Grand America Hotel

We attended the wedding of a friend's daughter at the Grand America Hotel last night. We've lived here in SLC for 10 years but had never set foot inside this luxury establishment. It was pretty impressive! Here are a few photos from the gardens. The food was incredible (my favorite? The brie en croute with brown sugar gracing the bottom pastry layer; good thing I did 15 miles today!), the atmosphere lush and opulent, and even the bathrooms were amazing. The ladies' room had marble stalls and a foyer with 2 or 3 couches, and real cloth towels for your hands.

Hill workout in Emigration Canyon

Yesterday afternoon after the easy TNT workout I decided that I needed more exercise, mostly to burn a few calories for the wedding we were slated to attend that evening :) but also because I really need to do some more hill workouts. Portland-to-Coast (PTC) is very hilly in spots, and so I'm scouting out local spots which have some hills corresponding to the legs I am supposed to do.

I read online that Emigration Canyon has an average grade of 5% (this turned out NOT to be true...) so I drove to the mouth of the canyon to work out. My PTC leg that is very hard has a 4.3% incline for 2.2 miles, then 2.8% downhill for 0.8 miles, then 3.8% incline for 2 miles, then 6.3% downhill for 0.75 miles. It's tough. And I'm supposed to average 11:15/mile for that 5.75 miles! So, my plan was to do 4 miles up Emigration Canyon to get a baseline of what I can do right now and what I need to shoot for. I started off and was moving really well, maintaining about a 10:30 mile for the first 2.5 miles or so. It was hard (my HR was about 155, so I still had some room to push harder) but not too bad, and then the heat started getting to me a bit and I felt nauseated. It was only in the low 70s, but it was sunny (very little shade) and I'm not used to training in warm weather yet. I was able to keep going after a quick water stop, and maintained about an 11:15 or so from 2.5 to 4 miles. Total for the 4 miles uphill: 43:39 or 10:54/mile, which I was quite pleased with. Then I took it pretty easy on the downhill, finishing in 44:36 for 11:13/mile going back. Yeah, I was slower going down! But that was by design, so it was all good.

When I got back home I uploaded my workout from my Garmin and discovered that the elevation change was not as much as I had thought. Hmmm, maybe the website I got the 5% grade info from was wrong? Garmins are not that good with altitude, so I did think it could have been off, but it was off by much more than made sense. A 5% grade is 1056 feet in 4 miles, and my Garmin showed about 550 feet change. Even if it was off by 100-200 feet (very possible), that did not explain everything. Drat. I looked up some more info and found that Emigration Canyon actually averages a 3.1% grade. Ohhhh. Bummer.

So, I was under my goal pace going up the hill, and could have pushed my HR higher, but the grade was not as steep as my PTC leg.

Still, I feel optimistic. 1) I am at altitude here, and PTC is all pretty low. My racewalk up the canyon was from 4900-5450 feet or so. PTC is 500-1300 feet on the leg I am going to do. 2) Yes, it was only a 3.1% grade, but it was still a good hill workout. My pace was faster than I need for that leg, and my HR lower than if I were racing, so I can probably do a harder hill and be close to goal pace. 3) This was after 7.34 miles this morning, so I wasn't exactly well-rested when I started. 4) I still have almost 100 days to train on hills before the race, and that will help tremendously. Now I just have to find some steeper hills, which is actually no problem around here. City Creek Canyon may be my next training spot. It's steeper, and it is more shaded and has less traffic than Emigration. www.Bikesup.com says it's an average 4.59% grade, which is pretty close to what I need (the bottom part is not as steep as the top, though, but it's probably close enough). I'm going to give that one a try next time.

TNT workout

Saturday I did a short TNT workout, as I had to leave to go to an info meeting for the fall season. We started at about 7:10 and had to leave at 9:00. The runners were going south then back north, so I started with the walkers, who were only going north (shorter mileage as they are 1/2 marathoners). I walked slowly with them for about 2.6 miles or so, and then doubled back to catch the runners. I went north with the runners for another 1.5 miles and then had to turn around to get back to my car in time for the info meeting. Total mileage: 7.34 (by my Garmin) in 1:38:25 (13:04/mile). Ave HR was only 104. Hmmm, not very much of a workout for me! Actually, those numbers don't tell the whole story. I did have 52 minutes of good hard racewalking with HR around 140-150, but the slow walking (17-18 min miles) was slow enough to keep my HR much lower.

insane week

Yeah, I'm *really* busy this week. It's going to be fine, but I'm not blogging a lot. Sorry about that. I promise to do more next week, but meanwhile, I hope I don't lose too many more readers. Readership seems to be down from about 25 hits/day to about 15, probably because I haven't been posting as often and when I do it's not been terribly exciting. I have a bunch of photos of the kids and some other stuff to put on here but no time right now, sorry :(.

That will change as the summer wears on and we get close to the Portland-to-Coast relay and Portland Marathon :). But for now, I'm still trying to take it a bit easy before ramping up for the big events. Well, mostly easy... TNT training for the Seattle RNR Marathon is getting long - Saturday 5/23 we have 18 miles, and Saturday 6/6 is our 20-miler.

Workouts this week: Monday & Wednesday I biked to my weight training class, lifted for 50 min, and biked home. Tuesday I did an easy 3.75 miles around SugarHouse Park. This morning I did a easy-moderate 4.95 miles in 51:43 or something like that (close enough anyway; might have been 52 and change) and felt great. I did a lot of driving today, though, and my back is kinda sore in one spot. I wonder if I lifted something wrong? Not sure what is up w/that. My right hip has been feeling better, though it still gives me a twinge now & then. I really do need to be better about stretching.

time to myself

I took a nice longish walk starting at 6:30 this morning, and did not feel the least bit guilty about leaving Loren w/the kids; after all, it's Mother's Day!

I did Liberty and SugarHouse Parks (7.65 miles) in 1:23:48 for a 10:57 mile. That was a very easy pace, not pushing at all (ave HR 137). It was a gorgeous morning, marred only by my iPod losing battery power 1/3 of the way through my walk (or less...). But actually, maybe that was a blessing in disguise, as I did enjoy the sounds of birds chirping, etc. Oh, and my $#*&( dog Sahara decided to soil herself again, 2/3 of the way around Liberty Park. I did get most of it off the sidewalk, but I am SO done with taking her with me on walks. Grrrr.

Overall, a great morning racewalk, and a good start to my day :).

DELICIOUS!

Last night Loren wanted me to make some cake. I had points from racewalking that morning, and I love dessert, so why not? I'd been wanting to try this recipe for coconut cake, and it was SO AMAZING. This is very possibly the best cake I have ever eaten, and for a chocoholic like me to say that about a non-chocolate cake, well, that is just testimony to how good this recipe is.

Enjoy! And let me know how you like it if you make it.

Happy Mother's Day!

I love being a mom. But the weird thing about being a mom to preschool kids is that on Mother's Day, more than anything, I want some time to myself. I should want to be with my kids, right? Ummmm, yes and no. I really crave some solitude and down time. Loren is right this very moment taking the kids to the zoo. Yay! I am going to cook and spend some time reading, after I finish blogging.

lots of miles - mostly of the driving kind

This morning was our TNT workout at Sugar House Park. That's close to my house, so very convenient, except that I needed to give teammate Jeannie a ride to the workout. She lives in Orem, 45 min away, and doesn't feel comfortable driving on the freeway. I picked her up, and Suzy from our team was going to drive her home on her way to visit her parents in Provo for Mother's Day weekend.

The workout went fine - I did about 8.9 miles by my Garmin. Started off at a nice easy pace with Gwen and Jason, who were doing 16 miles today. We did about an 11 min mile for 5 miles or so. Then I went with Jeannie for a while (about 0.5 miles?) and then headed back; didn't get to spend much time w/Heather & Suzy, darn it. I racewalked too long w/Gwen & Jason and didn't think about how to maximize contact w/the various team members. Usually it works well to start fast w/the runners and spend a bunch of time w/them before going w/the walkers, but not today. I had to leave early to go to a TNT info meeting in Ogden, and so I should have walked a lot less w/the runners. Oops. Live and learn; I have another info meeting next week, so I'll do it better then.

I walked really fast to get back to the car, because after walking w/Jeannie I was pushing it to get to Ogden on time. I walked away from my car with her, and I knew I should turn around sooner but wanted her to have company for at least a little bit. Turns out that Heather & Suzy waited for her so I needn't have worried :). Anyway, I walked the last 3.04 miles in 30:20 for 9:58/mile. Really moving, and it felt good.

After I got back, I drove up to Ogden for our info mtg, and then back home. 184 miles total in the car, which aggravated my R piriformis quite a lot. Oh well.

Falling asleep now, so off to bed.

easy Wednesday and hard Thursday

Yesterday I did 1.5 miles to warm-up for my weight training class and then did a nice set of weights and some abs. Nice easy workout.

Today I am feeling mostly better from my cold; a little residual congestion but definitely on the mend. So I decided to try a nice tough workout. I have been researching and plotting a good training schedule for the marathon, and Runner's World had a nifty advanced 12-wk schedule that incorporated some marathon pace intervals (long ones! like the 3k intervals some of the elites do, only it was in miles, so they are 2 mile intervals) along with some progression (acceleration) long runs. Really cool. I thought I'd try one of the 3x2 mile workouts and see how it was.

It was good and hard. I am still trying to decide what my goal marathon pace (MP) is. I am pretty sure I can do 10:40, but I would like to see if I can do 10:30/mile. Not sure that is realistic, but what the heck - I can try some workouts at that speed and see how I do.

Here was today's workout:
Warm-up 1 mile (downhill, 10:20, HR 136); then 3x2 mile @ 10:30 with 0.5 mile recovery inbetween. Splits: 10:23 (146 HR), 10:25 (149 HR), easy 0.5 in 5:55 (142 HR), 10:26 (150 HR), 10:24 (152 HR), easy 0.5 in 6:04 (142 HR), 10:20 (153 HR), 10:26 (154 HR). Easy 0.66 cool-down uphill in 8:37 (13:09/mile).

I was pretty tired at the end of this, and my HR was getting fairly high considering that it was a little less than 9 miles total (8.66 miles/13.94 km). But I also went about 5-10 seconds faster per mile that I was supposed to. I think if I can figure out how to actually hold a 10:30 pace it might work, but it might be a little on the ambitious side. We'll see. I did do a 10:32 pace for almost 4 miles on Tuesday with a heart rate of 142 average, which was considerably faster... some of it just depends on the kind of day you're having I guess.

It was fun to do this workout, though!

Easy walk for my cold

Yeah, I still have that rotten head cold. Just congestion, headache (from sinus congestion), and malaise. But I generally follow the rule that if the illness is above the neck it's OK to work out, and I knew I'd feel better if I racewalked today. However, I decided that a hard speed workout would NOT be particularly smart, so I just did an easy walk around Sugar House Park. 39:30 for the 3.75 miles, for 10:32 per mile or so. I did actually feel MUCH better when I got home.

aftermath

 After the storm, this. Michelle had a GIANT tantrum on Saturday night, beginning in the movie theater at the planetarium. I removed her from the theater and carried her kicking and screaming all the way through the Gateway Mall to our car, getting lots of sympathetic looks along the way. Once at the car, I buckled her in her seat (no easy feat) and closed the door. I didn't feel like sitting in the car w/her listening to her scream, so I leaned against the car and pulled out the only reading material I had: a catalog I'd stuffed in my purse on the way out the door when I grabbed the mail. I wanted to call Loren and let him know where I'd gone (he just knew I left the theater but didn't know that the severity of her tantrum meant I had to go back to the car) but no cell phone reception was to be had in the bowels of the parking garage :(. So, I sat and waited, outside the car, knowing it might be a while before the movie was over and Loren and Calvin figured out where we were. After about 10 minutes I decided to see if I could calm her down. I got back in the car, and nothing was working until I offered her a piece of gum if she'd stop crying. It worked!!! She LOVES gum. I gave her half a piece, which she stuck in her mouth but, oddly enough, did not chew. Within 2 minutes she was OUT and I took this picture. Hilarious!

head cold

Ugh. I have a head cold. Just enough to feel rotten but not enough to get out of doing anything :(.

I racewalked 1.6 miles and did weight training this morning. It felt OK despite the congestion, etc.

Now going to grocery shop. Desperately in need of a nap so I hope the kids will cooperate after we shop & have lunch.

Good hard miles :)

After yesterday's stroll, I felt like a longish workout of moderately hard miles. I decided on a route of approximately 10.5 miles (10.44 on USATF MapIt tool) with some hills. I'm trying to figure out what a reasonable pace is for the Portland Marathon this fall, so I'll be experimenting a little. Today was slower than 1/2 marathon pace, but after finishing I knew it was a bit too fast (at my current conditioning level) for the full marathon. Still, it gives me an idea of what might be possible. I did the 10.44 miles in 1:47:06 for 10:16/mile.

Here are my mile splits (by my Garmin, which had 10.34 for the route): 11:23 (uphill, easyish mile ave 138 HR), 10:21 (uphill, 149 HR), 10:02 (downhill, 147), 9:49 (downhill, 149), 9:48 (mostly down, 150), 10:50 (uphill, 149), 10:10 (downhill, 141 w/H2O stop), 10:13 (flat, 147), 10:11 (flat, 151), 10:42 (uphill, 153), 3:36 (0.33 uphill, 155).

I think that a 10:30-10:40 pace might be possible for a full marathon depending on how my weight is (down a few lbs to 148 right now; hoping for more like 143-145 later in summer) and how my training goes this summer.

Seen on our workout this morning

 
The team met in Draper this morning. It was pouring rain and very windy. None of the full marathoners showed up, but we had a few training for the 1/2 so off we went for 8 miles on the Porter Rockwell trail. They were all walkers, and so the pace was relatively slow, but they did decide to do some run/walk intervals, which made it more interesting for me. We did the 8 miles in 1:48 or so, and we were pretty cold and wet by the end. My waterproof jacket kept my top dry, but I had decided not to wear my rain pants and regretted it; my legs were wet pretty quickly (though they didn't really get cold). My hands were quite cold and I decided I should have worn my gore-tex gloves. Next time, I guess.

We saw the deer along the way, and the one on the left jumped over the white fence, believe it or not - it got a little hung up on the top but made it over.

We were glad to get back to our cars and enjoy hot chocolate at the end. Though we were wet and cold, we enjoyed some great conversation and felt very virtuous afterward. Once I got home I downloaded the workout from my Garmin, and discovered I'd only been in my target training zone for easy days for 30 minutes. Sigh... too slow of a pace.

I plan to get out tomorrow and do a good long day at a harder pace, IF I feel up to it. Since getting home I've developed a really bad headache, which 800 mg of ibuprofen hasn't touched yet. I wonder if I have a cold coming on, as both kiddos have been a bit snotty over the past couple of days.

More photos of our workout here

Found while cleaning

 
While cleaning out a closet last week, I found these old maternity pants. They were a 3x plus size. I think I could fit 2 of me in there now. I put them in a box w/some other maternity clothes from the garage, and donated them to the local crisis pregnancy center along with our crib.

More home improvement photos

Here are some more photos if you are interested:
http://www.facebook.com/photos.php?id=678194618#/album.php?aid=109549&id=678194618

Home improvement - Part 3

Forgot to post a pic of us using our car roof rack to carry the doors and 2x4s for the bedroom/bath door project. The rest of the pictures below are of the front gutter project. Our front gutter was worse than useless - all winter we had an ice slick on our front steps from water dripping off the roof. Loren took up some tiles, replaced rotting wood from the roof edge, and put new gutters in that did not sag any more. Yay! It was a very tough project but he did it all!!! The snowy pic is so you can see the old, ugly, saggy gutter. The new one is beautiful, if you can call a gutter beautiful. It's practically a work of art the way he has the downspout :).

Home improvement - Part 2

Our upstairs toilet was not a low-flow variety, and it also had a nasty habit of overflowing on a regular basis. We decided it was high time to replace it. Since my dad was around to supervise, I decided to tackle the project. Got a new toilet for only $98 at Home Depot, and guess who put it in? Yup, I did!

Here are some photos:

Home improvement - Part 1

The bathroom door used to look like this, but after we moved in we refinished the room and yanked this old ugly door. There was nothing but a decorative curtain covering the closet under the stairs for a long time.

Then, last weekend, we removed the concrete threshold between the bath and closet (2" high, used sledgehammer, sharp-pointed chisel, and ballpeen hammer to remove in a few hours) and knocked out the wall between the bedroom and the bath closet to make a direct passage between the bedroom and the bathroom. Oh, and we had to remove a plethora of shelves from the closet --- I forgot to take a "before" photo, unfortunately. But it was a bit of work!

Here are some photos of our progress (and oh, yes, don't you LOVE the 70's paneling in our bedroom?! That is a future project...):

Workouts since last Saturday

Sunday - REST day. My IT band was a bit sore Saturday after the fast 5K so I took it easy. I even got in a good nap :).

Monday - I thought it would be wise to keep taking it easy on the RW muscles, so I did 30 min on the stationary bike at my weight training class, and then lifted for a little and did some abs.

Tuesday - Easyish 3.75 around SH Park. I pushed a little (ave HR 144) but not too hard, and finished FAST in 38:40 for 10:19/mile.

Wednesday - easy 0.6 miles (1k) warm up for weights, and then weight training and some really tough abs that left me sore through today (!). I have GOT to do those again! Then after class I did another 1.6 miles or so on the treadmill for 2.2 total.

Thursday - Hard treadmill speed workout. I was going to go outside, but the kids woke early so I decided to do some serious speedwork and hill work. Portland-to-Coast, which I'm doing at the end of August, has some major hills (4% grade for 4 miles is part of one of my segments). So I warmed up for 10 min or so, stretched on the foam roller, and got back on for my speed work. I did 8 x 2 min at 6.5 mph (~5k pace) with 1' rest in between each. Then I recovered for 2' and then did 2 x 5 min at 5 mph (12 min/mile) at 4% incline. After a short recovery, I cooled down for about 10 min and stretched. I felt great. This was the first speed work I've done in a while, with all the distance stuff I was doing for the marathon, etc. Time to get going on this again with the races I have planned for fall looming closer.

Today - easy 3.9 miles around Liberty Park in 40 min and change (not sure exactly how much); my Garmin read 3.94 miles at a 10:21 pace or something like that. Haven't downloaded it yet.

Tomorrow - TNT workout planned - 12 miles for most full marathoners and 8 for half marathoners.

Speaking of TNT, I decided to pay for my ticket to Seattle; our team is small so they aren't paying to send a coach, but I thought I'd go anyway so I can visit my grandpa while I'm there. He is 89 years old and I would like to spend some time with him while I still can. I'm going to go on June 25th and return on the 28th; my mom is going to come here and help Loren w/the kids so I can go.