Sunday, June 27, 2010

3 Races in 1 Week!


This week was crazy busy. I had 3 races this week, one tri, a 10K, and a 5K. Boy, are we all tired now.

On Monday, I had a short swim at the gym followed by going to the Novi Sports Park to let Keira and Soren play. They had a blast as usual.




That evening, I had an easy run at Maybury while Ryan biked the trail. This was my last workout before my tri.

Tuesday was a fun day. Ryan needed me to bring a few things in to work for him today, so we headed into Dearborn to meet him for lunch at Bellacinos. At home, we played outside for a bit.



That evening, Ryan didn't have scouts and got in a ride. We were also able to go to the pool as a family.





Wednesday was the day of the Triceratops sprint Triathlon at Island Lake. In order to make the day go by faster, I had set up a playdate with Cortnie, Averie, and Ella. A loud thunderstorm hit as soon as we arrived. We had hoped to play outside, but instead hung out and played inside their new home. Storms were forecasted for off and on all day, so it made for a legitimate thing for me to stress about in regards to my race. That afternoon, my mom arrived, and the time leading up to the race passed relatively quickly. It ended up being a beautiful evening, and the weather held out until late at night.
I did a full race recap on the Team Compex website.
Here are some pics of the race.
Valerie and I before the race with Marathon Bars
This is the start of my wave of the swim. I am in the middle of the shot, the swimmer closest to the camera. Wetsuits were not permitted for people competing for awards.
Exiting the water after the swim. The course felt LONG!
Running out of the water to my first transition.
Finishing up on the bike. I felt great on the bike, and averaged 18.8 mph
Exiting the second transition to start the run. The run was tough due to the heat, but they had lots of water stops.

Sprinting to the finish.
Me, Cristina, and Monica after the race. Monica started after me, but caught me right before the finish and pushed me to the end.

Cristina, Me, and Valerie
It was a really fun race because I am really improving and can focus on racing instead of just completing the distance. I also had many friends competing and that made it a lot more fun to see them before/after the race and on the course. They really pushed me a lot, and I had a PR with a time of 1:25:51, and also placed 5th in my age group. It was pretty hot, so PRs were rare, especially since the swim course was long compared to the race in August last year. It just shows how much work I had put in over the past year.

On Thursday, we went to Linda's school so that Keira could attend the magic show with her cousins. She was not interested in the magician, so she spent the time of the show in the daycare room with Soren and Lleyton. She did join the group after the magician left for storytime and playtime with her cousins and the other children at summer camp.







Cristina and I went mountain biking at Maybury today. It was a bit wet still from the storms last night, but we had a great time. I was able to try out my team Marathon cycling gear, which is pretty comfortable. Ryan was able to do his Thursday night road bike ride tonight as well.

On Friday, we did a little shopping with my mom before she had to head back home today. It was so great to have her come up and help out at the race and so I could go biking. We had a great time. We went to Maybury tonight so Ryan could ride with Rob. Ryan and I both have the Tree Farm Relay coming up soon, so we both enjoyed being able to ride with our respective teammates for the race. I watched Keira and Soren on the playground while Ryan rode, since I needed to be resting up for tomorrow's double race session. Soren is peeking through a hole in the playground.



On Saturday, we had a busy morning. I got up early and went to Southfield HS for the Midwest Corporate Cup Relays. I have been racing for Ford at this event for almost every year since 2000. This was my first year racing in the 10K, and I had also signed up to do the 5K. I ran the 10K fairly fast, but I was a bit conservative since I knew I had the 5K coming up. I don't have my official times, but I ran around a 7:45 pace, and I think I was the 3rd female, maybe 4th overall. The race started a bit late, so I didn't have as much time in between races as I initially thought. I started the 5K slow, but just felt myself remembering how to race a 5K, and the speed just came back to me. I got to the first mile marker and couldn't believe it was already there. I finished up with a decent time and a 4th place female, and a pace of 7:22. I was very pleased with my morning, because not only did I get to race and do well for Ford, I was able to get in my ever so important miles for my marathon training. I did some bar sampling to the Ford team.


Ryan led his ride out of Northville this weekend as well. There was a bit of extra traffic and road closures in Northville due to the Solstice Run taking place, but they still had a good 64 mile ride.

That afternoon, we had a lazy rest of the day and went to the pool.



Sunday was a typical Sunday. I was the only one from the Primary Presidency in attendance today, so I was pretty nervous. Fortunately, since we were light on adults, we were also light on students. I had one whole class who was absent, so I was able to use that teacher for help with another class, and I had several people help with little things here and there. Soren went into Nursery for a little bit, but started to fall asleep so Ryan took him out. Of course, he didn't fall asleep, and spent the rest of church walking the hallways.
When we got home from church, Ryan and the kids curled up on the couch to watch the England vs. Germany World Cup game, where England was robbed horribly of a goal and lost. We also had some severe weather roll through. Just as I was carrying Soren up for his nap, we heard the tornado sirens so I brought him back down. We just got hard rain and thunderstorms, but there were funnel clouds sighted several towns south of us as well as to the east of us.

Up for this week, we will be preparing for our trip to NYC to visit Tyler and Minde.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Happy Father's Day


This week was a big week for Ryan. It was Father's Day on Sunday, and he did his first century ride of the season. This was also my first official week of marathon training, meaning I am following an actual plan that is 18 weeks long. I am using my tri training for my midweek workouts, and the long run distance as my Saturday long runs. The road to Boston starts now.

On Monday, we started the morning at the gym, where I did a pretty decent mile swim. Afterwards, we met up with Linda at JC Penny for the portraits that I already posted. Then, we went to McDonald's for lunch. Soren and Keira insisted on playing on the playground there.



That night, we went to Maybury so I could run and Ryan could ride. Ryan checked the MMBA site before going, and so we were aware that there was a chapter meeting being held this evening. Keira conked out in the stroller, so we stuck around for the first part of the meeting. We did leave early, which was probably good because Keira was very upset when she woke up that she had slept through the playground time and dinner. They were grilling up burgers at the meeting, so we were able to eat there too.



On Tuesday, we went to Valerie's house so Keira could play with Katie and Luke, as well as their cousin Grace. Everyone had a great time.



On Wednesday, I did a swim at the gym in the morning, just in case my planned open water swim for the evening fell through. Keira and Soren love playing with the bike racks outside the gym. They play in them everyday when it is not raining. Soren calls them a tunnel.



We also had Keira's 4 year check up. She is growing nicely on her own curve. She is 35.8inches tall and 29lbs. She had a ton of immunizations, and took a decent nap this afternoon.
That evening, Valerie, Julie and I did a lap of Island Lake on our bikes followed by a swim in Trout Lake. The large group swim is too early for us to make, so we had to do our own small group swim afterwards if we still wanted to ride with the group. We encountered a swimmer in trouble after our swim was over, and thankfully, we were able to talk/coach him to shore, and he was fine. It was a pretty scary situation for us all, and we were glad we were in the right place at the right time to help.

On Thursday, we didn't do much during the day. Wednesday was rough, so we stuck around and did bubbles in the yard. Soren can do them himself now, so that is great for him.



When Ryan got home, we washed the box on the truck and misted Soren. He loved it.

We also went to Maybury this evening, and Keira rode her bike a bit after I ran. Keira and Soren also got to play on the playground.

On Friday, I did a half mile swim at what I hope to be race pace. I just hope I can swim straight. I also got a few more pictures of Keira and Soren having fun outside the gym. Some things can entertain them so easily, and it also made for cute pictures.


That evening, Ryan left to go to West Branch for the Hills and Thrills Century with David and Kent. Keira, Soren and I decided to go to the pool, and then get some pizza for dinner.





On Saturday, Ryan, David, and Kent rode their first 100 mile bike ride of the season. They have 3 planned. This one was a rolling course with some decent hills at the end. They averaged over 20mph for the first 65 miles or so, and finished up with an average over 19mph. This was a good ride and worth doing again. They had a nice group of Wolverines that joined them. I spent the morning running 10 miles with Keira and Soren in the jogging stroller with Valerie B. It was pretty hot towards the end. I was glad I had packed water for the kids and Gatorade for me. Soren fell asleep. Keira got pretty bored towards the end. She was very unhappy when I started my final lap of the lake in Village Oaks instead of heading home. Fortunately, she thought my 3 laps of our own court were funny as I tried to add on the extra 1/4mile I needed to get to 10miles. Straight from the run, we met up with Valerie D at the new sprinkler/spray park in Farmington that just opened this season inside Heritage Park. Soren was all over it. He loved it. It took Keira a good while (and the pringles being gone) before she would even put her suit on. She did have a great time. They also have a nice playground there, and after Soren had finally had enough of the water- saying "no wa-wa", we got everyone changed to play there for a bit. It is so nice that Soren can communicate with us so well now. It makes it a bit harder to not give him what he wants, though, because he can ask for things pretty clearly sometimes, it is hard to say no.










Everyone was pretty tired and grubby that evening after everything we did. Ryan got home not too late, Keira and Soren were very excited to see him. I got to work on my Father's Day dessert that evening once the kids were in bed. I made lemon cheesecake using a recipe that I got from the USA Triathlon site before going to bed.

Sunday was Father's Day. Keira woke up pretty early, but then fell back asleep (as did everyone else), so we had a bit of a scramble getting to church. We didn't have time for a nice breakfast. Soren continues to refuse to go to nursery, so this could be a rough 18 months ahead of us until Sunbeams. After church, we went out to Greg and Ellyn's house for our Father's day celebration. My dad was in a pool tournament for most of the weekend, so I was only able to wish him a happy Father's Day over the phone. Keira and Soren love playing with their cousins, and enjoyed seeing Nana and Papa. The cheesecake was also a hit.






Up for this week, I need to get some rest the first half of the week, because I have 3 races planned! Hopefully they all go OK.