SLO in Arkansas: July 2011

Friday, July 29, 2011

The Devil is in the Details

The Annie Oakley Sprint Triathlon is at 7am in the morning, and I am so excited!! And pretty nervous, but mostly excited! We are waking up early, as in 3:30am early, to head over to Memphis at 4am. We plan to be there between 5 and 530am so I can pick up my race packet, get my body markings, set up my transition areas, and hit the water by 7. I know I won't sleep too much tonight, and am hoping the kids are cheerful and cooperative at 4am:) So I have been packing and preparing for this tri all week, thus the devil is in the details. You basically pack everything but the kitchen sink for a tri, and a sink might come in handy at some point even then:) For the swim I have the basics, goggles, swim cap and my ironman watch which I plan to wear through the whole race to keep track of my overall time. I will have my tri shorts and shirt on for the whole race, so no major wardrobe changes thank goodness.

The bike stuff looks a little light, but that is because most of it will be packed on my bike before hand. I also have my pump, bike itself, water bottles, GU chomps, chapstick, etc which will go on the ride portion with me. Well not the pump, but you get the picture!

Finally the run. I will just trade my helmet for my visor, switch out my shoes, strap my race belt/number on and off I go. Easy breezy right?! I hope so:) The run portion is short, but it is also a trail, which we all know I hate, so it should be interesting. Hopefully it's not too rugged, and I think part of it is shady, which should be nice. The heat will be bad, but I should be finished by 8:15am if all goes according to plan, so not too bad.

Here is a picture of more of the gear. I also have towels to dry my feet off with, extra clothes to change into, bike pump, spare goggles and watch, and on and on! Plus, being an athlete who is also a mom, means we can't forget to pack for the boys either!! Snacks, diapers, sunscreen, juice cups, backpack, spare clothes, and on and on as well:) We pretty much have the packing thing down to a T around here, so no worries.

I had a great 5 mile run on Monday evening, and then a mini tri later in the week. I swam 1,100 yards in the morning, then met up with friends and rode 6 hilly miles on the bike, and changed shoes and went straight into a 1.58 mile run. I felt strong and good, which really helped the confidence. I also happened to run the almost 1.6 miles at a 8:58 minute pace, which didn't hurt my feelings either! Tomorrow by the time most of you wake up, I will be a triathlete!!

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Race Goals

I can't believe my first triathlon is a week from today! I was feeling pretty confident a few weeks ago, but the past two weeks have not been the greatest training wise, and now I am fairly nervous. We had VBS two weeks ago and I barely got any workouts in, and then I got run down and sick with a head cold/sinus junk which I have been fighting since then. It is awfully hard to run when you can't breathe out of your nose at all. I feel about 80% right now, which isn't the best going into my last week before the race. I just feel run down and super tired, and like I haven't gotten too many quality workouts in for a while. I guess its time to get mentally tough and just think positive!

I know its obvious, but good grief its hot too. This heat and humidity are so draining, and make it so hard to breathe. At least everyone has to deal with it for the race:) My asthma has been acting up the past week or so too, which I think is part of it. Not fun at all. My plan for this week is to get one good quality workout in for the swim, bike and run, and then rest completely on Thursday and Friday before the race. We have reached the point of no return, and I really can't cram any more in, so what I have done has got to be enough at this point. I am excited that several girls I know from town are doing the tri too. Up until a few weeks ago, I didn't know anyone else going! I went to bed at 9:30pm last night and got almost 10 hours of sleep. I was supposed to meet some girls for a 6 mile run at 6am, but at 5:30 I still couldn't breathe well and figured a few more hours of sleep would be better for me:) This was one of the only Saturdays in a long time that I haven't worked out. We did do yard work this afternoon, so at least I was still drenched in sweat for part of the day!

On to my race goals, which may or may not change during the week!

Swim: 12 minutes or less. Basically if I get out of the water and am still racing, I will have had a successful swim! This is definitely the part I am most nervous about, and the part I am hoping goes much better than anticipated. I know I can swim the distance, just hoping I feel better this week and can go into it strong. My mantra for my swim alternates between "strong and steady" and "slow and steady." I don't want to go out too fast and wear myself out for the rest of the race.

Bike: 34-39 minutes. I believe this will give me somewhere between a 17 and 20 MPH average speed. I have no clue what speed I can sustain, but it's only 11 miles so I should be able to ride pretty hard hopefully. I love my bike and feel very comfortable on it, hills or flat, so I am not too worried. Plus, I am super inspired from watching every stage of the Tour de France for the past 3 weeks, so I can pretend I am riding for the yellow jersey:) (yes I know I am a dork)

Run: 20 minutes or less. This gives me a 10 minute mile pace. I know I can run faster, but once again, I have never run after biking and swimming, plus it will be later in the day with the heat to factor in, so this is just a good guess. I am really hoping to finish strong by pacing well throughout the race.

Overall time goal will be to finish in 1:15 or less. We will see how close I come, and how the transitions play into my overall time too! Last time I checked there were about 20 women in my age group (30-34) signed up, which is a good little field. I am aiming for a top 10 in my AG finish, and I will be happy with that.

I have to keep reminding myself that this is my first tri, and will mainly serve as a learning experience. That being said, I am so stinking competitive and really do want to do well. I am hoping I feel better this week, or else all the goals will change to just finishing. I am excited and nervous all rolled into one. I still need to practice my transitions, and have really not gotten in the brick workouts that I had wanted to, but such is life:) I am planning to love the triathlon so there will be plenty more in the future hopefully.

Happy 4th Birthday Tyson!

My big boy is 4 years old!! He had so much fun on his birthday, and we had fun spoiling him too:) We started off the day with a play date at the mall with a friend that has just moved to town. Tyson was excited to meet two new little friends, and they ran around the indoor playground and yelled and sweated up a storm together. We topped off the visit with some popcorn, pizza, and coke at Target for lunch, which is one of his favorite things to do.

It was tough getting him to take a nap, since he knew his party was later that evening. We went to Chuck E Cheese as a family when the boys woke up and had fun playing games and eating pizza. That was where he wanted to eat for dinner out. He invited two little boys over later to help him celebrate, and they had so much fun! He requested a firetruck cake and loved the one he got. We usually make his cake, but I was a little intimidated to pull this one off, so Silas helped me out and ordered one from a local cake store:) Everyone loved it!

Jace mostly ate the brightly colored icing off the top, which would later come back to haunt us as he puked it all back up a few hours later after running around and crying. Bright blue icing does not come out of white carpet easily either:) The four boys ran and played for hours while we sat and visited with the parents. Tyson loved his presents and has already enjoyed all of them. He got a cool water gun, sidewalk chalk, a spiderman dress up costume, two firetruck DVD's and some playdoh. They have all entertained the boys for hours:)

He is so excited to be 4 years old! I took him to the doctor Friday for his well check up and he got 4 shots. He did great and didn't even cry a bit. He loves the doctor and was excited to go! I took him out to Sonic for ice cream afterwards for being such a big boy. We went during Jace's nap time and it was fun to be out with Ty by himself. He is so animated and inquisitive and funny. The doctor said he is growing like a weed, healthy as can be, and pretty advanced with his spelling and language skills. I am definitely a proud mama:) He decided to give up his booster seat at the kitchen table this week too, I guess since he has decided he is so big now! Funny kid:)

Friday, July 15, 2011

Getting Closer!

July 30th is rapidly approaching and I am really excited for my first sprint triathlon. It has been tough getting workouts in some weeks, but that is usually due to my motivation, or lack thereof, rather than scheduling. Of course everyone knows it's hot, but triple digit heat just saps the "want to" right out of me!! Most days I just don't want to:) I had a pretty bad swim on Monday this week, but that was due to my legs being fairly tired from the 54 mile bike ride, and my crazy brain doing some weird things. I read a story online about how a woman died at a public swimming pool and sank and no one found her for several days until she floated up! Yikes! The pool water was all cloudy when I got there Monday and of course my overactive imagination was just sure it was due to a dead body in the deep end:) Needless to say my mind wasn't focused on my technique and I did what I could and got out of there! I had my mind much more under control this morning and had a good swim, which helped:)

Everything else is good. I didn't run much this week due to WOW, but should be back on track for next week. I am hoping to get a decent open water swim in tomorrow when we go to the lake. Hopefully it goes well and gives me some confidence in the water....I need it! I need to be practicing my transitions as well, so I have a good idea of what I need to do when I get to the race. Other than that, I am feeling pretty good about things.

We have kind of hit that lull of summer where it's just really hot and draining. For some reason it doesn't seem to slow the boys down any! We have fun playing in the water hose and sprinklers which is doing great at keeping my grass alive. Silas is slowly making progress on the yard and pulled a huge azalea plant out last night. We are working to completely take out all of the front landscaping and re-do everything. It is a big and slow process, but we are getting there:) My big crepe myrtles are blooming and are so pretty! I love them and their color in the hot summer. Jace has also randomly decided to start his potty training, which I had forgotten how much I don't like! He is telling me he needs to go at times and loves to flush the potty and get his candy. We are using Smarties with him, which he loves:) He goes on the big potty and his favorite part is flushing. Tyson thinks he is entitled to candy every time Jace goes potty too, so we go through quite a bit! I wasn't going to work on it with Jace just yet, but if the boy wants to get rid of diapers, who am I to stand in his way?! Speaking of more changes, the boys are sleeping in their bunk beds for the very first time as I type this! Tyson asked if Jace could nap with him today, so I threw him in the bottom bunk and hoped for the best. I had to go check on them once (aka threaten Tyson to be quiet), but its been about 45 minutes now and I haven't heard a peep! The boys both have birthdays coming up in the next few weeks too, which we are excited about. Tyson's is next week and he can't stop talking about his firetruck birthday:) Now Silas and I just have to figure out how to make a fire truck cake! We are hitting the lake in the morning with some friends for some fun in the sun, and hopefully some relaxation from the crazy busy week. Wait, who am I kidding....taking the boys to the lake is not really relaxing, but it is fun!

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

WOW What a Week!

It's that time of year again.....WOW week 2011 is here!! WOW is our church's VBS. It stands for Wonders of the Word, and we do things big here! We had 1,300 people the first night, and not sure what the numbers are looking like for the rest of the week. Tonight is our last evening and I am sure it will go out with a bang:)

The boys have loved going to their classes and seeing the dramas. Our theme this year is Esther, and it is so sweet to hear Tyson walking around talking about Queen Esther and Mordecai and "the bad guy" and how Esther saved her people. I am working in the nursery with the little babies and we have had a great time this year. Definitely one of the easier rooms:)

Jace has had a crazy week all on his own. I am pretty sure he broke his nose on Monday. Silas walked in the door for lunch and Jace yelled "jump" at him and flung himself down the stairs. Well poor Daddy didn't even hear or see him coming, and the kid splatted on his face in the foyer, face first. Blood was coming out of his nose and mouth, but not too bad. He has a big busted lower lip and a bruised nose. He seems to be fine, but keeps banging his mouth on random things. Then he got knocked over hard at the pool yesterday by a big kid who was running and slammed his head on the concrete. Bless his little heart this week! He is a tough cookie though.

The boys are showing off the back of their WOW shirts for you:) They have loved wearing them every night to church. Between working, decorating for VBS and going every night, watching the most amazing womens' world cup soccer games on TV, plus the Tour de France every day, we have been busy this week!

Monday, July 11, 2011

Nashville

We made a trip to Nashville over 4th of July to visit my parents and sister/family for a few days. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the trip! The theme of our trip was "eat, swim, sleep, repeat!"

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Ride the Ridge 2011

I completed my second organized bike ride yesterday morning, and loved it:) I rode the Ride the Ridge 50 miler. It actually turned out to be almost 54 miles, but who is counting?!

Me and some of my girls before the ride started. There were 200 riders total so we had a pretty good sized group heading out of town at the start.

Action shot of me on my bike! Silas did awesome as usual getting me dropped off, taking pictures, keeping up with the boys, and meeting up with me several times out on the course. I would yell and wave to the boys in the car each time we passed them, and they loved it:) We have been watching the Tour de France all day everyday this past week, so Tyson was all excited to see the bicycles in real life.

The ride was great, but hot. At times the temp on my bike was reading 100 degrees. There were plenty of water stops and I ate tons of watermelon and oranges along with gatorade and water along the route. The first 20 miles or so was a little hilly, but then the course flattened out for the rest of the ride. I felt great when we were finished. Just ready to wash the sweat, salt and road grime off! It took us about 3:35 minutes of riding to complete the course, plus stopping for water. I like the bike rides since they aren't races! No time pressure, just a fun day out on the roads with friends:) I am looking to do a 100 mile ride coming up in October hopefully too:)

Thursday, July 07, 2011

Missing pictures

sometimes I really get irritated with Blogger not posting my pics!

Brotherly Love

The boys are getting to such a cute fun age where they can play together with each other. There are still lots of fights, but they are getting so much better at interacting and getting involved in games together. One of their favorite games right now is called "Monster!" Tyson tells Jace there is a monster, and they run screaming down the hall to get away from it. There are several variations of the game as well. One is where they decide that I am the monster, and yell "get me!" and I have to chase them around the house and tickle whoever I catch. It's fun, but exhausting:) They also have gotten smart and decided to blame the monster whenever they make a big mess. It's hard to be angry when little Jace is looking at you saying "monster did it!"

We are still loving the summer and having lots of fun. Tyson has decided to teach himself how to swim out of the blue, and is doing awesome! He just takes his water wings off, puts his head down in the water and kicks away. Jace loves to jump off the side of the pool, and they have fun wearing themselves out while swimming:)

We are slowly working on transitions to new big boy things. It seems that Jace gets more attached to that paci with every day, so I am just putting off the fight to get rid of it. I know, I know. I just don't feel like doing it yet:) However, we are making progress with our sleeping arrangements. Jace is now napping daily in his twin bed and doing great. He still loves his crib at night, but we are getting there! Tyson slept in his top bunk last night and made it all night too! That was a first. He has been napping up there once or twice, but seems to be moving in that direction. The cute part is that he keeps asking for Jace to move into his room with him, so at least he is willing to share with little brother!

Jace is talking up a storm, and Tyson is in full swing of the "why?" phase. He asks why of everything I say to him, even when I have already given him the reason! Everything else is good. The boys are healthy and happy and growing like crazy. We are having fun during the days and I have loved our time together this summer. It is hard to believe that school starts back next month!! Time goes by so fast. I hate to say it out loud, but I will. I have started to get a touch of baby fever! It doesn't help that Tyson randomly tells me that he wants a brother and a sister:)

SLO in Arkansas