today!

Its now 8:30 am on tuesday and carly has been in labor for 13.5 hours! She recently had an epidural and is finally getting some much needed rest. I haven't slept in 24 hours and the nurses, doctors and my mom keep telling me to go to sleep but I can't bring myself to leave her side. Obviously they don't understand my excitement level. Today is the day I get to hold my son/daughter. I get to see this little person that I've been talking, reading and singing to for the past several months. Today is the best day of the year.

check back soon for the big announcement!

Stay strong carly. I love you.

happy mothers day!

Happy mothers day! we have much to celebrate this year! our baby is officially due in 5 days! it could come any time now and we are so very excited. i hope its not born late. i cant take waiting much more. i am anxious to meet our son/daughter! (we wanted to be surprised so we never found out!)
it wont be long before i forget what a good nights sleep feels like and i know i will cherish every exhausted sleep deprived minute!

the most beautiful mother

be sure to check back soon? for updates!

compression

lately ive been having some cramping in my right calf. it sucks. i finally went out and picked up some 2XU compression calf guards.

sexy or geeky? i think we all know the answer to that one! i wore them on my hour long run this evening. they definitely helped a lot! it reduced my crampy calf to a mild dull ache that didnt show up until the last few minutes of my run. they were comfortable except my leg hair made them a bit itchy at times but even that was minor. once i shave my legs that wont be an issue. i even wore them for a while after the run to head out to run some errands but i wore pants so i wouldnt look like a total nerd! i feel they definitely helped for short term recovery. if you have any calf issues i would definitely recommend picking some up!

winter be gone...shortest race ever

on sunday i attempted to race the winter begone duathlon. my family decided at the last minute to head down with me. as of sunday our baby is due in 19 days but Carly loves to come to races so she really wanted to go along. it is always nice to have my family cheering me on.

once we round the race site the weather didnt want to cooperate for us. wind, rain, hail and lightning had the race director considering to cancel the race.

after a break in the weather he ended up making everyone do the short course.
carly and anastasia decided to wait in the vehicle and stay warm.

they snapped a photo of me through the window as i was getting ready.

my first thought was "its gonna be really hard to place now" there were some really fast guys signed up for the long course but i was doing the short race. my plan was to hold back on the first run then go all out on the bike and hold on for dear life on the second run.
we got lined up for the start.

apparently a bunch of idiots racing in bad weather is news worthy!


i ran the first 2.25 miles at a 7 min pace. i had to keep reminding myself that my plan was to go easy and not speed up as people passed me. once i hit transition i fumbled for a bit with my chin strap but still passed a lot of people who entered before me.

once i took off on the bike i had a goal of catching steve. he can smoke me on the run and he did. i saw him heading out on the bike as i was nearing the end of the first run. i took off and pedaled hard into the wind.

i passed at least 10 people in the first 4 miles. because of the wind my speed was a little lower than i anticipated but i was still keeping it higher than 20 mph average. i figured the ride back would be a bit faster. i had steve in my sights and could see his shiny gold bike as i topped a hill. i pushed hard up the next hill and suddenly heard a CLINK! and lost all resistance on the pedals. i looked down and saw my chain slink to the ground behind me! YIKES!!! i quickly pulled my bike off the road and grabbed the chain to see what happened. my master link had broken off. i tried desperately to see if it could go back on but it was bent. all the people who i passed started going by. i saw Brian (who i finally met in person before the race!) go by. he asked if i was ok and i showed him my chain. a race official pulled up after a couple minutes and grabbed a repair kit out of his truck. he didnt have any of the correct sized chain pins but we threw one in anyway so i could at least finish the race. it didnt work. i pedaled about 10 feet but the wider chain pin didnt want to go through the rear derailleur. i was officially done. my first multisport dnf. the guy who helped me gave me a ride back to transition and i cheered in the racers.

since i didnt have the heart rate data to send my coach from the race he had me do a 30 minute time trial today. it was really windy but wasnt raining. i averaged 21.5 mph which i felt pretty good about since half of it was into a head and and i had to come to a complete stop twice. im hoping to be faster than that for my olympic tri in 5 weeks. depending on our baby situation i may be able to squeeze in the apple duathlon in sartell, mn at the end of may.

congrats to all the people who finished a wet, cold, windy, muddy race! Borsch even managed a pr!

cold begone before winter begone

so i talked it over with my coach and he gave me the go ahead to do the winter begone duathlon. his only requirements are that i hit the lap button between runs and the bike and that i go harder than i normally would on the bike. oooooookaaayyyy..... so go hard on the first run, go all out on the bike and hold on for the second run. i can do that! he really wants this race to be all about the bike. i was supposed to do a lactate threshold heart rate test on sunday but if i go all out on the bike then that will count as my test.

im really looking forward to it because i will know several people racing! Brian, Steve, Pharmie and Borsch! it will also be my first duathlon and my first time racing this year! i should be healthier by then since i feel much better today than yesterday. im looking forward to it.

highs and lows

i recently had an interval workout in the pool. i had to swim 10x100. the last time i did this workout i averaged 1:35 per 100. this time i averaged 1:26! i was toast afterwards but was really excited to see some big improvement! i suppose my coach was correct that i would soon start to see gains in my speed. (i had recently expressed concern that i wasnt getting faster) he has recently started giving me fun workouts with lots of speedwork. they are hard but im excited to see increased speed on the bike and run as well. overall i felt great about my workouts the past week...until sunday.

on sunday i started feeling a little sick. on monday morning i felt really sick. i have a really bad sore throat with a slight fever and that all over achy feeling. its no fun. i missed my workouts yesterday and today and opted instead to lay in bed as much as possible. to inspire my immune system to kick whatever ive got ive been drinking tea out of my favorite mug.

i bought it last year after the ironman.

also i just received my twin cities marathon registration confirmation. im excited about that! im really working for a pr this year and im confident coach David will help me do it! im shooting for boston!
speaking of boston congrats to both of the Jens i know from st paul who ran on sunday and finished within 3 minutes of eachother! way to go girls!

holy smokes!

today i went on a training ride along the gateway trail. my ride was supposed to be 1:45 long with cruise intervals of 6 min each with 2 minute recoveries. i figured i could ride near Stillwater before turning around and heading back. it was a beautiful day today and i wore short sleeves and shorts for the first time this year on a ride! woo hoo! its been a while since i rode the gateway trail but i remembered incorrectly that there were longer stretches of trail before it crossed roads where i would have to stop. i constantly had to stop or slow down. it was impossible to keep any sort of rythm or steady pace but it was exciting to be out riding on a beautiful trail on such a nice day! until i smelled smoke!
a few seconds later i passed over a bridge and saw this...


i took a look around an noticed that there was no one nearby. it wasnt a controlled burn! i took out my cellphone dialed 911 and described my location the best i could. the operator quickly dispatched the fire department and within 2 minutes the firetruck pulled up and the firefighters extinguished the fire.


quite a crowd had gathered to watch the action. i stuck around for a few minutes before riding off to finish my workout. the rest of my time was pretty uneventful other than the constant stopping and starting but i enjoyed my afternoon in the sun.

woo hoo spring kicks ass!

oh and remember kids...