dress rehearsal

To start a recap of the week so far.
swim - 2 hours - 2950 yrds
bike - 1 hour on trainer
run - 2 hours 37 min - 18.27 miles
pilates - 2 hours

Now today Col had 12 miles on my schedule with the instruction to find a hill route similar to Mercer Island and to practice race nutrition. The weather was perfectly sunny and even warm for this time of the year, I felt good. So rather than try and figure out another route I decide I wanted to run the Mercer Island course. In ski racing we always do a course inspection before a race so that you can be prepared. Now mercer island is a loop course so even though Col only had 12 miles on the schedule I choose to do the full 13.1 - I wanted to prove to myself that i could do it under 2 hours with no pressure. I figure if I can do it in training I can do it in the race. So that is what I did.
I slept in to try and get as much rest as I could after a very very stressful week (at work), I had hair appointment and afterwards I went to Mercer Island. I had 2 fuel belt bottle of cytomax, 4 gels, 2 salts. It took me a bit to figure out which direction to go from the start (which seems to be already marked). I sent Kyle a txt message when I started and off I went.
I had to check I map a few times with in the 1st coupe of miles before I got on the main road around the island. The course is generally up hill with a few short flat section or downhills. It is shaded by trees but even so with in a couple of miles I had shed my long sleeve shirt and wished I had worn shorts instead of capris. There are very few shoulders -more than a few time I was scared by drivers who did not want to share the road with me.
I had a gel at mile 4, 8, 11, and drank the cytomax to help get the gel down and between gels. I worked at running while eating which I'm still getting used to - it takes longer and is messier but i was able to do it. I was surpised I had no issues, no foot pain, no hip pain, nothing. It was great.
At mile 7 I was under 60 min so I knew I was going to be under my goal time of 2 hours and it made teh next 6 miles easier knowing that I was doing so well. I was abl eto average a 8:30 min miles with only a few exception on some of teh larger/longer climbs.
Kyle surprised me and rode his bike out the course in the reverse direction - he caught up with me at about mile 10.5ish and barley recognized me (I went a bit more blond with my hair this morning). He was surprised at how far i already was :) He rode along side of me the last 3ish miles and kept me company.

The last 2 miles are rolling hills which were kind of hard but I tried to pick up the pace a little bit (not to much just a bit). I knew I would be sub 2 hours but I wanted to really prove myself I could do it. To get the full 13.1 I had to run down into the park a ways. But in the end i finished 13.11 miles in 1:54:06! I was/am sooo excited and happy. I did it and it was not as hard as I thought it would be. I feel ready to do it again in the race in a couple of weeks and now I don't have to stress it as much I know I can do it which is the most important part :) I'm soo glad I did a dress rehearsal and/or course inspection.

Is there a balance

First a recap of my training - been running 3 days a week, swimming twice a week and spinning 1-2 days a week. I have also been doing pilates twice a week - which has helped a lot with my shoulder and my overall core strength. I feel on track for mercer island half marathon in a couple weeks.
Last weekend I was in California to visit my Dad and was lucky enough to run in sunny 70 degree weather - it was so wonderful not having to wear a million layers. Since I did not really know the area my route was all over the place. The first mile and a half was straight up hill on pretty rough trail which made the rest of the run more difficult.
Even so I ran 8 miles in 1:11 which I was happy with esp with the extra time I had to take to figure out where to go.

Now on to my struggle balancing how to fit in everything I want to in a day or even a week. The while work, life and training balance is becoming harder then ever. Last year I let a lot of things slip to focus on training for Ironman but I can't do that again it made a lot of things worse later. Also I don't want to; my career and life are also important to me. I guess I just feel overwhelmed right now. It is not that I don't want to train - I do - I love how it makes me feel and helps me handle the stress that is in the rest of my life. At the same time it does not help me have time to do all the other things that I need or want to do. I feel like things are slipping through the cracks - even tri related stuff. I even need to get a bunch of design stuff done for tri-style but I never have enough time. Like tonight I could not do the run off the bike like I was suppose dto because I did not get on my bike till 9:30pm and sorry but 11:00pm is to late to go run especially 2 miles by myself in the dark.. I know this is a challenge for a lot of age group triathlets. I'm sure I will figure something out but right now it is difficult.

2 salts. 3 gels. 12oz Gatorade.

11.5 mile run with no rain but lots of hills all done in under 1:43 :)
It was a lot of fun with only some thigh soreness left over from
pilates earlier in the week.

still focused

Over all training is going well. I have not been blogging much but I'm still training 6 days a week while jugging the rest of my life.
I love having my bike set up in my office at home so I can spin when ever I want. I have not taken my cervelo out yet with the new flight deck to see how it ride on the road but i will soon enough. Last weekend I got to ride my single with my brother and Kyle - which was a lot of fun to just cruise around. So I managed to get 2 rides in last week :)

Swimming is alright - I'm still not used to the new pool, just not a swimmers pool so it is weird. My swim is really just holding steady at about a 2 min 100 pace on average and I can still do long sets with no problem (I actually prefer them because then I'm done sooner and less distractions). My shoulder has been good but every once and a while I notice the weakness in it so I'm always watching my form.

Now I feel like I have been making really strong gains in my run. Last Saturday Kyle and I ran a hilly 8.4 miles and I pushed myself really hard on the first major hill and then maintained for the rest for the hills and still had energy to the end. It was hard run but it was really good for me. I got some really good hill training and proved to myself that I could stay around my goal pace. I also ran a nice 5 miler around greenlake tonight and even though I was a bit nervous about running alone at night I ran well. I never felt like I was pushing to hard but I managed to finish my 5 miles in 42:37 with only one mile going over a 8:30 pace and it was a mile long hill. So I'm very happy with how my run is coming along.

Along with my triathlon training I have been doing pilates with Monique twice a week - once along with Colleen and one session on my own. It is helping with my shoulder and I just plain feel stronger. I don't know if it is due to the pilates but I have also dropped a few pounds and am a size or two smaller :)