interviewed by a guy in a speedo

Steve sent me some interview questions.

Interview Questions:

1.) What's your best and your worst race experience? Explain.
my best experience is definitely crossing the finish line at ironman madison with my favorite training partner and greatest cheerleader Anastasia! my worst experience was druing the buffalo triathlon a few years ago. during the swim i got kicked in the chest really hard and it totally knocked the wind out of me and i swallowed a bunch of water. then i promptly threw up all over my bike. i finished but didnt feel well.

2.) What was the race that got you "hooked?" Explain.
definitely seeing the ironman on tv as a young teenager. i saw it and thought that looks awesomely hard! then i made it one of my many life goals. cross that one off the list!

3.) What brand of athletic gear are you most loyal to? Why?
arcteryx. i used to rock climb a lot and they made the best mountaineering wear. its super lightweight, incredibly rugged and the soft-shell jackets are waterproof and windproof. they also happen to work amazingly well for running in cold weather!

4.) If you had to pick a current game show to be on, which one would you pick? Why?
well as a kid i would have killed to be on double dare! but now i would say jeopardy. when i watch it i seem to know an awful lot of the answers but im sure its more difficult being up there.

5.) Which Simpson's character would you get along with the best? Why?
hmmmm tough choice. probably lisa. she loves learning and she is also vegetarian.


To play along:
1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by giving you five questions. (I get to pick the questions.)
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview others in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

valentines week

I just finished my second week of workouts outlined by coach david. Here is what I did:

Tuesday swim :30 run 1:00
Wednesday weights 1:00 bike :30
Thursday run :30
Friday swim :30 bike 1:00
Saturday weights 1:00
Sunday bike 1:15 run :30

Total 7:45

Overll an easy week with some drills. Today is my rest day and tomorrow I start week 3 which will be 9.5 hours.

On saturday Anastasia and I spent a few hours together for valentines day. We decided to go to the y and workout together. We started by running an easy mile on the track. She hasn't run for a while so we started off slow and ran each lap faster than the previous. We finished in 8:40. I used that as my warmup before doing my weight workout. Anastasia wanted to use some of the cardio machines. She used the rower for a while then ran another mile on the treadmill. We both finished up and stretched before heading down to the pool. She brought along a dice to play a game she invented. You roll the die and swim that many laps. Then the next person does the same thing and you take turns untill you get bored. We played the dice game, went on the waterslide and played "shark" which is another game she invented where one person is the shark and chases the other person and tries to kill them(catch them. We don't try to murder anyone at the y) that's a great game because it like intervasls. Overall we had a great time together and it got us out of the house so carly could prepare our secret valentines dinner which was delicious manacotti! Yum! Happy late valentines day everyone!

high school boys are insecure and gross!

I'm annoyed. This morning I went to the y to do my swim workout before work and there was a high school boys swim team working out in the pool. There were a couple open lanes so no big deal. The problem was that they finished just before I did and headed off to the showers. I decided to give them some time to clear out so I sat in the hot tub for a few minutes. After about 10 minutes I figured there would be an open shower and headed into the locker room. There were about 30 guys standing around in the showers waiting for an open spot. All of them still had their suits on. How do they expect to get clean when they don't even get undressed? Seriously get over it. If you are scared for someone to see you naked then don't go out for a sport where you need to shower with teammates afterwards. Now this doesn't mean that I'm itching to see a bunch of high school boys naked I'm just amazed at their insecurities.

Now here is the gross part. One of these kids was standing in the shower all sudsy (with his suit on of course) and he was eating what looked to be a ham and cheese sandwich. WTF?!? Who eats a sandwich in the shower? In the locker room shower! Ugh! Trust me.....there are better places to eat. Just because there is soap involved doesn't mean that a locker room shower is a sanitary place to enjoy a meal.

I must say as an aside that this isn't the most disgusting eating habbit I have seen. Many years ago I had a coworker who every single day would spend his first break standing in the bathroom eating a can of tuna with a fork. Read that again and let it sink in. In between bites he would strike up a conversation with anyone within earshot even if they were in a stall. Who wants to have a perfectly good crap interrupted by a guy with a mouthful of tuna?

Anyways bak to my morning. The high school kids took so long in the showers that it made me late for work. I'm going to have to figure out their schedule so I can get in and out before them.

1 down 31 to go

I just finished my first week of workouts under the guidance from my new coach and I feel great. Great mentally but sore physically. My week was fairly easy but saturday was a really grueling day but that was mostly my fault. I was scheduled for a 45 minute swim followed by a weight lifting session which was an hour. That wouldn't have been a big deal but before I started my workout I played football for two and a half hours. By the time I started lifting weights I was exhausted! But it was a good feeling and I was able to complete my workout although I'm still sore. Sunday was an easier day since all I had was a bike workout. After that I took my daughter to the y for some quality one on one time playing together n the pool. She quickly tired me out and I sat in the hot tub while she swam a few laps. She was a little disappointed that I didn't also take her running. That's awesome. Not many 10 year olds get upset that they didn't get in a running workout! She really knows how to tug at my heart strings! I'm going to have to start running with her on a regular basis. She is pretty fast. She has a 7:20 pr for a mile. I wasnt that fast at her age. When she grows up I don't think I will be able to keep up with her!

Today is my rest day and its also the day I get to treat myself. I normally drink lots of pop but I committed to not drink any on workout days when I'm training for the ironman. I made a deal with myself that if I don't miss any workouts during the week then I can drink a pop on my day off. I'm currently nursing an ice cold bottle of mountain dew and I'm a little surprised that I'm not as excited to drink it as I thought I would be. Hmm. Maybe I will end up quitting completely. I guess there are worse things.

I'm excited for this week! I looked over my schedule and I have 7 hours and 15 minutes of workouts planned. Other than the weight sessions it should be pretty easy. I will post my week totals next monday.

getting my ass kicked

I'm sorry I pretty much suck at blogging lately. I will offer as an excuse in my defense that my compuer is currently fried. It will be a bit before I can afford to get it repaired. I'm going to do it when I get my tax returns. But onto the tri stuff.

I have huge news. I officially have a coach! I'm super excited about it! It is David Warden from tri-talk. We spent a couple days early this week discussing my goals and setting a plan for this year. Basically it includes getting my ass kicked. A lot. We spent a lot of time talking about past results and extrapolating those to set goals for upcomming races. I'm not going to be doing a lot of racing this year but the races I do compete in will serve as markers to check how my fitness is improving for my run up to the ironman.

Here is my plan so far:
I'm running the eau claire half marathon in early may. I need to finish in under 1:45.(this is my easiest goal)
I'm racing the buffalo olympic tri. In june. I need to finish under 2:25
I'm racing the chisago half ironman in july. I need to finish in 5:00
And I'm racing the madison ironman with a goal time of under 11:00 (this is by far the hardest goal!)
Then I'm running twin cities marathon in october but don't have a goal time yet!

I can throw in a few more races as my budget and free tme permit.

In order to do that I'm basically going to get my ass kicked in workouts all summer. I'm actually really excited about that! I've never followed a training plan from start to finish. For my first ironman I followed my plan for 54 hours. That is acout 3 weeks. I wanted to get a coach so that I am accountable to someone if I don't do my workouts. I know that will keep me motivated and stop me from skipping workouts so I can sleep in.

I also need to stay injury free to meet my goals. I have had some itb problems in the past so david wants to impliment some preventative measures into my training plan. This includes strength training, stretching and a medieval torture device known as the foam roller. I've never used one before but purchased one yesterday on my lunch break. I gave it a shot last night and discovered how horrible this unassuming foam cylinder is. I'm sure this should be outlawed along with waterboarding and thumb screwes. I took a look at the product disclaimer that came with it and here is what it says in the very first paragraph: "The risk of injury from participation in....these exercises is significant, and includes the potential for catastrophic injury or death." WTF!? Well I used it anyway and it was indeed pure hell but I'm going to keep using it since I don't want to have problems. David swears it will get easier the more I use it. I hope so!

So that's it for now. I'm really excited for this year! I'm sure it will be my best race season ever!