused some major frustration here and there. I am also really afraid of going over large rocks so that held me up a little but overall I had a really good time and would totally do it again. It is a great workout and was a nice change of pace to be out in the wilderness instead of the street. I enjoyed it so much that it even has me thinking about doing the Whiskey Offroad next year.

Today was a first for me...I hit double digits on my run this morning. Yes for the first time ever I ran a little over 10 miles 10.25 to to be exact. How did it feel? A little like throwing up at the end but overall really great. It was a major milestone for me and frankly was starting to piss me off. It was a mileage that I know I needed to get in and had been looming over my head for awhile. The longer I waited the more frustrated I became. So many times I would start out with the intention of doing 10 but only to crap out after 5 miles. So how did I do it today? I made a promise to myself last night that I would run until I hit 5 miles and then turn around and go back. It also meant a very early morning run for me when it was nice and cool and lots of extra hydration the night before. I took it slow today and drank plenty of small sips of water during the run. But I did it and that feels amazing. Am I ready for Vineman? No, not yet but getting closer and closer.

Highs and lows

There are two important things you can count on when training for triathlons even more so when you are in the final countdown toward your biggest race.

#1 You will have NO time to do anything. 

#2 You will have some bad training weeks but then you have some good ones soon after.

 This week has been a much better training week than last. After my wallowing blog post last week, I was given some much needed encouragement by friends and two very important coaches (hubby and brother). I am feeling better about my training and one thing I got out of my conversation with my brother was that I have to remember, I am doing this for fun and not to feed my kids! (Good thing as they would go hungry rather quickly).

I was also reminded of this:


Today I enjoyed a nice rolling 30 mile ride. I tried to simulate the ride that I would be doing for Vineman and found the perfect place. It was many loops over and over but it really gave me a chance to test out the new aerobars and to see if I liked riding in  that position. I did and realized I should have done it a long time ago!

The other issue is time. It seems as if I have no time to do anything. I actually sent an email to a friend the other day that read: "I miss you and I totally mean that in a Non-Single-White-Female kind of way." Which is so true. I am spending a lot of time on my bike and swimming both done alone so I miss my friends!

I have also received a little grief for not blogging as often as I used to. Above is what my training schedule has looked like the past two weeks. On top of that is summer vacation for the kids and that means shuttling the kids to Bible camp, Soccer camp, Wrestling practice, and massive amounts of laundry everyday due to full-blown potty training. Yes, finally. The youngest is trained. Hallelujah! He'll be 10 next month so I think it was time.

Now who wants to join me for a swim? We could pretend to talk underwater.

Stomach punch

This was my first race with a DNF (Did Not Finish). And let me tell you it feels weird. P and I have a collection of race bibs on the wall in our garage and I was hesitant to hang the Iron Horse one up with all the others. Why? Well because technically I did not do the entire 50 miles. Sure I did 35, probably the hardest 35 in my life but why does having a DNF feel like I got punched in the stomach?

Its seems as if the life has been sucked out of me. Every workout I do this week has been filled with negative thoughts and major self-doubts about my Half Ironman.  I have studied and memorized the Vineman cut-off times and know the elevation gain like the back of my hand. Even though I have been reassured by friends and family that I will be ok, it still has me worried. Perhaps it's burnout of Ironman training or just race nerves but I am ready for it to end. I want to go back to working out for fun and not have to have a piece of paper tell me what my workout is going to be for the day/week. If I miss a workout I don't want to have to feel guilty or think about how it will screw up the rest of my training.

However more than anything I want to be able to include a 70.3 race bib on our wall. And I did include the Iron Horse bib up their with the others, I just happened to place the Livestrong one on top of it because those were the ladies I was really doing it for!

Count the bibs? Who's winning? Oh but wait, it's not a competition.

National running day

Today is National Running Day so go hit the pavement or trails and RUN. I actually feel a little guilty because the run that is on my training schedule for today is only for 15 minutes. But then I looked ahead at Sunday's run and note that I am not getting off so easy (which happens to be 2 hours).

In celebration of National Running Day many of my favorite companies are offering great discounts and a chance to receive some schwaaaag! You can check it out here:  http://www.runningday.org/

One of them is Timex Sports:

Timex Sports is celebrating National Running Day 2013 by asking runners to Tweet or Instagram using #IMARUNNER to benefit the One Fund Boston, helping those most affected by the Boston Marathon attack on April 15, 2013. Timex will donate $5 for each eligible submission to the One Fund Boston, up to $15,000 total.

Timex is also giving away 60 Timex Ironman watches to runners who use the #IMARUNNER hashtag on National Running Day. For a chance to win a Timex Ironman watch, submit your running story on Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #IMARUNNER on Wednesday, June 5. Runners can also enter by submitting a photo or story directly on the Timex Sports Facebook page #IMARUNNER tab. Winners will be selected at random. For the complete rules and regulations, click here.

Even if you don't really do Twitter it is still worth it to enter the contest. Just Tweet once, it's all it takes. And if you win one of these watches you will SCORE big-time!

So Happy Running Day ..even if your "run" involves chasing after the kids, have fun today and celebrate in a healthy way!

PowerICE giveaway

Summer is here in Northern Arizona. This this means my outdoor workouts are going to be HOT, HOT, HOT! Recently I was sent a couple cases of PowerICE to try.

What is PowerICE? It's a low calorie, no high fructose corn syrup, FROZEN electrolyte popsicle. Yes just like an Otter Pop but better for you.

I tried the Orange Blast and the Lime Kicker and thought they were both really good. My kids even enjoyed them! See the proof here... but then again they just thought they were fancy popsicles. Sshhh don't tell them.

 Is it hot where you train? Would you like to give these frozen electrolytes a try?
PowerICE will graciously ship the winner of this giveaway TWO cases to try for themselves. All you have to do is enter on Rafflecopter below:

above photo credit: PowerIce website

a Rafflecopter giveaway



The opinions are my own. I received the products/samples for free and was not compensated for the review.