Laura: I fell off the wagon

I went out to visit Andy and his family and I fell off the wagon. I had the best of intentions. I had all my gear and tried to ride one day. Andy and I went out - he on the new tri bike and me on his old clapped out piece of shit bike. Well the shifter wouldn't work for me. (Andy swears it was working fine for him.) We spent a lot of time getting Andy some new shoes so he could ride the new tri bike - okay so it wasn't a lot of time, but whatever. I wanted him to get to ride the bike so I went home and sat around while he got a work out! :) The next day we drove to Seattle then the following day Andy and I went out for our long run... that evening he left to go out of town and I didn't work out again after that.... oh well. I was thinking I'm here for a short period of time to see Karen and the kids so I'm just not going to worry about it. :)

I'm back in the saddle now. Did the spin class yesterday and this morning and will be doing my swim/ run tomorrow. Then we are off to Texas on Friday so my work outs will be lame over the weekend while we are driving. Then LOOK OUT! Warm weather and the schedule ramps up. Thankfully Grandma and Grandpa are retired and prepared to help me A LOT!

Andy, How was your training while you were in Atlanta!? I'm glad to hear that your nutrition was at least good.. even if your workouts may not have been! Keep it up. GREENS GREENS GREENS! :)

Laura: You know you are jealous

I got my new carbon frame and Tom built it up in time for me to ride it for 2 hours (indoors of course) today. I attended a fundraisier for Multiple Sclerosis at my gym. It was an awesome work out and I love my new bike.



I definitely win the award for sweating the most.. it was gross! :) I was glad that I was able to hang for 2 hours. I was wondering how my nutrition would hold up to a short strength training session followed by a 2 hour bike session, but it was great. They had bananas and oranges there and that was perfect. I burned 1100 calories in that class so I will be eating a lot today! YEAH! A definite selling point to endurance training for this food lover.

Did I mention that it is -30 with wind chill today! BRR! Thank goodness for a gym membership.

So Andy.... when are we going to do IM? ha ha EVERYONE here does IM.. I feel like a slacker only doing half the distance. Of the 41 people in my class today 5 are training for IM Wisc in Sept and one (and her hubby who wasn't there) is training for IM France in June.

Cross training must help.

So this was my cross training yesterday:


And it must really help to cross train b/c I had a great swim today. Maybe it was the article about 'receiving endurance'. I swam 2000 yards (or is it meters?) and felt great. I struggled a bit in the middle, but at the end I was thinking, "I may as well swim a 200 cool down" Then after the 200 I started adding up my yards (or meters) and figured out that if I swam another 200 I would hit 2000 so I went for it. ;) I felt like swimming more... did you hear that? I FELT LIKE SWIMMING MORE! I'm usually so glad to be done swimming and ready to move on to my run... today I WANTED to swim more. Things are happening.

I'm feeling stronger. Yeah. Now I just need to make sure I don't flake out and skip swims while I in Portland/Seattle. Andy, You have to keep me accountable. I need two swim work outs while I'm out there...

Laura: It's still coming together

I had an interesting swim on Friday. I hopped in the lane next to two ironman triathletes - always good for the self esteem and success of a work out. Anyway. The first lap always feels pretty good, then the shoulders get tired and I remember that I am not a swimmer. I don't move through the water with grace and when I really push myself I feel like the whole pool can hear me gasping for air ... does anyone else feel this way? Andy?

The workout started out kinda crappy and I was feeling lazy. I usually hit the pool then think of a previous work out I've done and do that or poach of the white board that is there from the earlier masters swim group. Well this isn't my normal swim day so their were no notes on the white board. I intended to do my warm up then swim a 200 - which turned into a 100. I told you it started off kinda crappy I was feeling weak and like a loser. Ha The drama! I was able to do two longer sets and then some speed work. I was REALLY surprised when the speed work came together pretty well. I was actually able to coordinate swimming and kicking - yes seems like a duh thing for people who actually swim, but I had not been able to previously use a strong kick while actually swimming. It was more like dragging my legs behind me and occasionally remembering that they are back there and that they are supposed to be kicking. I was also able to forget about the ironman (one woman, one man) in the next lane and just swim my sets. Then I was going to do some longer sets after which turned into one log set and one medium set. I'm not even going to tell you what "long" is right now b/c I need to do some research to see what distance I should be swimming right now as my training schedule only says 45 mins. I fear that I should be swimming much longer than I actually am in this amount of time, but hey, at least I'm doing two bricks a week.

I read a promising article in triathlete magazine for swimmers like me... I would attempt to summarize it for you here, but I read it this morning and, well, it's evening now so the details are fuzzy, but the overall thing is to stop trying so damn hard! Refer back to my feeling of gasping for air. If you are reading this and actually participate in triathlons or would like to (otherwise.. if you give a rat's ass) you can check the article out HERE.

Today I ran outside for the first time in a while. No jogger, but 2 inches of fresh snow. Man that stuff is HARD to run in. I had my iPod w/ me 'in case' I needed for motivation. I really don't want to get addicted to that thing. I've never run w/ any music before b/c it is kind of like my escape from it all, but I'm digging it at the gym to keep me focused. I used it to drown out the noise my feet were making in the snow and to get me through a challenging workout. I decided I'll stop using it in the spring/summer when the weather is nice enough to keep me motivated. Not to mention that when the weather is nicer their are a lot more people out there to smile at. :)

Laura: Still here still moving

I'm midway through my second week of hitting it hard and doing the work out just as it's written. I'm feeling GREAT! Though today I felt lazy... only did the spin class and didn't do weights after. I think it's this cold weather.. I went and sat in the steam room instead.. man did that feel good!

It's hard for me to believe or imagine that we are actually going so see some hot snow free weather here some day... I think about the race really not being that far off then I start to panic about being able to work out outside... will it be enough time! :) Of course it will b/c the snow will melt, the sun will shine and the sweat will pour. Hopefully we will have a short winter since we are just getting punished right now! It's been below zero here all week! :( But we prevail and hit the gym hard. :)

Swimming has taken on a whole new attitude for me. I am amazed. I actually kinda like it - even though I'm still slow. I feel like my stroke is improving and though my speed isn't changing too much I'm not exerting so much effort for the same slow result and that gives me hope that there is speed on the horizon. I feel so much more power from my stroke now. Now I need to work on my glide!

I'm looking forward to my trip out to Portland in a few more weeks - maybe Andy and I can do some runs together. I'll make him push the jogger! ha ha

Laura: Best swim workout yet

I made it to the gym this a.m. YEAH! I was griping (in my mind) about the cold weather the whole way there and midway decided I need to STOP and get in a positive frame of mind so I could have a good swim workout... since that is my hardest discipline... guess what... it worked. I had an AWESOME swim workout. I felt strong and felt I was able to work on my stroke. After that I had to buy socks at the gym b/c I ended up with only one sock in my bag (and a nasty old wet sports bra.. ugh) I thought about bailing on the workout and I'm glad I didn't. Great day of training for me! Yeah for my new found enthusiasm!

Now if Jason and Lily would just take a nap this day will shape up pretty well!

Laura: Groove back?

Okay I think I've got my groove back now. I had a decent run outside yesterday... pushing 50 lbs of kids plus who knows how much for stroller. My watch broke so I'm not sure how long I ran, but it used to be a 45 minute loop (when I was running more and the kids weighed less) so I know I ran at least that long. It was great to get outside even though it was cold. Unfortunately the kids HATED it! Thank goodness for the iPod.

Today I did a spinning class and enjoyed it... even though it was only 60 mins and I was supposed to do 90 mins this weekend.

I'm struggling to get all of the workouts in (based on our schedule), but am trying to focus on getting good quality and good base regardless of whether I hit every discipline. I need to get my focus back and my endurance! :)

Tom is gone right now and that always gives me motivation to get to the gym b/c I know I won't get a break at the end of the day and need to have gotten some good stress busting work out time in in the a.m. (also some kid free time).

Hope I'm back in gear now!! I'm sure it will ebb and flow through all of this and I guess that is part of the deal... being ready for the mental push to get through the race is important too!

Laura: Okay.. my, uh, journey begins, uh, too

So my beginning has been a bit choppy. I did a decent job of maintaining fitness from last years season until December hit hard. Two sick kids = no gym.. boo hoo. Jan 1 a new start. At the gym every day be 8:30am for Cycling or swimming. Uh, the kids used to wake up at 6:30am which made an 8:30am class time super easy to hit - these days they are getting up around 7:30am and getting to the gym by 8:30am with two 1.5 year olds in tow is IMPOSSIBLE! We have some schedule adjusting to do, but I'll figure it all out. I really hate having to do all of my workouts indoors, but the first part of the winter has been brutally cold and we got 30+ inches of snow in December - the snow is lingering and a lot of the sidewalks aren't cleared enough for the double jogger to get through. Boo Hoo poor me. The sob story ends here. I'm adjusting things... including setting my alarm instead of depending on the kids and getting them up a bit earlier so I have no excuses.

As w/ Andy, the swim will (is always) be my hardest event. I took an intro to masters swimming which helped my stroke a lot - now I just need to put the time in. Swimming is hard and I find it to be VERY boring. You can't look around and talk to people. BLAH! Not to mention breathing is a struggle.

There I go again being negative... I was supposed to leave that back in 07! On to 08! It's going to be a big year - well, 6 months actually - and I have big plans for the next 6 months. I've charted out some races to hit that include, but are not limited to, Verona Olympic Tri (June 15th), Lk Stevens 70.3 (July 6th), Accenture Olympic (Aug 24th). There are a few more rolling around in the back of my brain: Lone Star Tri in Houston late March (sprint or Olympic), A new tri locally in Madison June 7th, and Devil's lake in Sept. We'll see. My main focus is the 70.3.

I will again be participating in Team In Training as a mentor for the Accenture Tri adn will therefore have a coach at my disposal starting in April. YEAH!

So here's to a challenging and fun 2008!

Andy: So The Journey Begins

Here it is, my first blog post ever. I guess I should start by restating what this blog is about and who it is for. My sister-in-law (Laura) and I have decided to do the Lake Stevens Half Ironman triathlon on July 6th of this year. Since Laura lives in Madison, WI and I live in Portland, OR, we are going to post our training progress on this blog so we can encourage and support each other over the next 6 months. This will also be a place where our friends and family can come and see how our training is going and maybe provide an extra kick in pants when we need it. And finally, this blog is for anyone who is interested in reading about the trials and tribulations of two individuals who are training for their first half ironman.

So, with all that being said, here is my first training update. I am already behind schedule!!! The first day of our official training schedule was supposed to be Sunday, December 30th, 2007. However, for those of you in the know, I was a little preoccupied that day with the birth of my third child, Charlie. I didn't really start on the schedule until last Friday. I did an easy 4 mile run in the morning with my little running group. That night, I hit the pool for the first time in years. Oh boy! I have some work ahead of me. By far, the swimming is going to be my weakest event. I did 30 minutes and it about killed me. I did find some helpful tips on the web over the weekend, and it made my 45 minute swim on Monday a little easier, but not much. I am definitely going to need some help with the swim.

I have also joined a tri-club at my local gym. It meets every Monday night and I love it. It is really going to help with some of the conditioning and strength exercises that I seem to avoid when I train by myself. I am also hoping to get some help with the swimming.

Well, that's it for now. In the next day or so, I am going to try and figure out how to get our training schedules posted on this blog so anyone how visits can check out what we are planning to do.