As Luck Would Have It...

I was going to start running this week. As many might now from previous posts, or from my posts on Twitter, I've had a hip injury. I tore a muscle in my hip and I haven't been running in 4 weeks.

I was talking with my personal trainer on Saturday and he asked me how I was feeling. My hip has been feeling pretty good lately. I can go days without it hurting. So, B.J. and I decided that he would slowly start easing me in to running again. He would only put running on my workout schedule for like 1 to 2 miles at a time and it would be after a bike ride or something.

I was SO excited to start running again. But...as luck would have it...I came down with a cold yesterday. The picture below is EXACTLY how I feel. :(



I've started taking cold medicine and I'm taking it every 4 - 6 hours around the clock, so hopefully I'll be able to kick this cold as soon as possible.

I can't wait to get out & start running again. I want to start training for my full marathon in May!

26.2

I've finally signed up for my first full marathon!!! Yay!!! I'm so excited. Seriously.



I will be running the 2012 Zions Bank Ogden Marathon on May 19, 2012. My friend Christy was going to come down from Spokane and do it, but it sold out before she could sign up. BUT..Sylvia is gonna do it with me and so is Rob! Yay! It's gonna be a TON of fun.

I feel like the 1/2 marathon distance isn't really a challenge any more. The only challenge is to improve my time, but the distance isn't a challenge any more.

I've talked with my personal trainer and he said that the Ogden Marathon is probably the best marathon in the state. There is some downhill to it, but it's not a steep downhill and the course is just beautiful. I can't wait!

I'm sure the closer it gets, the more nervous I'll get, but right now I'm just excited! Yay! This means I'm one step closer to competing in an Ironman!

SDRC Labor Day Triathlon 9-5-11

Yesterday was the annual Labor Day Triathlon at the South Davis Recreation Center up the street from my house.

This was the third time I had participated in this triathlon. I had high hopes with this triathlon. I was hoping to set a new PR with this triathlon, but if I didn't set a new PR, I would've been happy with finishing in less than 1:30:00.

Well...that didn't happen. My final time was 1:30:26. I came in 4th in my age division. Alot of people think I came in 3rd because I guess before ALL of the times were in, I did come in third. My personal trainer's wife and my friend Tawni said they heard them announcing my name as 3rd place. I wish I felt like I could take credit for coming in 3rd, but I just don't feel like I can. I came in 2 minutes after the person who came in 3rd place.

I'm very disappointed with my time, but I know what I did wrong. I started out on my swim WAY too strong. I think partially my nerves got the better of me because I saw 2 of my co-workers right before I got in the pool and I think it was in my mind that I needed to impress them and show them how fast I am, so I started out WAY too strong; therefore about 1/3 of the way through the swim I had to stop & catch my breath. It took me 16 minutes to swim 14 laps. That's about double what it should have taken.

So when I finally got done with the swim I headed out on the bike. I felt pretty good on the bike...until I hit a red light. With this particular bike route, we have to bike through part of Bountiful City, in to Centerville and in to Farmington. Centerville City refuses to give us police presence and we have to go through a major intersection. So, when you hit that red light, since there is no police presence, we have to obey ALL traffic laws. I hit that red light going out & coming back. So, that slowed me down too. If I wouldn't have hit those red lights, I probably would have come in 3rd place.

I finally got back from the bike and Tawni's husband was already done with the race. He actually came in 1st overall. He is an AMAZING athlete. I have to say I find it kind of awesome that even though I'm not as good an athlete as Brice & Tawni, Brice was there cheering me on and everything.

I ran out of transition and I was surprised, I was feeling REALLY strong on this run. I felt like I was running fairly fast and keeping a good pace. There were times where I felt like I was slowing down, so I tried to dig deep & push harder. I hit two red lights on the run as well, but they weren't as long of red lights as on the bike, so I still felt pretty good about my time. When I saw my running time it was like 35:15. I was running slower than an 11 minute mile. I was, and still am SO frustrated. I just don't get it.

I've been doing triathlons now for 2 1/2 years. I feel like I should be better. I'm not over training and I'm following all of the training that BJ is giving me. When I am training, I'm running a pretty fast pace (10:00/mile), but when it comes to race day, I seem to slow down. I just don't get it.

This was my last triathlon of the season, but I've still got 3 more races to go. I've got The Dirty Dash 10k coming up, then the Layton 1/2 Marathon & then my final race of the season is the Las Vegas Ragnar.

Here are some pictures from my race yesterday.


Me trying to get in "the zone" before the race starts. It obviously didn't work.


During the swim


Heading out on the bike.


Running in to the finish.

Awesome Workout Today

Today I had an AWESOME workout! I'm just so happy from it! First off, I have to say, I absolutely love when a workout can change my attitude or grumpiness from negative to positive.

I had a super rough day today. I got to work at 8:44 a.m. this morning and was ready to throw the towel in at 9:00 a.m. But, as soon as I got in the pool tonight, all my grumpiness disappeared along with the stresses of the day. :)

My scheduled workout from BJ today was:

Swim:
200 swim, 200 kick, 200 pull
10 x 100 with 30 sec rest
cool down

Run:
warm up 1 mile
5 x 1,000 meters with 90 sec rest
cool down 1 mile

I normally get up at 4:45 a.m. and go swimming so that when I get home from work I don't have to deal with all of the kids at the pool and all I have to do is run, but this morning I woke up with a killer headache and I was just tired, so I just went back to bed, so I had to do both swimming & running tonight.

My swim tonight was one of the best swims I've had in a loooooooooooong time! Every 100 I did, with the exception of the last 3 100's I did, were all done in 2 minutes or less!!! One of the 100's I did I was able to do in 1:56!!! I haven't swam that fast in a long time. It was nice to know that I'm finally back on the training band wagon and I'm making improvements...thanks to my awesome trainer BJ.

My run, it was hard, but I did it. the 1,000 meters I did, I did at an 8:30 mile and then slowed down to a 10:00 mile for the 90 second rest. Oooopppss...I just realized I was supposed to do 5 x 1000 meters and I only did 4. Oooooopppss...there's always tomorrow. :)

Race 4 of 4 - Jordanelle Olympic Distance Triathlon

Yesterday was my first Olympic distance triathlon. I picked this triathlon because it was later in the year and I would have plenty of time to train for it and get plenty of open water swimming practice in.

Well, before the race, I had only had 2 chances to go open water swimming. I wasn't feeling to confident about the swim. BJ, my personal trainer, had given me plenty of tips and told me about the race course, etc. I was about as prepared as I was going to be.

Transition opened at 6:30 a.m., so I wanted to be there bright and early to get a good transition spot. Little did I know is that they assigned you a transition spot, so hell, I could've slept a good extra 1 - 1 1/2 hrs. I was pretty bummed.

I had to actually bike from where we parked down to the transition area, which was about 4 miles. I got to go down a REALLY steep hill. Everybody was saying you can go upwards of 40-50 mph going down this hill, so I was kind of excited to see how fast I was going to be going down this hill on my way to transition to set everything up, but my computer on my bike wasn't working. :( Boo.

Finally 8:30 a.m. came and I ate my sports beans. I'm getting increasingly nervous because the event I was most scared of was the swim. I had to swim 1 mile. 8:55 a.m. came and I was in my wetsuit nice and good and decided to get in the water to warm up. I was surrounded by others that were doing their first Olympic distance so I was still panicing on the inside, but it was nice to know I wasn't in this alone.

Then...the gun went off. I started out slow on my swim and the first bouey was easy to spot. I felt like I was doing really good. I rounded the first bouey and started sighting for the 2nd bouey. That was more difficult because the sun was right in your face. I ended up just sighting with a big boat that was out there by the bouey 'cause I couldn't see the bouey. Then I finally got there and headed to the 3rd bouey to start my 2nd round of swimming. I had to do 2 laps of this swim to swim 1 mile. The first lap went really well and most of the 2nd lap went really well. When it finally came time to swim in to shore I thought I'd never get there! I kept sighting and it seemed like it was always the same distance away. You know those endless pools? I felt like I was swimming in one of those.

Finally I made it to the boat ramp and I saw people running up the boat ramp, well that just wasn't an option for me. My legs felt like jello, my arms hurt, I knew right then the bike was going to be rough.



So, I was in the transition area and I'm trying to go as fast as I can, but my body is just already tired. I'm screwed! I finally get my shoes on, helmet on, etc. and I'm heading out of transition to start a 25 mile bike ride.



The bike route is what they call a "false flat". It looks like it is flat, but it's a 1 - 2% uphill grade. The first half of the bike was dreadful. I was just praying I would get to the turn around point. I mean God and everybody was passing me on the bike. I was starting to have a panic attack on the bike because of how terrible I was doing on the bike, therefore I started hyperventilating on the bike. This wasn't good. Everybody passing me had kind words of encouragement, but it was still rough.

I think at one point on the bike I saw BJ stopped off at the side of the road cheering me on and that pushed me further. That made me dig a little deeper and push harder. Once I finally got to the turn around point, everything was good though. It was all downhill from here.

On the bike though, I made a stupid, very stupid, mistake. I didn't eat anything. I had a packet of sports beans taped to my bike, but I kept looking down at them and I saw was salt. They are very salty, which is good, which helps you drink more, etc., but all I wanted was water. So, I never ate them. I just sipped a little bit of my Powerade and drank all my water.

I finally got back to transition and there was at least 2 people behind me on the bike, so I knew I wasn't last, but I wasn't doing as well as I wanted.

I headed out on the run of 5.7 miles and I was just done. My legs were done. They felt like jello. I was really discouraged. The whole run was like a giant panic attack and I kept hyperventilating on the run too. I walked a good portion of the run just cause I couldn't do it.

I came walking/running in from my first lap and I'm bawling and my dad is there ringing the cowbell telling me not to give up. Then as I'm heading out, I'm thoroughly embarrassed because I'm one of the last people out on the course. I see my personal trainer and his wife there cheering me on telling me not to be embarrassed. This is my first Olympic distance tri, I can keep doing it.



I walked almost all of the 2nd lap of the run. I was so far behind from everyone else, I could have easily cheated. I mean, there wasn't anybody at the last water station. That's how far behind I was. BUT...I knew my conscious would get to me so I kept on with the whole 5.7 miles.

Somehow I managed to run the last 1/2 mile of the race and run in to the finish.



My personal trainer and my dad met me at the finish line. I stood and talked with my personal trainer for a little bit. We briefly talked about what I did well and what I didn't do well on the race. We're gonna get together in a few days and go over it in more detail.



I drank a TON of water on my run because it was hot and I was afraid of getting dehydrated. Well, shortly after this picture was taken, BJ and his wife left and I promptly walked over and barfed up every ounce of water I drank. It was rough. I wondered when I was going to stop barfing. I ended up seeing the medical tent people and took some electrolyte pills.

Finally I was feeling well enough to walk down to transition and grab my bike and walk back up to the bus to go up to the car.

Weird thing is...while I was sitting there taking the electroylte pills, I heard my name called over the loud speaker. I didn't find out until I got home that I placed 2nd in my division!!! Now...only 2 of us registered in that division, but I placed!!! My final time was 3:49:00 (I don't remember the seconds). I came in 123rd over all and there were I believe around 200 people who did the Olympic distance.

I know my biggest mistake was not eating anything on the bike. I needed to refuel on the bike to have energy to get through the run. I can't wait to do another Olympic distance triathlon to see how well I do when I eat something on the bike, you know? Looking back now, I find it interesting that my best event in this race was the one I was most scared of...the swim. I just can't express how STUPID I feel for not eating anything on the bike. I knew I should have and my gut was telling me I should, but I just didn't want to. It wasn't that I didn't want to consume calories, that wasn't bothering me, I just was craving water and nothing else.

Here's one last picture. My personal trainer on the run portion of the race. Yes, he took 1st place overall. He's a machine.

Time/Pace Issues

I'm having serious timing issues. It's quite frustrating.



I used to be able to run between a 9:30 - 9:40 mile and now it's all the way down to an 11:00 mile. I don't understand why I've slowed down so much. I can understand not running as fast as soon as I get done with a 25 - 30 mile bike ride. My legs are tired. I can understand that, but this last Wednesday I went for a 4 mile run and it took me 44 minutes. :(

I haven't been working with my personal trainer lately, but we're going to start working together again. He says that I might have plateau'd. I trust what he says. I really do. He is like a super athlete. I dream of being as good as he is. One day I will be as good as he is, so I know he knows what he's talking about, but I just don't understand it.

When I think of plateau'ing, I think of staying the same time and not improving, not decreasing my time. Does that make sense?

My personal trainer also says that I may be over training. That is a slight possibility. I told my trainer that at one time, I will admit it, yes I was overtraining. But, I've learned my lesson from that. My body was rebelling against me. BAD! So, I've cut back quite drastically on my overtraining and have stuck with the last workout that he sent me. The only thing I do differently is I always run 4 miles a day, even though he says on a couple of days to run 3 miles (I'm going to try that next week) and I swim every day (I'm going to try cutting down on that next week too).

I'm suffering with my swimming too. I swam 1000 yards this morning and it took me 24 minutes. It should only take me 20 - 21 minutes. :( I'm very frustrated because I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I'm doing everything that my personal trainer has taught me to do.



I have started doing weights again, so that should help with my timing, but I haven't seen the difference quite yet. I've definitely seen the difference in my biking, but not my running and swimming yet. Maybe this next week I will.

I just can't wait to start training with my personal trainer again.

Ironman St. George 2011

Yesterday, May 7, 2011 was the Ironman St. George (IMSG). My personal trainer, B.J., competes in it every year in hopes of qualifying to go to Kona, HI for the Ironman National Championships.

I was supposed to volunteer at the IMSG this year, but when it came down to it, I wasn't able to afford to go. :( I was really sad because it would've been so inspiring. I was thinking of all the athletes yesterday and wondering how they were doing.

Last night I had my dad look up B.J.'s final time and he did awesome! He finished in 9:48:49. He qualified to go to KONA. Here are his times:

Swim: 56:05
Bike: 5:35:57
Run: 3:12:16
Final Time: 9:48:49

He came in 6th in his age divison (out of 22). Overall, he came in 28th (out of 1310).

I just looked at his pictures on Facebook, and it seriously brought a lump in my throat. It was SO inspiring.

THIS is why he is my personal trainer. One day I am going to be right there competing in St. George at the IMSG. THIS is what pushes me to be a better athlete.

I Got My Hopes Up...

Tonight when I went swimming, I walked in to the pool area and there stands my personal trainer (BJ) in his speedo getting ready to swim as well. Intimidation immediately set in.

In a way, the intimidation is a good thing. BJ is insanely good. I've talked about him before on this blog. But, BJ pushes me to be better. He pushes me farther than I think I can go.

Tonight my swim workout consisted of:

200 swim, kick, pull
400 drills
4 x 100 with 30 sec. rest
200 pull
4 x 100 with 30 sec. rest

With the 4 x 100, my goal is to swimm 100 yds in 2 minutes or less. My first set of 100, I swam it in 2 minutes exactly! I was SO excited because lately my time has been 2:07+ My second set of 100, my time was 2:05. I wasn't too happy about that, but I figured it was because I was getting tired.

My swim time just went downhill from there. :( I was pretty bummed. I'd gotten my hopes up that I was finally back to swimming a 2 minute 100, but I feel like I'm back to square one.

First Tri of the Season - 2011

My first triathlon of the 2011 season was this last Saturday down in St. George, UT (about 4 1/2 hrs from where I live).

I booked a hotel for the night before and me, my mom and my dad drove down on Friday and came back Saturday after the race.

I was quite nervous for this race because I am still healing a little bit from shin splints. The Monday before the race it still hurt to run, so I was VERY concerned. I talked with my personal trainer and he told me just to take some ibueprofen before the race and I should be good.

We got down to St. George and were able to go and pick up my packet. I was concerned though because normally they have a map of the route in the packet (at least in all my other races they did), but in this one they didn't. I didn't know where the hell I was going! Holy crap! Everybody was just saying that there will be plenty of people around, just follow the crowd. Ummm...yeah, that's not how I work. Before every race that I do that I've never done before, I always like to drive the routes so I know where I'm going. Needless to say I was SUPER nervous.

We went to dinner and carbed up and went home for a good nights sleep. I slept better than I thought I would. Normally I don't sleep well the night before a race.

Got up the next morning and had a bagel and yogurt and headed over to put my bike in the transition area. The start of this race was REALLY weird. We were supposed to swim in "heats". I was schedule to start swimming in the 7:50 a.m. heat and the first heat started at 7:00 a.m.

Normally, with every other triathlon I've done, we've done a serpentine swim where you snake through the lanes to reach the 350/400 yds/meter swim. This triathlon, they had like 14 lanes set up in the pool, 2 people in each lane and they had volunteers at the head of each lane counting your laps for you. You stayed in the same lane the whole time. As soon as a lane came free, the volunteer raised their hand and you ran to that lane and jumped in and started your swimming.





As always when the swim comes first, I felt like I started out too fast and started to get a little tired about 1/2 way through the swim. I finished my swim (16 laps) in about 10 minutes though.

Then it was off to the bike. This was the part I was most nervous about 'cause I didn't really know where I was going (thank you to the lady who was standing in front of me in the swim who told me where to go). The bike wasn't too bad. We had to do two 5 mile loops. The first 2 1/2 miles, I felt like it was never going to end because I didn't know where I was going. After the first 2 1/2 miles out, the bike went by really fast. I felt like I did pretty good on the bike. I felt like I was going pretty fast.






The one picture that is not of me, he is a U.S. Army Veteran and he lost his right leg in combat and still competed in this triathlon.

The last leg of the race was the run. We had to do two 1.5 mile loops. I was dreading this part of the race because I didn't know how well my shins would deal with the running, but my shins were AWESOME! They didn't hurt one bit while I was running. I felt like I was running pretty slow, but I would have rather run slow than push it and injure myself and make the shin splints come back, you know? The first part of the run seemed to take FOREVER as well because I didn't know how far I had to run until I got to the turn around point. Once I made it to the turn around point, the run seemed to go by pretty quick.





I headed to the finish line and had NO idea what my final time was. I wanted to hang around and get my final time, but I was kind of tired. I wanted to shower and we were able to get a late check out at the hotel, but we needed to get back so I could shower and we could get on the road to go home.

Late Saturday night I was able to get my final time and it was 1:23:41.8!!! Hallelujah!!! Right out of the shoot I got my best time EVER!!! I beat my best time by 1:15!!! I can't wait for the rest of my races this year and hopefully I'll improve with each one.

P.S. I have to give a shout out to my personal trainer B.J., because without him being such an awesome personal trainer, I probably wouldn't have been able to beat my best time on this race. :)

Winners Podium Here I Come

I met with B.J. (my personal trainer) on Thursday this last week and we did our training on my running. As we were training he asked if I wanted to make it up to the podium this year. I told him yes I did, but I wasn't sure if I'd be capable of doing it this year. However, B.J. told me that he thinks I've got what it takes to make it up to the winners podium this year!

I'm SO excited!!! I think it would be absolutely AWESOME if I made it up to the winners podium! I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

My Personal Trainer

I was on Facebook the other day & my personal trainer updated his status as "So out of shape maybe I will remain in the Clydesdale division".

Oh my hell, I about came unglued!!! Seriously!!! This guy is probably 6' 8" and I wouldn't know what to guess what he weighs, but if he's out of shape then I'm obese. Lol.

I wanted to type on his status "Are you freakin' kidding me? At least it doesn't take you 28 laps to swim 25 yds." Maybe I'll still type that.

But even if he is out of shape, it won't take him long to get back in to shape.

This Last Week

This last week has been another crazy week at work and I've eaten WAY too much and I only went to the gym twice and didn't even do my full workout both times...however, there is good news. I thought I would definitely gain probably 5 lbs that's how much I ate, but I only gained 0.4 lbs!!! I was SO excited.

Work is starting to slow down now though, so I'm WAY excited to start going back to the gym tomorrow morning.

This last Friday morning, I got to meet with my personal trainer and he coached me in my swimming. Wow! I didn't realize how much goes in to swimming to make you a faster swimmer. When I think faster swimmer, I think you need to move your arms faster, but that's not necessarily true. He has me doing all these drills in the water (they're kind of hard to explain), and I'm excited to get back in the pool tomorrow morning and do them and start losing this weight that I've gained.

All I have to say is God bless my personal trainer for having patience with me. First off, we haven't met in probably 4 weeks because his work schedule has been crazy and so has mine. Plus, I have not very much coordination so some of the different drills he has me do, I find quite hilarious. I'm surprised he doesn't burst out laughing at me. I wouldn't blame him if he did. I can't wait to start meeting with him on a regular basis now.

The main thing I can't wait for is my first race of the season to see how his coaching helps me in my races!

Scared to death

To be honest with you, I'm scared to death. My trainer (BJ) has started emailing me my weekly workouts and they are VERY different than what I have been doing.

Here is what I WAS doing:
Monday - Swim 72 laps, bike 50 minutes
Tuesday - Swim 72 laps, run 6-8 miles, do weights
Wednesday - Swim 72 laps, bike 50 minutes
Thursday - Swim 60 laps, run 6-8 miles, do weights
Friday - Swim 50 laps, bike 50 minutes
Saturday - Run 6-10 miles, do weights
Sunday - No workout

Here is what BJ has me doing this week:
Monday - Swim 48 laps, run 3 miles, do weights
Tuesday - Bike 60 minutes, run 2 miles
Wednesday - Swim 48 laps, run 3 miles, do weights
Thursday - Run 45 minutes (4.5 miles), do weights
Friday - Swim 40 laps
Saturday - Run 5 miles
Sunday - Bike 60 minutes

Because I'm working out less, even though I'm doing more weights, I think I'm going to have to drastically change my eating habits...again. Like I said, Saturday & Sunday were my "cheat" days where I would eat anything I want. I think it was getting to the point where I was gorging on food and eating everything and anything in site and taking advantage of the fact that I was working out SO much during the week, ya know? I think I can still have a "cheat" day, I just can't cheat as much.

But it just scares the livin' daylights outta me. I've been doing what I'm doing for 18 months now. It's just scary. I'm just afraid of gaining all my weight back again. I realize that some of the weight gain I'm going to see is muscle, but I just have to keep reminding myself that BJ knows what he's doing and he knows what's best for me.

Guess Who Has a Personal Trainer?

Guess who has a personal trainer? Pick me! Pick me! Pick me!!!

Last month, for my birthday, my mom and dad gave me 2 sessions with a personal trainer named BJ Christenson at the South Davis Rec. Center. Before my birthday, I told my parents that if I were to ever have a personal trainer, I would want it to be BJ.

BJ is a freakin' machine!!! He does the Ironman Triathlon in Hawaii! He did it last month I believe.

In the Ironman Triathlon, they give you 17 hours to swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles and run 26.2 miles. BJ did it in a little over 9 hours!!! He swam 2.4 miles in less than 1 hour.

My ultimate goal is to do the Ironman Triathlon over in Hawaii. Currently, I've only done sprint triathlons. And, for example, where it took BJ less than 1 hour to swim 2.4 miles, it takes me about 50 minutes to swim just 1 mile!

Eeeek, I've got a long ways to go, but I know that BJ can help me get there.