Muenster Bike Rally

My first bike rally! It was a ton of fun. I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. I did the 65K and Phil did the 100K. There were some decent hills which were challenging, for sure, but it was good training. It definitely motivates me to get on my bike a little more often. Lately I've been out about once every three weeks and I need to step it up if I'm going to be doing some triathlons. Lauren and I are going to try to hit up a group ride on Saturday after we drop off the hubbies at the MS150 start. She is such a trooper and is my pregnancy role model! And no, I'm not pregnant! But seriously, I hope I'm out on my bike when I'm over 20 weeks along.

I'm hoping I can get a few workouts in this week, but we have meetings Tuesday - Thursday for work in Las Colinas. I'm crossing my fingers that we get out early one or two days and I can get one or two decent runs in.

Big D Texas Half!

Yay! A PR for me!! I finally broke a ten minute mile pace at this distance. I finished in 2:09:58. It was a nicely organized event, aside from barely making it there in time due to the traffic jam from everyone trying to jam into fair park. I loved running through the lakewood neighborhoods, especially while the azaleas are in bloom. Phil did really well and finished in 1:47! I will never be that fast!

I was extremely sore afterwards. I know it is due to my lack of training, so I won't be doing that again. I'm finally feeling better today, but Monday and Tuesday were rough! Next event, summer triathlons!

3 More Days!

So I actually went for a long run last Saturday. I have been sooo bad lately. I say I'm going to do a long run, and then go for a bike ride instead, or something else comes up. But I made myself get out to the lake and ran the whole 9 miles around. It was a nice run. I wasn't too sore the next day and hopefully it will be enough to get me through the half this weekend! Especially if I take a Gu packet or two during the race. So good luck to Phil on his first half experience. I hope he has fun!

Big D Half!

Or should I say, Phil's first half marathon. Phil and I both signed up for the Big D. I really need something to train for, because when it is cold outside I just want to stay at home under a blanket. The Big D is on April 6th and it starts in fair park and you run through lakewood and many of the historic areas of old east Dallas. It should be fun!

I have been a slacker :(

I'll admit it. I've been slacking. So I promise that I'm going to run this weekend. I didn't want to leave my house last weekend in the nasty weather. But now it is pretty outside and I have no excuses. Last week started off pretty good. Phil and I went for a nice 20 mile bike ride on Sunday with our friend John Michael. It is always good for me to go with the guys because they like to ride the hills that I hate to make myself do. Tuesday Phil and I went on a 3 mile run and Thanksgiving morning we ran 4.5-5. I'm sure we cancelled it out with all of the good food we ate...but it WAS Thanksgiving!

Nike Women's Half!

I haven't posted in FOREVER. I'm so bad about that. I was traveling the week prior to the Nike half and the week after, and then I was sick the next two weeks. Yikes.

So the Nike half...it was amazing! The weather in San Francisco couldn't have been better. We had so much fun out there and it makes you want to pick up and move there. We picked up my packet in Union Square and went by the Nike Town store where they had a huge wall of names on the window which included all of the names of the people running in the event. It was really neat!

The day of the run started out chilly, and I decided to wear my 3/4 length tights. It was very organized for such a big race and I really appreciated the pace groupings as it was really nice to not have to worry about passing walkers and slower runners at the start of the race. The run itself was the prettiest I've ever participated in. We ran through downtown, through the Presidio where Phil's uncle lives, up by the Golden Gate bridge and then came around and down to the beach. It was just gorgeous. The hills were very long, and I was very sore from them, but they didn't kill me on the day of the race.

I actually had a PR which I was very glad to have since I even stopped to go to the bathroom in the middle of the race. I couldn't find the bathrooms at race start unfortunately or it would have been an even better PR. :) If you are considering a marathon or a half marathon I would highly recommend this race! It is a neat experience to run with that many other women and they have pretty good crowd support as well. And you can't beat the Tiffany's necklace that you receive for finishing rather than a medal. That's pretty cool!

Triathlon #2!!

Triathlon numero dos was this week and it was awesome! I am officially hooked. I've already been scanning the calendar for the next tri and unfortunately most of them are pool tris with short swims :( very sad. I improved my 5k by more than a minute and dropped my pace to 8:27. I'm really happy with that and with a little work I hope to get it down to an 8:00 pace. I improved my bike pace as well although the bike was a bit shorter in this tri. It was really windy so one half of the course was extremely slow and the other half was fast. My swim pace was pretty much the same, slightly faster and it remained my best event. I placed 5th out of 19 in my age group.

Here's what my workout week looked like:

Monday: 3.5 mile run
Tuesday: Shoulders
Wednesday: 4 mile run, 30 minute dog walk
Thursday: 1000 meter swim, 1 hour dog walk with Emily
Friday & Saturday - rest days and lotsa walking at the mall with Liz!
Sunday: Sprint Triathlon (750 meter swim, 12 mile bike, 5k), more walking at the State Fair