Another big weekend of training, but the last before Kona, and I can't tell you how excited I am about that. It's been a huge year and a big struggle the last 7 weeks staying fit and motivated. A less eventful bike ride than last week started out my long weekend. We headed north to Fort Collins (Horsetooth Reservoir). Round trip from my house it was right at 6 hours and 112 miles. Perfect! I felt good aerobically but legs were cramping a bit toward the end. Kevin was headed up after my ride so when I got home he had just pulled in. I had to do a 30 minute run off the bike so he jumped on my fixie bike and rode next to me! So good to see him, as always :)
We laid around the rest of the day, well and ate allot of food! We caught up on Season 4 of The Office (I LOVE this show!) and then watched the season premier of Season 5, hilarious!!! Decently early bedtime to catch up on some much needed sleep. We slept in which was so nice, we enjoyed the morning, stopped ate Starbucks, then headed to the res for my 2.5 hour run. It was nice to run at the res again. It was hot, which wasn't fun but good training for Kona. Kevin rode next to me again providing water and gels! It was good to spend this time together. I felt good for about 1:45 hours but by then when we made a quick stop at the car to refill water and stretch I was so tempted to get and the car and call it a day. I was tired! I pushed through and got in my 2.5 that I had planned. Off to run a few errands, eat a big lunch, and play some serious Wii (FYI-Kevin kicked my butt at Mario Cart!).
All in all I would say I'm feeling good for Kona. I don't feel as good as I did (minus the cold) leading into Canada but I have 2 weeks to taper and rest so I'm hoping by mid-week next week when we leave I'll be feeling a bit more confident in my fitness and recovery! Leaving for Kona in 10 short days! I can't wait. I'm almost more excited about spending a week in Hawaii with Kevin!
Another great weekend of training and quality time with my amazing boyfriend!!!
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Lilypie Pregnancy tickers
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Alan & Casey Come to Boulder
My brother Alan and his wife Casey came to Boulder this weekend. It's the first time they made it out since I've moved here from Colorado Springs. They were here for 3 1/2 days, which isn't enough time to see everything Boulder has to offer but we jam packed it with stuff and had a blast. Thursday night we went to the CU vs. West Virgina football game. We expected The Buffs to lose pretty bad but they held their own with a low scoring game and ca
me out ahead with a field goal in overtime. We were in the 11th row on the 40 yard line. Great seats!!! It was SO exciting and the CU stadium is amazing! 
pent most of the day downtown shopping and that night Kevin came up from Col. Springs. We all headed out downtown for some dinner and drinks. We had a very yummy dinner at a place called Seven then hit up a few bars (hanging out with all the college kids that take over Boulder every year). It was a fun night, considering I never go out!Saturday Kevin & I forced ourselves out of bed to get in my 2 hour run (while Alan babysat all the hounds, see photo). It was nice because Kevin rode my bike along side of me entertaining me and giving me water or gels as I needed them. You want to ride next to me in Ironman in a few weeks? We got 
home and headed downtown again to grab some lunch at a rooftop bar & grill and enjoy Pearl Street Mall on Saturday. It was especially lively because Oktoberfest was going on this weekend.
We took the dogs to the dog park, since it was a perfect day. Saturday night we decided to stay in, have a few drinks, and play Wii. It gotta a little competitive but was a blast.
home and headed downtown again to grab some lunch at a rooftop bar & grill and enjoy Pearl Street Mall on Saturday. It was especially lively because Oktoberfest was going on this weekend.
We took the dogs to the dog park, since it was a perfect day. Saturday night we decided to stay in, have a few drinks, and play Wii. It gotta a little competitive but was a blast.
Sunday we dropped them off early, Kevin left, and I headed out for what was supposed to be a 6 hour bike ride. My ride wasn't as successful as I hoped, about 3 hours in one of my rear spokes broke and I was fo
rced to ride a pretty damaged wheel 20 miles to the closest town and wait for someone to come and get me. I was NOT happy! The wheel is fixed and I'm back on the training bandwagon. 3 weeks until Kona baby! It was a good weekend and I always enjoy spending time with Alan & Casey. It was also fun for Kevin to meet them.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Kona-3.5 weeks and counting
Exactly 3 weeks from today we'll be on a plane on our way to the Big Island. I am so excited I can't even stand it but I'm also VERY nervous. Obviously I'm not extremely experienced at this Ironman thing and here I am gearing up for the World Championships only 7 weeks after my first IM.
Training is going well. I took the first week after Canada entirely off. By the next weekend I was hiking and swimming at a comfortable pace. The second week I picked up the volume with about 12 hours of training but not allot of intensity. Then Kevin and I headed off on our Boundary Waters trip so I had a week of active rest (hiking, canoeing, etc.. ). At first I was a bit reluctant to take this week off but I think it helped me with much needed rest I wouldn't have taken otherwise.
This week has been my first big week back at and I'm shooting for 20-24 hours of solid training. I feel good but my legs and arms are a bit heavy. I have my fingers crossed for feeling good on my long run and ride this weekend, who knows? I'll have two big weeks like this and then back it off to 12-15 hours, and then my final week will be 100% taper.
We'll arrive in Kona about 11:45am on Wednesday, October 8th and do all the typical IM race week stuff. The race is actually on Saturday, not Sunday so we won't have allot of time. Between the race events, naps, a little training, and lots of eating I'm sure the days will be quite full. I'm looking forward to the 3 days after the race that we can let loose a little (or allot!) and enjoying our time on the beach!
More to come as the race day count down continues....stay tuned!
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness
On Friday night Sept 5th Kevin and I headed North to Minnesota for a week of adventure in the BWCA with his dad and step mom. I hadn't ever been to MN before so I was excited and I'd heard some amazing things about this area. The Boundary Waters are essentially "the boundary waters" between Northern MN and Canada. Obviously, it's the land of 10,000 lakes and there are thousands of lakes, rivers, and streams connecting them all. It truly doesn't get much more wilderness than this. They don't allow motorized boats on the water and the only way in and out is by canoe so there is something incredibly serene and majestic about being among the wild and wildlife this way.
We got into MN on Friday night and Kevin's brother picked us up and we headed
to his parents house to eat some dinner and pack our gear. Early the next morning we packed the car, which was extremely full and headed north. It was about a 5 hour drive so it took much of the day. We stopped for dinner, checked into our hotel, and headed out to see our entry point for Sunday morning.
Sunday we got up early, planning to leave at 6:30am. We ate our HUGE cinnamon rolls we picked up for breakfast since we'd be on the water and trails once we went in with nothing but trail mix at our disposal. We got to Entry Point 14 off Echo Trail about 7:3
0 and had a 40 rod portage (carry all of our gear and canoes along the trail to the water). FYI-A rod is about 1 canoe length (or 16.5 feet. There are 320 rods in a mile). We got to the water, loaded our canoes and were off. There was a long paddle up Little Indian Souix River. We came to a beaver damn, paddled as hard as we could to get up and on it, climbed out, hauled our canoes over and continued on. We arrived at a 60 rod portage, continued up river, then we hit another portage of 8 rods (nice and short but kind of a pain to unload-carry-load all for that). Another beaver damn once we were back in the water then hit Pawness Lake and had a huge 216 rod portage. This was a difficult porta
ge we had 4 really heavy packs, day packs, paddles, cushions, fishing rods/net, and of course the canoes. We each had to make multiple trips to get it all to the other side. We began after the long portage of Shell Lake, we crossed that and came to a 60 rod portage which was really rocky and muddy. We actually cut the portage short because it went through the swamp which is why we ended up on the rocks-not easy! We came out on a long narrow lake which was the lake we were going to find a camp site one. We weren't sure if it was going to be available and by this time it was about 3pm and starting to rain. If the site had not been available we would have had to turn around and go back-not fun! Thankfully we got the site we wanted.
We got to camp about 3:30pm, it was a long day of paddling and portaging heavy packs so it was nice to be somewhere we could settle in. It took a couple hours to set up camp. Luckily Skip & Ellen set up camp like nothing you've ever seen so they knew exactly what they were doing. It was quite amazing to watch. Kevin quickly disappeared into the woods on a scavenger hunt for wood. Once we got camp set up and a fire started we fixed some dinner and started Happy Hour (well, the guys did. Filtered lake water and straight liquor didn't do much for me). The first night we carried in steaks, which was awesome because by Wednesday I would surely be longing for something so tasty. By the time we got the dishes done it was time for bed, we hoisted the the food up between 2 trees so that the bears wouldn't get to it and settled in for the night.
I slept horrible the first night but it got better as the week went on. The days ticked by really quickly. I had to remind myself to just Be Still and enjoy the serenity and peace and quiet. I'm so used to going a million miles a minute and I suddenly found myself out here with nothing to do but enjoy nature, a good book, and the company. No blackberry for a week? What was I going to do? JK, part of me was glad to let it go. Monday we spent the day around camp. Fishing, unpacking, organizing, etc. I didn't catch any fish on day one but it was fun trying. Skip caught some and about 4pm they started Happy Hour and the fish fry. Yum! We had spaghetti for dinner, with bread, and pudding for dessert.
The next day (Tuesday) was a gorgeous day. The sun was shining, the fog dissipated early that morning and we decided to take a day trip. We headed north to find some pictographs that we'd heard were pretty neat. We started from our camp site and headed up river......
It's pretty surreal sitting in a canoe looking up at a huge rock face that still has pictographs from hundreds and hundreds of years ago. To think that other pilgrims were sitting in that exact same spot at some point was very interesting to me. The pictographs were cool. We headed back the way we came, just in time to catch some fish for Happy Hour and fish fry. We had mac and cheese with vegetables for dinner, and more pudding.
Wednesday was another day at camp. It was extremely windy so we decided not to venture to far. We didn't want to capsize the boat. This day was filled with allot of fishing, reading, SkipBo games, and exploring the woods. I continued to try to catch a fish but wasn't having much success. Kevin caught his first fish of the trip and Skip caught some so we had fresh fish once again that night. We had spaghetti for dinner again and more pudding for dessert.
Thursday we had planned to head out for another day trip but about 2am a huge storm struck and it poured rain all night. I've never heard such loud thunder and lightening cracks in my life! By 7 or so I was ready to get out of the tent but it was pouring, out tent had leaked a bit during the night due to the fact that a massive puddle had formed right out side the door, it was not fun! I laid in bed for a while before finally getting out. Kevin was sitting under the tarp reading and I talked him into starting a fire. We had some breakfast and sat around watching it storm. By 12pm I was tired of it and in quite a grumpy mood. If this lasted for the rest of the week I was not going to be a happy camper :) I decided to head back into the tent for some more reading and possibly a nap. I woke up about 2:30-3 and it had stopped. It was still dark
and cloudy but at least the rain had stopped. We had enough time to catch some fish and I finally caught my first fish. I tiny little northern pike, but none the less! We took the canoe out to try for some better fishing and about 5pm came back with 4 fish for our daily fish fry. Happy Hour and fish fry once again, along with teriyaki pasta, veggies, bread, and of course pudding completed the meal. The end of the day was absolutely beautiful. The clouds vanished, the sun came out then set with the most beautiful colors, and an almost full moon appeared in the sky! A perfect ending to a lousy start of a day.
Friday was nice but started off with some incredibly thick fog. You couldn't even see the lake at the edge of our camp site. It burned off about 10:30 and Kevin & decided to head ou
t on our final day trip of the week. We went over to a gorge called The Devils Cascade. It was not full of water like we expected so it wasn't as exciting but it was nice to get away alone together and enjoy the beautiful day. We got back in time to try for some more fish for dinner. We fried up our fish, cooked another spaghetti dinner, and called it a night before our early departure on Saturday.
We all got up about 7am on Saturday, had some breakfast and began breaking down camp. We actually got packed up really quick and were heading out by 9:30 (much sooner than expected). It was a 6 1/2 hour trip out of the same portages, lakes, and rivers. By 3:30 or so we were loading up the van and heading back to town for showers and some good food. A hot shower never felt so good in my life. It took forever to clean all the grime off. We went for dinner were I got a couple glasses of wine and a juicy steak-best food I've ever tasted after being in the woods a week.
A long trek back to Minneapolis on Sunday, a quick repack for the airplane trip, and it was off to the airport to get back to Colorado. The trip was a blast and the quality time with Kevin and his family was priceless. MN was beautiful and I thoroughly enjoyed the deep wilderness that the Boundary Waters has to offer. However, every time I'm away from Colorado (and Boulder) and get back I am reminded why I live in such an incredible state. I take a long breath of the fresh mountain air and know that I am truly home!
We got into MN on Friday night and Kevin's brother picked us up and we headed
to his parents house to eat some dinner and pack our gear. Early the next morning we packed the car, which was extremely full and headed north. It was about a 5 hour drive so it took much of the day. We stopped for dinner, checked into our hotel, and headed out to see our entry point for Sunday morning.Sunday we got up early, planning to leave at 6:30am. We ate our HUGE cinnamon rolls we picked up for breakfast since we'd be on the water and trails once we went in with nothing but trail mix at our disposal. We got to Entry Point 14 off Echo Trail about 7:3
0 and had a 40 rod portage (carry all of our gear and canoes along the trail to the water). FYI-A rod is about 1 canoe length (or 16.5 feet. There are 320 rods in a mile). We got to the water, loaded our canoes and were off. There was a long paddle up Little Indian Souix River. We came to a beaver damn, paddled as hard as we could to get up and on it, climbed out, hauled our canoes over and continued on. We arrived at a 60 rod portage, continued up river, then we hit another portage of 8 rods (nice and short but kind of a pain to unload-carry-load all for that). Another beaver damn once we were back in the water then hit Pawness Lake and had a huge 216 rod portage. This was a difficult porta
ge we had 4 really heavy packs, day packs, paddles, cushions, fishing rods/net, and of course the canoes. We each had to make multiple trips to get it all to the other side. We began after the long portage of Shell Lake, we crossed that and came to a 60 rod portage which was really rocky and muddy. We actually cut the portage short because it went through the swamp which is why we ended up on the rocks-not easy! We came out on a long narrow lake which was the lake we were going to find a camp site one. We weren't sure if it was going to be available and by this time it was about 3pm and starting to rain. If the site had not been available we would have had to turn around and go back-not fun! Thankfully we got the site we wanted.
We got to camp about 3:30pm, it was a long day of paddling and portaging heavy packs so it was nice to be somewhere we could settle in. It took a couple hours to set up camp. Luckily Skip & Ellen set up camp like nothing you've ever seen so they knew exactly what they were doing. It was quite amazing to watch. Kevin quickly disappeared into the woods on a scavenger hunt for wood. Once we got camp set up and a fire started we fixed some dinner and started Happy Hour (well, the guys did. Filtered lake water and straight liquor didn't do much for me). The first night we carried in steaks, which was awesome because by Wednesday I would surely be longing for something so tasty. By the time we got the dishes done it was time for bed, we hoisted the the food up between 2 trees so that the bears wouldn't get to it and settled in for the night.
I slept horrible the first night but it got better as the week went on. The days ticked by really quickly. I had to remind myself to just Be Still and enjoy the serenity and peace and quiet. I'm so used to going a million miles a minute and I suddenly found myself out here with nothing to do but enjoy nature, a good book, and the company. No blackberry for a week? What was I going to do? JK, part of me was glad to let it go. Monday we spent the day around camp. Fishing, unpacking, organizing, etc. I didn't catch any fish on day one but it was fun trying. Skip caught some and about 4pm they started Happy Hour and the fish fry. Yum! We had spaghetti for dinner, with bread, and pudding for dessert.
The next day (Tuesday) was a gorgeous day. The sun was shining, the fog dissipated early that morning and we decided to take a day trip. We headed north to find some pictographs that we'd heard were pretty neat. We started from our camp site and headed up river......
It's pretty surreal sitting in a canoe looking up at a huge rock face that still has pictographs from hundreds and hundreds of years ago. To think that other pilgrims were sitting in that exact same spot at some point was very interesting to me. The pictographs were cool. We headed back the way we came, just in time to catch some fish for Happy Hour and fish fry. We had mac and cheese with vegetables for dinner, and more pudding.
Wednesday was another day at camp. It was extremely windy so we decided not to venture to far. We didn't want to capsize the boat. This day was filled with allot of fishing, reading, SkipBo games, and exploring the woods. I continued to try to catch a fish but wasn't having much success. Kevin caught his first fish of the trip and Skip caught some so we had fresh fish once again that night. We had spaghetti for dinner again and more pudding for dessert.
Thursday we had planned to head out for another day trip but about 2am a huge storm struck and it poured rain all night. I've never heard such loud thunder and lightening cracks in my life! By 7 or so I was ready to get out of the tent but it was pouring, out tent had leaked a bit during the night due to the fact that a massive puddle had formed right out side the door, it was not fun! I laid in bed for a while before finally getting out. Kevin was sitting under the tarp reading and I talked him into starting a fire. We had some breakfast and sat around watching it storm. By 12pm I was tired of it and in quite a grumpy mood. If this lasted for the rest of the week I was not going to be a happy camper :) I decided to head back into the tent for some more reading and possibly a nap. I woke up about 2:30-3 and it had stopped. It was still dark
and cloudy but at least the rain had stopped. We had enough time to catch some fish and I finally caught my first fish. I tiny little northern pike, but none the less! We took the canoe out to try for some better fishing and about 5pm came back with 4 fish for our daily fish fry. Happy Hour and fish fry once again, along with teriyaki pasta, veggies, bread, and of course pudding completed the meal. The end of the day was absolutely beautiful. The clouds vanished, the sun came out then set with the most beautiful colors, and an almost full moon appeared in the sky! A perfect ending to a lousy start of a day.Friday was nice but started off with some incredibly thick fog. You couldn't even see the lake at the edge of our camp site. It burned off about 10:30 and Kevin & decided to head ou
t on our final day trip of the week. We went over to a gorge called The Devils Cascade. It was not full of water like we expected so it wasn't as exciting but it was nice to get away alone together and enjoy the beautiful day. We got back in time to try for some more fish for dinner. We fried up our fish, cooked another spaghetti dinner, and called it a night before our early departure on Saturday.We all got up about 7am on Saturday, had some breakfast and began breaking down camp. We actually got packed up really quick and were heading out by 9:30 (much sooner than expected). It was a 6 1/2 hour trip out of the same portages, lakes, and rivers. By 3:30 or so we were loading up the van and heading back to town for showers and some good food. A hot shower never felt so good in my life. It took forever to clean all the grime off. We went for dinner were I got a couple glasses of wine and a juicy steak-best food I've ever tasted after being in the woods a week.
A long trek back to Minneapolis on Sunday, a quick repack for the airplane trip, and it was off to the airport to get back to Colorado. The trip was a blast and the quality time with Kevin and his family was priceless. MN was beautiful and I thoroughly enjoyed the deep wilderness that the Boundary Waters has to offer. However, every time I'm away from Colorado (and Boulder) and get back I am reminded why I live in such an incredible state. I take a long breath of the fresh mountain air and know that I am truly home!
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