Kate's update

I posted about my lack of motivation a while ago. I stated I didn't have the "Eye of the Tiger" that I know I need to do this Ironman.  I decided to skip my 70.3 and relax.  Once I made up my mind I tried to do fun activities.  I did a 5k with a friend and took a nice relaxing bike ride this weekend.  I dug it.  Ron, my husband, is also trying to work out with me more.  (Ron = more fun)  So far this has helped me. 

Two interesting things happened this week.  (1)  I get to be a part of a tri group that I have been wanting to train with for sometime.  I'm pretty excited about it.  (2)  When I went on the ride with Ron and my friends today, Ron said I seemed much stronger on the bike than I used to be.  Ron hasn't ridden with me in a while so this was nice for me to hear.  He is a great judge of my skill level.    Both of these things were good to hear!

The other great thing that happened is that Ron and I cleaned out 3rd car garage (seperate individual stall that we use for storage) to make room for another machine.  Ron wants to get an elipical but we didn't have room.  We now have room and have added a nice TV and DVR box.  We figure the cost of adding the TV and cable is still less than a gym membership for both of us.  I'm excited.  Hope it works!

SO, I'm more motivated.  I am going to do the Marquee Tri with the other Ironmoms.  Kim is doing the Half and Kristin, Annette and I are going to do the OLY.  I feel really good about that.  Normally, I would have signed up for the Half and beat myself up about not being ready.  I know I can do this.  I may be slow, but I can do it. 

We are a couple weeks out from our OLY!  This is going to fun!

....and so we begin

Well, the Tri season is upon us. Registered for my first race - Marquee - doing the OLY distance. Thanks to SRPMIC for the registration.

So what does this mean for training now? Means the April 15th start date has moved up by 3 weeks! Interestingly the Marquee race is on April 15, hmmmm. This will probably be my first wetsuit race too. I bought one during Black Friday at Triple Sports in Scottsdale. It was a bit snug (as far as wetsuits go) back then, but my plan is to be uber serious about the nutrition and training now so I should have no worries by the time raceday comes around. : )

I'm glad I started my running "training" already. I did this race last year as part of a relay - I was going to swim the half-Iron distance. I was TOTALLY ready too! Well Mother Nature intervened and decided to rain so much that Tempe closed the lake which meant the triathlon suddenly became a duathlon.....no swimming. ACK! I was a good sport and decided Jd take on the 5k run anyway. It was hard, and I came in dead last! : / Worst part is that I could not even run across the whole Mill street bridge without stopping. Needless to say, the goal for this first race is to actually run across that damn bridge without stopping!

Happy Training all!!!!

Mr. DAYUM

I've been using a personal trainer at my gym, Fitness Works, for the past year. We've really had a good schedule and he's been a great motivator. On facebook I refer to him as "Mr. DAYUM." heh heh That's actually a nickname that he said his co-trainers call him, so I can't take credit. His actual name is Alex Garcia. : )

Well, Alex has bigger dreams of being a physicians' assistant. He finished school, passed his licensing exam, and has most recently found a job. Alex starts his new full-time job next week which means that he's not going to be my trainer anymore. : (

So, time to pull up the britches and keep myself accountable to my training plan. The official start date is April 15, 2012. I still haven't figured out where i'm going to be doing the swim sessions. Fitness Works has a pool, but it's an odd length - only 14 meters which means a lot more turning to get any kind of workout. I'm thinking i'll focus on the full immersion swimming technique until i can find a better pool option.

Wishing Alex the best on his new chapter, and i'm sure we'll keep in touch.

WANTED: "Eye of the Tiger"

I think I lost my "Eye of the Tiger" motivatation.  I don't know why.  Maybe because I finished an Ironman and now I'm done?  It is off the Life List now?  I don't know.  I felt this way all of 2011 and I was hoping I'd get my fire back in 2012.  So far, it isn't looking great.

I looked up my training from 2010 (my last Ironman year) and I am way behind on the amount of time I was putting in.  The crazy thing is that I have CA70.3 coming up and I do not feel ready.  My husband says I should go for it and consider it a big training day.  If I don't do great, I know I was not properly prepared. If I do better than expected, I will see I am training more efficiently.   UGH.  Why do I consistantly do this to myself? 

I keep day dreaming about new adventures and challenges.  Here is an example of a few.  (1)  What if I try to do a half marathon in every state?  (2) What if I do a half marathon each month for a year?!  (3) What if I start training for that cool ride across Iowa?  (4) What if I join a real bike group and do Tours all year long? 

Oh Boy.  Focus Kate.  You can do this!! 


PS - I did do a 5 mile race UP South Mountain yesterday.  I'm pretty happy about that. 

Phoenix Marathon 1/2

As Kristin said, this race was great!  I was a little worried that it would be chaos (packet pickup was!) since it was the inaugural year.  Turns out, it was a fun race, with lots of great swag, and PRs all around. 

The Phoenix Marathon (1/2 course)

First, the course.  It was great.  Beautiful scenery starting at Usery and heading down hill for 3 miles.  Then it leveled out and stayed level or slightly downhill for much of the remaining 10 miles.  The only challenges on the course were some stretches that were directly into the wind (luckily the wind was pretty mild, but you could definitely feel it when you were running into it).  And, there were some hills in the last 2 miles that felt tough, but were probably not as bad as we thought they were (but coming off all the downhills and being the end of the race they felt tough). 

Second, the weather.  It was perfect.  It definitely felt cool while we were waiting at the starting area.  They had some campfires set up so we could stay warm.  However, once we started running, the cool air felt wonderful.  I loved the temps throughout the race and I felt fully comfortable running! 

Another Medal and another PR!

Sunrise at the starting line

Third, other race logistics.  It wasn't crowded.  There was plenty of room on the course.  I didn't feel like I was adding extra mileage dodging other runners.  Additionally, there were plenty of port a potties at the starting area.  So, I could use the potty just before the race started and I didn't have to stop on the course.  This was huge--the last couple of races I ran I lost between 5 and 10 minutes waiting in line to use a port a potty.  It was nice not to have to worry about that.  The race crew also did a nice job of keeping water, powerade, and gels stocked at all the aid stations.  The finish wasn't too crowded or chaotic and there were lots of goodies to be had (even cotton candy!!). 

The other great part about this race was that I got an awesome PR--2:12!  I've been chasing 2:15 for my last couple of halfs and I was happy to beat it on Saturday.  This PR is about 9 minutes faster than my previous PR.  It's also a almost a full hour faster than the first half marathon I ran 6 years ago.  It's crazy to think of how far I've come since then. 

Also, I placed 11th for the Athenas!  Not too shabby overall.  Next big race-Marquee 1/2 Iron Tri!!

Phoenix half marathon

Wanted:

Bandits!!

Yep, we did it. Jumped in and ran the Phoenix half without paying. But hey, I would have gladly paid for it, but they sold out a month and a half ago.

This was the BEST half I've ever done! The course was almost entirely down hill, nice, decently staffed, and the finish line goodies were amazing. I wouldn't know since I didn't pay, but apparently the goodie bags that were given at number pick ups were pretty sweet too.

So I got a PR of 1:48:49! I'm very happy with that, especially considering my legs are still tired from the Ultra Ragnar last weekend. But this is all in the name of training for the Utah Valley Marathon in June where I'm hoping I can do it under 4:00.

And IRONMAN... training starts in a month!! Right when final prep, and paper writing will be in full swing. :(

Oh, and if you didn't hear about Ironman New Zealand this weekend, it was postponed a day due to a storm, and then they were only able to offer a 70.3 to the athletes. I have a friend who went down there for that. I'm crossing my fingers that nothing like that happens to us!!

Follow me!

Hey all! I'm on twitter and you can follow me at @ndnjd

I do more retweeting than originals posting, but I'm starting to pick it up. I follow mainly NASCAR and triathlon folks, but I also follow Oprah, Rosie and Gayle King too.

I'm using hashtag #ironmoms2012 too for tweets relating to us.

I'm baaaaaaaack!!!

As one of my favorite movie lines goes, I bet you were wondering, "Now why don't she write???" Ha ha. Well I have probably one of the lamest excuses - the space bar on my laptop broke. I could still write stuff but MAN it is a pain! For my birthday, my dad got me a Kindle fire and I love love LOVE it!

So....how's the training going you ask? It's going. I've. Been riding and made February a month to appreciate running. I can appreciate it. Still working on the "love" affair part. I have a partner, however, on my learning to tolerate running though. Lance Armstrong himself has a hard time with running too. So that figure I'm in good company. : )

Still need to register for races. I'm afraid that time is going to be getting away from me here soon. My plan though is for Marquees OLY, SOMA for the half-Iron. I'm gonna join Kate for a distance race in July in San Diego.