Adventures and Strength Training

Adam and I have had some great adventures this past year.  

Now I want to have some great adventures with my kids.  Even at their young age, I think there's so much we could do together as a family, especially if we think creatively.

So this Saturday we are going on a bike adventure.  There's a beautiful paved path that's about 60 km round trip.  We'll have two tandem style bikes, so that we do the majority of the work but it's still a team effort and a family accomplishment. When I presented the idea to the kids Kyla said, "I better do my morning stretches that day so I have enough energy." 

Here's our little athletes in a fun run they did a few weekends ago. 

This weekend I designed a Triathlon Strength Training Program.  It's based on some ideas from Mark Allen, who is an Ironman Champion.  This morning I went through the exercises and figured out my starting weight for each move.  I realized how much I love strength training.  It's been awhile, so I've forgotten the feeling of strain, effort and fatigue that come from it.  I loved how achy and tingly my body felt afterwards.  I also love that by incorporating strength training into my workouts I will be a faster triathlete.  One of my favorite moves is a hip flexor cable thrust.  Such an important muscle for both running and cycling, that often gets overlooked.

I am pretty sure that I'll be doing a half marathon in the fall.  We are just working out the details of our family vacation plans, so once we figure that out I will register.  Adam wants to join a master swim club and I figure I probably should do that, since the swim is my weakest of the three.  The thing is, I just love running so much that I'd rather focus on that.  Hmmm....what to do???

Magrath Olympic Tri

Driving over to the race I started to feel nervous (yep I still feel nervous for every race) and I thought, "why do I do this to myself".  It was 6AM and I could have been at home sleeping in my comfortable bed.  But instead I was about to put my body through a short and intense triathlon.  I must be such a succor for punishment.  Even well I thought that, I knew that as soon as I started racing I would be having the time of my life because I love to race.  Even though it hurts, it feels amazing to push yourself that way.

Putting on a wet suit is such an attractive experience:

The first lap of the swim was kind of rough.  People seemed more aggressive that usual.  I was kind of jostling for position with this guy next to me, when he stroked hard near my face and ripped off my goggles.  I grabbed them and thought to myself, "hmmm...I've been wondering what it would feel like to have your goggles ripped off.  That really wasn't so bad."  Then almost as soon as I got them back on, someone else punched me pretty hard in the head.  So I decided to look for some room and quit trying to jostle so much.  The second lap I got into a beautiful rythym.  It's kind of magical when that happens.  I felt relaxed.  My stroke was strong and smooth and my breathing was full and relaxed.  I was loving it.

Then I pulled strong on the last stretch and came up out of the water to the sound of the cheering crowds and noticed this tall man next to me who looked familiar.  "Is that Adam? No, it can't be? Wait, it is!"  So I shouted, "Ad!" a few times as we jogged over to transition and he looked around confused, thinking it was a spectator calling him.  Finally he saw me and looked stunned, saying nothing.  I was like, "are you ok?",  thinking something must have gone wrong.  He responded, "yep."  So I started thinking back to whether or not I had rounded all the buoys.  We said nothing else cause we were both trying to hurry but when I stopped at my transition spot Adam grabbed my wet suit zipper and pulled it down.  A nice gesture considering he was in a moment of great defeat at having his wife match him on the swim.  My swim time: 30:57.60.  Adam's swim time: 30:57.95.

It drizzled rain through the bike, so the conditions weren't ideal.  The first segment of the bike was an out and back, so I counted the women ahead of me.  There were 9.  I wanted to pass them all.  I pushed hard and could feel the lactic acid building in my legs, especially as I climbed the hills.  I didn't care though.  I was hoping my body would flush it out before the run but that didn't happen.  I finished the 40 km bike in 1 hour 10 min plus a couple minutes for transitions. 

After running the Raymond 10km race in an aerobic heart rate zone and experiencing how uncomfortable that is, I decided to race the first half of the run aerobically.  My legs felt like lead, so I quickly realized that because I had pushed hard on the bike, there was no chance of a sub 45min run.  I adjusted my goal to be a sub 50 min run.  I ended up making that goal (barely) and had an overall time of 2:32.56.  Wasn't quite what I had dreamed of but it's still a personal best for me.  I was the 5th overall female.

Adam finished in 2:19.46 and was 7th overall.

We are so grateful for all the races we've been able to do this past year.  It's been an amazing adventure and we're both really proud of each other and grateful for all the adventures!!

I LOVE having friends and family to race with.  Macey and Sheryl, you both did amazing!

One more triathlon.

This Saturday will be our last triathlon of the year.  I say that but I suppose it's possible that we'll end up doing another one.  It's the last one we have planned though.

So, that means we'll be holding nothing back and racing hard.  Why not??  I really love these local races.  They are so great for the confidence.  Last year I placed fourth out of the females.  This year I would love to win it, so we'll see.  I know I'm faster at all three sports than I was last year but I'm not sure if it will be enough to win.

I am excited to swim in a wet suit because it's been awhile.  I love how it puts your body in perfect position.  Flat on the water.  I am kind of hoping to hit my sub 45 min goal on the run but Adam thinks I'm crazy because he doesn't think I'll have the legs for it after swimming and biking hard.  We'll see.  I just find it fun to try and am really excited for this race.

My legs are still tight from Raymond, so I'm hoping that if I stretch twice/day and ice them a bit, they'll be ready to race hard Saturday!  Wish me luck.

Raymond 10 km race report.

Imagine the fastest pace that you can run.  Ok, now imagine holding that pace for 46 minutes and you'll basically understand what I did last Saturday.  It was kinda painful.  I may have said a few "mormon" swears under my breath during the race to express how I really felt.

You'd think that with the amount of races I've done I would know how important pacing is.  It's just that running a road race feels "new-ish" to me because I've been so absorbed by triathlons for the last 6 years.  Plus this is a really short distance for me, so it was tough to know what pace I could actually hold.

Only about 100 competitors felt like a small group.  We all lined up and I was chatting with a couple girls waiting when the gun shot took us by surprise.  I ran off and just kept with the top group, just behind "the girl in the blue top".  There was one other girl out front of us but she didn't look like much of a runner, so I figured she'd drop off soon enough and I didn't need to worry about her (I know, I'm judging...but I was right).  I looked down at my watch and was like, "oh man, we're holding a 4 min/km pace".  I didn't mean to start out that fast but I felt good at the time and wanted to stick with the lead females, so I held the pace.  At about 4km we ran up 'Temple Hill' holding a sub 5min/km pace and I totally killed my legs doing that.  I was still behind "the blue shirt girl" but another chick had managed to pass us both and was incrementally increasing her lead.

I wanted to take the female lead on the downhill and tried to will my legs to do so but they would not cooperate.  They felt like lead and didn't want to "fly" with me.  So we chugged. At least it felt like chugging but it was still a fast pace.  At about 8 km I had some good self talk.  "Ok Kim.  I know you have hardly anything left but remember Hawaii.  Remember what you did there.  Dig down deep and find some more.  You have to leave it all on this course or you're going to be disappointed with yourself."  So I found another gear and picked up my pace enough to finally pass the "blue shirt girl".  The lead female was only a couple hundred meters ahead of us, so in a spirit of camaraderie, I said to my blue-shirt friend, "come on, let's catch her."  I guess in my head I figured that if we worked at it together, it might be possible.  Apparently she didn't have another gear to find because I just carried on right past her.

I tried to catch that lead girl but realized that it just wasn't going to happen and decided that 2nd place female was pretty darn good.  I kept looking over my shoulder to make sure that 2nd place didn't become 3rd place.  I tried to sprint but it was probably really ugly and awkward.  Understandable, since I had basically been sprinting for 10 km.  At the finish line I asked Adam, "how did you do?" between gasps for air.  He showed me his watch which had been paused at 39 minutes and said, "good, I got second.  I just couldn't catch this old guy in front of me."  I was like, "sweet, we both got second."  It's really a good thing because we would have been a little jealous of the other person if one of us had won.  Maybe next year we'll take first.

I know I've said it before but I'll say it again.  Sometimes I stand outside my life and look at it with interest.  Two years ago when I was 'training' for the Magrath triathlon I only ran 10km twice because it just hurt so much to do it and I really just preferred the classes at the gym.  It has been a miracle to me to watch how with consistent training my fitness has improved exponentially.  It makes me believe in goals, growth, change and miracles.  I've realized that I have far less limits than I thought I had.  You do too!

The family reunion was a tonne of fun.  I love Adam's family like my own.  One highlight was the giant slip and slide...