life lately.

Life has been, well, pretty normal lately. It’s been filled with normal non-triathlon things, like road cycling (well, that’s relative) and racing the sun (come back, summer!), yoga-ing with gal pals, catching up with my sis + the cutest niece EVER, celebrating my dad’s 60th birthday (#60isthenew40), some time at the beach (the roar of the ocean!), easy morning swims (max = 1,700 yards), lunchtime runs and starting a new gig (#joblove, finally). Oh, and I hopped on the tri bike for the first time since IM Canada… weird how quickly it feels weird to ride aero.

It’s been even weirder to not be swimbikerunning all the time, and quite honestly, though the additional free time is nice, it’s been a struggle. I miss it terribly and am antsy to get started again. Seeing all the pics of Kona this week isn’t helping!

I’ve also been working on migrating this blog to a sparkly new site…! There are still some glitches to work out, but watch for it soon!

With that, here’s a look at life lately in photos…

second/shift athlete feature!

A little feature over on Second/Shift Athlete today! Thank you, Colleen and Amy, for sharing my story!

These rad ladies are up to cool things. I love the blog’s motive: We want to be your inspiration to wake up and train, your resource for finding the best workout gear, a community to share your best practices/worst gripes, and your link to the fitness blogosphere. We’re here to help you stop saying things like “Oh, I only swim sometimes, and I’m not that great,” or “Sure, I ran three marathons, but I’m not fast or anything.” We want you to stand tall and proud, to own your accomplishments, to look great doing it, and start basking in all your Second-Shift Athlete glory.

How awesome is that?! Gotta love women who support other women and inspire others to be the best they can be. I will definitely be following for some daily inspiration!

Check out my Q+A on Second/Shift Athlete!

ironman canada | if you go

This is my last post about Ironman Canada… I promise!

When we registered for Ironman Canada last October, we were pretty clueless about the logistics. I figured we’d get around to booking lodging eventually and would just ship our bikes via TriBike Transport (because that service is slick!). Fast forward a few months, friend Sonia found a great deal on a condo close to all the action, so we booked the unit below. And, Nick’s mom generously decided to drive to BC, bikes in tow, saving us a good chunk of change. As for everything else… we winged it once we arrived.

So, for those of you racing in 2014, here’s a little cheat sheet with some recommendations based on our fantastic experience there. Lucky you 😉

If you go (and, you should because it’s awesome)…

continuing to recover… and, what’s next.

In the two-plus weeks since Ironman Canada I’ve continued to eat like I’m still training – coconut macaroons for breakfast? Yes, please! – and occasionally have to remind myself that I did, in fact, race 140.6. It seems like eons ago and at times almost like it didn’t happen. Weird.

My body, however, tells me otherwise. I’ve ran just once since the race and while it wasn’t nearly as painful as I anticipated, I definitely could feel my legs. On the tired scale, three miles felt like 11.

There’s been quite a few miles put on the Madone since we’ve been home… 103 the second week after IM and another 110 this week. And, as much as I miss my Argon, it’s been enjoyable to hop on my bike and just ride, for fun and to explore some new routes around MSP.

ironman canada | the run

All I could think about during my 4:18 T2 was how bad I had to pee. Twenty-two miles is a long way to bike when you have to go! After the awesome volunteer dumped out my transition bag and helped me sort through my gear – THANK YOU! – I ran out of the tent as quickly as I could to a mini-biff. A minute later, I felt much better and was off and running, waving at my cheering family.

My legs didn’t feel that bad, and it felt like I was running far faster than my Garmin said. My first mile: 10:08. Um, I don’t think I’ve seen that split in, hmm, years, so that was a bit of a shock. Regardless, it was one foot in front of the other and before I knew it, I was at mile three, and I felt a slight flutter in my GI system. Some flat Coke (that stuff is magic) and a quick stop at the mini-biff, and I felt better.