Sunshine, PR's and not getting "chicked!"

The three stooges

First race of the season was yesterday in sunny St. George!  The weather was great; a little cold in the morning but warming up to 60 by the afternoon.  We got in early evening, had our ritualistic-Cafe-Rio-pre-race-dinner and hit the pillow at 10.  Justin brought down his bike and planned to ride part of the Ironman course after the race.  He was so excited after we checked into the hotel and found out that we had two beds in our room.  I thought for sure he was going to put his bike next to him in the bed and let me shiver alone.  He quickly said that he wanted me to have a good nights sleep without him wiggling around with his restless legs syndrome.  Whatever Just!!  The race didn't start until 9 so we had plenty of time in the morning for breakfast and getting ready.  We arrived at the Dixie Center with 45 minutes to wait.  Man was it cold!!!  We all huddled in the Dixie Center and pretended to ignore the announcement to head out to the starting line.  At 8:55 we finally got the message and toed the line with the other 1500 racers.

The course was fantastic!  So scenic and well-supported.  I just love this place.  It was mostly flat with one steep climb at mile 6 (which we had to climb twice) but we got to take a steep decent a mile later so it was worth it.  You could see where the Virgin River had swelled and washed out part of the trail. The red rock surroundings and blue sky kept a smile on my face.  I just wish it was a bit warmer (as always).  I held a steady pace most of the run and stuck with my goal of staying below an 8 minute mile.  It wasn't until mile 11 that I began to get passed by other runners.  I'm thinking these runners had a tube of NOS in their shorts or something because I was hurting and could not give anymore.  I was happy with my new PR of 1.42.16 (7.52 pace).

Not getting "chicked"

Justin on the other hand was smokin!  Not only did he set a PR of 1.21.57 but he was not "chicked" and finished 24th overall.  Way to go babes!  Our friend Brittany (who is part Kenyan) did great too; she finished ahead of me by a minute.  Nice job Britt!  We celebrated after the race with the other racers, chocolate milk and snacks galore.  It began to get a little warmer and Justin was ready to hit the IM course (yes, he is crazy and from another planet).  Brittany and I went shopping and out to lunch and picked Justin up 2 hours later.  He will have to tell you about the course.  He did say something about a wall?  Yeah, you can't really ride a bike up a wall but I'm guessing he did.

Anyways great race and can't wait for the next one!


PS-  Brittany,Trista and Rory and whoever else wants it; my Disappearing homemade Protein bar recipe!

1 cup PB
1 cup honey
1 cup oats
1 scoop whey protein powder (either chocolate or vanilla)
1/2 cup flax seed (if you have it)
chopped up dates, walnuts, coconut, sunflower seeds (however much you want or none at all)

Put everything in a saucepan over medium-low heat and stir until all mixed together.  Spread in an 8X8 pan; press down- sprinkle with chocolate chips if you want (press those into the mixture) and put in the fridge to harden.  Cut into squares and watch them disappear!

*I use organic everything with no added sugar.  Also, if the mixture seems to runny add more oats; too thick add more honey!


Have a great start of your racing season friends!

Me Hungry!

Beans, beans,

So it's been a while since my last post.  If you ask Michelle she'll tell you it's because I've been too busy eating to post. This time of the year is all about making healthy choices, focusing on portion control, counting calories, etc.  Right?...Well that's not happening in my world.  I'm totally out of control.  I see it...I eat it.    Thank goodness I'm training for an Ironman, otherwise I would be pushing 200 pounds at this point. 

Michelle snapped this one while driving past in a nice, warm car

As much as she gives me a bad time, I think Michelle is really secretly contributing to my addition.  She's been making these protein bars...unbelievable how good these things are.  They're filled with peanut butter, honey, oats, walnuts, flax seed, etc.  Each bar is approximately 250 calories, and I am going through probably 20 of these things a day.  If I ate nothing else throughout the day, these would probably be enough to keep me full.  I just wish I didn't like food so much.  Add breakfast, lunch, dinner, and 50 other snacks on top of these babies and I'm bringing in 10K calories a day...at least. 

the magical fruit,

In addition to my addiction to Michelle's protein bars, it seems that everything else I have been craving has some type of beans.  Burritos, chili, more burritos, more chili.  Beans in my coffee, beans in my oatmeal, beans in my water.  I love beans.  I'll spare you the gory details, but you know the saying..."beans, beans the magical fruit..."  Abbi our 5 year old is completely fed up with my diet.  She's told me I'm gross, disgusting, rude, yucky, and mean too many times for me to count.  I stink her out of the kitchen, living room and when it's time for a bedtime story...well lets just say I stink her out of her own room! Ty and I get a good laugh out of it!

In all seriousness, I'm actually trying to make pretty healthy choices.  It's just the volume of food I'm consuming that is crazy.  I'm constantly hungry...I just can't get enough.  I just hope that I can change my ways once I'm done with all this training.

Speaking of the training, it's going well.  I'm in the 11th week of training.  Some days are better than others, but I feel really good and healthy right now.  My run feels great and I've been mixing in some pretty intense hill training so I'm really hoping to see some good results this spring.  We're signed up for a half marathon on Jan 22nd, so that should be a good early season indicator of my run fitness. 

the more you eat the more you toot,

We've also signed up for the annual Winter Running Series that the SLC Track Club puts on.  The races aren't all that long (5K, 10K, 15K complete the series), but they typically have some fast runners to compete against.  My goal is to knock out PR's in all four of these early season races to build some momentum going into the SLC Marathon and SGIM. 

I'm really not sure how my cycling will be this year.  I've spent most of the winter in my basement on the trainer and I really have no idea how this will correlate to the road.  I'm hoping I continue to get stronger, it's just hard to say at this point.

Lastly, the swim.  I feel good with my swimming at this time.  I know I've got a long way to go yet, but I'm miles ahead of where I was last year.  I've received some good tips on my stroke that have helped my efficiency.  Just need to keep working at it and trying to improve.

Life is good...we're busier than ever, but somehow we both continue to find a way to keep at this/these crazy hobby/hobbies. 

Wind, rain or freezing snow; got to get my  run in



the more you toot,



the better you feel,

so lets have beans for every meal!

As always, Tri Hard!